The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1846-11-10 00:00:00

THE LIVERPOOL STANDARD.

RAILWAY INTELLIGENCE.

The Wharfedale railway proprietors have refused to
lease the line to the Leeds and Ttirsk company.
The directors of the Worcester, Tenhury, &c., Railway
have passed a resolution expelling Captain Richardson
from the office of chairman.

The Manchester and Leeds Railway directors have
declined to lease the Preston and Wyre line on the terms
offered by the latter company, who will hold a special
meeting on the subject on the 25th instant.
On Saturday week, Mr. Samuel Birchenough, of Sand.
bach, was killed on the North-Western line. He was
crossing the line at the Nantwich station, and was knocked
down by an engine, and run over.
The case of Wontner v. Sharp, the decision of which
was by many considered as diametrically opposed to that
in the celebrated suit of Woolmer v. Toby, is to be re-
opened. _ _

A special meeting of the Manchester and Lincoln Union
and Chesterfield and Gainsborough branch authorised the
directors to divide the capital into 43,210 shares of
£8 2s. each, and to give notice to the Sheffield snd Lin-
colnshire that the provisional agreement between them
ought to be put into effect.
The Great Western held, on Friday, a special meeting
to conclude its agreement with the South Wales. The
terms were unanimously assented to. Some remarks on
10 per cent. dividends were dropped by Mr. Heyworth.
In like manner, the South Wales met, and on their part
confirmed the agreement. _

CHESHIRE JUNCTION RAILWAY.—We understand
that Mr. Joseph Mallaby has resigned the clerkship of the
above company, and that Mr. J. B. Lloyd, a solicitor re-
siding in Liverpool, is appointed in his room. It is said
that Mr. Mallaby was required by the directors of the
Cherhire Junction to resign his appointment as-their law-
clerk. or to give up tha elerkshirt of the Chester and Bir-
kenhead Company ; both of which he has hitherto held,
as a friendly alliance was supposed to exist between the
promoters of the two railways. Mr. M. as above intima-
ted, has decided to abide by his " first love."
CAUTION TO SPECULATORS.—The directors of the
Metropolitan Junction Railways Company have lately is-
sued a circular advising the dissolution of the company,
and asking the shoreholders who have paid, as deposit on
each £25 share £2 12s. 6d., to receive back 10s. per share.
They say, that " every attempt to raise a contribution
from the Provisional Committee has hitherto failed, many
of them being absent on the Continent or elsewhere."
From the appended statement of accounts, out of £19,897
subscribed, we find that £12,990 has been absorbed by
solicitors, engineers, and surveyors, referencing and sa-
laries ; and this by a company who never even incurred
the expense of going before the Standing Orders' Com-
mittee.

SHAREBROKERS AND THEIR PRINCIFALS.—III the
Court of Exchequer, on Monday, a somewhat novel case
was brought forward. It was that of Briggs v. Hayes.
An action had been brought by the plaintiff, who is a
stockbroker, for :noney paid upon differences upon the
sale and purchase of railway shares and scrip. The par-
ticulars furnished stated the names of the railway under-
takings in which the scrip and shares were bought and
sold by the plaintiffs,-also the time each purchase and sale
was effected ; but the defendant submitted that he should
be supplied with the names of the sellers and purchasers,
and the amendment required was, that they should be set
out in the particulars. There was no fraud imputed, but
it was contended that it was essential, fur the ends of jus-
tice, that the bill already furnished should be amended in
this respect.
Within the last few weeks several forged railway ad-
vertisements have found their way into the newspapers,
having evidently been concocted for stock-jobbing pur-
poses. We were last week made the victims of a similar
fraud. Our readers will no doubt have observed an ad-
vertisement respecting the Chester and Manchester Di-
rect Railway, purporting to have been issued from the
office oflMessrs. Higson and Robinson, of Manchester.
This is the forgery to which we refer. The person who
perpetrated it forged the names of three persons. Thls
sort of forgeries must emanate from parties who, from
appearance, are of the better class of society ; and the
means which such persons have at their command for
successfully operating in the way we have described,
render it the more difficult to trace the offenders. In the
present case, Messrs. Higson and Robinson have offered
a reward of £2O for the apprehension of those concerned.
—Railway Times. •

A TERRIBLE POSITION.—As a train was proceeding
through the tunnel on the Leicester and Swanninglon
Railway, on Thursday, in the direction of the latter place,
one of the chains which connect the carriages broke, and
left a number of the carriages behind. Another train
left the Leic..ster station about a quarter of an hour after
that which stopped in the tunnel had started thence, so
that the passengers in the latter expected every minute to
have a collision with that which was following them.
Their agitation and feeling of approaching danzer were
heightened by their hearing the noise of an engine draw-
ing near, while they were unable to judge whether it was
in the front or rear of them. In a few minutes their
state of awful uncertainty gave way to a sense of security,
for the engine which bad gone on returned to take the
train forwards. Had the delay existed five minutes
longer, the collision between the following train and the
carriages would have been terriole, and the sacrifice of
life certain.

CHESTER AND BIRKENHEAD. A special general
meeting of the shareholders was held in this town on
Wednesday. The chair was occupied by Wm. Jackson,
Esq., Chairman of the Directors. The Chairman ob-
served, that at the last meeting a resolution was framed
authorising the directors to carry out certain nieaseuarrersy,
powers being given to a portion of that body to
them out, and at that time he ( the chairman) had it in
contemplation to take the steps he was about to do.
Those measures related to the extension line to the docks,
the arrangements with the Cheshire Junction Company,
and with the trustees of the Duke of Bridgewater. lie
considered there were parties rather personally opposed to
him who had the power of carrying out such arrange-
ments, who represented different interests, and that the
welfare of the company would be beat consulted by his re-
tirerrtent. Their interests at ',resent would be best man-
aged by those parties who had the power to carry out
certain measures which he could not do, and which, if
carried, would be for the advantage of the company. A
resolution was then submitted by the Chairman, giving
sanction to the directors to borrow to the extent of
£lO 0,000 on security of the tolls. The motion was car.
ried unanimously. Mr. J. S. Jackson stated that he
should follow the course pursued by his brother, and
withdraw from the direction of the company.
SINGULAR SUCCESSION OF ACCIDENTS ON THE
.NORTH.
WESTERN RAILWAY.--On Saturday last, a series ofae-
cidents occurred upon this line, attended with serious
consequences to carriages and passengers. The train
which left Birmingham at one o'clock for Manchester,
was stopped a few miles from Stafford, the rails being
found blocked up by a luggage train having run into a
ballast train. But for the partial clearing of the fog, ane_
ther collision must have occurred here. It was two hours
before the line was cleared. Ten miles further on, a de-
tention matted of two hours and a half, from a luggage

train having got off the line. Six trains were stopped by
this accident. Another accident occurred at the Chelford
station by a luggage train running into the down passen-
eer train, smashing a horse-box and the carriage of Mr.
R. H. Greg, and inflicting injuries upon the son and ser-
vant of that gentleman. Fortunately himself and his
daughter had alighted, and thus escaped. Many of the
passengers in the train received severe contusions, and
one or two fractures. They are recovering, however,
under the care of the Company's medical officer for the
district. Ultimately the trains, now joined together,
reached Manchester about eleven at night, instead of ten
minutes to five. The whole of the accidents are attri-
buted to the negligence or incapacity of the drivers of the
luggage trains, who are inferior men, and paid a lower
salary than the passenger drivers.

CORRESPONDENCE.

ON THE SANITARY CONDITION OF SOME
PARTS OF LIVERPOOL.

LETTER XVIII

To the EDITOR of the LIVERPOOL STANDARD,
" Property has its duties as w ell as its rights."

BLUNDERS ABOUT HOUSES.—WATER, CONTAMINATED.
A. friend of mine took a small villa residence some-
where about the suburbs of the town. The supply of
water was from a spring he understood—not from one of
the water companies. The well was located somewhere
about the foundations of the cottage, under the scullery
kitchen place; the floor of which scullery was always
damp. The water for a long time past has been entirely
unfit for use, so that they were constrained to avail them-
selves of rain water, caught for the purpose, or to resort
to some extraneous source. The water when pumped up
was latterly even ropy, and stunk horridly ; so that, so
far from being able to make any use of the water what-
ever, except for garden watering, it was a matter of
loathing to work the pump at all, the result was such a
stench. The atmosphere of the lower part of the house
was always more or less oppressive, and often foetid.
Meat could not be kept, and scarcely the appetite for
food ! The fluid, which my friend Dr. Brett was kind
enough to analyze, was clear, but possessed a most offen-
sive odour, satisfactorily attributable to sulphuretted hy-
drogen, in most probably a free state. This opinion was
confirmed by the fact, that when the ordinary means were
used for ascertaining whether ammonia was present in
combination, there was no evidence to show that such
was the case.
When this water was exposed to the atmosphere for
some hours, a copious deposit of sulphur took place.
Thie is precisely what is found when water is purposely
impregnated with the gas for chemical uses. It was not
thought necessary to examine the water for any other
noxious gas save sulphuretted hydrogen. This gas was
found to amount to not less than WI cubic inches to the
imperial gallon. This is more than half a pint of gas.
and consequently more than one-sixteenth of the volume
of the water, and double that which the celebrated Harrow-
gate water contains ! (Harrogate Spa does not contain two
inches to the pint.) Add the other ingredients only, and
it would be perfection! In all cases where this water is
heated for domestic purposes, doubtless the greater pro-
portion of this gas would be evolved. That such an evo-
lution of gas, and in such proportion, would be injurious,
there cars be little doubt, from the known properties of
thi- gas in its effects upon vegetable and animal life.
"This gas is found to destroy life, even when it is allowed to
remain in contact with the skin."-Taylor's Medical Jurispru-

--
dence.
" When introduced into the lungs of animals, even in a very
diluted state, it has been known to give rise to fatal conse-
quences."—Taglor.
It appears that the charge of gas which has been borne
by an individual with impunity has been 3 per cent.
Rats seem, either from habitual exposure in drains, or
from other causes, to enjoy freedom from injury when the
proportion rises from 2 to 8 per cent., according to French
experimenters.
" The respiration of an atmosphere, only slightly impregnated
with the gas, may, if long continued, seriously affect an indivi-
dual, and even cause death."—Taylor.
In discussing the nature of the symptoms, the same
authority mentions, in reference to '' air but slightly con-
taminated by the gas," that sometimes there is a feeling
of nausea or sickness, accompanied by pain in the bead,"
and so on.

I have adduced these authorities on the several points
given, in order that the position of parties may be fairly
determined by the reader, without one single expression of
my own, which might be supposed to be a strained opinion,
as grafted on the tact narrated. It will be impossible to
suppose that a fluid, capable of giving off such a large
quantity of this highly deleterious gas can be accumulated
about a house—nay. within its very foundations—without
prejudicing the atmosphere of the house, and, thereby, the
health of the tenants. As to the using of such water for
any domestic purposes of the coarsest kind, comment
must be needless. It can be no wonder that, under the
most restricted dealing with such an inimical nuisance, an
amount of ill-health, loss of appetite, and other symptoms
of indigestion, should be complained of by the tenants,
and correctly referred by them to the above source. The
source of contamination proceeded from two cesspools,
one upon the premises, a few feet from the well, the other
over the call adjoining !
A domestic, who had been in the family about five
months, came a stout, florid girl, and left, looking very
thin and very pale. A servant girl informed the tenant
that, two years ego, when she lived in one of the houses,
the landlord was acquainted with the existence of the
nuisance.