Northern Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1859-03-25 00:00:00

THE DAY'S NEWS

The House of Lords held a short sitting last
night, but the business done was not important,
The Joint-Stock Winding-up Bill passed through
committee, after a discussion, in which the principle
of liniited liability, and the commercial results which
follow, formed the principal topic of debate. Several
other bills were advanced a stage, after which the
House. adjourned. At the, commencement, of busi-
ness in the House of Commons, Mr. Grogan gave
notice, that on the 7th of April he should bring
under the notice of the House the case of tie Cuffe-
street Savings Bank. In reply to Mr. James, the
Attorney-General said, as to the appointment of
additional judges to the divorce courts, in conse-
quense of the large amount of business now waiting
for decision, that the matter was, owing to the terms
of the act, involved in great difficulty. Directions
had been given for enquiries to be made upon the
subject, and the result of these would be brought
under the attention of the Government. Sir John.
Pakirigton, in reply to Mr. Deasy, said that en-
quiries had been ordered into the alleged undue
Interference with the religion of sailors on board her
Majesty's ship Ajax. - In reference to the portion of
the Government Reform Bill assirnilutins the Town
and t;ounty Franchise as the principle of the Bill, the
Chancellor of the Exchequer, in reply to Mr. Mitchell,
said it was impossible at such a time to give a cate-
gorical answer to a question which would demand
a stateMent, both of argument and detail, but said

that when the Government introduced the bill it
was considered to contain no provision which might
not in; committee be submitted to the impartial con-
sideration of the House. The Master and Operatives
bill, the Ecclesiastical Courts and Registration of
Ireland bill, and the Patents for Inventions of War
bill were severally read a. second time. The
debate on. the Government Reform Bill was
then . resumed by Mr. Milner Gibson, who
said that the supporters of the bill who had. hitherto
addressed the House had failed to show what its
effects would be on the parliamentary elections. He
could not admit the force of the arguments which
had been used by the Government that they were
required to pass the bill rather than delay reform.
He was not prepared to sacrifice the quality of the
measure for its time. He could not consent to settle the
Reform question without reform. He then proceeded
to review the provisions of the bill at great length,
and reprobated the cry the Government had raised in
favour of the middle classes ; and concluded by
declaring that, in every stage the bill would have
his most determined 'opposition. Mr. Adderley, in
supporting the bill said, those who advocated the
claims of the mass of the people should beware, as
Lord John Russell had deceived them before, and he
would deceive them again. He complained that the
details of the bill were objected to as though
they were its principles. Mr. Headlam opposed
the bill, and denied the right of the Government to
barter, with the people, as to the price of the Reform
Bill, by tendering it only upon conditions which it
was impossible they could accept. Mr. Bentinck
supported the bill, but promised to support amend-
ments in committee. He • considered the great ob-
tection to the bill was its inadequate provision for
he interests of the counties. Mr. Locke King alluded

to the adoption of his principle of the ten-pound
county franchise, but said that it had been altogether
spoiled and mutilated by the mode in which it was
adopted. The late hour to which the debate was
prolonged, and the lengthened report which we
elsewhere give of the proceedings, leave us no room
to summarise further, our rapidly increasing circu-
lation imperatively demanding us to go early to press.
We must refer our readers to the discussion In extenso.
The Continental news grows more pacific every
.nd the chance of an European war seem now
to be more remote than at any. period since the
commencement of the present year. The Moniteur
of yes leiday morning contains.the following : —" The
Cabinets of London and Berlin have given their
consent to the proposal of Russia concerning the
assemblina- of a Congress on Italian affairs. The
reply '3l the Cabinet of Vienna is not yet known."
A despatch i
front
Tidies, and the_ Vienna co rrespo.n.dent of the
published n a third edition of that
journal d yes_ er supplies news of the fact, that the
only. link in the chainof negociation has been
furnished. The despatch is as follows :—" Vienna,
Thursday, noon.—Austria anTeed yesterday to the
proposed Congress, which with probably meet at Aix
la Chapelle." Writing anterior to the above des-
patch, the Vienna correspondent of the7li /idles saysd
that one of the conditions which Austria
wi
before, assenting to a Congress is, that Sardinia shalleman
suspend armaments and remain perfectly passive
while - the Conw°ress is sitting. The Paris con
pondent of the Times says it is' rumoured that Is-
French Government wishes Piedmont to be repree-
sentcd at the Congress. A Paris letter in Le IVord
states that the Sardinian Cabinet has addressed a
communication to the five great Powers, strongly
insisting
on being allowed to take part in the
'deliberations of any Congress on affairs of Italy.
According to the new Gazelle of Prussia, the
Emperor of the French has ou several occasions
lately • recommended the Count de. Cavour not to
assuring him that in no case would
omits of her engageotwitments.
nh-

hour, a

Francs

nvi the Ii

ipoleon,

written to Turin, exhorting M. Cavour to calm the
effervescence of the Piedmontese, and recommending
a pacific solution, instead of an appeal to arms.
The Grand Duchy of Baden is making warlike
preparations. With the exception of Bavaria, Wur-
temburg, Hanover, Baden, and Electoral Hesse, the
other-States of the German Confederation, and par-
ticularly those of the North, appear to have deter-
mined on waiting for the impulse that may be given
to them by Prussia before taking any military mea-
sures. It is reported in Paris, that the Emperor of
Austria has made Lord Cowley a Grand Cross of the
Order of Leopold. A Turin letter states that twelve
convents at Genoa have been cleared of their in-
mates, in order to allow the premises to be employed..
for quartering troops, in case of need.
The Australian, mails of the sth of February are
reported to have reached Suez, on the 15th inst., by
the steamer Oneida, which has brought L 76,285 in
gold dust, and 114 passengers.
The steamer City of Baltimore arrived here at an
early hour yesterday morning from New York, with
dates to the 12th inst. We published a full abstract
of the news in an early second edition, which we re-
peat in another column to-day.
The Assize proceedings -in the Crown Court of
yesterday, will be read with interest. In the matter
of the alleged ill-treatment of a coal-passer on board
the steamer Bogota, it will be seen that the Grand
Jury have amended the bills of indictment against the
two engineers, and they now stand charged with the
murder of Landon, whose life was sacrificed to their
cupidity. The prisoners being_out on bail, Mr. Ovens
addressing the court said—That seeing true bills had
been found against them, they should be called upon
to surrender. Mr. Aspinall said, there were some
reasons for them not appearino., without any pre-
judice to their surrender forthwith. The `accused
were then called upon three times, but they failed to
answer. His Lordship said, there might be some
reason in what Mr. Aspinall had stated, and they
ought not to prejudge the case until it was seen
whether they would surrender.

The usual weekly meeting of the Toxteth-board
of Guardians was held yesterday, when some strange
revelations were made in reference to alleged tam-
pering with certain documents having reference to
the elections of the parish. Some of the members
appeared to have been guilty of gross misconduct,
and after considerable discussion, and a few attempts
at explanation, a special committee was appointed
to investigate the circumstances, and report to the
general board. Certainly the present aspect of the
question is ugly.
According to the report of the medical officers of
health, read at the meeting of the Health ComMittee
yesterday, the state or the public health is most
satisfactory—a large decrease in the mortality
having taken place in every class of disease. It
would appear, from one parasraph in the report,
that a child died, in the Torßh-park district, from
the refusal of the, parochial authorities to afford
relief, the parents being unable to procure proper
means for the child's state. This, if true, is a very
serious charge, and ought to be investigated.
At the Mersey Dock Board, yesterday, the only
matter of interest was a conversation in reference to
the establishment of a floating fire-engine on the
river, for the purpose of aiding ships on fire, and
extinguishing the latter. The subject, which had
previously been before the docks and quays com-
mittee, was again referred to them for consideration.

OUR NEW DOCK BILL,

THE Dock Board may be said to have so far gained
their great object, by the decision which the com-
mittee of the House of Commons have come to, as
reported in our impression of yesterday, as to have
secured the passing of their Bill in that House. The
Committee, after careful consideration, resolved to
report the Bill to the House, in much the same
condition as that in which it was presehted to them
by its promoters, only with the addition of a clause
providing for the establishment of a sinking-fund.
That is to say, that, after defraying all their necessary
expenses, as specifically set forth in the clause, « the
board shall yearly and every year, subsequent to
the 24th day of June, 1860, apply the surplus of
any of the rates which shall remain in their hands
atter such payment as aforesaid, to the extent of
£lOO,OOO, or such less amount as the said -surplus
shall be equal to in, or towards repayment of, some
principal monies which shall then be
due and owing on the security of the rates, and
which shall then have become due and payable ; and
in the purchasing of, and extinguishing of, the
Mersey Dock annuities, which may be then existing,
to the respective priorities of such
monies and annuities, until all principal monies
due on the security of the rates shall have
been repaid, and all Mersey Dock annuities shall have
been purchased up and extinguished, and subject to
the provisions herein contained." The object, in
short, is simply to make provision for the repayment
of the monies which have already been borrowed, or

or any of th

according

hereafter be borrowed, by the Dock Board,
under the authority of Parliament. Still this im-
-for such we consider it—

provernent of the measure-

this virtual restriction of the powers of the Board as
respects their expenditure for any works beyond
what they will then be legally authorized to undertake
—did not satisfy the Birkenhead opponents. It was
alleged, on their behalf, that the Bill would still
give the Dock Board an unlimited power to employ
all the surplus in the construction of new works ;

and further, it was urged that as they had now

surplus of £120,000, the application of it to the pur-
pose of a sinking fund ought not to be postponed
until 1860. This latter point, however, was sum-
marily disposed of, by the committee refusing to
entertain the objection for a moment; and with
regard to the other question of unlimited power,
after considerable discussion, it would be observed,
the committee decided to introduce into The clause
the words that, " for the general management of the
dock estate, with all reasonable expenses necessary

for conducting, securing,, maintaining, preserving,

and improving the same ;" it being a distinct under-

standing, that the construction which the committE

intended to put on those words was, that nothing of
an extraordinary or new character, in the way of
works or erections, was included. In this amended
form the sinking fund clause was adopted, and the
Preamble of the Bill was then declared to be proved.
Still, it would be seen, the opposition to the mea-
sure, in committee, was not at an end. For, the
Preamble proved, and therefore the progress of the
Bill ensured, in spite of the obstructions offered to it
by the Birkenhead Commissioners, the Great West-
ern and Birkenhead people had their foil to intro-
duce, in the form of a cl

ause for preventing the
apening of the new works, which would be con-
structed under the present Bill until the works
at Birkenhead were completed,-

—on the plea

that there was a distinct leaning towards Liverpool
on the part of the Board ! Why, of course, in a
Liverpool Dock. Bill, there must of necessity be such

a leaning : what more natural—what more expe-
dient ? What does not Liverpool owe to her Docks;
and how would they ever have been what they are,
and what they are capable of doing for the port and
town, had there not, from the beginning, and
throughout the whole course of their operations,
been such a leaning? The putting forth of
such a plea, on the part of interests on the
oppos:te side of the Mersey, was a betrayal of
jealousy- in that quarter which the Committee, of
course, could only treat with contempt. And so the
Bill was ordered to be reported to'the House as it
had been already settled. The combined opposition
of the Birkenhead Commissioners aLal. the Cheshire

THE TRADE IN VICE ANDAMNO/tALITY

WE feel called upon, after what we have so.
recently had occasion to observe on that fearful curse
to society, that ineffable disgrace to civilisation,
prostitution, to say a few words of animadversion
upon the unworthy and mischievous attempt of an
amateur lecturer here the other evening, if not to
apologise for that most abominable and degrading
vice, yet to cast ridicule and odium upon the
philanthropic endeavours which have been made in
this town to arrest its progresS. We know nothing
whatever personally of those whom the lecturer so
uncharitably and so unreasonably -Alenounced as
" meddling gentlemen who are hunting the ‘unfortu-
of this town as so much game, and driving
them from their own vile haunts to the streets, and
outskirts of the town." But, in the first place, all
active -philanthropy would," on this principle, be
obnoxious to the imputation of " meddling,"—at any
rate, whenever directed to the removal of any social
evil, or the suppression of any notorious immorality.
We' must of necessity meddle with any vicious
practice, if we are to use our efforts to put it down.
All the great reformers of abuses, , all the earnest
improvers of society, and all who courageously
stand forth to arrest the course of vice in
any of its common forms, must, according to that,
incur this reproach of being " meddling," and incur
it more or less obviously in proportion to their
earnestness and their moral courage. "In (cations of
life," says Sir PHILIP SIDNEY, who seeth riot the
filthiness of evil, wanteth a great foil to perceive the
beauty of virtue." Now such " actions of life "
must of necessity involVe " meddling."_ To meddle
is -to interpose, to act in anything. And with how
little practical effect, generally, can any one do good
without he interposes to remove the crying evils
that are before him—without he acts against the
vices that prevail around him ? A philanthropist is
one who loves and wishes to serve mankind. But
how can he effectually do this, if he is not to meddle
with what he may see is afflicting society ? Why,
according to the lecturer we refer to, -the Good
Samaritan was 'one of those "peddling gentlemen ;"
for he interfered most actively, and most intimately,
with the unhappy case of the poor man who fell
among the thieves, not only by proceeding to bind
up his wounds, for he " set him on his own beast, and
brought him to an inn, and took care of him." 0,
but the chivalrous champions of our wretched prosti-
tutes will probably say—that is a different thing
here it is " meddling gentlemen," not doing good in
that way at all, but only " hunting the unfortu-
nates !" And who are these " unfortunates ?" Are

nates

they not vicious and degraded wotnen—prostitutes—
who have not only, as it is admitted, " their own
vile haunts," but who are infesting our principal
thoroughfares for the express purpose of alluring►
the sensual and the thoughtless to frequent those
"wile haunts," along with them, to their infamy,
their degradation, and perhaps their ruin P And is
this a state of things which is too sacred to be
touched, too inviolable to be meddled with, in a
civilised community .? Is it not, rather, so dire a
curse in any community, so flagrant _ a public evil, so
shameless and so polluting a practice, that the
commonest regard for public decency and order, the
most ordinary respect Tor virtue .and chastity, may
well be intolerably offended and disgusted by it ?
SOme of these infamous prostitutes may, perhaps,
once have been " Unfortunate." But they are not
the less vile or the.less vicious on that account ; and

it argues a sympathy with their lewd and iniquitous
character, to class them under so piteous a designa-
tion, which is calculated to have an injurious influence

on public morals.
BUt, as well as thiS, there is quite another question
involved in the case. There are those who make

money out of prostitution, by keeping places of resort
for the prostitutes and those who go after them.
Such pimps as these are surely fit subjects for the
surveillance of the Police. If ordinary public-
houses require regulation and inspection, much more
such places as these. They are the haunts of vice
and immorality ; they are places frequented by the
most abandoned characters ; they are virtually
bawdy-houses--places of lewd and vicious entertain-
ment,—

Scenes of lewd lusts, and of polluted joys

They are therefore a sort of moral pestilence,— or
rather, indeed, something worse ; for they are so
tricked out, as to aid in no slight degree in the
enticement of our youth to their ruin and degrada-
tion

As a matter of course, " the libertine retires
to the stews and to the brothel." But these shewy
and seductive resorts allure and entrap those
yet familiar with the ways of