The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1848-11-14 00:00:00

LAW INTELLIGENCE.

In the Vice-Chancellor's Court on Wednesday, it was
decided that on the death of a partner, a joint debt may
be treated as a separate one.
In the London Bankruptcy Court, last week, in the
matter of Allan Gilmore, described as a Calcutta mer-
chant, a claim was made on his estate on behalf of the
Union Bank of Calcutta for the sum of £242,000. Tie
consideration of the claim was adjourned to the certificate
meeting.
UNCERTAINTY. OF THE LAW.—At the recent Here-
fordshire Quarter Sessions a man was acquitted upon a
charge of felony, because he was indicted for stealing
" bank notes," instead of naming the bank to which they
belonged, as the term " bank notes" only applies to Bank
of England notes.
In the Bail Court, on Tuesday, the Attorney-General
obtained a rule to file a criminal information against Mr.
J. J. Hadley, the proprietor and publisher of the Chel-
tenham Journal, a Conservative payer, for a libel upon
the magistrates of Cheltenham. The alleged libel was
contained in a report of a speech delivered by Mr. Ling-
wo od, an attorney of that borough.
In the Court of Exchequer, on Monday, a case of
family squabbling was brought before the public relating
to the piece of plate, a valuable cup and salver, presented
to Holmes, the driver of the (Oxford) Blenheim coach for
twenty years without an accident. It appears that in a
fit of generosity Mr. Holmes had presented the plate as a
wedding present to his son, a surgeon at Kidlington,
Oxon, but which gift he now repented of, and wished to
obtain back. He therefore brought an action to recover
it, asserting that it had only been given into the safe cus-
tody of the defendant for want of a place to keep it him-
self. Witness, however, proved they were present when
he gave the plate to his son as a wedding present, and the
bride acknowledged the present by giving her father-in-
law a kiss. This evidence was considered conclusive by
the jury, and they gave a verdict for the defendant.
PRINCE ALBERT IN CHANCERY.—We gave our readers,
a week or two ago, an account of an injunction obtained
by Prince Albert in Chancery, forbidding Mr. William
Strange to publish some etchings done by the Queen and
the Prince, and supposed to have been surreptitiously
abstracted from the private apartments at Windsor. We
see by the London papers, that on Monday, before the
Vice-Chancellor, application was made by the Soliciter-
General to have this injunction extended to two other
persons, called Judge (father and son), who appear to
have got possession of the drawings, and to have com-
piled a descriptive catalogue for him to publish. The
affidavit of the Prince 'on the former occasion, to the
effect that her Majesty and himself never authorised the
publication of the etchings, was read.—Mr. J. B. Brown,
the copperplate printer employed by the Prince to take
impressions of the plates etched by him and the Queen,
deposed to his having entrusted them to his servant to
work them off. About a week ago, he heard that the
man had been in the habit of taking copies for himself.—
Another witness, also a printer, stated that he knew the
pressman employed by Mr. Brown, and that ho had often
shown him copies of these drawings, taken by him for his
own use, on card or common paper. The deponent had
himself thirteen of them now.—This cleared up the mys-
tery hanging over the affair.—The Vice-Chancellor ex-
tended the injunction to the two defendants.

RAILWAY AFFAIRS.

It is said that the portion of the Liverpool and Bury
railway between the former town and Wigan, will be
opened on the 20th instant.
It is said that Mr. Hudson has bought equal to one
thousand Midland shares in stock and the half shares
during the present account, and that Mr. Glyn has also
invested a considerable sum in the se►ne line.

Owing to the declaration of the London and North-
Western that it is their intention to enter upon no new
works, the intended new line between Bangor and Car-
narvon, from the Bangor station of the Chester and Holy-
head, has been abandoned.
CHESTER AND HOLYHEAD RAILWAY COMPANY.—
Traffic for the week ending November 4, 1848:—Coaching
traffic, £961 ss. 3d. ; parcels, £59 ls. 10d. ; goods and
cattle, £2BB 12s. Id. ; steam-boats, £l5B 18s. 6d.: total,
£1,467 17s. Bd.

The proprietors of the Colchester and Stour Valley
have specially approved of the lease of their line to the
Eastern Union, at a rate of 5 per cent. from the comple-
tion of the line between Hythe and Sudbury, to increase
with the Eastern Union dividend to 6 per cent.
The shareholders of the Caledonian have authorised the
directors to admit the Edinburgh and Glasgow to a par-
ticipation in the agreement for the leases of the Scottish
Central, the Dundee, Perth and Aberdeen Junction, and
to join the first-named company in an agreement for leas-
ing the Scottish Midland Junction.
Froin official returns it appears that the amount of traf-
fic for the last week, on 4,167 mites of railway, was
£199,440, thus accounted for :—£93,456 for the convey-
ance of passengers only, £55,406 for the carriage of goods,
aLd a remainder of _450,423_f0r nasQPrigers and good,' to-
g,lher, not respectively apportioned ; being an increase of
£21,580 over the corresponding week of last year, when
the mileage was 3,309. The average earnings per mile
were £4B, whilst in 1847 they were £53.
LIVERPOOL, ORMSRIRR, AND PRESTON RAILWAY.—
The works on this line of railway have been very much
retarded, during the last few days, owing to the frequent
slipping of the embankment, at Rufford. One part of the
embankment has slipped three or four times at the same
place, as often as it has been filled up again. Only one
side has given way, which appears to be owing to the soil
having been moved from that side to form the embank.
ment. An engine has been for some time engaged in
conveying ballast from the cutting at Aughton Moss, and
was making very rapid progress previous to the slipping of
the embankment.
THE GREAT WESTERN RAILWAY.—The official state-
ment of the finances of this concern seems much more fa-
vourable than had been expected. They at once abandon
works to the amount of £2,680,000. Their borrowed ca-
pital amounts only to £4,486,827, in place of £6,000,000, '
as has been usually represented ; while the actual paid-up
capital amounts to £6,970,450, in place of £5,500,000, as
has been stated. The statement appears very full and
clear, and gives great satisfaction. The result is, that they
anticipate the payment of a dividend of 61 per cent. on the
present amount of traffic, and liabilities. The whole ca-
pital raised by loans and calls amounts to £11,457,277.
This year's November has not received many notices of
intended application to Parliament on the part of railway
companies, as compared with the past session, when there
were 140 new bills before Parliament. The only one of
the great companies that has yet given notification of an
intention to proceed to Parliament, is the Lancashire and
Yorkshire, who will apply under the enlarged title of the
" Lancashire and Yorkshire and London and North-
Western," for a transfer of interest in the Preston and
Wyre Harbour and Dock Company, and for regulating
the management of the undertaking. Another company,
the Lancaster and Carlisle, a subsidiary line to the London
and North-Western, and in which the latter are interested
by subscription to the amount of £487,874, apply for a
railway from their own at Lancaster to Preston, and to
use a portion of the existing Lancaster and Preston which
it is said nobody owns.
The financial statement issued by the Directors of the
South Western Railway is, in some important respects,
less full and explicit than the statements issued by the
directors of the other two great companies. They only
inform the proprietors parenthetically that the lines from
Basingstoke to Salisbury, from Salisbury to Exeter, and
from Farnham to Alton, together with the works between
Waterloo and London Bridges, are to be suspended.
They do not state the amounts authorised to be raised by
the issue of shares, or by loans for these undertakings, or
the sums that have been already expended on them.
They indicate in a similar allusive manner that they hold
lands, houses, &c., to the value of £250,000, and " sur-
plus rails," worth £50,000; "all of which," they add,
" may be realised as proper opportunities offer, and the
proceeds made available for the reduction of the bonded
debt." They also allude, in passing, to " rents hereafter
derivable from the 264 arches of the viaduct from Nine
Elms to the Waterloo-road."
EXTENSION OF TIME FOR MAKING RAILWAYS.—The
Gazette of Tuesday, contains the formal certificate of the
Railway Commissioners in favour of the Cornwall Rail-
way, and of the Delabole and York Railways, for an ex-
tention of time in carrying out their works. By an Act
passed last session, entitled " An Act to give further time
for making certain railways," this important power is
conferred on the Commissioners, and the specifiic object
of the Act is to relieve the pressure on the money-market
occasioned by calls on railway shares, and likewise to
put the railway companies in possession of more expedi-
tious and less expensive mode of proceeding than is in-
volved in an application to Parliament. A large number
of railway companies have availed themselves of this
relief : 125 applications have been received and considered ;
of these, 121 have been entertained, and in most of the
applications the extension of time asked for has been for
the full additional term of two years allowed by the act.
The greater number include the whole of the railway, and
also of the lands to be taken. Four applications were
refused, on the ground that there were special provisions
in the act making the completion of the railway compul-
sory.
THE THREE GREAT RAILWAY COMPANIES.—The pro-
posed amalgamation of the London and North-Western,
Great Western, and South-Western Railways will, if ef-
fected, create the most powerful combination ever known
in this country, and bring to one undertaking an amount
of capital larger than any of our great national undertak-
ings. The total amount of the capital of the amalgamated
company will be £42,371,239, divided as under :—London
and North-Western capital, raised by shares, £14,044,573 ;
by loans, £9,186,672 ; total, £23,231,245. The capital of
the Great Western is £11,457,277 ; £6,478,221 being
raised by shares, and £4,979,056 by loan. The South-
Western Company has raised from shares, £6,075,387, and
by loans, £1,609,350; or a total of £7,684,737. The
amalgamated companies will, by their present powers, be
entitled to call up, within the time allowed by the act for
doing so, the sum of £8,812,201 6s. 8d• The entire weekly
receipt of the three companies, should they not exceed
their present average, will be £70,000 per week, or
£3,640,000 per annum. The number of miles of railway
over which the company would have control will be nearly
2,000, upwards of 1,000 of which they will have in their
absolute possession. The great company will, by means
of their own and other lines, in which they are beneficially
interested, have the entire traffic from Plymouth to
Perth.