Northern Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1857-09-24 00:00:00

Leone, are whispered abroad ; and if they should
prove to be tru', or be substantiated by trust-
worthy evidence, nothing short of a searching and
open inquiry will meet the demands of public
justice. If it be discovered that high officials
have been parties to gross violations of British
law ; that some of the courts of justice have become
the patrons of tyranny and fraud ; and that the
interests of the public service have bean delibe-
rately and sys':etnaically sacrificed to offic al job
bery and private gain ; —then -it will become im-
peratively necesa,ary that both the system which has
produced these evils, and the men who have origi-
nated and carrie:4 it out, shall be promptly super-
seded, and the graver (Jelin pients severely punished
Sir Wm, Molcsworth, shortly before his death,
resolved to dispatch a commission to the colony of
Sierra Leone, for the purpose of prosecuting the
investigation which we now demand, but his un-
timely end prevented the accomplishment of that
design. Mr. Lahouchere, sir ce he has been Colo-
nial Minister, appears to have taken no steps
towards instituting an inquiry; and the conse-
quence is, that the administration of justice in the
colony is sail to be a disgrace to the English
name, and official circles there are spoken of us
hot.beds of nepotism, idleness, and partiality.
The Continental news is rather meagre this
morning. The agitation in favour of the Suez
Canal scheme has reached such a height in France,
where the greatest commercial hopes are connected
with it, at least by the middle classes, that any
further opposition to it on the part of the British
representative at Constantinople might seriously
endanger the good understanding between the two
nations. The Emperor of the French left the
Chalons camp for Stuttgardt yesterday. The Duke
of Carnbri ige had previously left for Paris, where
he arrived on Tuesday night.
The final results of the Moldavian Elections—
with the exception of only three returns—are now
transmitted fron4 Vienna, and show, unmistake-
ably, that if there be a party opposed to the union
of the Principalities at all, it is only a factitious
one. ALldavia would he so far a loser by the
union, since there can be no doubt that Bucharest.
in Wallachia, would, in that case, be made the
common capital, while Jassy would be deserted.
The result of the Moldavian elections is, therefore,
the more significant of the enthusiasm with which
the Roumar:s seem to look upon a revival of their
national life.

The Government paper at Berlin, the Zeit,
contains a long article in justification of the
conduct of the Holstein Estates with respect to
Denmark. The Zeit Pffirms, what we certainly
have failed to observe, that the decision of the
Es'ates has met the approval of the entire German
press.

The ministerial crisis in Spain has ended in
smoke though some of the minor luminaries of
the Cabinet are said to be on the eve of being
replaced. _

The North American, screw steamer, arrived here
from Q iebec yesterday, with advises to the
12th instant. We giva an atn2le summary of
the news in another part of to-days paper.

THE news from India continues to be so

various and exciting that it is not easy to present
a connected narrative of events, nor to retain in

he mind a clear representation of what has
happened. All England is held in breathless
admiration of the heroism and endurance of our
countrymen and countrywomen, heartfelt sym-
pathy for their cruel sufferings, and indignation
against the perfidious authors of those sufferings.
The hero of the hour is General IllvEeocx,
though, no doubt, the ranks of the British army
contain many officers of kindred spirit and
ability. The latest telegram reported that he
has resumed bis march to the relief of Lucknow.
We trust that the very next telegraphic message
will inform us that Lucknow has been relieved,
and Agra received succours so much needed.
it is impossible for us in Eagland, living at home
in safety, to conceive the unutterable suspense
and agony that must occupy the minds of those
who are in hourly peril of being pounced
upon by such fiends as enacted the flagitious
massacre at Cawnpore. Wives, mothers, daugh-
ters, children, in India, are names th it call up
the thought of all that is terrible. Letters have
reached England whose details were too horrible
to be made public. And to think, too, that
little children were among the objects of this
fiendish barbarity. One shudders to believe
that any beings wearing the human form could,
under any circumstances, or under any provoca-
tion, perpetrate such foul deeds. When within
twenty-four hours after the horrid butchery of
women and children at Cawnpore, General
HAVELOCK entered at the head of his invincible
column, they witnessed a scene that beggars all
description. The spot which marks the tragedy
covered two inches deep with the blood of
English officers, their wives, sisters, and
children ; here a portion of a bonnet or a
gown, and in another th s. long tresses of
English women bedded in the gore, telling so
mournfully that their deliverers had come just
too late. It has been alleged that the inhuman
murderers threw some children into the well
that contained the dead bodies of their mothers,
and that some of the women, to avoid a fate far
worse than death, threw themselves into the
same well over the dead bodies of their com-
panions. Such scenes can .hardly be paralleled
in European history. We can hardly hold the
pen while we ponder th?m, and what the unfor-
tunate victims must have endured till death
put a period to their indignities and to their
•
misery.

If any one had ventured to predict that human
monsters could be found to do such deeds, he
would have been triumphantly scouted as por-
traying an impossibility. History contains
stranger things than fiction. Throughout all
these melancholy scenes the courage, patience,
presence of mind, and self-sacrifice of our coun-
trymen are as conspicuous as their sufferings are
unequalled. Not only is England, but all Europe
aghast at the cruelties of the one, and full of
admiration for the noble qualities displayed by
the other. From the depth of our great trial
shines out the most illustrious virtue. If our
Government has been remiss, our officials careless,
and India misgoverned, it is our melancholy
consolation that, in the day of calamity, our
people in India behaved in such a manner as to
reflect honour upon the name of Englishman.
The nations of Europe have not credited us with
the high qualities which this rebellion has called
forth; and neither Europe nor the world

could believe that such fiendish barbarity
was possible to human beings. It is an
appalling revelation of the depths of wickedness
to which human beings may descend when they
they appear to have cast off all sentiments of
humanity, all relentings of kindness,

neither

fearing GOD, or regarding men, nor honouring
woman. We can forgive men for shooting down
other armed men on the field of battle, but the
atrocious cruelties and indignities practised on
women and children excite the deepest horror,
joined to the most righteous indignation, that
such acts may meet with deserved punishment.
There is, indeed, some danger that the national
feeling may go beyond the line which separates
retribution from revenge. Our people are sorely
tempted to indulge in some feelings which can
only be called vengeful—especially those of them
whose relatives have Le m the victims of Indian
cruelty. It is easy to preach humanity in this
crisis, but not easy to feel humanity and practise
it. It is so natural to be maddened and carried
beyond one's self by reading only a small part of
the horrid details that are now reaching England.
The, matter, however, is in the hands of our
generals and soldiers, and though a fearful retri-
bution will be exacted, yet we believe too well of
our countrymen—even when they are under the
present unequalled circumstances of maddening
excitement and provocation, to fear that they will
for one moment think of dealing torture upon
any women or children that might fall into their
power. It would only be imitating the work of
(lemons, but it would be no satisfaction—no
righteous retribution—no solemn punishment of
unheard-of crimes, and it would not undo a sin-
gle pang or outrage endured by those helpless
children and heroic women, whose memories and
whose sufferings call aloud to Heaven and their
country for justice, but net for vengeanc,.%

THE various chapters or incidents which, for
want of a more appropriate term, we shall desig-
nate " Society and its victims," reveal facts
which are painful in the extreme to every indi-
vidual possessed of the feelings of benevolence
and humanity. When cases such as those to
which we allude, refer particularly to helpless
and unprotected females, they are doubly dis-
tressing, and should induce some movement
among the philanthropists of tha day to seek

for the adoption of meaaures of a remedial cha-.
ratter. Our readers will recollect that, a few
days ago, a•poor, dejected, and careworn woman,
named MARIA CLARKE, was brought before the
Worship-street Police Migistrate, London,
charged with attempting to cointnic suicide.
The history of her CASa was a painful one. Oa
being placed at the bar, she was recognised as a
recent inmate of the Hackney Workhouse, who
but the week previous had uadergane an
examination for the alleged murder of her female
child, by drowning it in the Regent's Canal
From want of sufficient evidence, she
liberated. Connected with this serious offence,
we may remark that some years ago she became
the victim of an unfaithful young man, and the
result of her connection with him was the birth
of a daughter. He, like all others of his class,
deserted her, and left the unfortunate and mis-
guided young mother to struggle with the child
as best she could. She appe trs to have aske
her sister to take charge of the child until she
obtained a situation, bat this the sister either
would not or could not do. The result of the
refusal was to oblige M.utts. CLARKE and her
daughter to go into the Hackney Workhouse.
Here, it appears she became, from the treatment
she received, an" the negligence manifested
towards her helpless child, so broken down both
in body and mind, that she formed the idea of
destroying the child's life.
Now, upon this part of the case we have to
remark that, as the law now stands with respect
to bastardy, there is a sad defect. A young and
artless girl is betrayed by a cruel and designing
young man. He obtains her dearest sympathies
and affections, and ultimately ruins her character.
To compel him to relieve her of at least a portion
of the burden and expense of rearing his illegi-
timate off4pring, she must go into open court
and make a full confession of her shame and
guilt. She must be the subject for impudent
gazing in the magistrate's room, and another
and trying attack made upon that quality of
modesty which should adorn the female cha-
racter. This should not be so. We require a
much easier mode of getting at the seducers of
young females; and the pains and penalties of
the offence should be both marked and severe.
We have been 'lately concocting a measure of
divorce, That effects only one portion of the
community ; there is another class of female
society who should be protected from the shame
of seduction and the evils of bastardy. Surely
some of the Right Rev. Prelates who have been
so earnest and energeric on questions of adultery
might well and tru'ly employ themselves in this
most important topic .

But it is not only for the purpose of procuring
pecuniary compensation to such unfortunate
characters as MARIA. CLARKE that we write.
Sin is an element in the human character which
accumulates by degrees. A crime which at the
outset is viewed with horror, by repetition
becomes quite unalarming, and nothing is
thought of its commission. CLARKZ'S case is an
apt illustration of this idea. She must have been
to some extent brought up religiously, for w e
find her, after seeing the sufferings and privations
of her little daughter, expressing her intention
that " to save the child from being wrong, as she
had been, it would be better for her to go to