Northern Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1857-11-07 00:00:00

THE NORTHERN TIMES.---LIVERPOOL

INDIA.

THE ARMS ACT•

We have received a copy of what is called the
" respectful petition of the Christian inhabitants
of Calcutta on bAalf of thimselves and of all the
other inhabitants of this Presidency." The peti-
tion showeth—

That your petitioners have read the act which passed
the Legislative Council on the sth inst., and received the
assent of the Governor-General on the 12th inst., and have
observed, with alarm and regret, that the said act is
franied so as to apply to all the unofficial classes alike,
without distinction, within the districts to which‘it shall
be extended by order of the Governor-General in Council
or the Etecutive Government of any place.
The object and jistification of such an act being, as
your petitioners conceive, to enable the Government to
take arms out of the hands of disaffected and dangerous
persons, your petitioners had hoped that the said Act
would not have been confined in express terms to those
classes from whom alone danger could have been ap-
prehended.
Your petitioners feel strongly that to apply this Act to
them equally with the rest of ladle, is to confound the
loyal with murderers, mutineers, and rebels, and to cast
an unwarranted refl?ction on a body, who having the
same interest with the Government of India, have in
every way supported it, and exhibited their loyal feeling
since the commencement of the present outbreak.
Your petitioners are further of opinion, that to give the
proposed power to a magistrate or commissioner of police
of disarming all persons within his district who in his
judgment may endanger the public peace is to give to one
official who may be acting under tit, infl aence of panic,
prejudice, or error, the poser to leave all the Christians
within its district wholly dAnceless, or to force them
into opposition to Government if they shall resist being
placed in such a position, and your petitioners are led
strongly by certain recent prpceediags in this town of
Calcutta to the conviction that tkis is no id.e or
speculative apprehension, and that such powers cannot be
safely entrusted t 3 all officials of the proposed classes.
Your petitioners believe that the onl✓ result of
extending such an act to the C iristian population of
India will be to oppress and irritate the loyal, while it
will be wholly ineffectual as regtrls the -disaffected, who
will neither register or expose their ar,n3 till the moment
for using them shall have arrived.
Your petitioners submit that th o Christian inhabitants
of this Presidency are entitled of right, as loyal mon,
between whom and the rest of the population of the
Presidency there is a broad and unmistakeable line
drawn, to have that distinction acknowledged by the
Government at this time, an 4 in the like manner as was
done with regard to Earopeaus at the disarming of the
Panjaub, to be exempted from the operation of a la w which
is wholly inapplicable, and therefore highly offensive to
them.

Your petitioners therefore respectfully pray that the
Governor. General in C 3uncil would be pleased to make
a declaration, such as is contemplated by, the exemption
of all Christian inhabitants of this Presidency from the
application of the said law.

PROROGATION

OF
PARL

Parliament was yesterday afternoon furthe
prorogued, by Royal Commission, until Thursday,
the 17th of December next.

The Royal Commissioners, attire 3 in their peers'
robes, having taken their seats in the House •of
Lords. at the foot of the throne, the Lord Chan-
cellor directed Mr. Pultnan, the Yeoman Usher of
the Black Rod, to summon " the Commons" to
hear the Commission read, which that functionary
did with the usual circumstance and form, knock-
ing at the closed door of the House of Commons,
and advancing to the table with the same obser-
vance as though members were present and Mr,
Speaker in the chair.
In obedience to their lordships' request, the
clerks, the deputy sergeant, and the doorkeepers of
the Lower House, returned with the yeoman usher,
to the House of Lords, and appeared at the b ,r as
the representatives of her Majesty's most faithful
Commons," when the Commission was read by the
reading clerk at the table.

The LORD CHANCELLOR, in compliance with the
terms of the Commission, then declared
,that the
Parliament of Great Britian and Ireland stood
further prorogued until the day Already named, but
without adding the significant wor•is, " Then►: to
meet for the despatch of divers urgent and impor-
tant affAirs," as they were not included in the
Commission. . • •

The ceremony, though purely one of form, drew
together a few ladies, will were favoured with
seats in the body of th,i house, while the space
below the bar contained a slight sprinkling, of
strangers who hati strolled in from the adjacent
lacy courts.

THE REINFORCEMENTS FOR INDIA.

SOUTHAMPTON, FuiDAY.

The Pe ainsular and Oriental Company's steamer
Sultan, arrived here this morning from the Medi.
terranean, She to k out troops to Alexandria,- for
India, through Egypt, the beg7,nniog of last
month. On her 'homeward passav she left
-Al xandria on the 2Lst inst., Malta, 2Gth, and
Gibraltar, the 31st. She has a cargo of silk•on-bOard
from Alexandria, and from Malta the steamer has
brought 141 passengers, amengst whom are Lieute-
nant Day of the 29,11 Regiment ; .Dr, .Price, staff
surg,eon and a number of military. invalids.
The Sultan brings news that Major Collinftwood-,
of the 219 t Regiment, and formerly of the Crimean
Transport Corps, and Captain Maycoek, of the 11th
Regiment, have. been orderei to proceed to Alexan-
dria from Malta, to assist Coloael Pocklington in
the Conveyance of troops through Egypt. • -