The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1842-03-01 00:00:00

PROPOSED COLLEGES AT FLEETWOOD-ON-
WYRE.

The present is certainly an age of wonders, considered not
only physically but morally ; and in the rapid strides which
science and enterprise are making throughout the land, we
foresee, even through the gloom of considerable commercial
depression, and the retardations of party opposition, the ap-
proach of a brighter era than our historians have yet had the
happiness to record; and which, if we blamelessly assume
England to be the " model" of the nations, will, through
her intercourse and example, shed its benign influence over
even the remotest portions of the globe ;—for what the poet
has said of " self-love" will apply with equal truth to mental
progression :

" ' Intelligence' the virtuous mind can wake,
As the small pebble stirs the peaceful lake;
Friend—parent—neighbour, first it will embrace,—
Our country next, and next—all human race."

The advancement of general and mechanical science ; the
triumps of industry in spite of innumerable obstacles ; the
intersection of our country by railways, and the progress of
steam navigation,—approximating district to district, and
even continent to continent ; enabling us to supply mutual
wants and mutual wealth—to administer to the comforts and
happiness of the whole human family, and to spread civiliza-
tion and refinement wherever our flag is unfurled ;—all impel
us to the pleasing anticipation of a consummation highly
beneficial to the best interests of mankind. The very dis-
cussions on the question of the education of the people, an-
tagonist and frequently acrimonious as they are, serve but to
confirm our opinions on this point; for all parties now ac-
knowledge the necessity of general instruction, as necessary
to the maintainance of our ascendancy in the scale of nations
in an age characterized by energetic competition ; and when
conflicting opinionists become weary of the fatigue and ex-
citement of prolonged hostility, the repose into which they
must naturally relapse will conduce to that mutual forbear-
ance and conciliation—dictated by self-interest and common
sense—which will doubtless lead to the happiest results to
the mass.

These being our decided convictions, and being, moreover,
the advocates, though humble, of the spread of useful know-
ledge amongst all classes of the people, it is with feelings of
sincere gratulation that we learn that an educational esta-
blishment is in progress of formation at Fleetwood, in this
county—a seminary which, judging from the principle on
which it is proposed to be founded, as well as the magnitude
and practicability of the design, promises to become a valua-
ble acquisition not only to this populous locality, but " a
model" from which the patriot and statesman may derive a
grand system of national education worthy of adoption
throughout the whole united kingdom. '
Fleetwood, at the mouth of the Wyre, is a town of but
recent date. A few years only have elapsed since, to employ
a homely phrase, the foundation-stone was laid ; but such
are the attractions of its position that it already boasts of
many elegant edifices, and a very considerable, and, we may
add, select population. Its site, on the eastern point of the
entrance to Morecambe Bay, is proverbially salubrious ; and
the surrounding scenery, both in land and water, is extensive
and diversified. It presents great advantages for shipping,
from its admirable natural harbour, and its proximity to
many of the largest manufacturing towns, with which it has
already rapid communication by railway—meeting the north,
the south, and, through the latter, the great eastern lines, at
Preston. Promising, however, as it is in this respect, many
years must elapse before it can enter into commercial rivalry
with Liverpool or Glasgow ; but from its peculiar adaptation
for a watering-place, or a summer resort, whether for the
invalid or the recreative visitor, its salubrity, its seclusion
from the bustle of trade, and its cheap supply of the comforts
and even the luxuries of life—situated as it is in the great
" corn field" of Lancashire—it has been judiciously resolved,
should the project meet with adequate encouragement from a
discerning public, to render it the seat of education as well
as of health.

We learn from a prospectus (not yet we believe in general
circulation) that it is proposed to build two Colleges, the one
for 500 boys, and the other for as many young ladies,—" to
be founded and supported on the principle of life assurance"
—a system of which Mr. Vantini (a spirited proprietor in
Fleetwood) has maturely considered for a number of years ;
and so soon as the requisite number of pupils are registered,
an association will be forthwith formed for the erection of
the buildings, on a magnificent scale, both as regards interior
convenience and healthful recreation out of doors. The
members are to pay a small sum annually from the birth of
every child, after whose admission into the college the pay-
ment will be £2O per annum ; or a child may be educated by
the payment of a fixed annual sum from birth until the pupil
leaves. Two-thirds of the money is to be returned if the
child die before it is of age to be admitted. It is intended to
found the colleges when 1000 children have been registered ;
and until they are built no contribution is required. The
whole profits are to be devoted to the purposes of the esta-
blishment, excepting 5 per cent. to:proprietors, on the capital
subscribed. The government will be vested in governors,
who will appoint the principals, chaplain, and matrons. The
religious education of the boys will be conducted by the
chaplain, who will perform the religious services, and impart
instruction according to an outline approved by the Bishop
of the Diocese. Parents who are desirous that their children
should not attend the chaplain, may provide other means of
religious instruction. The morals of the pupils will be care-
fully attended to. The pupils will be divided into depart-
ments, according to age, and the tuition embraces all the
useful and ornamental branches, including the Ancient and
Modern Classics, Drawing, Music, German Literature,
French, Dancing, &c. Athletic exercises will also be encou-
raged.
The young ladies will be under the superintendence of a
committee of patronesses, and the instruction nearly similar
to that of the boys. They will be taught all that is useful
and ornamental in female life ; and efforts will be made to
inculcate that sort of knowledge which will enable a pupil,
on leaving the college, to take on herself the management of
a family and the education of children,
We have before us plans of the colleges and playgrounds,
with a bird's-eye view of the whole establishment. They
cover a large area, and the design appears to embrace archi-
tectural elegance, with every appliance that can conduce to
health and comfort. Besides the extensive playgrounds,
there is a park of ten acres at each corner of the quadrangu-
lar site. There are, also, isolated from the main buildings,
and forming the angles of an outer square, aLchapel, an. in-,
firmary, a riding school, and a pile of stabling, all of uniform
design. The capital required for the erection of these hand-
some buildings is £BO,OOO.
Such is an outline of the proposed colleges. The subsidiary
arrangements appear to be the result of great care and judg-
ment. One of the strongest inducements to the support of
the establishment by the public is, the principle adopted of
life insurance,—by which, for a comparatively small annual
sum, the payment of which will scarcely be felt, a parent
may ensure for his child a sound, moral, and classical educa-
tion ; at a place, too, deservedly esteemed for its salubrity,
and which (to employ the language of the projectors) is ex-
empt from many of the evils of older towns.

VOTES OF THE LANCASHIRE AND CHESHIRE
MEMBERS,
On Mr. Villiers' motion,—" That all duties payable upon the
importation of corn, grain, meal, or flour, do now cease
and determine." (No. 1.)
On Mr. Christopher's motion,—" That under 51s. the duty
upon every quarter of wheat shall be 255." (No. 2.)
No. 1. No. 2.
For. Agst. For. Agst.

Lord Stanley N. Lancashire.
J. W. Patten Ditto
Lord F. Egerton S. Lancashire..
Hon. R. B. Wilbraham Ditto
Lord Sandon . Liverpool ....
Sir H. Douglas ........ Ditto
M. Philips
T. M. Gibson Ditto
T. G. Greene Lancaster ....

G. Marton Ditto
J. Brotherton Salford
P. Ainsworth

J. Bowring Ditto ........
Sir H. Fleetwood Preston
Sir G. Strickland
J. Hornby Blackburn....
W. J. Fielden Ditto

J. Fielden
General Johnson Ditto
I. Blackhurne Warrington ..

S. Crawford Rochdale ....
C. Hindle} Ashton
R. Walker Bury
M. Wilson Clitheroe ....
P. Greenall
T. B. Crosse Ditto
W. T. g Eerton .
. N. Cheshire

G. C. Leigh ....
Sir P. Egerton
J. Tollemache Ditto —
Lord R. Grosvenor .... Chester

J. Jervis
J. Brocklehurst Macclesfield ..
T. Grimsditch Ditto
H. Marsland Stockport ....
R. Cobden . Ditto ... . --

THE LIVERPOOL AND MANCHESTER, SHEF-
FIELD AND MANCHESTER, AND MANCHES-
TER AND LEEDS RAILWAYS.

Amongst the incentives to the conduct recently manifested
by the board of the Manchester and Leeds Railway, towards
the directors of the Liverpool and Manchester line, with
respect to a proposed junction at their Manchester termini,
we have ever viewed as the chief, the rooted jealousy with
which the former gentlemen regard the progress of an un-
dertaking which promises at no distant period to be a formi-
dable competitor, with theirs, for the traffic from the heart
of Yorkshire and the north-eastern portion of England.
From its being first projected, in 1835, the Sheffield and
Manchester Railway has been the constant object of the
sneers and the misrepresentations of the gentlemen of the
Manchester and Leeds line, their engineers, and their various
officials. A continual under-current of hostilities has been
directed against it. The press has teemed with anonymous
slanders to its prejudice, nine-tenths of which, it is too cer-
tain, have emanated, not from the "injured shareholders,"
the " sufferers," and other small unknown, whose senti-
ments and sufferings they purported to express,—but from
the hoard-room or the private parlours of Leeds and Man-
chester directors and shareholders, whose jaundiced vision
saw in every step made in the progress of this undertaking a
ray shorn from the magnificent prospects which, in imagina-
tion, surrounded their own line. And it is chiefly because
the directors of the Manchester and Liverpool Railway have
refused to shut their eyes to the claims of Sheffield and
the eastern district of the north of England to be connected
with Liverpool, that the storm of vituperation, and the ac-
cusations of want of faith, which we have recently noticed,
have been drawn down upon them from the officials and the
anonymous partisans of the Manchester and Leeds direction.
We have taken some interest in this controversy so far,
and have come in for some small share of visitations usually
received when such warfare is raging. We stood forward in
defence of the course pursued by the Liverpool and Man-
chester board, not merely because that undertaking was, to
some extent, a Liverpool undertaking—not because we have
the pleasure of receiving any extraordinary favours from its
directors—or that our journal was (as represented by our
able contemporary, the Railway Times) "in their secrets ;"
but because, upon geneial grounds, we were satisfied that in
that course they were right.. Whilst entertaining the ques-
tion of a junction with the Manchester and Leeds Railway,
we were convinced that they could not, with propriety and
justice, or with advantage to the interests of their under-
taking and of the port of Liverpool, overlook the importance
of a junction with all the lines which diverge eastwards from
Manchester ; and that amongst those lines the Sheffield
Railway possessed especial claims which they could not and
ought not to overlook.

It is partly in justification of our former advocacy, and
partly because, as journalists, taking a deep interest in the
prosperity of railway undertakings, we cannot in silence see
any line borne down by systematic misrepresentation, that
we purpose now placing before our readers, from the docu-
ments presented at the last half-yearly meeting, the actual
present position and prospects of the Sheffield and Man-
chester Railway.

And first, with respe.it to the cost of its execution, as thus
far tested by experience. The public have heard abundance
of stories, from anonymous correspondents of the Railway
Times, with respect to the enormous probable cost of por-
tions of the works. Let us see what are the facts.

The total length of the line from Manchester to Sheffield
is 40 1-3rd miles. • The total cost as estimated by Mr.
Vignoles, the late eminent engineer of the company, was
£1,000,000, which was divided in detail, as follows :
Manchester to Glossop, 11 miles £248,600
Glossop to Tunnel, 71 ,
Tunnel, 3 „
From Tunnel to Sheffield, 19 „
Cost of Works . £666,138

Land .
Management 37,336
Stations and Stock
'Tunnel Contingencies 24,617
Unforeseen ditto .. .

£1,000,000
Of the entire length of 40 1-3 d miles, a distance of nearly
nine miles is already completed and opened. Another por-
tion extending to Glossop, is under contract; and the cost of
the first eleven miles out of Manchester, which is stated by
Mr. Locke, the present engineer of the company, (upon
whose competence as a judge we need not, in Liverpool en-
large,) to contain one half of the entire earthwork of the
line,) is £233,000—a difference, between the estimate and
the general cost of but £4,400 in an amount of a quarter of a
million !

Of the tunnel, which has ever been treated as the great
difficulty of the undertaking, and the cost of which has been
so exaggerated by interested and anonymous detractors, the
progress, thus far, developer a similar result. The estimate
of Mr. Vignoles, made upon the supposition that, from the
nature of the strata, it would not require lining throughout,
was for tunnel and contingencies £105,967. That of, Mr.
Locke, allowing for lining throughout, is, as recently fur-
dished to the directors, £205,700. The discrepancy here is
undoubtedly large. It is, however, still uncertain whether
this great additional cost of lining will have to be incurred ;
and at all events it must be satisfactory to the proprietors to
know that the estimate of Mr. Locke, which has been
formed, after the nature of the strata was ascertained, the
shafts nearly completed, the necessary buildings erected, and
one third of the entire driftway executed, must necessarily
be the extreme cost of the work! So far from there being
any probability of the whole tunnel, (as it has been repre-
sented by the partisans of the Leeds and Manchester direc-
tion,) having to he formed through the same difficult and
expensive material which presented itself in the Summit
tunnel on the Leeds line, we can state, on the authority of
the resident engineer, that " they have not met with a bed
of mountain limestone, nor a bit of blue shale"—(the strata
on the Leeds line)—" in the whole range of hills thi:ough
which they are driving ; and the fact will prove itself, that
on the Manchester and Leeds summit tunnel, they were
forced to line their shafts with stone or bricks, as the sides
would not stand without, whilst the shafts on the Sheffield
and Manchester tunnel are lined with boards, merely to stop
the water from Roofing on the men and extinguishing the
lights ; and the best proof is this—their shale stands equally
as well as the rock."

The total revised estimate of Mr. Locke, including all
stock and contingencies, amounts to £1,113,500, the differ-
ence between which, and that of Mr. Vignoles, is principally,
as we have shown, in the cost put down for the tunnel, a
portion of which, it is probable, may be saved, although the
former gentleman has very properly, in his estimate, taken
the extreme view of the case. That this is an estimate which
with certainty may be depended upon to complete the under-
taking we think must be manifest from the following passage
in Mr. Locke's report to the directors :

" With a view to arrive as nearly as possible at this cer-
tainty in the present case, it has occurred to me that it would
be well to obtain contracts for the entire works, to'be finish-
ed in a given time, and that all liabilities of every kind, even
including the land, should be guaranteed to the company
under bond. If persons could not be found to take such
contracts, then a prima facie case is made out against the
sufficiency of the estimate. Upon this showing lam willing
to test the estimate I have made to you, and either to find
parties who will give the guarantee required, or at once
retire from the position I hold."

We can imagine nothing more satisfactory than such a
declaration.

With respect to the prospects of the traffic to come upon
the line, we believe that they fully equal, now, any previous
anticipations which have been entertained. So far as the
railway has yet been open, the receipts have been highly
satisfactory, and are steadily increasing ; and when the line
is further extended to Glossop, or to the mouth of the sum-
mit tunnel, (which will be in the course of the present year,)
there is no doubt that a good available revenue, clear of all
expenses, will be brought in. It must be borne in mind that
so far as the traffic in passengers and in goods as well, is
concerned, there can be no possible competition against this
undertaking. Between the towns of Sheffield and Manches-
ter, no canal or other conveyance, except the ordinary roads
—and bad they are !—presents itself ; and, whilst from the
comparatively light!cost of the line, (X 27,000 per mile,) the
cheapness of fuel, and other advantages, the company will
be enabled to carry upon very reasonable terms, they will
have no opposition to force them into reductions detrimental
to the profitable working of their line.

The circumstance, however, which we have no doubt has
most materially tended to produce the soreness with which
the Sheffield railway is contemplated, and to sharpen the
shafts which are launched against it by the partizans of the
Manchester and Leeds line, is the fact, that, by a movement
which is at present making on the Yorkshire side of the sum-
mit, this line threatens ultimately to become the route from
Liverpool and Manchester to Leeds itself .r The London
Gazette of the last week or two has contained a notice of an
application to parliament for the formation of a junction line
from Penistone, on the Sheffield and Manchester line, via the
North Midland line, near Barnsley, to Normanton, by which
route the distance between Manchester and Leeds (which by
the present line is upwards of CO miles) will be reduced to
less than 41—thus effecting a saving of 7 miles ! The plans
and sections of this line (from Penistone to the North Mid-
land) are now, we are informed, in active progress ; and we
have no doubt that, the perfect practicability of the tunnel on

the Sheffield line being demonstrated, the junction in ques-
tion, which will open to the manufacturing districts of Man-
chester and Sheffield the vast and valuable coal fields in the
vicinity of Barnsley and Silkstone, will be vigourously pro-
secuted. Hine illce irce,

There can be no question, we regret to say, that the finan-
cial prospects of this undertaking are anything but satisfac-
tory ; and to this state of things there is as little question
that the ceaseless hostility which has been directed against it,
by interested opponents, has mainly conduced. Large ar-
rears of calls upon shares have accumulated ; litigation to en-
force payment has created a vast amount of exasperation,
amongst the holders, against the proceedings of the board ;
and from these circumstances,. combined with the unexampled
disorganization of trade in the manufacturing districts, the
most serious difficulties in the way of the successful prosecu-
tion of the undertakingpreseint themselves. We must, how-
ever, express our deliberate .conviction that there is nothing

in the present position of the company—there is assuredly
nothing in the undertaking itself—to warrant a continuance
of this almost unexampled depression, which has fettered and
still fetters the efforts of the Sheffield and Manchester di-
rection. On the contrary, we are satisfied that were the
public mind disabused and the cloud of misrepresentation
(which has been designedly raised to prevent a just apprecia-
tion of the merits of this line of railway by capitalists) effec-
tually dissipated, there is no substantial reason why it should
not at once assume a prominent position amongst our most
valuable railways, and the remaining funds required be
promptly and liberally furnished.
Upon this subject our Liverpool readers, who are inter-
ested in rails' ay speculations, will, no doubt, listen with
somewhat greater confidence to the opinion of Mr. Locke,
the talented engineer of the company, than to any opinion
which we can be justified in expressing. " There have been,
up to this time," writes Mr. Locke in his half-yearly report,
" many causes to arrest the progress of this undertaking.
The depression which has existed in every branch of trade in
the Lancashire and Yorkshire districts has no doubt tended
to depress not only this, but every other description of rail-
way property ; and the opening of other lines not so success-
fully as was expected, has, from a sort of-intuitive feeling of
inferiority, sunk this line still further in public estimation.
The truth is, that the railway public has been too much daz-
zled with the brilliant prospects of traffic, to distinguish
clearly the difference between a cheap and a costly line. It
has, until recently, passed judgment upon all railways accord-
ing to the expected income, regardless of the relative expen-
diture ; and thus it is that many great and useful undertakings
remain neglected. It is not my wish, alihough it may be
my duty, to make comparisons with lines more or less favour-
ably circumstanced than the Sheffield and Manchester; but
whether we look to the local or general traffic, or to the posi-
tion which this line must eventually hold in the chain of
inland railway communication, there cannot remain a reason-
able doubt that,( with an outlay less than one-half that of
such lines as the Leeds and Manchester and the North Mid-
land, the income derivable cannot be less than it is likely to
be on either of those lines. These comparisons may not be
altogether fortunate;; but there can be no doubt that had
either of these lines been executed for the cost per mile of the
Manchester and Sheffield, they would hold very different
positions in public estimation to what they now do ; and
there does not seem to :me any adequate difference in the
traffic on those lines to justify so decided a preference over
the one now under consideration. This state of opinion,
however, if ill founded, will in time correct itself; and if it
can be shown—as I have endeavoured to show—that this line
can be executed at something like £25,000 a mile (exclusive
of its carrying stock), there seems little reason to doubt of
its eventual success*"

To this testimony we may add, that we know of no com-
munity—scarcely even those of Manchester and Sheffield
themselves—which is more interested in the satisfactory
completion of this railway, and by whom an interest, taken
in it, would be more effectual in rescuing it from its present
neglect and difficulty than that of Liverpool.
To the vast intercourse of the trade of Sheffield with the
markets of the western world this is already the natural and
almost exclusive port ; and there can be no question that
when the connexion which this line of railway opens between
Sheffield and Liverpool is completed, not only that town,
but the important agricultural district lying eastwards from
Sheffield, and including a great portion of Nottinghamshire,
Leicestershire, and Lincolnshire, which is now supplied with
the greatest portion of its foreign produce from the Humber,
will in future be brought to this as its nearest and cheapest
port of supply for imported produce. To the Liverpool and
Manchester Railway we need not say that such a result
would bring an immense and valuable traffic ; and by the di-
rectors of this line we are confident that its importance is
fully appreciated.

And now we may be excused if we address a few words
upon this subject to our valued contemporary, the Railway
Times. We are sure that in any editorial notice addressed
by our contemporary to the subject which has recently been
canvassed between us, his views have been to advance the
general interests of railway nndertakings, and that no im-
proper motives have induced him to level even a side blow at
this undertaking. Upon the merits of the whole case, as
between the Manchester and Liverpool, and Manchester and
Leeds railways, we think our contemporary has been misled ;
and in giving to the world the numberless communications
which have lately appeared in his columns to the prejudice of
the Sheffield and Manchester railway, he has acted with
some little indiscretion. We' are not about to defend all
the acts of the Board of Directors of that railway. With
respect to some of them we expressed, very freely, our con-
demnation at the time ; but we cannot see that such dis-
agreement would justify us in placing before the public, in
our columns, the carping attacks of every scribbler who
might choose to address to us his unfounded or strained ani-
madversions upon the undertaking. The reputation of a
great public work, however strongly guaranteed by the cha-
racter of those connected with it, is sensibly affected by even
anonymous censure, when reiterated from week to week in
the pages of a publication so influential as the Railway
Times; and it is scarcely a justification that the same pages
which are open to the villifier are freely offered to those in-
terested in rebutting his attacks. We trust, therefore, that
our contemporary will in future exercise a little more discri-
mination in matters of this nature. Nine-tenths of his late
correspondents upon this railway, we can assure him, would
prove, if unmasked, to be either puffing proprietors of other
lines, or interested opponents of the Sheffield, and he must
know the injurious tendency of such a course of attack as has
been directed against this undertaking in his columns.