The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1842-03-25 00:00:00

THE BOSTON AND HALIFAX MAIL SHIPS

It will be found by the following extracts, that alarming
apprehensions were entertained at New York for the fate of
the Caledonia, which put back to this port after being some
days out, in consequence of damage to her rudder,—the
Acadia, which took her place, not having arrived up to the
latest advices. The apprehensions would, we trust, soon be
dispelled by the due arrival of the latter vessel. It will be
found by the other quotations (from the Boston paper) that
the steamer Unicorn had, in the absence of the Caledonia,
or any other vessel of the line, been sent from Halifax to
Boston to take up the mails and passengers ; to return to
the former port ; arid, in the event of none of the mail-ships
turning up, to proceed with them to England. As it is
stated in these accounts that she would leave Boston on the
afternoon of the 2d instant, the inference drawn by many
parties on this side the water is, that she would leave Halifax
on the sth of this month, and that, considering the quick
passages recently accOMplished by sailing ships from America
to this port, she is noy more than due. Considerable dis-
cussion has consequently arisen, and no little anxiety is ex-
pressed as to the cause of her detention ; but we are glad to
be enabled to supply some facts, from unquestionable autho-
rity, showing that, from the probable time of her sailing, (on
the supposition that it was finally dispatched with the mails,)
she is not yet due, and that any fears that may be entertained
for her safety are altogether premature.

The Acadia sailed on the 19th ultimo, and giving her the
same average outward passage accomplished by these vessels
at this season of the year, namely, seventeen days, she might
be expected to arrive at her destination (Halifax) on or about
the evening of the Bth instant ; and this, we shall show,
would be in time to supersede the Unicorn in bringing the
mails to England. The Unicorn, it was said, was to sail
from Boston on the 2d instant, and would reach Halifax on

mgai

tha 6th I and u aba is sat a mad twenty da,
goad for a trauzatiantio voyage, it would require at least
three days at that port to prepare her for the voyage. Thus
the. Acadia would-arrive before she (the Unicorn) would leave.
Again, allowing the Acadia to arrive at Halifax on the Sth,
she would then have.to go to Boston, and it would take her
several days to get ready for the return voyage. Say that
she left Boston on the 13th, or the morning of the 14th, she
cannot reasonably be looked for here before the 27th. These
being the facts, she cannot, under any possible construction
of the circumstances, arrive here before to-morrow or the
ing day. The following are the extracts alluded to :

(From the Boston Times, Feb. 27.)
The steamer Unicorn has just arrived at the wharf in East
Boston from Halifax, having been sent here by the agents at
Halifax, to take the mail and passengers on Tuesday, the Ist
March, in place of the Caledonia, not yet arrived. Nothing
had been heard of the Caledonia at Halifax, when the Uni-
corn left, and considerable alarm was felt there for her safety.
The Unicorn left Halifax on Friday afternoon, at four
o'clock. The day previous to sailing, in consequence of a
report of two fishermen seeing a large vessel at some distance
from them, apparently immoveable, supposed to be the
steamer Caledonia, she was despatched to look after the wreck
and render assistance.

The Unicorn will take the mails to Halifax, and if the Ca-
ledonia has not arrived, she will proceed to England.
If the Caledonia or the Columbia should arrive at Halifax
during the absence of the Unicorn, she will be detained, and
on the return of the Unicorn the passengers and mails will
be transferred to the Unicorn, which will immediately pro-
ceed to this port, and the Caledonia or Columbia return to
Liverpool with the passengers and mails from Boston.

THE JUNCTION OF THE RAILWAYS IN
MANCHESTER.

We reported fully, in our publication of Friday last, the
proceedings of the meeting of Shareholders in the Liverpool
and Manchester Railway Company upon this important
question, and at the same time expressed our opinion of the
reasonableness of the decision to which the directors had
come, to submit the whole question at issue to be determined
by an amicable arbitration. Since that time the half-yearly
meeting of the Leeds company has been held in Manchester,
and the proposition in question has been scouted by the
Leeds board, who refuse to enter at all into the comparative
~....merits of the two. junction-lines propoaticti and insist upon
the route by. Hunt's-bank as the only one to which they can
be induced to give their sanction. All prospect therefore of
the question being amicably arranged, so far as the Leeds
company is concerned, is at an end. That company have
predetermined to adopt a line which, it is manifest to us, can
never sufficiently accommodate the commerce of Liverpool
with Yorkshire ; and it becomes therefore a question of
great moment to the shareholders of the Liverpool and Man-
chester line, what is the best course to he pursued, in order
to secure to that company the communication with the lines
diverging east and south of Manchester, which is most cal-
culated to advance the interests of that undertaking.
We will not now enter into an exposure of the mendacious
representations by which the Leeds board have sought to
justify the course which they are pursuing. The object of
these gentlemen, it is quite plain to the public, is to procure a
line which will be serviceable as a junction with their own,
and which they know can never be used with any advantage
or convenience by other lines, equally and even more in-
terested than theirs in a communication with the port of Li-
verpool. The object of the Liverpool and Manchester board,
on the other hand, cannot possibly be tainted with any such
unworthy motives. Their aim must be to obtain the greatest
possible traffic from the various districts through which the
railways terminating in Manchester run. They must, to
gain this aim, adopt that junction line which holds out a
promise of the greatest facilities to all. They can show no
exclusive favour to one line without injuring their own ; and
in every respect they are therefore clean handed, and are
thus entitled to the support of the public and of parliament.
Between the plan of junction deliberately adopted by this
company, on the ground of the general accommodation which
it affords, and that put forward by the Leeds company, which
is calculated to benefit themselves exclusively, the legislature
will shortly be called upon to decide ; and it is imperative
that the board of the Liverpool and Manchester should
strengthen their case by every legal and honest means within
their reach. At present they have the countenance of one
only of the four companies in Manchester, which it is sought
to connect with Liverpool by a junction line. The Sheffield
and Manchester company is the only line which, with the
Liverpool, favours the project of a communication by the
route to the south of Manchester; and we are quite confi-
dent that, with that company more than with all the others
put together, it is important to the interests of the Liverpool
and Manchester company that a junction should be formed.
Upon the connection of this line with the Liverpool and
Manchester, it is morally certain that the entire traffic, be-
tween Sheffield and Liverpool, will be secured to the Liver-
pool line, whilst the traffic from Leeds, Bolton, Stockport,
and other towns, upon the lines which are sought to be bene-
fitted to the exclusion of Sheffield, may be accommodated, as
it is at present, by the existing water communications. To
all these places there are already canal conveyances to and
from Liverpool ; but the important commerce of Sheffield is
provided with no such facility, and must, of necessity, use
the Liverpool and Manchester Railway exclusively as its
route to its greet port "of shipment, Liverpool.

In addition to this circumstance, however, it is of infinite
importance that the fact should be borne in mind, by the Li-
verpool and Manchester board, that the Sheffield line must,
ultimately, become the route for the great bulk of the traffic
between the northern and eastern districts of England, and
even between Leeds itself, and Liverpool ! By the formation
of the proposed junction line with the North Midland by way
of Barnsley, for which plans are already lodged, a saving of
distance of five miles will be effected between Manchester
and Leeds. In addition, however, and far more important
than the saving of distance merely by this route to Leeds and
to tile number, the saving of cost of transit is to be taken
into account. The Sheffield and Manchester line, and the
junction which is to carry it forward to the North Midland,
are not estimated to exceed £25,000 per mile in their forma-
tion, whilst the Manchester and Leeds line has cost upwards
of £50,000 a mile; and it is obvious, to any one conversant
with railway matters, that the cheaper line will inevitably
engross, and at paying rates too, the bulk of the traffic pass-
ing from terminus to terminus.
4 It is urged, indeed, by the Leeds and Manchester board,
in depreciation of the advantages offered by these two lines,
that the junction line from the Sheffield Railway to the North
Midland is of such a nature, that it can never be practically
worked ; and to substantiate this objection, the opinion of
Mr. George Stephenson, condemna,. ory of the line in ques-
tion, is paraded before the world with no trifling ostenta-
tion. The data, however, upon which this opinion is formed,
are grossly distorted and incorrect; and we really cannot
but regret that a gentleman of the standing and reputation of
that eminent engineer should have been induced to place it
before the world, even to bolster up the case of the Leeds
Railway. We have been favoured with a perusal of the re-
port of the engineer by whom this line was surveyed, under
the superintendence of Mr. Locke, the engineer of the Grand
Junction and London and Southampton lines, a gentleman
with whom our Liverpool shareholders are perfectly well ac-
quainted; and we can state distinctly, that it contains not
one of the features in which it is painted by the Leeds gen-
tlemen and Mr. Stephenson. It will require no stationary
engines ; it will have no long tunnels : in fact, it is through-
out a perfectly practicable locomotive line, its highest gra-
dient being 1 in 95, or considerably under the inclination of
the Liverpool and Manchester Railway at Sutton.
It is obvious, then, that to the Liverpool company a con-
nection with the Sheffield line is of the utmost importance ;
and we have already spewed that the route by the south of
Manchester is the only one which can effectually establish
that connection. The question, therefore, presents itself—
how are the Liverpool board to act in order to secure the ob-
ject at which they aim, opposed, as they are, by the Man-
chester and Leeds, the Manchester and Birmingham, and the
Manchester and Bolton companies, and enjoying only the
inefficient support of the Sheffield and Manchester company?
In reply, we say at once, strengthen the position of this in-
efficient ally by which alone the Liverpool company is sup-
ported in Manchester. The embarrassed condition of the
Sheffield railway is the only circumstance which can weaken
the case of the Liverpool and Manchester board; and a
communication which appears in our advertising columns,
and to which we shall probably reply on a future occasion,
shews plainly how eagerly that embarrassed condition is
seized upon by their unscrupulous opponents. Relieve the
Sheffield company from those embarrassments (and we are
prepared to show how easily that can be effected), and not
only will the most powerful weapon of the Leeds party be
broken, but, we venture to say, that another company—the
Manchester and Birmingham—will shortly he found arrayed
upon the side of the Liverpool board, advocating the forma-
tion of the very junction which they now only profess to
repudiate.
The condition of the Sheffield company, it is well known,
is one of great financial difficulty, which threatens seriously
to impede its successful execution. An unfavourable im-
pression with respect to its merits and prospects has been
created in the public mind, partly by circumstances over
which no control could possibly have been exercised, partly
perhaps by injudicious management, but mainly by the sedu-
lous efforts of rival companies to crush it in its progress. To
effect this object a constant stream of misrepresentation has
been directed against it ; and, as the result, large arrears of
calls upon its shares have accumulated, the works have been
delayed, and, whilst all other stocks have been regularly mar-
ketable, the shares of the Sheffield and Manchester line have
been, at whatever sacrifice offered, entirely neglected. 'Within
the last few weeks, however—thanks, perhaps, to the unblush-
ing asseverations put forth to the discredit el the undertaking
by the Leeds board and their officials, which have induced
the public to inquire and to weigh facts—a better feeling has
sprung up. The Sheffield line is now far better appreciated ;
its shares are marketable, although at a considerable dis-
count; its calls have been more cheerfully paid up; and a
number of the shares previously forfeited and unproductive
have been re-allotted into good hands. Still, it cannot be
denied that, although the works upon the line are being
steadily prosecuted, the directors are prevented from carrying
out their undertaking with that energy which they
would be
enabled to use if they were furnished more freely with the
funds for that purpose ; and it is to enable them to do this,
and thus to take up at once their legitimate position and to
exercise their legitimate influence in the settlement of the

quntlan At km, with romped to the *Main Rochester,
that wo, navy venture to reoommond to thaaa gentlemen a
course. which we really thick will be followed by this grati-
fying result.
It really does seem to us that, under all the circumstances
of the case, the time has come when the railway capitalists
of Liverpool, whose names are to be found in the share lists
of every good line in the kingdom, and in a few very inferior
ones as well, might extend a little of their countenance to an
undertaking so intimately connected with the commerce of
the town in which they live. We are assured that not above
a few dozen shares of the Sheffield Company are held in Li-
verpool—the great mart of railway stocks, and the locality
whose opinion upon railway matters, more than that of any
other, is valued by the public; and we are satisfied that the
impression produced by the knowledge of that fact is of itself
directly calculated to depress the character of the undertaking
in general estimation. We do not, however, say to the gen-
tlemen of our town who are interested in this description of
investment, " become shareholders in the Sheffield'and Man-
chester line." We do not say this, either, to the directors
and influential proprietors, of the Liverpool and Manchester
line. We will not undertake to prove to them, although it
is our firm opinion, that the Sheffield line is likely to be a
good paying concern; but we feel no difficulty in recom-
mending to those of our fellow-townsmen who are interested
in railway investments (and who cannot be unaware of the
cloud of misrepresentation which has been hung around the
prospects and the character of this undertaking) to inquire
for themselves, and from the fountain head, its real charac-
ter and position, and to be decided by the result of such an
examination alone!

Upon every occasion when the Liverpool and Manchester
board have beep brought into contact with those very swag-
gering gentlemen who have recently been endeavouring to
dictate to and ride roughshod over (hem with respect to this
junction in Manchester, it haS been urged—" Oh, you are
going to join yourselves to a line which is never likely to
be completed—to a thing which has no existence except upon
paper—to the dead limbs only of a mangled carcase." We say,
therefore, to those, to whom these objections to the course
.whieh they are pursuing are urged, that they are bound to exa-
mine and ascertain ‘:Nether such a state or things is true. If
they are the facts, why, then, adopt the course pointed out by
the Leeds and Manchester board. If, on the other hand,
they are garbled, perverted;•and false representations, got
up to serve an unworthy purpose, let the world be told so au-
thoritatively. Take this belied undertaking which you have
proved to Le a valuable one, under your protection ; become
holders of its stock ; and we venture to say that from the
hour in which it is known that the judgment of Liverpool
has pronounced in its favour, the difficulties of the Sheffield
line will be at an end, and the Liverpool and Manchester
board will have a useful, effective, living ally to aid them in
the attainment of the objects they have in view, where they
have now only one which injures rather than strengthens
them !

In order to bring about a consummation so desirable for all
parties we would respectfully suggest to the directors of the
Sheffield and Manchester Railway to convene a meeting of
the influential holders of railway stock in Liverpool, amongst
the chief of whom are the directors of the Liverpool and
Manchester and Grand Junction lines ; and come to such
meeting, with their engineers and officers, prepared to lay
bafore it a complete view of the condition and character of
their undertaking. The proceedings of the ordinary meet-
ings of railway companies, the publication of engineers' and
directors' reports may fulfil all the purposes required in ordi-
nary cases : but in such a case as the one before us we can
see nothing derogatory—nothing beyond what is calculated to
advance the purposes, which honest men ought to have in
view, in the adoption of the course which we recommend. At
such a meeting, by men intimately conversant with the sub-
ject, the truth, with respect to the entire questions at issue,
could be fairly elicited ; and if, out of such an examination
the undertaking submitted to it could emerge satisfactorily—
if it could be shown that to no radical defect in the line of
railway itself is owing its present embarrassed position,
we are confident that there is judgment and spirit sufficient in
our town to take it up at once and rescue it out of its
temporary difficulties