The Daily Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1860-04-27 00:00:00

TO CORRESPONDENTS

Under no circumstances can communications be inserted not
accompanied by the author's real name and address, which
are required, not necessarily for publication, but as a guar-
antee of good faith.

HIGH WATER, THIS DAY, AT LIVERPOOL
Hour. Height.
2h. 45m. 14ft. Bin.
3h. 12n. I 13ft. 2in.

MORNING
EVENING

Ghp:figitn 6inta.

FRIDAY, APRIL 27, 1860.

T THE DAY'S NEWS.

At the Health Committee yesterday, it will be
seen, the Sanitary- Rates to be levied for the
ensuing year 1860-61, were fixed for the different
districts at sums -varying from is sjd to 2s 6d in
the pound, including, as usual, the• rates for
paving, sewerage, water, general purposes, and
improveinents. The rates thus determined for
the ensuing year, it is satisfactory to observe, are
rather lower than those for last year.
The localcry of " Liverpool versus Birkenhead,"
in so far as it is meant to express any paltry feeling
of jealousy between the inhabitants on the two
opposite sides of the river, has now, we think,
been agreed to be 'forgotten, as unworthy of a
great community on the one side, and unjust to a
rising interest on the other. There is, and can
be, no real antagonism between Liverpool and
Birkenhead; and to attempt to cherish any merely
personal feeling, is as vain and absurd as, we
believe, it is unanimously condemned by the intel-
ligent and enterprising capitalists on either side.
Little bursts between something like contend-
ing, but not truly adverse, interests will, of
course, occasionally manifest themselves, as hap-
penedyesterdayat the Dock Board, on the question
of immediately expending £4,000 on the erection
of a crane at Birkenhead. The wise and dispas-
sionate manner, however, in which the matter was
taken up and disposed of by Mr. Graves and
others of the leading gentlemen then present,
despite the angry expressions, unwittingly, we
hope, let fall by others, shows that any remaining
embers of bad feeling and short-sighted obstruc-
tiveness, from whatever quarter, can meet with
no countenance from the best members, or from
the majority of the board. That the whole
expenditure will ultimately be required, who can
doubt ? But, according to universal admission,
not immediately. All, therefore, that prudence
required was agreed to—viz., that the proper
foundations should be laid down so as to render
the subsequent execution of the work, when
required, easy and economical.
In the House of Lords, last night, the Union of
-Benefices Bill was read a second time; the Divorce
Court Bill, and the Enclosure Bill, passed through
committee; and a bill was laid on the table,
extending the jurisdiction of the Divorce Court
'to Ireland.
By the Bishop of London's bill, the principle
of which was affirmed by the Lords last night,
some valuable improvements will be introduced
into the parochial system ; and it is scarcely to
be expected that its operation will be confined
to the city of London. It is intended to compel
wealthy parishes, with small populations, to con-
tribute to the education of the poor in the neigh-
bouring parishes with larger, but less wealthy,
populations. It is also proposed that churches
proved to-be rlow comparatively useless where
they stand, shall be taken down and re-
moved, -in such a way as to _avoid, as
much as 'possible, injury to the- reminiscences of
the past:-• To guard against any un*irrantable
desecration; hOWever, it is to be provided that
any change must first have 'the• consent of the
Home Secretary, the Archbishop of Canterbury,
the bishop of the diocese, and of a commission
consisting of three clergymen and two' laymen.
It will generally be conceded that such 4 cautious
measure will be eminently useful, at least in
getting rid of many ecclesiastical edifices in the
metropolis and elsewhere, which are admittedly
neither useful nor ornamental.
In "the House of Commons last night, after some
conversation on the measures taken for the
protection of British subjects in or near Sicily and
Naples, the adjourned debate on the Reform Bill
was resumed by that well tried old Whig, Mr.
Adam Black, one of the members for Edinburgh,
who opposed the bill in its present state. Sir
E. B. Lytton delivered one of the ablest and
most eloquent speeches against the bill that has yet
characterised this protracted debate. Through-
out his speech and at the close "the right hon.
gentleman was most vociferously cheered ty both "
sides of the house. Mr. Marsh, another liberal-
Whig, followed in opposition to the measure as it
now stands. Sir J. Ferguson also opposed, and
Mr. Denman supported the bill,; whereupon Sir
J. Walsh congratulated the Ministry oa having
at last found a supporter. Lord John Russell
made another weak effort to defeid his
"little bill," and the debate was adburned.
The remaining clauses of the Customs Jill and
the Common Lodging-houses (Ireland) Bil passed
through committee. Leave was given o intro-
duce a bill to provide for the edncltion of
children employed in manufactUres, c- other
regular labour.

The inquiry now about to be institutedinto the
mismanagement of our dockyards—ther enor-
mous expenditure and practical inadequaty—is to
he conducted by a Royal Commission insead of a
Committee. The advantage of the one )rm, as
compared with the other, lies in the greaer and
more extended powers of that now 4opted.
There are various shrewd suggestions oflred as
to the various weak points of the present Tstern,
if so it can be called, towards which the present
inquiry ought to be more particularly erected.
For instance, a great part of the evils n‘v com-
plained of may in reality not attach thiselves

T is possible that the institution of the prize-
ring,, of the very existence of which,. perhaps,
Most of us, till a week or two ago, affected to be
ignorant, may, owing to recent circumstances of
an unusual character, be exciting an amount of
sympathy through the country which public
censors ought rather to discourage; Yet it may
be the most prudent course to let this unwonted
enthusiasm have its fling, with the confidence
that the decline will be as sudden as the revival.
There is certainly not much fear that the adjuncts
of the prize-ring can ever allow of any permanent
sympathy for the latter in the hearts of a civilised
and hutaane People. No one can miss the true
answer to all the special pleading which has been
of late so current in palliation of the disagreeable
and inhuman features inevitable in the system.
When we are told that all manly sports are
attended with risk to personal safety; that the
huntsman falls front his horse and crushes in his
ribs, or the cricketer gets his eye knocked out, or
the shooter bursts his gun, it is sufficient to
reply,—that whereas these are rare occurrences,
and accidents when they occur, the injuries
received in the prize-ring are premeditated, and
not only prenieditated by the principals in the
contest, but are, in fact, the intentional result for
which it was concocted, and upon which it turns.
The system of the prize-ring, then, is marred by
one fatal defect. We could admire the triumph
of skill, courage, endurance, and even strength,
_were it net that the only prescribed method of
achieving this triumph is- the wilful infliction of
injury and mutilation on a fellow-creature.
Without, however, giving offence to the most
sensitive, we may follow up our remarks of the
other day, and use the instance of this " British
institution" as testifying in its own rude and
•forcible manner to the want that- exists in the
minds of a spirited people• for some organised
avenue for the indulgence and development of
physical qualities. It is' obvious enough that, if
the mind, being GoD's gift, is worthy of the most
particular • provision of means whereby its tone
may be strengthened and its powers directed, so
the body, being equally His gift and workmanship,
should receive its own fixed and appropriate
training. The true motive of physical education
is not that we may be a nation of warriors
abroad or of prize-fighters at home ; not that
we may be enabled to bully and lord it over
other nations, or insult with *impunity, or
guard ourselves from the insults of, our fellow-
'citizens ; but that nature having endowed our
bodies with the germ of certain powers and
aptitudes, it must be every way the best that
those aptitudes should be trained and those powers
developed. :Wherever the law and intention of
nature are followed, man, the child of nature,. is
sure to find it turn to his account. It is just
because prize-fighting runs counter to the inten-
tion of nature, training the body for one super-
human effort which is to result in the sudden
undoing of all that has been done, and mostly
leading to a premature and permanent debility,
that it can never be upheld on the score of real
manliness or of physical education.
We fear the complaints' of alarmists that the
physique of our people is deteriorating every
genenition, contain in them too much truth.
Nor are the causes far to be looked for. We are
not given to attach too much weight to the lively
pictures drawn by enthusiastic people, strong in
historical reminiscences--/audatores tenzporis aeti
—of the " Merrie England in the olden time,"
the troops of rustics Crowding to the May-pole,
the bouts at quarter-staff, the tumbling on the
geen, and the varied round of village sports and
exercises.. Yet it would be idle not to appreciate
two changes in. the general condition of the
people, which set us seriously at a disadvantage
with that gentle and poetic period. The pre-_
eminence of our times is doubtless in the exten-
sion of trade and the development of all the
sources of wealth and material prosperity. Yet
it is only, :for selfish manufacturers, and over-
gorged traders, to see nothing_ 'but beality" in
large towns and teeming factories. It might be