The Daily Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1860-06-11 00:00:00

same unanimity in regard to any measure what-
ever, brought forward and conducted in however
objectionable a form? Certainly not. If the
present measure is based upon figures, the
accuracy of which is generally impugned, and to
a considerable extent disproved, how can the House
be prepared to go into committee to consider
details, until they are in possession of the
means of fully testing their accuracy, and adjust-
ing them accordingly ? This, of itself, is a
question of sufficient importance to justify the
Conservatives in first demanding an adequate
investigation of the figures assumed by Lord
JOHN RUSSELL. Until the results of such inves• ,
tigation are obtained it were practically useless to
go into committee. If Ministers have, and we
have often proved that they haVe, so delayed the
measure that there is not sufficient time left this
session to satisfy reasonable doubts as to the
accuracy of the facts assumed by Lord JOHN
RUSSELL, who alone is to blame? Certainly not
the Opposition. Then, again, if Ministers at this
stage of proceedings propose to adopt an unpre-
cedented and unconstitutional course in their usual
scrambling mode of legislation--such as that of
throwing aside the Scotch and Irish Bills for
another year,—are the Conservatives bound
tamely to submit to such an unjustifiable
proposition, simply because they desire to
see the reform principle embodied in a law ?
Why, that could only be denounced as sacrificing
the substance to the shadow. It is now a fact,
however, that the Scotch and Irish Reform Bills
have been most formally and completely with-
drawn for the session ? What then would be the
anomalous state of matters should the English
Reform Bill—be it good or bad either in prin-
ciple or details—pass into a law this session ?
Next year we should have a partially reformed
House of Commons called on to legislate upon
the most important questions, in the face of an
impending dissolution to follow the enactment of
Reform Bills for the other sections of the king-
dom. Moreover, what security is there that next
year the representation of Scotland and Ireland
will be amended ? Are these times when we can
calculate upon such results ? In the present
aspect of foreign affairs have we not reason to fear
that all Europe, before then, may
" Cry havoc--and let slip the dogs of war ?"

An emergency may arise any day, which would
preclude the idea of further internal reforms,
and the consequent Parliamentary dissolution,
until we have settled a long and heavy account
with powerful external foes. Admitting, how-
ever, for the sake of argument, that these two
great measures of reform for the sister countries
might then be achieved, it will not be denied
that—thanks to the financial revolutionary
scheme of Mr. GLADSTONE—Parliament will have
the whole question of the taxation of the country
to consider next year. Grave questions of finance
will then have to be settled under circumstances
most. difficult to manage, and most likely to lead
to misconstruction, if not disquietude, discontent,
and disorder in the public mind, and especially
among those who are to be enfranchised. Ought
this to be the work of a Parliament so constituted
that it might be pronounced, not only death-
bound, but dishonoured and condemned ?

Agreed as to the principle of the measure for-
sooth ! What comes of the soundest conceivable
principle when so misapplied ? The policy
latterly pursued by the present Ministry in this
matter raises questions of the greatest import-
ance, befog which every other consideration must
fall. The question for the discussion of the House
to-night is not,one of Reform—but as to the fatal
and unconstitutional course of procedure Ministers
have unhappily adopted. Is it unworthy or incon-
sistent ontho part of the Conservative party to offer
every op yosition to such reekles's mismanagementof
the greatest business of the session ? Why, in
doing so they only perform a service of inesti-
mable value to- the country; and they would be
unworthy of their position, and offer one
of the best arguments for their annihilation
as a party, if they neglected their duty
by any attempt to evade the difficulty
Nothing could be more unfounded than the
charge against the Conservatives of having
offered to the suspicious and perilous legislation
of the Whigs any unnecessary delay.
Nor, because the Whigs arbitrarily assume, and
tauntingly assert, that the Conservatives have
tigreed to what they conveniently style the prin-
ciple of their measure, are they to be debarred
from cousideting and demonstrating, in a states-
manlike and eonsistent manner, what must be
the consequence of the application of those prin-
ciples to the state of society in which we live.

According to the sport, Listz, the pianist, is about to
marry the Princess Wittgenstein.
The deaf and dumb, and those who are interested in
their welfare, will be glad to learn that they have now
an ordained minister, whose special work it is to preach
to the deaf and dumb in their own language—viz., the
Rev. Samuel Smith, chaplain of the Association in Aid
of the Deaf and Dumb, 15, Bedford-row, London.
ThSGRACEFUL TRADE OUTRAGE IN SouTll STAT..
FORDSHiRE.—For some time back there has been a
considerable amownt of dissatisfaction between the
master chainmakers and their workmen in South Staf-
fordshire, in consequence of which the district has
become notorious for strikes among these artisans, and
has also been the scene of many cowardly outrages,
destructive to the property of the masters, and throw-
ing well-disposed workmen into a state of idleness. One
of the basest of these outrages which has occurrei for
Some time was perpetrated on Wednesday morning, at
Brierley Hill, on the premises of Messrs. Chas. Stewart
and Co. Seventeen pairs of bellows have been rendered
entirely useless by cutting large pieces out of the sides
of them. The bellows were mostly new, and from the
manner in which they were mutilated a loss of about
£4O will be entailed upon the firm, besides throwing
between 30 and 40 men out of employment till they are
either replaced or repaired. Fortunately, for the ends
of justice, the entrance of the perpetrators into, and
their exit from the premises was observed by a person
from the window of a neighbouring house. Informa-
tion was at once conveyed to the police-station, and Mr.
Superintendent Mills forthwith started in pursuit. He
captured three men in a public-house about a mile from
the spot. A woman was also apprehended close to the
premises, and she is known to have been in their
company. These men are all unionists, and are at pre-
sent subsisting entirely on the funds of the union. On
Thursday the three men and the woman were brought
up before Mr. Leigh, stipendiary magistrate, in the
Woliierhampton Police-court. All the prisoners were
committed to take their trial at the next Stafford shire
Assizes.

A MASK WELL PRESERVED.—The Gazette des Trt:-
bunaux has the following :—Several of the men employed
in a quarry at Montmartre went, a few days ago, to a
public-house at that place to breakfast, and when they
left the landlord detected one in the act of carrying off
beneath his apron a bottle of liqueur which had not
been paid for. He gave him into the custody of a
police officer, and the thief was taken before the com-
missary of police of the district. The prisoner on
being asked his name said " I am Catherine B— !"
Catherine, why that is a woman's name !" " And I
am a woman, though for a long time past I have been
working as a quarryman, and was previously 'garcon
to a public-house keeper. Shortly after, one of the
quarrymen called to beg that the man might be
released, as he had only taken the bottle by joke, and as
his companions were ready to pay for it." "The man !
why the prisoner is a woman!" was the answer. " That
can't be," said the other, " inasmuch as, for more than a
year, he has slept in the same bed with me, andiifnhae
room in which there were several other men ; and if
had not been a man, we should certainly a v
it !" The prisoner had, however, beesnhaexhma
stated that
was ascertained to be a
woman. She
to two years'
examined, and
some years back she was cotn
Le
costume. Three years
imprisonment for robbery a
her release she assumed maleand yons, and that on
got employment as
ago she oame to
Pasenein the Rue de Charonne, and
garcon in a public-house in
during that time she occu-
piedstopped there eight f1:16 her master's son, and he never
the same bed
discoveredsex.
Afterwards she obtained a
similar place at
her real
si
Bercy, and for a year shared the bed of
a man, dreamt that
but he also nevershe was a woman.
Lastly, she got work in a quarry at Montmartre, and, as
meted, slept for a year among men without even being
suspected to be a female. She is tall and athletic, and
when in male attire has all the appearance of a man.
She is to be brought to trial not only for
stealing the
bottle of liqueur, but also on the charge f o wearing
without authorisation a costume not of her sex,