The Daily Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1860-04-21 00:00:00

THE DAY'S NEWS.

It will be seen from a letter in another column
that Heenan and his friends not only deny that
they requested the referee to order the cessation
of hostilities, but they assert that they openly
and loudly remonstrated against the step; and,
further, that, at the conclusion, the advantage was
all in favour of the Benicia Boy, who would have
speedily made his victory apparent to the most
prejudiced spectator. Heenan insists upon his
right to " the " belt which he came 9,000 miles
to conquer, and grandly offers to subscribe for a
new one for Sayers ! He is willing, to fight again
at an hour's notice. We have no doubt the
matter will be set at rest, however, without a
repetition of the brutality.
The moral and social aspect of prize-fighting
was tolerably ventilated in the House of Com-
mons last night. Sir G. C. Lewis seemed, to
some extent, the apologist for such exhibitions.
In reply to Mr. Ewart, he said that professional
rules had been established in reference to prize-
fighting, which increased their regularity and
lessened their cruelty. It might be true, he
added, that prize-fighting was not practised
in Ireland, but they had heard something.
of shillelaghs and encounters at Irish fairs.
A case involving a rather serious question in
connection with the management of a local board
came before our County Court Judge yesterday.
The facts seem to be these :—The Overseers of
West Derby were legally required to prepare a
list of the burgesses of the township for last year.
The overseers could not themselves perform the
work, and the duty devolved upon the collec-
tors of rates, who made out the list, and attended
the proper court for its revision. The expense of
doing this is paid by the Corporation—not to
the collectors who did the work, but to the
overseers, who were nominally responsible for
its execution. The question now raised is,
whether the overseers are bound to divide the
sum so received from the Corporation among the
collectors who did the work, or'whether the task
is part of their ordinary duties, for which they
have no claim to extra pay. Hitherto it has
been the practice to divide the money among the
collectors for their trouble, but it is now argued
that such a practice is illegal, and ought to be
discontinued. It was stated for 'the overseers,
that they took their stand on solely a general
principle, but the collectors insinuate another
less tenable ground for the attempted change.
We offer no opinion on the merits of the question,
pending the decision of the judge, which is
deferred for some time.

In the House of Lords, last night, little passed
of importance, beyond the nomination, after some
discussion, of the members of the select committee
agreed to, on the motion of Lord Grey, on the
previous evening.

The appointment of Lord Grey's committee of
inquiry as to the question of Parliamentary
Reform must sooner or later meet with the appro-
bation of every sound-hearted and loyal citizen
of the State. It is not au obstructive or merely
party motion, but one calculated to throw valuable
and indispensable light upOn the question now
about to be dealt with by the Legislature. It can
disappoint only those whose pretended wish for
reform is but a guise for their anarchical sym-
pathies, or who foolishly expect to find their
interests promoted by subverting the present order
of things. If the Coalition Ministry should avail
themselves of a similar motion in the Commons
for the purpose of shelving the question, such
conduct would only afford another proof of their
willingness to get rid of their " little Reform
Bill," and of those promises on the faith of which
they were enabled to overthrow Lord Derby's
late Cabinet,—an act which even the Radicals

are now disposed to stigmatise, in the light of
recent and probable events, as having been the
result of " an organised fraud."

Lord John Russell intimated last night, with
reference to the Reform Bill, that, after the
second reading, he should propose its being
referred to a committee of the whole House.
The motion to refer the bill to a select committee
was evidently to 'destroy the bill, and would, be
treated -as a motion for postponement for six
months.

Negotiations are on foot, it will be seen
from our parliamentary report, to persuade
Spain to adopt a more liberal course in recipro-
cating with this country in its navigation laws.

Our foreign news is comparatively destitute of

variety and interest.

IT was wittily said of a Government that it was
a despotism tempered by epigrams. It might
with equal point be said of the system at present
installed across the water, that it is a Govern-
ment of eomprehensive foreign policy intensified
and developed by ". pamphlets." France is the
only nation in Europe that talks itself and writes
itself into a fever, by a conscious and deliberate
act. This institution of the pamphlet is the best
comment upon the forced and artificial nature of
the motives upon which some of its most preten-
tious deeds are set about. Nothing can be wider
than the difference between a natural and impul-
sive manifestation of public opinion, and this way of
sowing society broad-cast with full blown ideas,
and waiting for the up-growth. This is for us
the most dangerous feature in the system which
has its centre in so near a neighbourhood; viz.,
that a nation that deals so largely in ideas, has
not attained to the " idea" of public opinion.
That idea is, we need scarcely say, of a free and
spontaneous ebullition on the part of the people,
neither elicited nor controlled by the pressure of
authority or the bribes of power ; and, whatever
efforts may be made to train and direct it, which
is left to appropriate them of itself, and make
what use of them it likes. But notwithstanding
all the pretences made by our French imitators,
they have never been able to produce a semblance
of the genuine article. This is an impalpable
principle which must reside in the hearts and
consciences of a people, in complicated and
multiplied associations, long descended habits
moral and intellectual, historical traditions, the
ways of thinking and of living, in a'word in the
whole heritage of peculiarities and characteristics
which is not fought for, or thought out, or copied
or created; but is the gift of nature and of time.
Public opinion in France is a sort of atmosphere
of ideas, made to descend from above upon the
heads of the people; not to be evolved from
among themselves ; it envelops them and strives
to get assimilated to them, until it evokes an
unnatural and momentary response, which
is immediately taken advantage of, at
once ,as it were precipitated, and raised to
the dignity of a national motive, which is to
inspire the nation to some great policy or achieve-
ment. A forced public opinion of this sort is,
of course, fleeting and changeable. It dies out
soon, and does not take long to change the direc-
tion of its impulse, and set up another object of
attachment or pursuit. Hence the forms of
government and the political system through
which our unstable neighbours pass their social
and intellectual existence, and the impossibility
to predict the last or fix upon the best.
Now, this is the system, which the latest French
pamphlet assures us, it is the mission of
France to propagate beyond her own borders,
and to carry on her banner wherever a
susceptible and willing people can be found in
Europe. To Anglo-Saxon minds, it seems a
strange and inexplicable thing how progress and
civilisation, of the modern type at least, can at
all consist with a theory of nationality which
does not admit of the power of public opinion,
and substitutes for it a system of governmental
" ideas" and inspirations. But that a great
nation should seriously avow this theory as the
law of civilisation, the rule. of propagandism, and
the spring of aggressive policy scarcely falls in
with any conception that even our knowledge
of Gallic vanity or fanaticism justified us in
forming. The countenance which generosity
often extorts from free nations, towards the
efforts of an oppressed people after freedom, is
often hesitating, not from indifference or selfish-
ness, but from doubts about the motives
and manner of resistance. But the sympathy
which French pamphleteers, that is, imperial
officials, feel for the mental or rather sentimental
regeneration of other peoples is almost too good
to be credited. One very sufficient motive, we
are told, justifying the late Commercial Treaty,
and reconciling us to the one-sidedness of its pro-
visions, was the prospect it afforded of a firm and
lasting alliance with the recipient of our free-
handed benefits. But it is a question how far the
poor material considerations of commerce and
trade can be allowed to interfere with the sub-
limer ana more intangible bond of " coalition"
which this pamphlet interprets to be the true
law of foreign policy for such a nation as France.
For eleven years, we are told, the alliance between
the two countries has already endured. We are
not much thanked for the part we have played
in the cordial understanding. Neither, if these
be the principles of French aggression, can we
expect the commercial relations of the future
to be adequately acknowledged. The question
now trembles in the balance, whether the law of
progress which is to guide the future of France, is
to be that of, what is called, "glory," or that of
prosperity and social happiness ? These two
documents, the Commercial Treaty, and
the Coalition Pamphlet, represent respec-
tively, the two principles ; and also two par-
ties. They certainly bear a very different
stamp and witness of authority. The treaty was
negotiated in wordy and official form, and bears
the sign manual of two potent Sovereigns. The
pamphlet has been disavowed and censured at
high quarters. Will any one expound to us the
secret of the case, and the resultant which the
future is to develop from the incidence of these
conflicting forces ? Is France to be a shopkeep-
ing nation in theory, like their new commercial
allies ? or are commercial treaties and swelled
exports but a mask under which the true mission
is working itself out, and French sentiment
nursing its strength for the great aggression ?
At all events, one unmistakeably good result to be
looked for from the treaty, is that the two prin-
ciples are fairly pitted against each other; and
that the chances of the first are considerably
increased.

HOW SAYERS GOT AWAY FROM NEWMARKET.—
During last week the lodgings of Sayers were closely
watched both night and day by the London police, who
were sent down in plain clothes to follow him from
the town if he should chance to leave by private con-
veyance, and policemen were stationed to watch the
departure and arrival of every train at all the rail-
way stations between Newmarket and Shoreditch, in
order to telegraph to the authorities in London,
who were determined to seize him if posssble.
However, not*ithstanding their unceasing vigilance,
Sayers and his trainer managed to depart and arrive
at his quarters :in London unnoticed by anyone. The
champion and his attendant walked through the street
on Sunday afternoon, as if going for his usual walk, and
was received upon the premises of Sam Rogers, snugly
deposit iii a travelling horse-van, and sent off to the
railway station under the supermtendance of a stableman,
and in this manner was conveyed to London, booked as
a raeehoise. The police were anxiously awaiting every
up-train on Saturday and Sunday, and we are informed
that the crowd was very large at Shoreditch on Sunday
evening, but as,no Sayers was to be seen they dispersed,
wondering how he would be in quarters at the time
appointed. Vie man in charge of the horse-van played
his part remarkaltly well, and pretended that horses
were ordered to meet him to take the van away, and
when everything was tolerably quiet a cal? was procured,
and the champion safely driven to his rendezvous. The
policemen employed at Newmarket to give information
of his departure were greatly surprised when they heard
the fact, from good authority, that he had really anwed
in London by the last•up-train on Sunday.

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