The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1851-01-28 00:00:00

POLITICAL MISCELLANY.

Lord John Russell has bestowed a clerkship in the
Treasury on the second son of Mr. Douglas Jerrold.
Mr. Roebuck, it is stated, is writing a History of the
Reform Bill.

The Address in reply to the Speech from the Throne
will be moved in the House of Commons by the Marquis
of Kildare, and seconded by Mr. Peto, M.P. for Norwich.
Mr. Peto, M.P., Mr. W. Owen Manley, and Mr. W.
Jackson, bad an interview with Lord Seymour, on Wed-
nesday, at the office of Woods and Forests.
Mr. W. H. Roberts, an aspiring barrister of tile Mid-
land Circuit, has announced his intention to offer himself
for Cambridge borough on the first vacancy.
Aggregate meetings of the soap trade in London, will
be held on Friday, and great exertions are being used to
force the question of duty on Sir Charles Wood before
the meeting of parliament on the 4th proximo.

Lord WharnCliffe has withdrawn from a contest with
Lord Redesdale for the chairmanship of committees in
the House of Lords. Lord Redesdale's election is now
certain.

Colonel Gilpin, of. Hockliffe Grange, has offered him-
self a candidate for the representation of the county of
Bedford in the room of the late Lord Alford. The colo-
nel is a strong Protectionist, and having been for some
time president of the Leighton Buzzard Agricultural
Society, he has become well known and very popular.

The reduction of rent by landloids to their
agricultural tenants is becoming almost universal.
Not a provincial paper has passed through our hands
during the last month which does not record several in-
stances of a return of rent, varying from 10 to 20 per
cent. Even this reduction, however, will not enable the
farmer to hold on long in the face of the present ruinous
prices caused by foreign competition.

PROTECTION SoclETlEs.—:The annual meeting of the
Romford Agricultural Protection Society was held on
Wednesday, when admirable speeches were delivered by
Sir W. Bowyer Smyth, and Mr. G. F. Young. Similar
meetings have also been held by the Dorchester and the
Devon and Exetor Protection Societies ; at all of which
the same reports were made of the disastrous effects of
(so called) free trade, and the ruin falling upon the agri-
cultural interest.

NEW LOAN.—On Thursday, the tenders for a loan to
British Guiana, four per cent. guaranteed, were opened at
the treasury. The tenders varied from £95 per £lOO up
to £lOO ; and after the whole had been opened it was an-
nounced that the Rock Life Corn pang would have appor-
tioned them £65,000 at the prica ofi £lO5, and a private
individual £5OOO, at the price of £lO6. Both these
offers, as well as a tender made by Mr. Ricardo and Mr.
Burnand, were understood to be above the minimum
fixed by the government.
Low FREIGHTS.—The continued depression in ship-
ping freights is producing a strong desire on the part of
certain► ship-owners to obtain from authority of her Majesty
in Council, agreeably to a clause inserted in the new
Navigation Act, power to man their ships with the crews
of foreign seamen, or in other words, in procuring men, to
avail themselves of the cheapest market for labour. That
such a feeling should exist, is a matter deeply to be de-
plored, but perhaps, it is not surprising, considering the
unremunerative ratesof freights ; the temptation to employ
the seamen of Northern Europe at 20s. per month, in
preference to paying from 40s. to 50s. per month, is one
that must have its weight in times like the present.

THE LEADERSHIPP-IN THE HOUSES.-Sir R. Peel's
untimely decease left the Commons without a chief.
Lord G. Bentinck's as untimely death left the country
party without a leader. Mr. D'lsraeli assumed it for a
time, and not without brilliancy, though generally with
more brilliancy than effect. It is now said that his tem-
porary authority is to be wrested from him ; and, that
with the sanction of Lord Stanley, the leadership is to be
given to Mr. Gladstone ! If so, we may look upon the
Protectionist party as divided • and, if divided, ita cause
perilled, if not lost ! Lord Wharncliffe, sya perceive, has
withdrawn from a contest with Lord Redesdale for the
chairmanship of committees in the House of Lords.
This does not bode promisingly for the Whigs in the
Upper House.—Church and State Gazette.

ROMAN CATHOLIC PEERS AND MEMBERS OF PAR-
LIAMENT.—In the Peerage of Great Britain, we hare the
following Roman Catholics :—The Duke of Norfolk, the
Earl of Shrewsbury (Earl of Waterford in Ireland),
Lord Camoys, Lord Beaumont, Lord Stourton, Lord
Vaux, Lord Petre, Lord Arundel, Lord Dormer, Lord
Stafford, Lord Clifford, Lord Fingall (Earl of Fingall in
Ireland), Lord Lovat, and Lord Kenmare (Earl Kenmare
in Ireland). Of these, three have been called out of
abeyance since the Catholic Emancipation Act of 1829,
viz., Barons Camoys, Beaumont, and Vaux, and three
have since been created, viz., Barons Fingall, Lovat, and
Kenmare. In the Irish Peerage, besides the three peers
already referied to (Earls of aterford, Fingall, and
Kenmare), we have Viscount Gormanston, Viscount
Netterville, Viscount Taaffe (a Count of Bohemia, and
resident there), Viscount Southwell, Lord Trimleston,
Lord Ffrench, and the recently created Lord Bellew. In
the Scotsh Peerage there are only two—the Earl of Tar-
'pair and the Earl of Newburgh—the latter of whom has
now no connection with Scotland except the title, his
property and residence being in England. These make
in all twenty-three; but, as may be seen from the enu-
meration, only fourteen of them are British legislators.
To the above list we may not very improperly add Vis-
count Fielding. the eldest son of the Earl of Denbigh,
and Viscount Campden, eldest son of the Earl of Gains-
borough. The Roman Catholic members in the llouse of
Commons, for English constituencies, have been stated at
five. In Ireland there are not fewer than twenty-six or
twenty-seven. In Scotland no Roman Catholic has yet
found favour at elections.

RAILWAY AFFAIRS.

EAST LANCASHIRE RAILWAY.—THE DIVIDEND.—
Preparatory to the annual meeting, which is to take place
on Friday next, the directors have issued their half-yearly
report to the shareholders, from which it appears that the
general revenue account shows a nett profit of £26,145,
after payment of all fixed charges for the past half-year ;
and the directors propose that a dividend, after the rate
of £2 per cent. per annum, should be declared on the
ordinary share capital of the company, and the balance
of £3,875 carried to the reserved fund, in order to pro-
vide for any future contingencies affecting traffic.
LIABILITY OF RAILWAY ALLOTTEES.—The decision of
Vice-Chancellor Lord Cranworth on the question of al-
lottees is looked upon as a great relief by many thousands
of persons who stood in that position, the broad result of
the decision being to leave only the members of the pro-
visional committee in unincorporated or unformed com-
panies liable to pay off outstanding liabilities, and these to
be recovered by an action at common law against those
who originally gave tha orders for work and labour to be
done. The decision will go far to render a great many of
the orders for winding-up this class of companies either
nugatory or unnecessary.
" A. FEW WORDS TO THE SHAREHOLDERS OF THE
NORTH STAFFORDSHIRE RAILWAY COMPANY. BY ONE
OF THEMSELVES."—This is a small pamphlet, put for-
ward, as it appears to us, for the purpose of inducing
the shareholders to put an end to friendly relations with
the London and North Western Company, in order to
establish relations with rival companies. For this pur-
pose the writer addresses the shareholders to cancel the
existing agreement, to oppose the bill to complete that
agreement, and to take steps to construct the branch to
Marple, so as to give the North Staffordshire line the
means of getting to Manchester independent of the route
they at present command through the compact with the
London and North Western Company.
THE GREAT WESTERN, THE SHREWSBURY AND BIR-
MINGHAM, AND SHREWSBURY AND CHESTER RAIL-
WAYS.—The heads of agreement between the above rail-
way companies, as far as such articles have yet been set-
tled, are simply these :—That the Great Western Com-
pany is, through its connections in London, to procure
for the Shrewsbury and Birmingham, and Shrewsbury
and Chester Companies, goods going northwards; and
those companies are to give to the Great Western Com-
pany all their parcels and goods traffic, which will be put
on the Grand Junction Canal at Wolverhampton, and
carried to Banbury, and transmitted thence to London by
the Great Western Railway. A joint traffic committee
has been formed for carrying out this arrangement. The
Shrewsbury and Birmingham and Shrewsbury and Ches-
ter Companies have each upon it two of their directors to
represent their interests, while the Great Western Com-
pany are represented by four of their own board. There
Is not the slightest foundation for the rumour that the
Great Western authorities have any intention of offering
to guarantee the above lines.
BRITISH ELECTRIC TELEGRAPII.—The daily papers
have for a considerable time detailed circumstances con-
nected with :the management of the present Telegraph
Company, which tend to show that the system of business
adopted by that company is, to say the least of it, open to
grave objections. Indeed, it is quite obvious that the
electric telegraph has not been judiciously confided to the
hands of a single company. Various endeavours have
been made to break down the monopoly but in vain. Mr.
Ilighton, however, at present represents most of the latest
improvements in the electric telegraph, and it is with
much satisfaction that we remark, in connection with his
name, the appearance before the public of the British
Electric Telegraph Company, with a share capital of 4000
shares of £25 each. Amongst the directors and gentle-
men connected therewith, we perceive names of the highest
respectability. It will be seen that the present company
propose to throw open the advantages of the telegraph to
the public on the most economical terms, by which means
alone can improvement flourish, or a fair remuneration
be obtained for this beautiful invention. We sincerely
trust that the public will enter with spirit into the under-
taking. A new company is absolutely necessary to break
down the oppressive charges which at present are a burden
upon the public ; and which the old company, in conse-
quence of their enormous expenses, are unable to reduce :
and we know of no gentleman better qualified than Mr.
llighton to carry out the mission which he has under-
taken. Credit is due, moreover, to the manner in xhich
the promoters have acted, in not appearing at all before
the public until after they have obtained their act of par-
, liament, which appears to contain the fullest powers, and
which will enable the directors at once to proceed vigo-
rously with the undertaking. Looking at the vari-
ous ends, at present undeveloped, to which tele-
graphic communication may yet be made applicable
• and to the imperfect manner in which those ends
at present attemnted have been carried out, there is every
i reason to think that this Company will prove as remune-
rative to the proprietors as it will be beneficial to the
public. In America there are upwards of 20 telegraphic
companies, all of which are excellent investments ; and
if this result can be arrived at in a country only half-
L populated, and where the cost of laying. down the wire is
as nearly as possible the same as in this country, and
where a message of 20 words is sent 1,700 miles for half-
a-guinea, surely in busy England, with its daily increasing
commerce and resourees, there can be no doubt as to the
remunerative character of a company properly managed.—
' Railway Record.