The Northern Daily Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1856-08-22 00:00:00

T
J. NODDER,
IL • HATTER,

81, CHURCH.STREET,

Begs respectfully to inform the Nobility and Gentry of Liver-
pool that his NEW SFYLES for the Season are NOW READY
or I asp ection.

to-day, is the trial of the Manchester strike rioters.
Eighteen were condemned to imprisonment, for
terms varying from twelve months to three weeks.
The others were set at liberty, on entering into
their own recognisances.

An important decision of the magistrates of

Gravesend, under the Merchant Shipping Act, will
be found in another column. The point turns on
the refusal of a qualified pilot by the captain of a
barque, then in the Blackwall-reach, and his using
then and subsequently, the services of an unquali-
fied pilot. The decision was against the master.

Walter Savage Landor, the last of England's
Golden Age of Literature, writes to the Times on
the murder of poor Ciceruacchio and his sons an
indignant letter, which closes :—" Sir, the world is
" under a triumvirate of Emperors. England is but
"a dependency ; Germany sways what a few years
" ago it was not ludicrous to call Great Britain;
" Russia sways Germany, and there is a Colossus
" which has a foot over each. Nations have lost
" their independence, their power of resistance,
'• and even of remonstrance. What is left to them ?
" Antiquity tells us. Justice, driven from the
" earth, thunders above, and will strike those heads
" which have been held sacred. Never was there
" a time when the earth was so effete. No great
"man, no image of a great man, stands upon it.
" Vengeance is mine,' says God ; but God, in His
omnipotence, may use as His engine of vengeance
"some very minute material—one animated atom."

THE unsettled state of political affairs on the
Continent has had a very lamentable effect on the
trade of France. Public confidence, particularly
at Paris, has experienced a serious collapse.
Every man in the French capital seems to dread
the occurrence of some national calamity,, while
not a few add to their fears an apprehension of
some European commotion, and all that appears to
be wanting to give consistency to their doubts and
alarm, is the striking of the first blow. This
honour was reserved for Spain, since O'DoNNELL
was the first to make his murderous coup d'etat, but
as he has not been overthrown and brought to
judgment, the question again asked is—" Who is
" now to strike the first blow ?" King Bontet having
taken courage from the success which awaited the
military despots and political imbeciles of Madrid,
will, in all probability, strike or cause the much
dreaded blow to be struck. He wants no counsel,
and seeks no assistance to preserve his crown.
He cares not a groat what difficulties his tyranny
brings upon the rest of Europe. While conster-
nation reigns around his throne, he sees no
reason why the pleasures of uneasiness, and
evil forebodings should not fill the rest of the
Continent. He looks upon Naples as the highest
temporal judgment seat, and all the world besides
as his footstool, and there he sits like what is called
in Spain juez de mestos y canadas, to decide, when
solicited, the disputes of its humble shepherds
and peasants.

This is trifling, however, with the stability of
at superstructure we style civilisation, and which

he has done more to distort than adorn. It is
playing with the daily bread, nay, the life's blood
of that great family of nations, of which the people
he represents constitute but one of the most paltry
members. He has chosen for himself an antago-
nism to the moderation and enlightenment of the
age, which has filled sensitive nations with
suspicion, and fears which woulri not have existed
if military intriguers, and self willed imbeciles
had not broken in upon the internal quiet of the
countries afflicted by their presence. Enough has
been done in this way already to show us the neces-
sity of preserving tranquility by counselling
moderation where tyranny has gained a momentary
ascendancy. There can be no such thing in the
Europe of this day, as galleys and prisons filled
with peaceable citizens " suspected" of holding
opinions opposed to any particular administration,
without calling forth a universal outburst of dis.
gust. Such things must disturb the public mind,
and give rise to social derangements, such as
we witness in France to-day, and may feel still
more rigorously to-morrow.

Our desire is to go on peaceably and prosper-
ously, and our entire policy is, or ought to be,
directed solely to the attainment of this
object. We have no ends in view except those
which belong to a people who have great material
wants to supply, and no ambition to pamper,
beyond a desire to discharge faithfully the sacred
duties of that mission which Providence seems to
have entrusted to those who have the power to
protect the weak against the follies and vices of the
strong. We have no interest in war. Peace is the
mainstay of our existence ; and when our policy
countenances bloodshed, it is diametrically
opposed to the national weal. This ought to
give foreigners sufficient faith in our often
repeated desire to preserve universal tranquility,
and it is something for other Powers to know
that when our statesmen depart in the
slightest degree from a pacific course, they do
not fairly represent the feelings of Great
Britain. When we venture, therefore, to give a
word of advice to a foreign Court or people, our
admonitions may be received as sincere, and
there can be no doubt that what we seek for
ourselves will be found to contribute to the good
of all. We do then ask for moderation in the

government of Europe, that we may have peace
throughout the world—that we may have plenty

pouring in upon us to displace want wherever it
exists or may arise—that we may have trade
to keep the mind and hands of every people fully
and honestly employed.

Great Britain has long since been recognised
as the centre of the industry of Europe, and
if she is allowed to get her springs of
production and consumption into full play, she
will give the much to be desired divertion to the
temper and feelings of the times—she will let go
the wealth of her commerce, wherever tranquility

.eigns—she was never richer in all those resource

which other States so much require. She can
buy for cash, and sell on credit—she can
cover the Continent with rails, and lend the
capital to pay wages in the construction of great
arterial lines of communication. There is no
placing a limit, in fact, to the aids she could
bring to those whose political moderation she
admires, and whose moral rectitude and pacific
intentions she could confide in. As a mercantile
people we
e
have
no right to embark in specu-
lation,remotely connected with
politics ; but we believe that popular sympathy
would far exceed th
e matists, if the public cautionflt of our diplo
safe. There is
a strong disposition in England,
moment, to engage largelyn foreign enterprises,
which would contribute materially to the strength
and general prosperity of those countries
which
are beset with the worst symptoms of
i chronic
disorder ; and without waiting to enquire --
nto the
expediency of adopting such a course, we can
only say, that if there were no BOMBA'S in Europe
we should have peace, and that that blessing
4 Would be most felt in the universal abundance
which would attend it, even if scarcity, arising

from the failure of crops, should be general on the

Continent

THE attack recently made on the Insurance
offices of this country, under cover of a Govern-

ment Return, ought not to be lost sight of by
the public. In Liverpool, and throughout the
manufacturing districts of the North, the amount
of insurance effected on life and property must

be enormous. And it would be most injurious

to the whole community to allow those offices,

whose business has been conducted faithfully, to

be demolished by an inquisitorial investigation
and exposure of their affairs. If the Government
went fairly into the whole question of risk, pre-
miums, and capital, and demanded a return of
the income, expenditura, and claims of all
Insurance Companies, old and young—those

which are assumed, from their long standing, to

be rich, and those which are presumed to be
poor, from their youth—Englishmen might be
induced to prize the REGISTRAR-GENERAL'S
statistic more for its spirit of fair play, than
for any other quality it could possibly
possess. If the Legislature were prepared
to give us tables of mortality, by which
some uniform computation of the duration of life
could be formed, or some reliable basis on which
to provide for the risks of fire ; to show what pro-
portion capital should bear to insurance liabilities
at any given period, and at all times ; if they were

ready to adjust these matters, and fix a uniform

rate of premium for the security of life and
property, which would be equally fair towards the

insured and insurer, then, indeed, the public might
be able to understand the propriety of demanding

their periodical returns, if only to show that there

was no imposition practised on either side.
This has not been done, nor will it ever be
accomplished by the present system. The Board
of Health have thrown no light on the subject,
after years of labour; and the duration of life, and
the risks of fire, will always remain incalculable
mysteries to the unitiated. Seasons of excessive
mortality send no heralds before them to announce
the approaching deaths of their thousands of
victims. The myriads of little flickering
sparks which play about our candles and
hearths are the countless messengers of
destruction, whose devastation cannot be corn.

puted—the thoughtless child and incautious
parent—the reckless housemaid—the base incen-
diary—the foul chimney, and the treacherous
steam boiler, are the enemies of property which
baffle all our knowledge of figures, and laugh at
the idea of our preparing for future casualties,
by our catalogues of past calamities. Both
systems of insurance are therefore purely hypo-
thetical, and consequently no two offices, whether
life or fire, see their risks in the same light. This
is proved by the marked difference we find in
their tables of premiums. Some spread their
liabilities over a short period, for which they make
the insured pay a high rate of premium. Others
take a wider circle of years, and charge less. The
public have no means of testing which is right. The
total liabilities of every Company must accrue and
fall upon the office within the period over which
their probabilities are laid, and any interference
on the part of Government, or those newspaper
scribblers, who know nothing whatever of the
subject, before the time specified has expired,
must be most injarious to the provident members
of the community.
Let us, for example, take an old company with
a nominal capital of 1,000,0001., of which probably
100,0001. has been paid up—with an income of
80,0001., an expenditure for any three or four
years of 120,0001., and 2,000,0001. of policies spread
over twenty-five years, would it not be
most destructive to the prospects of those

interested in that 2,000,0001. of liabilities to
publish within any fractional period of the time
fixed for the realisation of the scheme such a
statement under Government surveillance, which
always implies a doubt, not only with regard to
the stability of the scheme, but also as to the
honesty of the promoters and supporters of the
Company ? The great majority of the public and
the Press weal take up such a document as they
would a Banking, or Custom House return of
imports and exports, and declare the Directors
were mad, the office insolvent, and the insured a
benighted set of dupes. But, strange to say, in-
surance is one of those human inventions by
which the insured can lose nothing except a
trifling bonus, or small extra rate of premium on
the transfer of his payments to another
office, unless in the event of death, or an accident
from fire taking place while badly insured. This
distinguishing feature alone ought to be sufficient
to screen these provident institutions from an
absurd " scrutiny" of their affairs. The REGISTRAR-
GENERAL, the London Times, and all those wise-
acres who think with them, may take any one of the
companies who names they have put before the
world in the most painful light, and after taking
into account the amount of capital paid up, the
incomes received, the expenditure, including sums
paid for re-assurance, preliminary expenses, and
their tables of premiums, and they cannot tell the
public what the actual position of that Company
was at any particular period within the last four
years, or what it will be within the next two years.
They may select any Company they please from
the REGISTRAR-GENERAL'S return, and if they
cannot show us how and when the provident classes
are to lose by it, it is a great pity that the Legis-
lature should have armed the ignorant with the
means of doing a vast amount of mischief. Insurance
business is not an ordinary commercial pursuit, in
which tolerably accurate conclusions may be
arrived at by merely copying a few totals out of the
ledger. It is easy enough to ruin forty or fifty
offices for the express benefit of some twenty or
thirty older concerns, by an exhibition of figures
which really mean nothing or anything; but beyond
this our moral instructors and would-be public
guardians cannot get, and until the Government
are prepared to lay down some intelligible standard
by which the country can decide what is sound
and honest in such matters, they ought not to
suffer the provident classes to be injured by the
dissemination of the rubbish put forth by the
oracles of Somerset House. We cannot dispense
with insurance, as it is mixed up with all the
relations of life and property, and since competition
has extended its advantages to all sections of
society, and as much yet remains to bo done by
making the system sufficiently popular to enable
insurers to make still greater reductions in the rates
of premium, it is most desirable that the utmost
encouragement should be given to the young
companies, who have done so much towards
throwing open the doors of independence to the
friends, wives, and offspring of every industrious
and provident man.