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

TO THE EDITOR OF THE NORTHERN DAILY TIMES

Sm,—The management of the Post-Office affects
the interests of so many individuals in this country,
that it is at all times worthy of the gi eatest atten-
tion and the calmest consideration. Vast interests
are at stake, and an incalculable amount of incon-
venience may arise by the neglect of those interests;
and it is too much the case at the present time,
that remonstrances are snubbed by officials, treated
with indifference by parties who are not at the
moment sufferers ; and the evil is endured because
there appears no one powerful enough at hand to
press the matter to a candid hearing and a redress.
Postal arrangements with the Continent may be
thwarted by the stupidity of one government or
the shortsightedness of another. Ocean means of
transit may be limited for want of enterprise, or by
the enormous subsidies required to be granted by
Government to encourage such enterprise. But
the means at the command of our Postmaster-
General at home is almost unlimited ; and where
the requirements of a particular district demand
certain arrangements, it is a most grievous hard-
ship that he does not avail himself of the means
so bountifully within his reach in these railway
times.

From the General Post-Office arrangements, it
would appear that London was the sole point
worthy of consideration; and if the mails suit the
metropolis they are pronounced sufficient. Loud
were the demands made some time since, for a
night mail from Liverpool and Manchester to Glas-
gow ; and as it suited the Post-Office management
for a time to grant it in connection with the five
o'clock express from Euston-square, the privilege
was enjoyed by our merchants—but only for a
time ; it has been taken off, and they are left in a
worse position than they were before; and instead
of having to write once a-day, they are compelled
to waste their valuable time in the middle of the
day, writing for the early mail, and again at the
close of business 1 _lOll rc
me inhabitants of Preston and Blackburn had
their letters (written at three o'clock) delivered the
same evening. This is now denied them, and the
thousand-and-one inconveniences suffered by hun-
dreds are treated as quite unworthy of notice.
Glasgow has complained through her Dean of
Guild. Why do not Liverpool and Manchester,
through their Chambers of Commerce, enter a
most energetic protest against such treatment?
Have our members of Parliament ceased to have
any influence ?
If any loss would arise to either the Post-office
or the Railway companies, some allowance might
be made ; but when it is admitted on all hands,
that such would not be the case, it seems unpar-
donable that the enormous business transactions
carried on between Glasgow and this port and
Manchester should be prejudiced by, and made
secondary to, London interests.
Let us have, then, as formerly, a north-mail made
up at half-past three in the afternoon, for the con-
venience of Preston, Blackburn, and that district ;
and a Scotch mail at eight o'clock, so that the
letters will be delivered in Glasgow by the first
delivery next morning.
It only needs to be laid before the proper quarter
by the Chambers of Commerce, to be carried with-
out delay. It is a crying shame that it has not
been done long since, and if the Post-office man-
agement declines to make the desired change, then
press the matter at the Home-office. Lord Pal-
merston told the Glagow people, only a month or
so ago, that he should be glad to hear their com-
plaints, and if he could set matters to-rights he
would. Let us give him an opportunity.

QUESTIONS FOR THE GEOGRAPHICAL SOCIETY.—What
is the distance between the Mouth of the Thames and the
Chops of the Channel ? Are the inhabitants of Montenegro
a black population ? Are the " Steppes" of Tartary a na-
tional dance ?—Diogenes.
NEW MAYORS. —At a meeting of the Town Council of
Birmingham, on Wednesday, Alderman Baldwin was unani-
mously elected Mayor of the borough for the ensuing year,
and in the evenin,,o• a banquet, attendad by a numerous and
influential body of residents of the town and neighbourhood,
was given at Dee's Royal Hotel to Mr. Hawkes, the ex-
mayor, upon his retirement from office.—At the meeting of
the Leeds Town Council. the same day, Mr. Alderman John
Wilson, Spanish and fancy leather-dresser, was elected,
without opposition, Mayor of Leeds for the ensuing year.
TIT, •
A SPA.NI3II LOVE INTRIGUE.—A young officer, Don
Antonio Rodriguez Amador, of the cavalry regiment of
Sagunto, in the Spanish army, stationed in Grenada. was
on intimate terms with the family of a tradesman of that
city, named Martinez. Eight nights ago he was invited to
sleep in the house, and the chamber was prepared for him.
At about midnight, when everybody had retired to rest, M
Martinez heard a nnise which caused him to suppose that
the officer had been admitted into his daughter's chamber.
He went there, and found him in bed with the girl. He
seized the officer's sword, and plunged it into his breast.
The officer, without waiting to dress himself, leaped from the
window, but after staggering a few steps fell dead. His
body was picked up by the watchman. The next day M.
Martinez gave himself up to justice.—Galignani.
AUSTRALIA VIA NEW YORK.—The New York papers
published news from Melbourne to the 20th August, being
as late as the latest advices received in England by the Argo.
The New York Herald gives the itinerary as follows : —"We
have received by the way of Callao, thirty days later news
from Australia. The ship Plymouth Rook, Captain Farn-
ham L. Tucker, from Melbourne, Port Fhilliy, whence she
sailed on the 20th of August, arrived at Callao, on the 29th
of September—thus making the passage in thirty-nine days
—the shortest on record. Our late news from Australia
came by the P. R. She came to the southward of the
Snares. Off New Zealand, passed the parallel of 53.30
south, when she was driven to the northward by an easterly
wind which lasted two days; thence she steered to her
original track to the eastward ; passed to the eastward of
St. Felix Island, and made the island., of Chincha on the
thirtieth day out. She was becalmed two days off Callao.
No vessels were spoken nor seen on the passage until land
was made."

Tax CHOLERA.—WhiIe the Cholera has abated in nearly
all the places in which cases had occurred except the metro-
polis, it has broken out with some severity in Edinburgh,
where several fatal cases aro reported. The shocking sani-
tary arrangements which led to two of these cases the Globe
thus recommends to the consideration of the Edinburgh
presbytery :—" We trust that they will henceforth show
their earnestness by dealing actively with the evils that sur-
round them, rather than by an ostentatious display of piety,
and an indolent submission to misfortunes for which the
remedies have been placed within our reach. Let them ex-
plore the wretched habitations which contrast so terribly
with the dwellings of the rich. Let them feed the hungry
and give medicine to the sick—let them sweep away that
loathsome filth which hangs about and brutalises poverty—
let them fling some words of human sympathy among the
miserable creatures who infest their streets and disgust a
stranger—let them but step from without their thresholds
and employ one hour of their day in ennobling science by
making it minister to the comfort of their kind, and they
will have done more in that single hour than in years of
prayer, whose sincerity can only bo attested by such exer-
tions.—Manchester Examiner.
SINGULAR REVERSE OF FORTUNE.—In midsummer last
year a merchant fitted out a vessel from the Clyde for Mel-
bourne, he being owner of both ship and cargo. She carried
out a number of passengers, and among the crew was a poor
boy, who was taken out free for his labor. When the ves-
sel arrived at Melbourne, the owner sold the cargo, and
shortly afterwards the vessel, and remitted the proceeds to
his friends at home. This poor boy got employment in one
of the numerous lighters that ply between the large emigrant
ships and Melbourne, carrying cargo, a very profitable trade,
and he last week remitted his widowed mother £lO of his
savings, accompanied by a letter, in which he says, "I am
well employed and saving money. You may perhaps be
aware that the ship I came by was sold here, and the owner
is driving a cart through Melbourne, the captain is employed
as a laborer about the wharves, while a young gentleman,
a relative of the owners, is carrying a hod in a brick store."
THE LORD CHIEF BARON ON THE SYDENJIAM CHRYSTAL
PALACE.—On the occasion of the swearing-in of the Lord
Mayor of London on Wednesday last before the Barons of
the Exchequer, the Lord Chief Baron complimented Alder-
man Challis, the retiring Lord Mayor, for having set on foot
a mark of respect and admiration for Prince Albert, the
founder of the Exhibition of 1851. The Lord Chief Baron
then remarked that " he was rejoiced, too, to see that there
was a new and still more magnificent building rising up in
another locality—a magnificent building wherein would be
exhibited specimens of everything the contemplation of
which was calculated to elevate the mind of man. The
works of ancient days, the works of mediaeval days, the
works of modern days, the products of the genius of the
human race in all ages—whether those works were the
results of science or of simple industry, whether they were
the produce of manual or of mental labour, or whether they
came from the extraordinary talent of natural genius or
merely as some of the effects of the operation of the
araturel)f the respective countries upon the receptive
and acuie'reind of civilized man. All these things would
be found accunfulaSod in the new building to which he had
referred. It wes impossible to contemplate or to estimite
. the vast ejtertt-V-6enefit which the Great Exhibition had
•A. V- conferred upog ,all Iptions, and it was equally true that it
\ was impossible 44 look upon that scheme without being
k deeply i
mresaectititlia feeling of gratitude to the illustrious
, individual witholeit that scheme had its
_ origin. That
exhibition wad e ted to turn the arms of war into the
\ arms of pear-Among civilized nations."