The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1850-03-05 00:00:00

RAILWAY AFFAIRS.

The railway gates on the East Lincolnshire line, cross-
ing the highway at Sibsey High Ferry, were smashed
through by the up express train on Sunday.
The dividend of 3s. per share recommended by the di-
rectors of the Eastern Counties Railway was adopted at
the meeting on Wednesday, and the report and accounts
were carried in opposition to Mr. Wylie's amendment.
RAILWAY CALLS.—The amount of calls falling due in
the month of March is £1,315,527, against £2379,790 for
the same period last year; £3,125,922 in March, 1848;
and £3,508.065 in 1847. The gross amount of the rail-
way calls for the first quarter of the present year is
£4,183,054, against £8,560,678 last year for the corre-
sponding three months.
SOUTH-WESTERN RAILWAY COMPANY.—At the half-
yearly meeting, on Tuesday, the report, which recom-
mended a dividend at the rate of 3+ per cent. per annum,
was adopted. The committee appointed to investigate
the charges brought against the directors, unanimously
acquits them of those charges. A discussion took place
on the audit question. Mr. Muir, of Liverpool, moved
that a committee be appointed to assist in carrying the
audit bill prepared by the North-Western Railway Com-
pany through parliament, and the motion was agreed to.
Mr. Chaplin was re-elected a director, and the meeting
separated.

YORK AND NORTH-MIDLAND RAILWAY MEETING—
THURSDAY.-J. S. Thompson, Esq., in the chair. The
Chairman reported that proceedings were being taken to
recover from Mr. Hudson £16,000, which had been over-
drawn on account of land which he sold the company ;
also, £66,000, the premium on shares he had taken for
himself. Against the other directors proceedings were
also taken. They had accepted £lOOO as a compromise
from Mr. Jennings, and £5OO from Sir John Simpson.
The dividend declared was at the rate of two per cent.
per annum. The company are borrowing money at Vi
per cent.

PANORAMIC EXHIBITION OF THE LONDON AND BIR-
MINGHAM, AND CHESTER AND HOLYHEAD RAILWAYS.
A highly interesting exhibition has just been opened to
the public, in London. By a series of beautifully executed
paintings, we are carried on from the tunnel at Primrose
hill to the viaduct at Wolverton, and thence through the
old town of Coventry to the great centre of modern
metallurgical industry— Birmingham. Discussing the
more interesting varieties of the way, we visit Chester—
its gentle landscapes, ancient monuments, and antique
architecture, softly presented to the vision by the pale
light of the moon. Thence we proceed to Rangor, and
ultimately arrive at the two most, prominent points of
interest in the whole exhibition—the Conway and Bri-
tannia Bridges. These two last pictures are really beyond
praise. The noble Britannia tube, resting on the sum-
mits of three huge towers, carried high above the surface
of the waves, and stretching out its ponderous and mighty
arms to the two opposite shores of Caernarvon and An-
glesea, is truthfully depicted.
THE BRITANNIA BRIDGE.—This magnificent structure
is now complete as regards one line of railway, and will
be opened on Tuesday, the sth of March, by Mr. Robert
Stephenson. The terrific gales of February, probably un-
precedented since 1839, when the Menai suspension-
bridge was severely damaged, have caused no obvious vi-
bration even on the Carnarvon tube, which was then not
in a position for resisting the wind, as it was temporarily
resting on a loose pile of planks in each tower, at an ele-
vation of upwards of 100 feet, and unconnected either
with the neighbouring tubes or the masonry of the tower.
The tube presented a full broadside to the wind, which
impinging on the water below ploughed it up in furrows
of spray. The greatest lateral deflection of the Anglesea
tube, as determined by Mr, Edwin Clark, did not ex-Ted
three-eighths of an inch. A train containing 200 tons of
coal will first pass through the tube with two or three en-
gines; but no te-ting that can be practically adopted can
bear any proportion to the strength of the structure, of
which some idea may be formed from the fact that a
frigate completely equipped might be safely suspended
from the centre of each span without strain to its struc-
tural strength.
THE DETHRONED RAILWAY MONARCH.—Who is
that short, broad, dumpy man, who seems to have stolen,
unnoticed, into the house? He has slipped down at the
very outside of the remotest seat that could be found.
He seems to cower as if to escape notice ; yet his restless
manner and sudden side-looks indicate that he wishes in
his heart some one would recognise and accost him. His
hat is pressed over his forehead, his coat buttoned to the
throat, his hands thrust (is it convulsively ?) to the bottom
of his pockets. The members are absorbed in the debate;
nobody, as yet, seems to have observed him. At length
his next neighbour turns round, marks him, stiffly bows.
then instantly bounds away to a different part of the
house. Who can the new comer be ? He hangs his
head for some time, with his eyes fixed, as it were, gloom-
ily on the ground. The intensity of the debate is flag-
ging : members are breaking up a little. But how is
this ? He looks with anxiety at them, seeks to accost, to
detain, some who, it seems, had been former acquaint.
ances. No, it will not do A faint, hurried s'aake of the
hand, a distant, hurried nod : no one can be prevailed
upon to give more. Gracious heaven ! who is this ; en-
titled, too, it seems, to enter this august assembly ? who
is shunned as the pestilence, or, if touched, is touched as
if he were some slimy nauseous reptile, with an apparent
loathing or tremor? Who is this ? It is George Hudson.
—Dumfries Courier.

LAW INTELLIGENCE.

Lord Campbell has entered on his duties as Lord Chief
Justice of the Queen's Bench.

Mr. Kenealy, the barrister, has commenced proceedings
against the Times, for its reports of the charges made
against him at the police-court, London, of ill-treating a
child.

The judge of the County Court at York has decided—.
with the approbation of the Attorney and Solicitor-
General—that barristers are not entitled to exclusive or
pre-audience at those courts.

The following gentlemen have been called within the
bar by the Lord Chancellor :—Messrs. Prendergast,
Bliss, Greaves, Townsend, Carpenter, Rowe, Grainger,
O'Malley, E. James, Peacock, and Macaulay.
The Bishop of Aberdeen has withdrawn his anpeal to
the House of Lords, with the consent of Sir Wm. Dunbar,
Bishop Skinner agreeing to pay all the costs of Sir Wm.
Dunbar, and thus establishing the judgment of the Court
below, and the verdict for damages.
In the Common Pleas, on Tuesday last, the action Bold
and another v. Claxton, of this town, to recover the sum
of £Bl 16s. 3d. for a partial loss on a policy of insurance
for £lOO on goods shipped on board the Penang, was de-
cided in favour of the defendant. The goods had been
transhipped at Hong Kong into the James Laing, which,
during a typhoon, was driven ashore and lost.
REPUDIATION OF A RAILWAY PURCHASE.—In the
Court of Exchequer, yesterday week, the case of the Bir-
kenhead, Lancashire, and Cheshire Railway Company v.
Pilcher came on before Mr. Baron Parke. The learned
judge, in pronouncing his decision. stated that this was
an action for calls, to which the defendant pleaded that
he was an infant at the time the contract was made.
Verdict for the defendant.

In the Vice-Chancellor's Court, on Saturday, Mr.
William Russell, who carries on the business which for-
merly belonged to Mr. Warren, blacking-maker, of the
Strand, London, procured an order to restrain Mr. John
Collins, of Richmond-row, in this town, from selling
any composition or blacking described as, or purporting
to be, blacking manufactured by Robert Warren, in
bottles having labels colourably differing from those of
the plaintiff.

At the Newcastle assizes a curious case of breach of
promise was tried. A young lady met a gentleman,
loved, and accepted him, A house was taken, a ring
bought, the lady promising a waistcoat from her own
hands for the wedding, when another gentleman called
upon the anticipatory bridegroom, claimed the lady as his
by an engagement before he went to sea, and subsequently
effected his union. Now, however, the lady, although
married, sued the deluded lover. She obtained one
farthing damages.
SPECULATION IN OPERA TICKETS:IR the Court of
Queen's Bench, on Tuesday, M. Lefevre, of Boulogne,
brought an action against Mr. Chappell, of the firm of
Cramer, Beale, and Co., music-sellers, London, to recover
damages for false representations in respect of the sale of
certain boxes and stalls in the royal Italian Opera House,
Covent-garden. A few days before Meyerbeer's "La
Propheie" was brought out, the plaintiff, though an
agent, had purchased the boxes and stalls for the night,
by which speculation he lost £360, as he alleged, through
the misrepesentations made by the defendant, viz.,
that he was the manager of the theatre; that he had the
power to make the sale of tickets; that her Majesty was
expected to visit the house ; that there was a great de-
mand for tickets and that the boxes, &c., which he sold
were all that could be procured. A verdict was returned
for the defendant.

SUIT FOR DIVORCE.—On Friday, in the House of
Lords, Mr. Talbot was heard in promotion of a bill for
divorce, instituted by the Rev. Edward Q. Ashby, of
Dunton, against his wife. It appeared that Mr. Ashby
married Miss Palmer, daughter of the Rev. Henry Pal-
mer, in May, 1842. In November, 1848, she being in
ill-health, they went to Madeira, where they became ac-
quainted with Mr. Henry Edwin Chandos Scudamore
Stanhope, between whom and Mrs Ashby, it appears, an
improper intimacy sprung up almost immediately. Mr.
and Mrs. Ashby returned to England in April, 1849, and
Mr. Stanhope returned in the same ship. It was during
this voyage that Mr. Ashby discovered, through a letter,
that an illicit intercourse had taken place between his
wife and Mr. Stanhope. From that time he ceased all
communication with her, and, on her arrival, she eloped
with Mr. Stanhope. The case has been postponed for six
weeks to allow of further evidence being brought, Lord
Brougham considering that Mr. Ashby did not show pro-
per carefulness about his wife to allow her to proceed in
the same vessel with Mr. Stanhope, after 148 suspicious
bad been excited Were he Ift Madeira,