The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1842-09-06 00:00:00

to form a branch line to connect this railway more
closely with the important towns of Ashton and Staly-
bridge, and to open out a communication, by way of
Barnsley, to the North Midland. By the first of these
branches a valuable and increasing traffic in merchan-
dize and passengers will be secured to the Sheffield
Company. The undertaking will have thus completed
what it professed to do—viz., to furnish to these po-
pulous and improving places a direct and unbroken
railway communication with Manchester, the great
market for their manufactures. By the proposed
communication with the North Midland, another in-
calculable advantage to the Sheffield Company will be
gained. By the aid of such a communication, there
is no question that the Sheffield Railway must become
at once a powerful competing line for the immense
traffic now passing between Manchester and the Hum-
ber, and for the increasing commerce which the Tariff
Bill recently passed must open out between the manu-
facturing districts of Lancashire, as consumers, and the
ports of the Baltic. In addition, however, to such a
traffic, it must be borne in mind that the Barnsley line
will possess an important and paying traffic of its own.
It will be made through the heart of one of the most
valuable coal-fields in England, and transport its riches,
in one direction to the manufacturing districts, on this
side of the summit ridge, and in another to the Hum-
ber for shipment.
With these prospects before us—with the share-list
weeded of its rotten materials—with the works pro-
gressing, slowly, it is true, but steadily, towards com-
pletion, at a cost scarcely exceeding, if at all, the re-
vised estimate of their talented engineer—with the
pecuniary difficulties, too, of the direction alleviated
by a loan of fifty thousand pounds from government—
with a paying traffic upon the portion of the line already
opened far exceeding the most sanguine anticipations
of the public—we shall indeed be much surprised if,
at the next half-yearly meeting, we are told that the
shares of the company, with fB2 10s. paid upon them,
are worth no more than £32 lOs.—are, in fact, at a
discount of fifty per cent. !
We can see not the shadow of a ground for such a
depreciation. The fact that a large amount of the
shares are, by forfeiture, placed in the hands of the
directors for reallotment, does not warrant their being
reduced in the market to such a price. The real value
of the undertaking is infinitely better established now
than when it was first projected, and when its shares
were scrambled for at premiums. The feasibility of

its construction is established. The existence of a
traffic is established. And really, with such facts
before them, we do not anticipate that the capitalists
of the district can any longer withhold their coun-
tenance frcm this important line.
To one class of men, the mill-owners and manu-
facturers of Ashton and Stalybridge, the directors
ought not now to look for support in vain. It is well
known how large an interest in the undertaking was,
on its first projection, taken in that district. Such
interest was, however, withdrawn when the line through
these towns was abandoned ; and that withdrawal was
the first serious shock which the company sustained.
The connexion with Ashton and Stalybridge is now,
however, about to be formed. The full advantages of
a railway to Manchester are about to be conferred
upon those towns ; and it is, we think, imperative on the
parties receiving those advantages to come forward
now and to aid liberally the praiseworthy efforts of the
board. Let this be done; and we venture to predict
that every difficulty of the company will at once vanish,
and their present depreciated property assume its
legitimate and real value in the market.

We gave, in a second edition of our last publication,
a copy of the usual telegraphic despatch, purporting to
contain the news brought by the last overland mail
from India. The substance of this document, our
readers may remember, was far from being of a cheer-
ing nature. We have now, however, before us full
details of the intelligence conveyed to us by this mail,
and have the pleasure of congratulating our fellow-
townsmen that the dark picture which, on the autho-
rity of the telegraph, we contribnted to spread, with
respect to the condition of the British army in Affgba-
nistan, is not verified. Sickness is not " decimating"
our men. We hear of no serious disaffection existing
amongst the native troops. The leaders of our forces
have not been entirely inactive. In fact, for what pur-
pose, or by what accident (?) we know not, it is obvious
that the despatch conveyed by the telegraph has been
grossly false, and that the public will do well, in future,
to place no confidence in the intelligence forwarded by
such instrumentality.
With respect to the prospects, however, of our
Indian army, and the course likely to be pursued by
the government of India, for the settlement of our
unfortunate quarrel in Affghanistan, we have not fur-
nished to us by this arrival any very decisive informa-
tion. That our position is not more unsatisfactory
than at the date of the last previous mail, is certain.
We have been able to read some severe lessons to the
refractory tribes by whom we were surrounded, and to
vindicate, in the eyes of the entire people of India, the
irresistible power of British arms. The force under
General Nott, has inflicted a signal defeat upon the
enemy before Candahar. The enemy has also been
repulsed with great slaughter in an attack upon Khilat-
i-Ghilzie. We have not in fact, lost an inch of our
existing ground; and if we have made no material
onward progress towards such a demonstration as will
enable us to terminate with honour this unhappy and
thus far disastrous war, we trust that events will shew
the temporary inactivity of our generals to have been
suggested by a sound and wise discretion, rather than
by any vacillation of purpose, or any policy unworthy
of the British name.

Whether, ultimately, the force under General Pol-
lock, with those of Nott and the heroic Sale, will ad-
vance upon Cabool, there to seek a termination of the
existing hostilities, or having maintained their position
and concentrated themselves, retire at once from the
country, appears to be a disputed point amongst the
best informed in India. We anticipate that the former
will be the course pursued, as it is that most consonant
with the national honour, and with good policy. A
grand army of reserve, nearly 20,000 strong, is form-
ing under the command of Sir Jasper Nicholls, upon
our north-western frontier. With this force behind
them, as apoint d'appuie, we have no doubt that when
the necessary means of transport can be secured, and
the extreme heat of the season is mitigated, the word
will be given to advance,. and force the passes to Ca•
boot, where we shall doubtless be enabled to wring
from our treacherous opponents such a satisfaction for
the past, and security for the future, as will enable us
to withdraw honourably within our own frontier. We
look forward to no war of revenge—no war of coloni•
zation. But we can never sanction the withdrawal of
one British soldier from the Affghanistan territory,
whilst a British prisoner remains in the hands of their
savage chiefs, or the murder of a British subject re-
mains unatoned for.

Well, the " Insurrection" experiment is over, and
o
what has that description of agitation done for the
cause of the Anti-corn-law League ? It has filled the
gaols of the country with prisoners--rather call them
victims ! In a few weeks we shall have a special com-
mission sent down to fine, imprison, or transport
some hundreds of working men whom the incendiary
appeals of the league spouters have stirred up to out-
rage. But it has done nothing—absolutely nothing—
to promote the cry which these mercenaries would
hear above all other cries—to induce the reflecting
working classes of Great Britain to throw themselves
upon the tender mercies of the league millocracy for
bread, and to enter, with this selfish and treacherous
faction, into a crusade against the native agriculture
and the domestic industry of our country.
I'he " Insurrection" then—the simultaneous stop-
page of factories—is a failure ! The league have not
ridden in triumph to the enjoyment of their cherished
object, upon the storm' which they have raised ;—they
have not as yet their grasp upon the broad lands of the
" Gentlemen of England." On the contrary they are
wriggling, with difficulty, out of the mud with which
they would have gladly submerged the objects of their
hate. The laughter and contempt of the world is
ringing in their ears—
" Derision has struck them forlorn—
A mockery that never shall die ;
And the curses of hate and the hisses of scorn"
fall hour by hour upon their devoted heads !

The question. however, is now eagerly asked—whal
will be the next throw of these reckless dicers ? Wil