Northern Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1857-06-15 00:00:00

of feuds. It is far more fitting that the agitators
should surround Dublin Castle than that they
should besiege Downing-street."
The domestic news this morning is very meagre.
A. circular has been issued by the SAretary for War
to the effect that the number of non-commissioned
officers allowed on the establishment of the perms
nent staff of the militia being in several corps still
incomplete, his lordship, with a view of affording
greater facilities for their completion in this respect.
has approved, as a temporaey measure, of the
transfer of soldiers from the regular army to the
staff of the disembodied militia, after 18 years'
service, instead of 20, as heretofore.
The Prince of Wales has been moving about
incognito, and is to travel abroad in the same abated
condition. But what is the use of his incognito
when everybody knows who he is ?" It has been
asked. " The use," replies the Spectator, "is
considerable. The travelling in that avatar of
royalty amounts to laying aside the panoply of
state, and moving about like " anv other gentle-
man" who desires to see the country without
embarrassment. It might have been well for some
of the Prince's predecessors if they had learned
a little more of the land they seemed destined
to govern ; for, strange to say, the sons of his
house have not travelled, in any sense of the
word, with one remarkable exception. It amounts
to a truism, that it would always be better if a man
placed in so important a position as that of
sovereign, or likely to be so placed, were to be-
come acquainted with the land in which he was to be
enthroned from top to bottom, in the real habits and
daily life of his people. Yet hitherto the indis-
pensable part of royal schooling appears to have
been omitted. Now, it is quite impossible that the
heir-apparent to a throne, if he can never forget
the prince in his youth should acquire even a topo-
graphical acquaintance with his country. Proces-
sions cannot move over hill and dale, in highways
and byways ; and still less can the understanding
enter into communion with the things around it,
while by the forms of state the mind can only move
in procession.

An old woman was murdered near Bury on
Friday, full particulars of which will be found
elsewhere.

The news from abroad, this morning, does not
possess much importance.
In France the elections continue to be the great

topic. The Debats has published the list of oppo-
sition candidates, but it ungraciously and wantonly
marks out among them those whom it calls its
own. This is shabby on the part of the
Orleanist organ, as there could be no competi
tion between any of these candidates. The
Governor of the Bank of France, M de Ger-
niiiny, is not specially known as a political
economist of superior range of view, such as is
wanted at the head of an establishment like that
of the Bank of France. The Moniteur contains a

long and elaborate eulogium on the Legislative
Body, the session of which has just been closed. It
is of the nature of an epitaph, in which more good
is said of the defunct than ever was heard of him
during life.
Wa hear frog) a quarter likely to be well in-
formed that arrangements are either completed or

in contemplation for a conference of the Italian
Potentates, including the Pope, the Emperor of
Austria, the King of Naples, and the minor
Princes. The object of this meeting is said
to be to concert measures to relax the rigour
of government in the Peninsula, to improve the
administration of the law, and generally to ame
liorate the political condition of the people, with

the hope of giving the Governments flaeniselves a
larger and securer basis. If we be not raisin-.
formed, the Pope will preside at the conference, and
perhaps the journey his Holiness is now making
has had something to do in originating the scheme.
The Italian Government could not do a wiser
thing.
The Neufchatel treaty is now ratified by one
branch of the Swis Legislature, and is safe.

THE proceedings at the police-court on
Friday last, included the hearing of several
cases brought by the police against the proprie-
tors of public-houses, for permitting drunkenness
on their premises. We have no objection to

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nor of the punishment of all persons who aid
and abet its extension ; on the contrary, we are
the willing and zealous supporters of the
authorities in their efforts to abolish the
tippling system, well knowing that a drunken
people can be neither prosperous or happy.
Thus far, and no further, can we go
with the system now adopted by the police
for the purpose of regulating the conduct of
public-houses. The evidence given in the case
of Mrs. Fox shows that the practice of
sending policemen in plain clothes, for the
purpose of entrapping the unwary publican, is
still carried on. This, as Mr. ROBERTSON
GLADSTONE suggested, is un-English--it is not
fair play ; for, as the worthy magistrate justly
remarked, "Every man has a right to know
when justice, in an official capacity, goes to his
door." The practice is open to several very
grave objections, and these we shall briefly
glance at.

In the first place, we consider that the
practice of sending policemen in plain clothes,
for the purpose of laying informations against
public-house keepers is illegal. It may be that
no special Act of Parliament, can be found to
support this allegation. but if it is contrary to
the spirit of our laws and British justice, then,
we contend, that it is actually what we have
termed it—an illegal act. When a policeman
doffs his uniform, and enters spirit vaults
during prohibited hours, and then and there
presents himself as an ordinary customer, at the
same time having a prosecution in ;his mind's
eye, that being his sole aim in the call, he
assumes a character which he is not, and
although not legally he is morally guilty of
false pretences. The publican does not
know who he or she is dealing with,
and hence an unintentional error may be
committed through the very persuasion of this
detective. But, suppose this " plain clothed"
police-officer should ask for drink during
prohibited hours—and we have known instances
of this kind—does he not actually commit a
breach of the law ? lie is an accessory before
the act, and by his presence lends an apparent
approval to the violation of the law.
Independent, then, of the immoral tendency of
such scheming, and of the injustice of which it
is the parent, to publicans, we believe that the
spirit of the law is violated by sending out
police-officers in plain clothes, to detect and
bring to justice the violators of the enactment
which compels all public-houses to desist from
the sale of intoxicating liquors, during certain
hours every day of the week.
Independent of this illegality. we consider