Northern Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1857-07-25 00:00:00

THE DAY'S NEWS.

The house of Lords met at their usual hour, five
•'clock, yesterday afternoon. After reading several
bills a second time, Lord Deiby drew attention to
a standing order of their Lordships' house for the
purpose of limiting a time for receiving bills from
the House of Commons, and urged that the rule of
last session should be revived. This Lord Redes-
dale and Earl Granville deemed inexpedient. Can
it be that Lord Derby wishes to prevent the prc-
gress of Lord John Russell'e new Oaths' Bill ? A
discussion relative to the propriety of erecting a
monument to the late Lord Raglan, at the expense
of the nation, was brought on by Earl Forteseue ;
but after Lords Panmure and Grenville, who,
although admitting Lord Raglan's great merits as
a warrior, had expressed their opposition to the
proposition, the matter dropped, and shortly after
their Lordships' adjourned.
The House of Commons met at twelve o'clock,
when Mr. Cardwell took the oaths and his seat for
Oxford. He received the warm congratulations of
his numerous friends in the house, and sat at the
corner immediately above the gangway, and behind
the Treasury bench. The early sitting was occu-
pied in the consideration of the amendments made
in the Scotch Lunatics Bill, and the Police (Scot
land) Bill, but the discussions thereon were not of
any moment. At the evening sitting, Col. French
postponed moving for a new writ for Galway until
Tuesday ; 'and Mr. Disraeli declined a proposition
made by Lord Palmerston, to defer the debate on
the affairs of India until after the arrival of the
next Overland Mail. Lord Clarence Paget drew
attention to the loss of the Raleigh, and wished to
know if it was intended to recall Admiral Keppel,
whom he warmly eulogised. Sir George Grey
deprecated any discussion on the matter pending
the court martial now investigating the case. On
the motion for the second reading of the Divorce
and Matrimonial Causes Bill, Mr. Henley moved
that it be postponed for a month, urging a variety
of reasons for the step he had taken. He was sup-
ported by Mr. Bowyer, Mr. Gladstone, and others.
The Government defended the measure. Lord
Palmerston wound up the debate, and after a
division the second reading of the bill was carried
by a considerable majority, and the third reading
fixed for Thursday next, after which the House
adjourned.
Among the chief items of domestic intelligence
is the address of Baron Rothschild to the electors
of the City of London, seeking re-election. It is
brief, and to the point. Of course, the Baron will
be returned unopposed, but there is little hope to
be entertained that his peculiar case will be ad-
justed and settled on this side of 1858. The Baron
seems to think that the House of Commons will,
by virtue of a resolution, allow him to take his seat
without swearing him on the true faith of a Chris-
tian. Desirable although this course may be,
sufficient has transpired to satisfy every one that.
Government will not give its sanction to such a
proceeding.
Our private advices from London last night
stated, that our impression gained ground in the
City yesterday, that some later intelligence from
India has reached Government per the steamer
Simla, via Ceylon. On all sides the hope is
earnestly expressed that Government will, at least
for once, discard their habit of official reserve,
commuicate instantly any intelligence that may
reach them, and contradict rumours which impute
to them the actual possession and withholding of
unfavourable tidings. Refering to these flying
reports, our metropolitan cotemporaries of last
evening remarks :—" The rumours which have
been circulated of a repulse of the European troops
at Delhi are, we are assured, totally destitute of
foundation. We really believe they are pure
fabrications, got up by persons who have sinister
objects to gain,or whose heads must be silly and
whose hearts bad. We shall receive genuine
intelligence in a day or two. At present nobody
in Eng:and knows what may have happend at
Delhi." In corroboration of this view, we may
remark that the Australian mail has arrived at
Marseilles, and that a telegraph despatch from
that city states that there is no further news from

Two more victims have been consigned to the
gallows, they are named Brown and Jackson, and
were tried at Oxfood for highway robbery and
murder. No doubt Calcraft will be called upon
to carry out the vengeance of tha law upon the
unhappy culprits.
The Agamemnon, one of her Majesty's vessels of
war, has sailed for Cork, in order to enter upon the
important task of laying the Atlantic cable. The
Uuited States frigate, the Niagara, and her consort,
the Susquehanna, are ready to start upon the same
business."„We wish both vessels " God speed," and
sincerely trust that success may attend their pro-
gress, until the old and the new world be bound
together by electric wire, and bring us within
momentary communication with each other. Some
parties are beginning to doubt the final success
of the undertaking, whilst others are pitching all
sorts of faults to the arrangements for paying off
the rope. It has been thought advisable to alter
the arrangement by which the cable was to have
been joined in mid-sea, and the Agamemnon and
Niagara then make the best of their way to shore
—the former to America and the latter to Ire

land. Now the plan is, to submerge the
whole cable in a continuous line from
Valentia Bay to Newfoundland. The Niagara will
lay the first half from Ireland to the middle of the
Atlantic ; the end will then be joined to the other
half on board the Agamemnon, which takes it on

to the coast of Newfoundland. During the whole
process the four vessels will remain together and
give whatever assistance is required. While it is
being laid down messages will be sent back to the
coast of Ireland reporting each day's progress,
and, if necessary, of course, each hour's. Scientific
JO e n look forward to the result of the undertaking
with the deepest interest, as some wonderful

electrical phenomena are certain to be observed

during the process of submerging. Those most
^early interested in the plan are sanguine as to all
being successfully completed within a month, and
the state of the markets at New York known every
morning throughout England.
There is not any very stirring news from the
Continent this morning. From Paris we learn,
through the columns of the Moniteur, that the
rumour which had been circulated of the despatch
of French troops to China is entirely without
foundation, at the same time the official journal
does not deny that Louis Napoleon was asked to
contribute troops. He could well plead an excuse
for non-complia nee, by mentioning the financial
difficulties in which his government is now placed.
A political prisoner namei Marcel Lignon, con-
fined in the prison of Belleisle, contrived to escape
three nights ago. He scaled the walls, and then,
boldly throwing himself into the sea, took refuge
on a schooner which lay in the roadstead. The
captain, however, immediately gave him up to the
authorities. The harvest is well nigh terminated
in the South of France, and the results are magnifi-
cent. A general fall of prices is expected in the
various corn markets, which already give signs of a
tendency to a decline.
From Spain we have not any political news of
importance. Amongst the persons condemned to

death at Seville, for the participation in the recent
insurrection, but whose sentences have been com-
muted, were a Frenchman named Lamotte and
some personages of distinction. It is stated that
at Utrera six insurgents were shot at the same time
as the chief Lallave ; another man was to have
been shot with them, but an order to have his exe-
cution suspended arrived just as he was about to
leave the prison.
The Second Chamber of the States General of
Holland adopted on the 20th, by 47 to 13, the bill
on primary instruction. In consequence of the
adoption of this bill, M. Groenvan Prinsterer,
chief of the last cabinet, gave in his resigna-
tion as deputy—the bill not being of the
exclusively Protestant character which he con
siders necessary. Letters from Vienna mention
a report that a stamp duty was about to be charged
on newspapers in Austria, with the view to reduc-
ing the deficit in the budget. It appears that the
request of the ambassadors at Constantinople to
have the elections in Moldavia postponed to the
27th has not been granted ; the last accounts men-
tioning that they took place on the 19th. The
abstentions are said to be very numerous, parti-
cularly among the members of the clergy.

A SOMEWHAT keen and interesting debate took
place in the House of Commons on Thursday
night, when Lord NAAS moved the second reading
of the Civil Service Superannuation Amendment
Act. The Government manifested unmistakeable
symptoms of a desire to defeat the measure.
For this purpose Mr. WILSON, as the financial
Secretary of the Treasury, rose to oppose the
second reading ; but the speech which he
delivered was not only illogical and out of place,
but failed to convince the House that the
measure should be rejected. In opposing a
bill of this kind—the absolute necessity for
which appears to have been admitted on all sides
—it was not a little remarkable that the Govern-
ment were unprepared with one of their own,
whereby they propose to grapple with and
remedy the evils which it is the purpose of Lord
NAAS'S Bill to remove. At the line of po:icy
pursued by the Ministry, with reference to this
particular question, we do not feel surprised, for
it is the regular habit of men in office to resist
every effort to ameliorate and improve the
position of those below them, until the pressure
of public opinion compels them. In fact, they
will concede nothing, however just, nor introduce
any measure, however beneficial to the subordi-
nates of the Civil Service, unless a fear of defeat
compels them to take up their cause.

The origin of the grievances against which
the Civil Service so loudly complains, lies in an
Act of Parliament passed in the reign of William
the Fourth, anno domini 1834. The 27th section
of that statute provides that the salaries of all
persons who had received their appointment
since 1829, and whose income did not exceed
1001., should be taxed 21 per cent., to go
towards the formation of a superannuation fund,
and that from salaries above 1001. a deduction of
five per cent. should be made for a like purpose.
Every one connected with the Civil Service
made as open and determined a resistance to
this piece of governmental tyranny as they could,
without running the risk of losing their appoint-

ment. Many may at first glance deem the clause
of the act in question not. only fair, brit por
fectly plausible. This, however, we do not
admit. We hold that when a man enters the
public service, and has spent the flower and
fruit of his existence in that service, it is the
duty of any parental government to see that he
is provided for in his declining years, and par-
ticularly if such persons have been labouring in
the public offices at rates of remuneration little
or nothing above the wages of a common office-
clerk, whilst they hare to assume a more genteel
appearance, and maintain a much more elevated
position in society. It is unjustifiable that the
government should have the power of abstracting
from the pockets of the officers of the Civil
Service a certain sum yearly, and investing it as
they please, without, perhaps, paying back one
single penny of this annual abstraction. But
glaringly unjust as the operation of this Act is,
it would not be considered so monstrously unfair
if its application were universal, and its partiality
did not involve a serious spoliation of some,

whilst others were in no way affected. The
clerks in Somerset-house, the Post-office, the
Revenu-, the Excise, and Customs are called upon
to contribute to the Superannuation Fund, whilst
Judges, Ministers of State, and such grand
functionaries do not contribute a penny, although
they have large and uncalled-for retiring allow
antes.

Such personages, when unfit to work in

the state harness, throw themselves upon the
downy cushion of idleness, taking uninterrupted
repose, and a grateful country heaps upon
them every comfort and enjoyment which their

declining years require, and seems to mourn,
should their minutest wants or wishes be unat-
tended to. Or shou'd some rash headed orin capable

commander of an army lead the nation's forces
into wilful destruction, or leave them to vanish

from the face of the earth by famine, mis-
management, and pestilence, he is instantly,
on his return home, received with open arms.

Medals innumerable decorate his breast—pro-
motion follows promotion—increased pay being

a necessary accompaniment of each step, and,
added to all, is an addition to an already over-
loaded pension list. A moment's reflection will

convince every one that such a system as we

have sketched is fraught with injustice to the
minor servants of the Crown. Theit cause has

been frequently urged by liberal Members of

Parliament, and no later . than May last, the

Commissioners of the House of Commons

appointed to investigate into the operation of

the Civil Service Superannuation Clause, empha-
tically declared that they felt it their duty "to

recommend the total abolition of reduction, for
the purpose of superannuation, without any
corresponding reduction in the salaries on