The Northern Daily Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1856-12-03 00:00:00

THE WINE DUTIES

A correspondence has passed between the Lord Mayor
of London and Mr. B. Oliveira, M.P., the President of
the Wine Duties Reduction Committee, who wrote to his
lordship on Friday last, asking him to preside over a
public meeting to be called shortly after the meeting of
Parliament, either in the Guildhall or the Mansion-house,
to promote the objects of the committee. Mr. Oliveira in_
formed the Lord Mayor that the committee consists of 1,250
gentlemen, many of whom are persons of high position
and influence, and that their object is simply, by a
reduction of duty from 5s 91 per gallon to Is, to
obtain the introduction for general consumption into
the United Kingdom of the sound, full bodied wines
of the South of France, Spain, and Portugal, at
a cost that will bring them within the reach of
Persons of limited means. The advantages to be expected
from such a measure were explained in Mr. Oliveira's
letter. The Lord Mayor, in reply, assured that gentle-
man that the subject should have his earliest consideration.
" I am fully alive to its importance ; but a question may
arise at this period whether it would be desirable, when
rsoelisetfrofnrogm
a
thefeelingis exhibited by the public to obtain
income and property tax, to agitate the
wine question. Mr. Oliveira has since addressed a second
letter to his lordship, in which he remarked that a reduc-
tion of the income tax would assuredly be assented to by all
sound financial reformers, but that he thought it would be
premature to decide that question until we had learned
from the Chancellor of the Exchequer the charges in-
curred for the late war; and that the question of reducing
the wine duties stood upon an entirely different footing.
" We have ivre," he said, "to deal with an excessive
impost upon an article of general consumption, the amount
of which is, on most of the wines of Europe, a prohibition.
To retain that duty at its present rate Is to diminish con-
sumption, and, consequently revenue, to promote the
fabrication of unwholesome home made imitations, and
thus to damage the fair trade of the importer and dealer
in foreign wines." In conclusion, Mr. Oliviera said the
committee wished it to be understood that, in presiding
over their meeting. his lordship would not commit himself
to the adoption of their resolutions.

Ralph • Waldo Emerson has spoken in Boston in aid of
the funds for Kansas. His was the second lecture of the
course inaugurated by the Young Men's Kansas Relief
Society. Mr. Emerson treated of tl-e " Culture of Life,"
but introduced his remarks by saying that, as in the recent
contest, the day had gone against freedom, it seemed as if
nothing were left but suicide or emigration. He was happy
to say, however, that it had not come to this. The freemen
of this country were yet alive. Culture, said the lecturer,
is freedom, and every step in this course is breaking the
chains of a slave, we must not meet the immediate con-
summation of onr desires, as the Divine Providence meant
that liberty should be no hasty fruit. Thinking men will
not advocate slavery. Mr. Emerson here stated that
although it might be expected by some who were present
that he should express his sentiments there on the subject of
slavery, he should decline doing so.
SOCIETY Of ARTS.—On Friday some experments were
made at the Society of Arts, with the view of testing the
efficacy, as an antidote to the bite of a venomous snake, of
a root which has been recently brought to this country by
the Hon. R. Temple, late chief justice of Honduras, and
which, if not the veritable guaco so famed among the Indian
tribes for its medicinal properties, resembles it closely in
appearance, belongs to the same class of serpentaria, and is
universally reputed throughout Central America to possess
similar virtues. It was determined to test the potency of
the plant, both as a repellant and a remedy, and for this
pur
given by Dr. Chambers to a healthy rabbit, which was then
pose some eight or nine drachms of the infusion were
put into the same box with two puff adders of the deadliest
reputation, procured from the Zoological Gardens. For
more than ten minutes the snake endured the presence of
the intruder—if so he may be called, who enters less by his
own act than by that of another—with exemplary resigna-
tion, but finding that his visit was prolonged beyond reason-
able duration, they flew fiercely at him, and one of them bit
the poor martyr of science in the mouth. On being taken
from the caga' the same infusion was again administered,
and the wound was fomented ; but the hind legs became
rapidly paralysed tetanic convulsions supervened, and,
though a small dose—not more than two drachms—of the
tincture was given, the animal languished and died in
thirty-five minutes from the time it was bitten, It is under•
stood, however, that the experiments will be repeated on
other subjects in the course of a few days.

A somewhat curious case, exemplifying the many and
deceitful ways and means which persons who depend
upon their wits for a living, was brought before the
Marlborough Police Court, London, on Monday last,
when Henry Bailey, an elderly man of respectable
appearance, was charged with attempting to defraud
George Hunter Ferrier, of £2O, under the following
circumstances :—The prosecutor deposed that on Satur.
day morning, about eleven o'clock, he met a man near
the Duke of York's column, who accosted him, and
after some conversation, they went to a public house.
After partaking of some refreshment the man went out,
and the prisoner came in, and made some remarks about
the severity of the weather, and in a few minutes the
man who first accosted him came back again. The
prisoner then said he was a stranger, and was tired of
London life. lie then said he had come in`o possession
of £7,000, and that one of the conditions was that he
should give £lOO away in charity. The other man
suggested that the prisoner should give him £2O to give
to some needy persons where he resided in Liverpool, and
that, in addition, he should give the same sum to witness,
who immediately consented to accept it, and stated the
name of the cbari'y he would give it to. The prisoner
said his lawyer had advised him to give the money
only to those persons possessed of a little money
of their own, and that each of them muse show that
they were possessed of £2O. The other man said he had
not so much, and asked witness if he had the amount.
He replied in the negative, but said he could get it if it
really was required. The prisoner said, if that was the
case he would ineet them at two o'clock. He then left,
and at two o'clock he met them, when the prisoner
suggested they should go to some public house, and
they all three went to the White Horse, Princes street,
Leicester square, where the prisoner called for three
glasses of whisky and water, and begged to leave them
for a moment. The other man asked him if he would
come back again. He made no reply, but took a purse
from his pocket, apparently full of gold, threw it in the
other man's hat, and said, "That will be sufficient." The
other man covered it over with a napkin. After a few
minutes absence the prisoner returned, and said it
would be necessary to get two stamped receipts. Prose-
cwui
objectedttonre
sssait dot hgteoh lai
ta, da
out.na ei
sT
hCaei idep
thatt
rni his
nsoeupr
lodeaksnekotetbddo
ooi.kr . Prisoner
er
p
cowing
n lgefbta,ckb,uatnd the
other
he
eri
aemntwn
would
ounu
lednddgo r
aat beckonedaltpiniejuderrssaem i
same.
stop,.t into
and
unhdee
hat. Witness was going after him when the prisoner
called
declined
eh
di him back, :egl( andoan add vsiasiedd
that the other man had better get the two stamps. The
prisoner objected to this, and said each of them must
get his own stamp. The other man asked him (witness)
to accompany him, to which he assented, when the
prisoner again advised him to do as they had done.
Witness said he did not think so, and told him the affair
was nothing more than a " plant." The other man
appeared to las of the same opinion, and went away.
Witness then went to the bar to pay for the whiskey, and
as he was doing so the prisoner tried to slink out of the
house. Witness laid hold of him and gave him into
custody On the way to the station witness heard some-
thing fall, and a person picked up the brass counters
produced. The prisoner, who made no reply to the
charge, was remanded till Thursday next.