The Northern Daily Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1853-11-30 00:00:00

THURSDAY NEXT.

BY ORDER OF THE TRUSTEES OF THE LIVERPOOL DOCKS.
On account of whom it may concern,
On THURSDAY, the Bth December next, at Half-past One
o'clock, at the Brokers' Saleroom, 18, Chapel-street,
6 Bales COTTON,
106 Bags COTTON PICKINGS.
35 Casks SUGAR SCRAPINGS,
57 Bags RICE SWEEPINGS,
1 Cask COFFEE SWEEPINGS,
20 Bags NITRATE OF SODA SWEEPINGS,
With smaller lots of Gambier, Indian Corn, Linseed, Myra-
bolams, Pearl Sago, Sago Flour, Valonia, Wheat, and Flour
Sweepings, Wool Picking, Ropes, Rags, Iron Hoops, Old
Bags, &c., &c., lying in the Albert Dock Warehouses, paid-
culars of which will be shortly readv.—Apply to
DANIEL BUCHANAN, SONS, & CO., Brokers.

TO TIMBER MERCHANTS, JOINERS, AND
BUILDERS, CABINET-MAKERS, &c.
On THURSDAY, the Bth December next, at Eleven o'clock, a.m.,
on the Quay, Victoria Wharf, Birkenhead, and previous
to the sale of Mahogany, Rosewood, &c.,
6878 Bright Yellow PINE DEALS,
1498 Bright SPRUCE DEALS,
1590 Standard STAVES,
1760 W.O. Puncheon STAVES,
Just landed ex screw-steamer " Sarah Sands," from Quebec.
—Apply to Messrs. CARR and ROBINSON, Merchants.
About 11,000 St. Stephen's SPRUCE DEALS, of superior
quality and lengths,
572 Yellow PINE DEALS,
Now landing_ex "Lord Stanley," from Quebec.—On account
of the IMPORTERS.
Also, if in time, 4 Feet HEMLOCK, LATHWOOD, PIPE
STAVES, SPRUCE DEALS. &c.
HOLME, SLATER, & CROOK,
Timber Merchants and Brokers.
3, Canning-st., Birkenhead ; and 7, Water-st., Liverpool.

TO TIMBER MERCHANTS, RAILWAY CARRIAGE
BUILDERS, MACHI N E-MAK ERS, CABINET-
. ,MAKERS, SHIP-BUILDERS, JOINERS, &c., &c.
On THURSDAY, the Bth December next, at Twelve o'clock,
in the Honduras Sheds, Birkenhead,
230 Logs Honduras MAHOGANY,
Being the cargo just landed ex " Luna," from Belize direct.
—Apply to Messrs. HYDE, HODGE, & Co., Merchants.
140 Logs and Curls Honduras MAHOGANY,
Being the cargo just landed ex " Crusader," from Belize
direct. —Apply-to JOHN CARMICHAEL, Esq., Merchant,
These cargoes contain every variety that is required in
Honduras Mahogany, say from soft plain to exceedingly
richly-figured Cabinet and Veneer Wood ; also a good assort-
ment of Counter-top, Table, and Panel Logs ; the cargo ex
" Luna" is remarkable for its general soundness and great
lengths, most of it being in logs from 27 to 43 feet long.
106 Planks Bahia ROSEWOOD,
Ex " Fairy Queen."—Apply to Messrs. Jos. TopLIS and Co.
299 Planks Bahia ROSEWOOD
Ex " Fairy Queen."—Apply to Messrs. ARMSTRONG and
BERET, Merchants.
• 46 Planks Rio ROSEWOOD,
Ex " Thomas Mellor."—Apply to Messrs. MELLOR and
EASON, Merchants.
39 Planks Rio ROSEWOOD,
Ex " Thomas Mellor."—Apply to Messrs. J. R. llrTrox
and Co., Merchants.
2 Cases Bird-eyed MAPLE VENEERS,
Ex " Golden Age."—Apply to FRANCIS FOSTER, Esq., Mer-
chant.

215 Curls United States WALNUT WOOD,
Ex " William Nelson."—On account of the IMPORTERS,
HOLME, SLATER,. & CROOK,
Timber Merchants and Brokers.
3, Canning-st., Birkenhead; and 7, Water-st., Liverpool.

WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 30, 1863,

Is our jurisprudence again to sanction the adop-
tion of the cat-o' nine-tails ? Is the cart-tail to be
employed, and public decorum and morality out-
raged by practices long since abandoned ? Is one
of the most barbarous of our penal statutes again
to be put in force ? In fine, are we to retrograde
instead of advance ; and from the height of modern
refinement go back to the most antiquated cruel-
ties, which even yet cast a slur and shade upon our
national progress and renown ?
The Morning Chronicle of Monday, in a leading
article again advocates the employment of the lash
upon such husbands as beat or otherwise ill-treat
their wives. This article was called forth in con-
sequence of a letter addressed to our contemporary
by " A Country Magistrate," who, most justly, as
we conceive, denounced that dernier ressort of a few
mistaken, although well-intentioned people, in
whom the almost extinct spirit of chivalry seems
to be predominant.

Our contemporary in its present advocacy of the
laws of retaliation, goes rather too far. It ob-
serves As the Executive, in awarding punish-
ment, aims at satisfying justice as well as prevent-
ing crime in others, it must aportion its penalties
to the moral state of the crime." Really this
" satisfying" of "justice" is a novel thing in moral
therapeutics ! We always thought with PALEY,
that " the proper end of human punishment is not
the satisfaction of justice, but the prevention of
crimes;" and yet we now hear of justice being out-
raged, and demanding the utmost satisfaction.
" In what sense," says our author, " or whether
with truth in any sense, justice may be said to de-
mand the punishment of offenders, I do not now
inquire; but I assert, that this demand is not the
motive or occasion of human punishment. . . .
The fear lest the escape of the criminal should
encourage him, or others by his example, to repeat
the same crime, or to commit different crimes, is
the sole consideration which authorises the inflic-
tion of punishment by human hands."
Whilst we admit and deprecate the prevalence
of the modern iniquity of wife-beating, we can by
no means sanction the employment of the knout
as either a proper chastisement for the offenders,
or in the least calculated to retard the perpetra-
tion of this brutal and unmanly crime. That
such a sanguinary infliction would tend to
benefit the community is highly improbable ; and
as to its being calculated to check the mischief by
the salutary terror it would create, is all moon-
shine ! The past week, at all events, has afforded
demonstrative evidence of this. The felon MOBBS
has been executed for the murder of a woman
whose course of life was anything but blameless.
And what is the result? Why, that so far from
cases of cruelty to wives having lessened, they have
increased both in number and in barbarity.
Perhaps no one week can be remembered wherein
so many and such flagrant offences of this character
have been committed since the horrible mania
began to exhibit itself. Now, if strangulation has
proved so totally ineffectual, surely flagellation
must prove more so. Both practices are digusting
—brutalising—inefficacious and immoral. And
even had we substantial grounds for admitting the
employment of such revolting penalties in indivi-
dual cases—did they, in truth, tend to lessen either
the nature or degree of crime—the injury inflicted
thereby upon seciety would bear no comparison to
the benefits otherwise obtained. But, says the
Morning Chronicle, " A wife-beater cannot be
punished in any other way than through his
animal nature, because, in point of fact, he is dead
to any other retributory infliction. We flog him,
therefore, or propose to flog him, because, looking
at the man in his compound nature, there is
literally no portion of it which can yield satisfac-
tion to the claims of justice, except his physical
organisation. If we could make him suffer in any
other way, we could spare the cat-o'-nine-tails,
but he is only susceptible in this one par-
ticular. We are, therefore, driven to the
whip because we cannot reach him in any other
way." It astonishes us much to find such a plea
put forward by any portion of the public Press,
at a time when corporeal punishment has been
dismissed frem all well-regulated schools and
respectable families—when even naval and mili-
tary discipline scarcely allows of it—and when all
generous minds must fear its recurrence with
horror and alarm. If men are so brutalised, that
moral suasion can work no good to them—we feel
assured that bloody scourging would but degrade
them the more, and render their hearts more blunt
and callous than ever. 'Tis the nature of such
punishment to harden. In no one instance can it
work good. "We are driven to the whip, because
we cannot reach the culprit in any other way."

Indeed ! This was the very principle upon which
the over-piotmchaplain,of one of our _gaols-acted,
when he placed the poor woman's finger to the
blaze of a candle, just as she was about to be exe-
cuted, in order to convey to her obtuse intellect
an idea of the eternal torments of the damned !
His plea was, that he could not reach her in any
other way ; and yet, humanity was shocked, as
well it might ! and denunciations, earnest and ter-
rible, sat upon every lip, to see a minister of reli-
gion burn the body in order to save the soul of a
poor wretch about to " satisfy justice" on the
scaffold the following morning ! Horrible !
The common sympathies of humanity, as well
as legal enactments, forbid cruelties to woman.
The Hindoo law says : " Strike not, even with a
blossom, thy wife, though she be guilty of a thou-
sand faults." Nothing is so degrading and debas-
ing to a man, as to raise his hand against the
weaker sex; and none will deny but that such an
act merits an award of punishment commensurate
with the character of the offence. But to justify
public flagellation on this ground is erroneous.
However it may be medicinally, we do not approve
legally of the principle : Similia similibus curantur.
•We think it shortsighted and criminal policy, to
chastise one crime by perpetrating a similat.
'Tis absolute folly to say that the punishment of
imprisonment is useless. At all events, it gives
time for reflection and penitence—benefits not

likely,,to be promoted by the newly-proposed mea-
sure. Let us first of all try lenient retributive
justice, ere we seek to increase it unnecessarily.
" Punishment," says PALEY, " ought not to be
employed, much less rendered severe, when crime
can be prevented by any other means. . . . .
Punishment is an evil to which the magistrate
resorts only from its being necessary to the pre-
vention of a greater." If mild and moral measures
do not bring a criminal to a right mind, we much
fear no sanguinary code will effect such a result.
Experience, we believe, is in our favor. We hope,
however, that those horrible barbarities now so
generally inflicted upon women, will soon cease to
be heard of; and that our country may not con-
tinue to be disgraced by acts unknown to the
uncivilised savage.

THE " corn and currency " question of America
is' one of paramount importance to England at the
present moment. The policy of the United States
government in dealing with bullion is precisely
similar to that which they have pursued with the
State's capital in land. A landed aristocracy and
a bullionocracy form the ne plus ultra of republican
antagonistics. The letter and spirit of American
legislation has therefore, been, from the days of
WASHINGTON down to the present hour directed
against the creation and possible existence of
either or both. In dealing with bullion the
Legislature has, as far as it was practicable, rendered
its accumulation, both unprofitable and impolitic.
And the views of the American people and their
parliament we find practically carried out by the
State's bank which has laid down a rule not to
receive the gold coin of the States at more than
3/. 16s 2d. per ounce, which is Is. Sid. per ounce
below the English standard price. •

Leaving this startling inducement in favour of
the export of gold to this and other countries, was
no mere oversight on the part of the American
statesmen or Legislature. They had long bestowed
their attention on the subject of money, and their
decision shows that they never looked on gold
as anything but a commodity which was of less
valuefto them than it was to our own and other Euro-
pean countries. As a commodity, however, gold does
vary in value in America totally irrespective of
the value it bears or the demand that exists for it
in other countries. In order to illustrate this fact we
need only take the rates of exchange betwe enEn gland
and the States for the last and present year. In
the month of September, 1852, the exchange at
New York ruled at 10i to 104 per cent. when
money was only worth 11 to 2 per cent. in
London. And. in September last, when money
was worth from 5 to 6 per cent, in England, bills
on London sold as low as 91 to 98, and at this low
rate the amount exported to this country is con-
siderably more than the amount forwarded in 1852.
The gold exported from the States in the month
of October last year was 1,465,254 dollars; while
in the same period this year it amounts to 5,164,555
dollars. This shows that the demand for money
in this country has had a tendency to lower the
rates of exchange in New York, and that, despite
this reduction in the exchange, the quantity
shipped is more than three-fold greater than when
the rates were higher. In addition to this, the
banks and bullion holders refuse to discount bills
drawn against produce shipped to Europe, as they
apprehend that such a course would lead to
further imports of gold previous to those bills
arriving at maturity, in which case gold might
become depreciated in value, and thereby the
holders of produce bills would lose the difference
between the present and the reduced value of
bullion.

This being the monetary position of the States,
all efforts at speculation in corn have thus far
been ,attended with considerable risk and diffi-
culty. And seeing the rapid influx of bullion
into the Union, we do not think that bills
drawn upon this country, which has always paid
bullion for breadstuffs, will be likely to meet with
more favour for some time to come. Already the
pressure for money in the American corn markets
has led to forced shipments considerably in advance
of those, in the famine year of 1846. In October
of the latter year the exports of flour were 163,967
barrels, and of wheat 222,380 bushels. For the
same month of this year the shipments of flour
are 180,733 barrels, and of wheat 1,147,679 bushels.
Now we are not aware of the existence of auy imme_
diate want having existed in any part of Europe,
which could have called for the hurried dispatch of
such a vast quantity of flour and grain as we find
recorded in the official returns of the States. On
the contrary, we think it will be found that it was
the pressure for money in America alone that
led to those excessive shipments. And what
must have been the intensity of that pressure when
we find the freights in October, 1846, were 5 dols.
94 cents per barrel for flour, and 3s. 6d, per bushel
for wheat; whereas at the same period this year
they were paying 6 dols. 50 cents per barrel for
flour, and 3s. 9d. per bushel for wheat. And
freights have advanced very considerably since
the first of this month.

Having looked carefully into the currency diffi-
culties in America, we can well understand how
the corn movements of that country have been
produced; but we really can see no reason for this
country's following the steps of the American specu-
lators by paying more for the corn we require and its
carriage than grain is actually worth. The figures
show that we have already received a large stock
from the States, and when the fleet of corn laden
vessels arrive from the Black Sea and the Baltic,
we question very much if speculators in this
country will not be forced to realise at a very
heavy loss.
In 1846.7 England only imported 8,919,419
quarters of wheat, of which she exp.orted to the
Continent 483,689 quarters, while Ireland took
off nearly one-half of the remainder. But where is
the analogy between the present year and those of
'46 and '47 ? In Ireland there has been -a 'full