The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1842-03-18 00:00:00

With respec

however, to the
exist only in the imagination of the worthy gentlemen

'' gigantic works

In question

who have put forward this

doubt now of their perfect facility of execution. It is

not true either that the calital of the company is " c

hausted," for on the authority of a counter sta

put forward by the secretary of the Shc

and Manchester Railway, we find that ;€:l7 los. per
share remains yet to he called up, besides consider-
able arrears which are now in course of payment, and
a sum cf £233,000 authorised by the act to be bor-
rowed ; and so far from its being true that " more than
half their shares are forfeited," the number so forfeited
does not exceed 930 shares, oat of a t=otal number of
7,000, or not one-seventh !

The hotheaded and arbitrary tone, however, adopted
at the meeting on Wednesday, by that very indiscreet
gentleman, Mr. Gill, in opposition to the very reason-
able propoStion of the Liverpool directors, to refer the
question in dispute to the decision of the members for
the county, the Chancellor of the Duchy, or the Board
of Trade, must convince any impartial men that the
Leeds Company dare not meet the question fairly upon
its merits, or that, at all events, they would prefer to
trust to the effect of the delusions which they may be
enabled, by pamphleteering and other similar means,
to raise in the mind of the public, or of parliament.
On this head, however, we have no fear. The perverted
statements of interested men may for a moment mislead
public opinion (as, in this case, the statements of the
Leeds and Manchester gentlemen did at one time create
a feeling prejudicial to the character for honour and
straightforward dealing of the Liverpool and Manches-
ter Board) ; but the truth will ultimately ever prevail,
and we appeal confidently to the report and to the pro-
ceedings of the meeting on Wednesday, for the most
complete vindication of the propriety of the course
pursued upon this question by our fellow-tovrnsmen,
and of the perfect integrity and attention to the in-
terests of their shareholders and the public, by which
they have been actuated throughout.

Our last publication contained a report of the com-
mittal, upon a charge of murder, of two men accused
of having caused the death of a boy, in a place of
amusement frequented by the juvenile classes of our
fellow-townsmen. With respect to the unhappy indi-
viduals themselves, we have not a word to say. Their
crime will be dealt with by a jury of their coun-
try. But with respect to those resorts of the young,
which, under the character of penny and twopenny
theatres, have sprung np recently in almost every quar-
ter of the town, we must be permitted to address a few
words of remonstrance to the authorities, who, we
presume, possess the power of taking measures for
their suppression.

There can, we think, be no question with respect to
the injurious effects upon public morality of the places
in question. The facts, indeed, which transpired in
the hearing, before the sitting magistrate, of the case to
which we allude, prove sufficiently the character of the
assemblages by which they are frequented. There is
scarcely a district in the town in which some place of a
similar description is not now open; and we really can-
not but think that it is the duty of the police to watch
them with a jealous eye, if they even do not at once
interfere to put them down. We are not aware that
they possess this power. We are certain, however, that
they ought to posses it; and that it ought, for the
sake of the public order and morals, to be rigidly en-

forced