The Northern Daily Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1857-01-12 00:00:00

THE DAY'S NEWS.

The question of the purity of the Pike Water is
the all absorbing topic here just now. In another
"tart of this day's paper will be found a somewhat
startling letter to the Chairman of the Water Com-
mittee, and some editoral remarks on the subject.
The Town Council are to hold a special meeting
to-clit.y, when a lengthened and animated discus-
:l3l6h is'expected to ensue. The question is one
(6`f serious moment to the people of Liverpool,
and we hope that sufficient stops *ill be taken to
arrest the alarm which has already seized the, public
fdiftd;
The 160E4 topici of the day are neither numerous
nor iraportent. A reference to our liblice reports
will show that another case of Post office delin-
nuen%liy has taken place, and that the offender,Wm.
_l.enrjr Tyndall, a " sorter" in the Liverpool office,
has been sent for trial on a charge of concealing
!letters with the intention of appropriating the
.contents to his own use. When we consider
the position Post office clerks are ex-
pected to maintain, the harassing duties
which they have to perform, and the wretched
amount of stipend they are paid, we cannot be
turPrised that many Of them are unable to resist
the temptations by which they are daily sur-
rounded, and that they turn out really dishonest.
The office iS one of no minor importance, and
hence it is not only impolitil, but downright
injustice to employ men in the service without
".'"emunerating them in a manner commensurate
with the nature of the office, and the responsibility
Of the duties to be performed. Another daring
attempt at robbery in broad day light, in Castle
street, took place on Stturday. The offender was
instantly captured, and speedily sent to the Spring
assizes.

Tao last week his been one of extreme disaster
to shipping. The gales which lately prevailed
have inflicted damage to no less than 400 vessels.
We have given the latest particulars in anodic!'
'column.
In the course of a short time we shall have
several important elections for vacant seats in the
House of Commons. At present appearances
seem to point to Mr. Langworthy as the successor
'of Mr. Britherton for Salford. The Greenwich and
Southampton seats are still the object of keen com-
li`dtltion. General Codringtou does not satisfy
'the electors of the former, and his opponent,
Colonel Sleigh, is to many of the electors
equally unpalatable, not so much from his
poitical principles as front deficiencies of
another character, which they, who espouse the
Claims of the gallant General; urge against the
Proprietor of the Daily Telegraph. Nothing new
has taken place with regard to Southampton. and
the Opinions we last expressed remain unaltered.
The electors of Newport, South Wales, have held
a t&eeting for the purpose of hearing the political
w,yinions of Mr. W. M. Cooke, a barrister on. the
Western Circuit, Who'aspires to the representation
of his native town. Mr. Cooke appears to have
been plain spoken with the Constituency.
lie is favourable to civil and religious liberty, the
admission of Jews into Parliament, vote by ballot,
extension of the suffrage, and also the uncondi-
tional repeal of church rates. After discoursing
for some time on these topics, two or three 'riotous
scenes took place, in consequence of some of the
electors insisting that Mr. Charles Seeley should
reconsider his decision of withdrawing himself
from the borough, and pledging themselves to give
him their earnest and zealous support. The
meeting ultimately broke up without coming to any
resolution respecting the pretensions of Mr. Cooke.
In connection with this matter, we may mention
that the electors of Northampton have held a large
meeting, for the purpose of giving their support to
the question of the ballot, when it is said the subject
was supported alike by Conservatives and Radicals.
The members for the borough also intimated that
the ballot received their support.
It is affirmed that the intentions of the Govern •
ment on the income tax are known and understood
in certain quarters, and those who are engaged in
the agitation of that question may be obliged to us
if we now state what these intentions are. The
Chancellor of the Exchequer will make a start by
frankly giving up the additional 9d. of income tax ;
and he will, in the next place, produce an army
estimate of 0,000,0001, and ono for the navy of
6,000,000/. Together, these will make 15,000,000/,
but as it will not include the estimate for
the ordnance and for special military pur-
poses, we may conclude that he wilUwant nearly
20,000,000/ next year for what is called the
peace establishment. The Chancellor of the Ex-
chequer will then say that this money must be
found, and that the Government will prefer to
obtain it through the medium of direct rather than
indirect taxation. That is to say, the Government
will ask for the re-imposition of that very 9d. of
additional income tax which they had just aban-
doned; but the difference will be that they will
not avail themselves of a legal technicality to get
it, but will leave the responsibility entirely with
the House of Commons itself.. A reqnisition,
signed by five hundred of the most influential
of the ratepayers of Leeds, has been presented
to the Mayor of that borough, requesting him
to call a public meeting of the town for the purpose
of expressing an opinion on the income tax. His
Worship acceded to the request, and has appointed
Thtirsday next for the meeting.
The High Court of Justiciary sitting at Edin-
burgh, have been engaged in the trial of Dr.
Wielobyski, on a charge of forging a will. The
doctor was defended by the Dean of Faculty, and
after a trial of two days, the jury returned a ver-
diet of guilty, but recommended him to the mercy
of the court on account of his previous good con-
duct. He is to be called up for judgment
this morning at ten o'clock. We observe
in .the proceedings of the Glasgow police
court, on Friday last, that a respectable young

man, named Thomas Laurie, was brought up on a
charge cf stealing a copy of the North British
Bally Mail from the newsroom of Messrs.
Rutherford and Son, Jamaica street. The case
having been investigated by Bailie Taylor, he
sentenced the accused to ten days' imprisonment
for the offence. The case had created some sensa.
tion, and the severity of the punishment, for
purloining a twopenny sheet, had been much.
commented upon.
Our Irish intelligence, by the last mail or two,
is totally destitute of the least importance or
interest.

We give in other columns all the latest news
from the Continent. The Paris Conference have
completed and made the treaty, a truth. As we
now understand it, the Isle of Serpents is confirmed
to Turkey new by solemn treaty, and the Russians
are put back from all communication with the
Danube by means of any tributary river or
lake, as well as all excuse for interfering with
the free navigation of. that river. The Delta
of the Danube, too, is handed over in direct sove-
reignty to the government of the Sultan. Another
matter of gratification is the rumoured settlement
of the Neuchatel dispute. Our accounts from
Vienna state that almost all the members of the
Cabinet proceed, one after another, to meet the
Emperor in Italy, The ministers of the interior
and of finance have already left, and Count Buol
will leave on Sunday. The expectation that the
proclamation of some comprehensive measure
concerning the Italian provinces is in contempla
tion, and that it will be probably dated from Milan,
has become general.
Prom Madrid we learn that M. Istoritz has been
nominated Spanish Ambassador at St Petersburg,
and Prince Galitien Russian Ambassador at
Madrid. General Prim has been arrested at
Toledo in consequence of the publication of a
letter of his, attacking the authorities in Cata-
lonia. Tranquility is re established at Valencia.
The siftlation of Catalonia becomes worse and
worse, and the friends of the government do not
conceal their fears of the gravest conflicts. The
government shows itself very reserved, even with
its confidants ; it is stated on the very best
authority, that the Ministry has received a despatch
from General Zapatero, Captain-General of Barce-
lona, stating that 30,000 workmen were perambu-
lating the streets demanding bread. An insurrec-
tion has not yet commenced, but there are all the
symptoms of one. The general adds, that he could
not dream for an instant of suppressing it by force.
Grave abuses are committed at differents points of
the Peninsula by the mayors. Several inhabitants
belonging to the Liberal party have been arrested
and kept in prison for several days, without
knowing the reasons of their detention. The
priests still swarm: in Spain. In each of the
miserable hamlets of Alanche there are ten, fifteen;
and sometimes twenty lazy priests. There is one
village, containing scarcely 1,800 inhabitants, in
which there is not less than fifty four idle priests
—a most ignorant class, who spend their days in
smoking cigarettes, and their nights in de-
bauchery.
The screw steamer Anglo Saxon arrived here on
Saturday morning, but her news is not important.
The legislation of Sauth Carolina has passed a
law providing for the confinement of free coloured
seamen, arriving in the ports of that State, in the
vessels they belong to, instead of in prison on
shore.

GREAT Britain has become on a sudden a
huge Financial Reform Association. The efforts
of a few Reformers have given place to those of
the nation. The shortcomings of the few are
not likely, however, to be supplied by the multi-
tude. Without direct taxation, says one, we
can have no Free Trade. Discontinue the 9d.
war tax on income and property, says another.
Let income be subjected to one-half the tax
paid by property, all will be satisfied, says a
third. To abolish direct taxation, or to embarrass
the Exchequer, is not the object in view. All
parties unite in the desire to obtain an ample
revenue fbr the State from a more equitable
adjustment of direct taxes. Nothing can be
more patriotic or praiseworthy. To return to
the old system of direct taxation is impossible.
The aggregate of our customs and excise reve-
nues are approaching the highest point of pro-
hibition. From these two sources alone we drew
40,845,936/. for the year ending the 31st of
March last. This is a stupendous item to draw
from industry and commerce. Such vast sums
can only be obtained from constant employment,
good wages, active produce markets, and highly
remunerative prices for commodities domestic
and foreign. Reverse this picture by the action
of bank screws, usury, and an artificial or legis-
lative scarcity of money, deficient harvests, or
sudden changes such as those which threaten
the cotton manufacturer, and where shall we look
for revenue ?

Consumption has outgrown the world's produc-
tion. In our cotton, corn, sugar, coffee, leather,
silk, flax, hemp, and many other markets, we are
paying scarcity prices. The time has arrived, it
seems, when we are required to add the Nige
to the Mersey, the Amazon to the Thames, the
Euphrates to the Liffey, and the Rio Grande and
St. Lawrence to the Clyde. The enterprise, skill,
and industry of Great Britain were never more
required in the three distant quarters of the globe
than they are at this moment to give us supplies
to satisfy our growing wants. In the meantime.
it must become a question, not for angry political
discussion, but for sober thought, whether
indirect taxation, which enters directly into the
first cost of production, can be maintained. A
sum over 40,800,0001. is a large amount to
draw from the raw material employed in our
manufacture, before it has left bond, and from
labour before it has touched a day's wages.
15,000,0001. drawn from realised income and
property bears heavily on those comparatively
wealthy classes who have to pay it. But they do
not complain so much of the amount as they do
of the mode of levying the tax, and the great un-
certainty of the source from which it is drawn.
This is a most fortunate circumstance, for we
think we have said enough to show that unless
we go back to " protection," or prohibitive tariffs
at once, the income and property tax poundage
must be much less than it is at present.

The Fundholder, whose substance is always
fluctuating and often depreciated as much as
5 and 10 per cent in value, has the worst.of
direct taxation. The shopkeeper, whose busi-
ness and prospects are always precarious, feels it
very nearly as badly. The merchant, manufac-
turer, and landowners would be the great gainers
by direct taxation. Of the 40,800,0001. Customs
and Excise duties which remain to be removed,
they would gain largely by the 20,000,0001. now
paid in duties which the change would enable
them to ecenon2ise and employ in production.
The rest of this large sum would fall to labour,
from which a vast saving in poor rates and other
local burdens might be reasonably anticipated.

And these are weighty questions which the
Income Tax agitation must bring prominently
before the country. The Free Trade men see very
clearly that direct taxation cannot be departed
from, and they consequeutly ask for nothing
more than a reduction to the extent of the war
9d. in the pound and a fair adjustment of the
impost, so that it may fall equally on all classes.
Some go so far as to assert . that
from a reduced rate a largely increased
income would be derived. • But all this is hypo-
thetical. The zeal of the pure and [single-
minded man, and the assumed blindness of the
crafty moneyodracy, will not allow them to see
that taxation has outgrown the money basis of
the Empire, and that the gold of Australia is no
more able to turn the current of tax-paying pros-
perity in our favour than the waters of the Bog
Allen. Yet, they profess to be able to predict
higher prices for the produce of our land, larger
profits in trade, and increased incomes for the
professional classes from a system which has been
avowedly designed to cause " a fall generally in
the prices of all commodities," except legal
tender money !
An equitable adjustment and speedy reduction
of taxation is always desirable, and was never
more needed, than it is just now ; but care must
be taken by those who make a profuse display
of their loyalty, that the State is not left minus
many millions of revenue. We have not yet
reached that very independent position which
leaves us free to ask—who shall be taxed ? There
is a primary matter of importance to be decided
—namely, with what are we to pay taxes and
obtain supplies of those commodities from which
incomes and tile wages of labour are derived ?
Reducing taxes or abolishing duties will not give
the relief required. A large extension of Free
Trade would do little more than give a momentary
expansion to our import trade, which would be
quickly followad by a sudden collapse. The
same legislative agencies would be at work to
keep down the " prices of all commodities," and
adding depreciation and usury to taxation. Add
these two scourges together, and the indirect
taxation, and prohibitive tariff men have the best
of the agitation. Every movement of the modern
Financial Reformer is, in fact, too superficial to
command the respect due to sincerity. They dis-
play no end of industry in the manipulation of
balance sheets, and transposition of totals from
one side of the ledger to the other ; but they forget
that after they have satisfied us as to what W 3
ought and ought not to pay, they do not tell us
what means we have to pay the lawful amount
with. They seem to think that the State has
nothing more to do than name the amount it will
require to carry it from one year to another, and
that our rulers are under no moral or political
obligation to find straw for those on whom
they impose the task of making bricks. Such
flimsey Financial Reform vagaries must weary the
public, and prepare for a premature death. Every
man must know that an organised system of
depreciating the selling prices,of all commodities
—say 10 per cent —and doubling and trebling
the value of legal tender in a country where we
never have less than 100,000,0001. of commercial
bills, 400,000,0001. of railway and other joint-
stock securities, and 300,000,0001. of government
stocks, mortgages, and floating paper of various
other kinds in the market, must double and treble
the pressure of taxation, whether it falls directly on
the property and income, or indirectly on the
working classes. And unless the Financial Re-
form and Income-tax agitators take up the ques-
tion comprehensively, the most we can hope to
hear is, that the Bank Charter Act of 1844 has
been renewed, while they were fighting with
shadows about a few straws.

TEE Rivington Pike water had been clandes-
tinely introduced into the cisterns of the Rate-
payers some days before the Council held its
last meeting, and yet not one word was said
about it by either side of the Chamber. This is
a most remarkable and censurable fact, and
must bring great discredit on the whole of that
body, should any serious consequence fall on tht
public health. That some such lamentable

•
catastrophe cannot take place has not been satis-
factorily proved, while there is no want of
corroborative evidence that the Pike water is

unfit for human use. People who have used this
water complain already of a copperish taste in
their mouths, and dryness in their throats.
They find that it discolours white earthen yes-
sels, and they expect to find it corroding the
lead in their cisterns, which it
.most' assuredly
will do if it contains the smallest portion of acid.
Others say it has a most offensive smell ; and
since all these things were predicted in the
columns of the NORTHERN TIMES, and other
local journals, what have the Council, collect-
ively, said in their extenuation ? Do they sup-
pose that there is not a man outside of the
Town-hall who is capable of forming as correct
, ,
an opinion 'as themselves ? We have, all along,
pronounced the Pike water to- be nothing more
than " liquid guano." For brevity's sake we.
adopted the name of a chemical compound, which
embraces a sufficient number of very noxious
ingredients to, satisfy any reasonable being that
it was not fit to-enter the stomach of man or
beast. And is it to be supposed that we would
have taken such a liberty with the public, if we
had not known, that what we said would be
borne out by chemical investigation ?

The Council may affect to despise the opinions
of the Press on such matters—they may think
that all the scientific knowledge R.4l_ practical
experience of Liverpool is centered in their con-.
tractors and servants, and that their credulous
constituents must swallow all that comes from
professional jobbers,. or their engineers, whose
opinions are valued in proportion to the sjees paid
for their services. The folly, nay, the danger,
of this course is now about to be brought home
to them. A chemical analysis of the Rivington
Pike water g ill, we are informed, be-laid on the
table of the Council to-day ; and it -does not
.
prove the water in. question} to, be something