The Northern Daily Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1853-12-20 00:00:00

If we can " ring out " such base, bloody, and
inhuman deeds with the old year, 'twill be a
blessed consummation. Meanwhile, let us hold
up to public scorn and universal desecration all
wife-beating monsters ! There is a power more
prepotent than law, and that is the concurrent Will

of mankind. It is omnipotent. Let it but act, and
the remedy is certain

POLITICAL MOVEMENTS.

The following am the latest movements chronicled in the
London journals of yesterday evening :
The Earl of Aberdeen, soon after his arrival at his official
residence in Downing-street, received Lord Panmure, with
whom the noble earl remained closeted upwards of an hour.
The cabinet ministers met in council at one o'clock, Lord
John Russell having had an interview of the Earl of Aber-
deen prior to the assembling of the cabinet.
The Earl of Clarendon, Sir William Molesworth, Sir
Charles Wood, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, and the
Duke of Newcastle, were punctual in their attendance, the
Lord Chancellor joining his colleagues from the Court of
Chancery.

The Ministry remained in deliberation until six o'clock.
Viscount and Viscountess Palmerston, and his Excellency
Count Walewski (the French ambassador), arrived in town
on Saturday, at half-past three, from Bowood, where they
had been partaking of the hospitality of the noble marquis.
Count Walewski has since returned to remain some days with
the distinguished party staying at that hospitable seat.
The Right Honourable Sir James Graham leaves town
to-day on a visit to her Majesty at Osborne, and returns on
Wednesday morning.

The Cabinet Council on Saturday, as will be seen by the
above record, sat four hours, and the ministers present were
Lords Aberdeen, John Russell, Granville, Clarendon, and
Newcastle, the Chancellor, Mr. Gladstone, Sir James Gra-
ham, Sir Charles Wood, Sir W. Molesworth, and Mr. Sid-
ney Herbert. Rumour declares that the ministers would
have been very glad to hit upon] reasons cogent enough to
induce Lord Palmerston to revise his decision, and to re-
main in the cabinet " a little longer." It is stated that Sir
George Gray has " refused the Home-office on personal
grounds." Lord Panmure has been asked to come from
Scotland to give his advice (it is said) about reform, but it
is believed, in some quarters, with a view to taking the post
vacated by Lord Palmerston. He will be remembered as an
enemy of the ballot. The resignations have caused a ter-
rible flutter in official homes—" and just before Chsistmas,
too."

The Sunday Times has its word to say on the subject.
Here it is :
"We have reason to believe that the statements made by
the ministerial organ, the. Times, to the effect that Lord
Palmerston is opposed to all reform in our repreFentative
system, is grossly exaggerated, if not altogether unfounded.
It is suite true that the noble lord entertained conscientious
objections to some of the provisions of the measure prepared
by Lord John Russell, and that he withdrew from the
cabinet expressly on that ground, but it is utterly untrue to
say that he was therefore opposed to any proposition for
improvement. On the contrary, we have the very best
reasons for knowing that Lord Palmerston was favourable
to what he considered an extended principle of reform, but
the plan proposed for his adoption in committee appeared
to him to effect changes of an extensive character without
being improvements, and which he considered were not
called for by the circumstances of the country, or even by
the demands of the liberal party, so that he felt impelled to
an immediate and decisive course of action."

'HE SECESSION OF LORD P..4.LMERSTON

(From our Second Edition of Yesterday.)

We 'have much satisfaction in stating that there
is no foundation for the report that the Marquis
of Lansdowne has ceased to be a member of the
present government.
The Times in a leading article repeats its asser-
tion—that Lord Palmerston resigned because he
could not agree to Lord John Russell's reform bill.
The same paper also understands that upon Lord
Palmerston's resignation Lord Aberdeen offered the
Home office to Lord John Russell, and regrets to
hear that the offer was declined, mainly from the
fear that his acceptance might be misconstrued.
Theloffice has now been offered to Sir George Grey,
and waits his acceptance or rejection.
The Herald says that Sir George Grey will pro-
bably be the. new Home Secretary. It is known
there is a serious difference between the Whig and
peelite sections of the cabinet, and that each party
held a separate meeting in the course of yesterday.
Two messengers have been sent to Lord Lans-
downe from Osborne.

The Morning Post does not .hesitate to affirm,
with confidence, that from the first serious
difference of opinion with regard to the course to
be pursued towards Russia, which existed between
Lord Palmerston . and a certain section of
the cabinet, and . that the Home Secretary's
views were opposed to those of the premier.
It was not, however, for a patriotic man,
whose experience was acknowledged, and whose
countenance was requested by all, to resign
office, because he could not persuade others to be
altogether of his convicton. Suffice it that he
could effecta partial good, and be of more use in the
cabinet than out of it. • The Post .says the passage
of the Pruth by he Russians should have been fol-
lowed by the entrance of our fleets into the Black
Sea, and a declaration that. if the bowsprit of a
Russian man-of-war appeared beyond the harbour
of Sebastopol, it would certainly result in his ships
being towed to Constantinople. Instead of thi
vigorous and effective policy, our ships are merely
lying in the Bosphorus. A course, apparently
lame and timid, has been pursued, and the auda•
city of Russia has been encouraged, not checked
That Lord Palmerston throughout has urged a
straightforward and honourable policy, his every
precedent guarantees, and the Post has every reason
to believe that to neglect of his advice, the disaster of
Sinope, and the present unfortunate state is owing.
The article concludes by expressing the conviction
that Lord Palmerston has not approved of the
sluggish policy pursued in the Eastern Question,
and the certainty that he is favorable to as large a
measure of reform as is demanded by public
opinion, and as he thinks, compatible with the
true interest of the country,*
The Cabinet Council sat four hours on Saturday,
The Pans Moniteur says Lord Palmerston's resig-
nation cannot in any way affect the good under•
standing which fortunately exists between France
and England on the great interest which at pre
sent occupy the nations of Europe.

The Duke of Hamilton has Purchased Beaufort House, in
Arlington-street, for £60,000.

life. She then secretes the deadly weapon amongst
the bed-clothes. The dastardly scoundrel fumbles
in the dark for the poker—but not finding it in its
place, becomes enraged—seizes the kettle from the
fire-place, and strikes her on the head with such
violence, that the pipe of it becomes bent, whilst
she falls prostrate fainting on the floor ! The
wretch with whom she cohabits, upon b'eing taken
to the station-house, expresses no compunction for
his barbarity, but says, tather, that he is glad of it,
and "that he did not care a --- if he got hanged,
as he was determined to get rid of her !" We
might, if we had a mind, increase the catagory.
What, then, is to be, done to arrest the progress of
an evil which threatens to become daily more
general and alarming? Such horrible and devilish
acts would be a disgrace to any country at any
epoch; more especially to Great Britain and the
nineteenth .century ! A beater and hitti.derer of
women ! Can we conceive of a viler monster ?
Can imagination plank() to itself a more disgustigg
wretch? Should not society brand the infamous
creature with dishonour and disdain ? and greet
his presence with public hootings and shouts of
obloqUy ? Should he not be banished from civi-
lised life, as a wild beast unfit for the habitations
of rational men ? " Fit for murder, stratagem, and
spoil ;" no such noxious reptile should be suffered
to herd with human kind. Not justice alone, but
manly feeling and outraged decency must resent
such diabolical displays of human depravity. We
need not torture the wretch who commits such
enormities phySically—that would only brutalise
him the more—but we must make him sensitive
of public opinion; and the scoffs and loathings of
his former associates shall be like poisoned arrows
in his soul! The public must rise up, en masse,
and, with a voice of thunder, denounce the perpe-
trators of such flagrant atrocities :
" 0, you kind gods,
Cure this great breach in man's abused nature !
The untun'd and jarring senses, 0, wind up
Of these wife-murdering husbands!"