The Daily Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1860-11-17 00:00:00

THE LAST LIBERAL DODGE.

The conduct of thecommissioners appointed to inquire
into the. Berwick cleetibir has been such as to make it
absolulely incumbent upon all' public" writers to express
their opinion of its character. 'the commissioners were
appointed in order to ascertain the truth` of an alleged
offence ; but, practically, also to do justice betWeeri con-
, tending parties. They have certainly displayed a
singular emiception of the latter duty, without any the
more effectually discharging the former one ; and, what
is mote, if iic difficult to sec bow they could have been
ignorant beforetaild that such would be character of
their'procedure. The'rnain'facts of this disgraceful case
must he perfectly familiar to our readers. Some of them,
perhaps, may be unlucky enough to hae Brodies of their
own ; and, in that case, their appreciation of this little
history will be considerably heightened. But, however
that may he, the man himself must be a perfectly familiar
character to all people turned of forty. The man with
a grievance, who at first excites your interest, then your
compassion, and finally your* unqualified horror, though
sufficiently near the colour, it may, of a black swan, is
unhappily not near so rare. The. grievance has turned
'his head ; and, of course, when a man's head is turned
he sees things in a manner backwards, and may go
through all the forms of roguery in the belief that he is
an honest man. Worse than this we do not desire to
allege against the unfortunate Mr. Serjeant Brodie.
Efi3 misfortunes had affected his understanding; and
that is a sufficient excuse for him. But it is no excuse
for Mr. Dondel Nicoll; while it is exactly the very
thing which gives the' darker shade of colour to the
conduct of the commissioners.
Serjeant Brodie then, after a certain amount of inter-
course with Mr. Disraeli—alone rendered possible by
the well-known accessibility of the right hon. gentleman
to all applicants—was obliged to be told that, although
Mr. Disraeli was sorry for him, it was impossible to
I employ him any more in the public service. Some time
elapsed/ and Brodie, as it would seem, obtained some
employment for himself. This point, however, is not
very certain, nor has if any bearing on the case before
us. It is sufficient to know that at the time of the last
Berwick election he was in sAlnt of employment again.
He again, therefore, started in pursuit of the Right
Hon. the Chancellor of the Exchequer, and after what
sportsmen would call a "good hunting run," fairly
brow; ht him to hay in one of the corridors of the House
of Commons. Mr. Disraeli had no more power to
escape from him than the wedding guest had from the
Ancient Mariner—
" Ire listens like a three years child,
The saddler had his will."
Moreover, Mr. Disraeli never disregards warnings, and
the saddler told him that life and death hung upon his
giving him a hearing. So, after having listened to vari-
ous offers of assistance in the Frome and Berwick elec-
tions; and having assured the serjeant that he had
nothing to do with such matters, he was obliged to get
rid of him at last by turning him over to somebody else.
He gave him, accordingly, a scrap of paper, with the
name and address of Mr. Rose; the parliamentary agent,
therein inscribed—stating that he (Mr. Disraeli) knew
nothing about the bearer's business, but had pro-
mised to get him a hearing. Finding that this was all
he could get out of Mr. Disraeli, Mr. Serjeant Brodie
took his departure, but not in the direction of Mr. Rose's
office. In fact, he never, it appears, presented this
introduction at all—a most important point when taken,
in conjunction with another part of his operations. At
some other time, it seems he did call upon Mr. Rose,
and endeavoured to persuade that gentleman to give
him employment at the Frome election, saying-many
offensive things of Mr. Donald Nicoll, the Liberal can-
didate, and swearing that if he had only five pounds he
" could make the tailor run." Will it be believed that
at the very moment when Serjeant Brodie was up stairs
vowing vengeance against the tailor Nicoll, Mr. Nicoll's
own Clerk was down stairs waiting for Serjeant Brodie ?
We need not refrain from pointing out the obvious
inference to be drawn from these facts, because Mr.
Donald Nicoll himself has virtually admitted it, by
stipulating that if he retired from the contest at Frome
no criminal proceedings should be instituted against him
by Mr. Disraeli : the meaning of this was, that the only
object of all Serjeant Brodie's efforts had been to obtain
some written engagement from either Mr. Disraeli or
Mr. Rose which could hereafter be used against them,
and that Mr. Nicoll was not unnaturally afraid that the
transaction, if brought into a court of law, would bear
an ugly resemblance to a conspiracy.
Such is the aspect of the whole case as it now stands
revealed to us. But the chief offender in our eyes is
neither Mr. Brodie nor his employer. The commis-
sioners were perfectly well aware of the true state of
the case when they summoned Mr. Disraeli as a wit-
ness. They knew that of the two men whose evidence
was to justify this proceeding one was in an unsound
state of mind, while the other had acknowledged that he
stood in fear of a criminal prosecution. Was it the act
of equitable judges, or even of• high-minded gentlemen,
to make the words of such two men as these reason suffi-
cient for placing Mr. Disraeli in the witness-box, and sub-
jecting him to the ordeal of two hours' cross-examination?
Are we not justified in suspecting that the only motive
of such conduct was to invest the evidence with a weight
which it did not intrinsically possess ; and to convey an
impression to the public that though the inquiry had
been baffled, there bad been substantial grounds for
undertaking it ? Any other reason for elevating these
utterly trumpery circumstances into matters for a serious
investigation we cannot imagine ; unless, indeed, the
personal annoyance of Mr. Disraeli were such a motive.
If so, we rejoice to think that the gratification of it has
been more than counterbalanced by the complete 'and
felicitous vindication of himself whicia the right
hon. gentleman delivered. He brushed away cash r eb-
bisliiniputation like a cobweb, and his inquisitors only
succeeded in showing that to more than ordinary kind--
ness of heart he united more than ordinary clearness of
head. This result, unhappily, does only a little to dimi-
nish the encouragement afforded;by the conduct of the
commissioners' to` the whole tribe of intriguers and
infolineis-who are-warmed into life by the ferment of a
',general election)! It has now been publicly proclaimed
that when a man, wants to throw dirt, every 'facility
may be afforded him under cover of a judicial inquiry;
and though in this instance the device has recoiled upon
its authors, yet a mischievous precedent has been estab-
lished, which may hereafter be converted to the most
odious.and oppressive purposes.--Edi.eincrgh Courant.

THE Bisitornic or COLOMBO.—In consequence of
the absence from England of the Duke of Newcastle,
the Secritary for the Colonies, no steps have yet been
'taken for filling up the Bishopric of Colombo, which
Dr. Chapman has intimated his intention of resigning.
The right rev. prelate will remain in Ceylon until infor-
mation reaches him that a successor has been appointed,•
upon which he will return to England. The bishopric
is worth £2,000 a-year.

THE COOLIE TRADE.— A. meeting of the Court of
Policy at Demerara was held on the 24th ult. In a
report of the Auditor-general on the transactions' of the
Immigration Loan Commissioners, it was stated that
during the season there had been fifteen arrivals of
Coolie transports, with 4,786 immigrants, at a cost of
$232,523 42c. Of these people seventy-one died in
hospital, six were still there under treatment, thirteen
orphan children had been either placed with their rela-
tives or sent to the Orphan Asylum, and the remaining
4,696 had been sent to the estates. On its becoming
known that hostilities with China had been determined
on, the rates of passage-money • rose immediately. For
the twelfth vessel taken up an _agent in Calcutta paid
£l2, but for the remaining three he had to pay at the
rate of £l4 for each statute adult, thus causing an addi-
tional outlay of $18,313 42c. for the same.---London and
Gaines Telegraph.
FRENCH PATENTS FOR RUNAWAY HORSES.—A great
many patents have been taken out in France of late
years for stopping runaway horses, and in almost every
saddler's shop we see engravings of apparatus devised to
squeeze a horse's throat, or nose, or to catch up one leg
and. throw him down. But to all this machinery it is
objected that if a horse is really running away at a great
pace lie cannot be stopped suddenly by violent means,
without considerable risk both to man and beast. A
very ingenious, and, as I think, valuable invention,
operating upon the horse's movements by moral force
alone, was publicly tried in the Champs de Mars last
week, and is described in the Moniteur of November 10.
The inventor, is M. L6veque, late of the Guides and of
the cavalry school of Saumur. His plan will assuredly
not be approved of by those who object altogether to
the use of blinkers, for it is but an extension of the
blihker system. The partisans of blinkers, however,
for horses in harness, are, up to the present time, in an
enormous majority. The leading idea of M. Leveque's
invention is to induce the horse by his own natural
instincts, and without any mechanical force, to hold his
head in such a position that the bit shall act properly
upon his mouth. Inside•of each blinker he places a sort
of leather fan, called a lanette arret, which opens or
shuts at pleasure by means of a safety rein. When de-
veloped, it only partially, blinds the horse, and it is
the natural action of the horse to avail himself of the
sight left him that the virtue of the system consists. If
he throws up his head to run away, and the lunette is
opened, he can see nothing but the sky, and he then
inevitably brings his head down to the proper position in
order that he may see straight before him. If, on the
contrary, the habit of the horse be to escape the action
of the bit by Curving his neck till the chin almost
touches his breast, the apparatus may be so adjusted as
to prevent him from seeing anything but the ground,
and he naturally raises his head. Thus the lunette acts
both as a bearing-rein and a martingale, but more cer-
tainly,And without the dangers and inconveniences of
those contrivances. For horses addicted to shying the
apparatus is particularly useful. As soon as the horse
pricks his ears at any object lying in the road, the
driver has only to raise the lunette, and the animal,
seeing only the distant horizon, and nothing
immediately about him, will go by or even right
through the thing which frightened him without taking
the least notice. On the Champs de Mars I saw horses
go unhesitatingly through the flames and smoke of
lighted lumps of straw, which but a. moment before,
when the lunettes were folded, they could not be made
to approach. The apparatus is intended chiefly for
horses in harness, but there is a form of it adapted
for saddle-horses ; this latter, however, I have not
seen in action. Of course a hard-mouthed horse cannot
unfailingly be prevented from running away merely by
the use of this lunette, but a great deal is, done towards
diminishing the danger when his head is got into a
proper position, because he will then surely be pulled
up before long, and in the meanwhile the driver can
guide him. Ido not apprehend that the invention can
be put forward as a cure for positive vice, but for timid
horses, and horses with defective sight, I have no doubt
that it will be found of great atility.—Paris letter.

sVerrtitv-. Ittettigture.

SEIREWSBURY RACES.-YESTERDAY.

Nursery Stakes.

Venison
T,adr Ripon 2
Duplicity
Seven ran.,

Handicap.

Gwellyon
Fractious
Woman in Red
Ten ran-

Shrewsbury Spring Meeting will take place on the }4th and
15th of March ('3cing the two days following Liverpool Meet-
ing), and the Stewards are the Marquis of Ailesbury, the Eark
of Stamford, and Lord Bateman.

THE CHASE.
The BADSWORTII FOXHOUNDS will meet on
Saturday, November 17, at Shafton Two Gates
At half-past ten.
The LUDLOW FOXHOUNDS will meet on
Saturday, November 17, at The Craven Arms
Tuesday, November 20 Kyrewood House-
Friday, November 23, at Hopton Water
' Each daylat half-past ten.
Mr. MATNELL INGRAM'S HOUNDS will meet on
Saturday, November 17, at Wichnor Park
Monday, November 19, at Catton
Thursday, November 12, at Fdnaston Lodge
Saturday, November 24, at Blythbury
. Each day at a quarter to eleven.
The BRAMHAM MOOR FOXHOUNDS will meet on
Saturday, November 17, at Low Harrowgate
Each day at half-past ten.
•
The SHROPSHIRE FOXHOUNDS will meet on
Monday, November 19, at Cound Village
Friday, November 23, at Edgebolton Gate
Each day at eleven.
The WYNNSTAY PACK will meet on
Saturday, November 17, at _
Tuesday, November 20, at....
Wednesday, November 21, at
Friday, November 23, at
Saturday, November 24, at
Each day at half-past ten.
Master, Sir W. W. Wynn, Bart., M.P. ; Huntsman, J.Walker_

Basch urel}
Chorlton Hall
Gredington
Aston
H awkston 3

The ALBRIGHTON FOXHOUNDS will meet on
Patshull
Saturday, 'November 17, at
Tuesday, November 20, at ...Compton House, near Kinverton
Thursday, November 92 at ...Four Ashes Inn, near Somerford
Saturday, November 24, at Bell Inn, Tong Norton
Each day at half-past ten.
The CHESHIRE HOUNDS meet on
Saturday, November 17, at RaTeilEMOOr Windmill
Monday, November 19 at ....... ....High Leigh
Wednesday, November 21st, at Bradfield Green
Thursday, November 22nd, at Wistaston
Saturday, November 24, at Belmont
Monday, November 26, at Calveley Halt
Wednesday, November 28, at ........................... Norton Pliory
Thursday, November 29, at ........................ ..... Appleton Hail
Saturday, November 30, at ......................Ashton Heyes
Each day at half-past ten......

(sijippiaff

Wind yesterday, W. ; at Holyhead. W.

ARR:

Nov. 15.

Elizabeth Morrew, Sparrow,
Old Calabar
Lima, O'Brien Halifax
Charles Souchay, Richards,
Charente

Adam White, Griffiths,
Bordeaux

Catherine, TT ansen Soan
Souverain, Heßisonjaganrog
James, Boulton Bordeaux
J A Iljellin, Neson, Christiana
Nov. 16.

Normandy, Taylor,
New Orleans
E Dennison, Deerborn,

New York
Lavinia, Fall Bordeaux
Balkan Valparaiso
Pocahontas, Delano,

New Orleans
CeylOn Bathurst
Florence Nightingale, Mossop,

Calm:AU
Gertrude, Doane, St John, NB
Tasmanian, Litten Quebec
Damani, Brown lslay
Express, Aitan Montreal
Roi de Cceur, Lernerle, Nantes
John Black Pomaron
OFF