The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1842-09-27 00:00:00

" To the Editor of the Railway Times.

" Slit,—As I always find the most correct information and
sound opinions in your valuable paper, I beg to request youi
opinion on the following subjects :—lt is now pretty widely
reported that the Manchester and Birmingham and the Man-
chester and Sheffield Railways are about to join their inter-
ests, and form one line. Probably this may do the Sheffield
line good. but I cannot see what good can arise to the Man-
chester and Birmingham Company. A much better plan
appears to me to be this : as the Grand Junction is the
grand north line, and as they have bought the Chester and
Crewe line, they should also buy the Chester and Birken-
head, Manchester and Birmingham, and Manchester and
Sheffield lines. Then they would have a communication
from the western to the eastern seas.

" They might have the bulk of the Liverpool and Leeds
traffic, the Manchester and Leeds and Hull traffic, the Shef-
field and Derby traffic, the Manchester and London, Bir-
mingham, and Chester traffic ; in fact, they would have the
command of the north traffic.

" I am, Sir, yours, &c.,
" PUBLICOLA."

MANCHESTER AND LEEDS RAILWAY.—A proof of the
extraordinary reduction of friction on a railway as compared
with that of the common road, may be arrived at by the fact,
that a four-horsed coach, running between London and Bir-
mingham, left by the wear of horse shoes and wheel-tyres,
Ili lbs. of iron on the road each journey of 118 miles ; while
at the present time a first-class carriage, weighing 31 tons,
with a brake, is now running on the Manchester and Leeds
Railway per 25,000 miles with Bank's tyres, having lost in
weight by this distance not more than nibs., and from every
appearance, this carriage is likely to run a distance of three
or tour times the circumference of the earth without the
least repair to the. wheals. The wheels were old ones, re-
paired on Bank's plan, when put under the carriage, the cost
of repair not being more than half the price of a set of wheels
for a stage coach.
Low FARES V. HIGH FARES.—It will be seen from our
traffic returns that the raising of the fares on the Blackwall
Railway has, during the last week, led to a falling off in the
receipts of nearly £2OO, as compared with the corresponding
week of last year, and this too although the present season is
far more favourable to pleasure trips than was the last.—
Railway Times..

A letter from Vienna, September 5, says,—" As soon as
the contracts for the railroad works in the north and south
were taken, workmen were at once set on. Not less than
6,000 men are employed near Olmutz, and the number will
be increased to 10,000 towards the end of autumn. On the
Trieste line the works are also urged tbrward, and 30,000
men will be employed on both lines in the spring.

THE POSTAGE ON LETTERS BETWEEN FRANCE AND
ENGLAND.—The public will learn with pleasure that we
were perfectly correct in announcing on Monday last, that an
employe of the French Post-office had arrived in London to
treat with our Post-office authorities for the reduction of the
postage duties on letters from France to England, and vice
versa, and that there is at length reason to hope for the re-
alization of the wisely conceived ameliorations so ably re-
commended three or four years since in the work published
on the subject by M. Pirou, Deputy Post-master General of
France. We feel warranted thence in anticipating the satis
factory conclusion ofa negociation calculated at once to draw
closer the friendly relations of the two countries, and to
facilitate epistolary correspondence, by reducing the
enormous charge at present imposed upon it ; for it is
but
justice to those who direct the affairs of the British Post-
office
to state, that all the propositions for that lesirale
change originated with them. Let us hope that their French
contemporaries will persevere in the line of liberality and
good sense that they have entered upon, and that all the
grounds of complaint. hitherto advanced against them will
disappear. For the alteration of_
the postage duties, the
necessity will become obvious, when it shall be known that
the smuggling of letters into England and France recip • ro-
cally is carried to an almost incredible extent. The postage
on a letter from Dover to London is only ld. • the duty on a
letter from Calais to Paris 10 sous (something less than sd-);
while the cliargeon a letter from Paris to London (or from
London to Paris) is ls. Bd. (or 40 sous). The French autho-
rities are, however, it appears, now converts to the principle
that reduced duties diminish smuggling, and are earnest in
Their desire for at least a trial of it. No doubt need be en-
tertained that their advances will be wet in the best spirit on
1 this aide the wa:..r.--nmes.