Northern Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1859-06-14 00:00:00

menced yesterday

unusually important one, in fact more important
than any since that which contained the name of
Palmer, to whose case that of Mr. Smethurst is by

some persons compared.
John Lockhart Morton, a merchant in. the city,
was finally examined at the Mansion House, on

iturday, and committed for trial, on a charge of

and uttering a b

:change for £5OO.

The prisoner read to the court

statement, in which

he acknowledged his guilt, detailed the circumstances
that led to the perpetration of the crime, and lastly,
expressed his willingness to suffer the full penalty of
the law.

A melancholy result of family quarrels and
indulging an unbridled passion was shown at South-
wark police court, on Saturday, when Mr. Burcham
committed a young man, named Jeremiah Coghlin,
for trial, on a charge of wilful murder. The victim
in this case, James Fadden, was brother-in-law to the
prisoner, by whom he was stabbed with a knife
during a dispute about some trifling matter.

_41...

ROMAN CATHOLIC CLAIMS

THOSE claims, Lord DERBY'S disposition to grant
which, gained his Administration the favour and
support of the Roman Catholics who assert them,

at the late Elections, were made-the subject, a day
or two since, of an important and influential move-
ment in the metropolis. It was a meeting to take
measures to obtain for the Roman Catholic inmates
of prisons and workhouses the rights of religious
equality and the spiritual assistance they require
to the good order and discipline of those establish-
ments. The remark of the Chairman (the Hon.
Charles LANGDON), in opening the business, that
" they were old enough to remember the time when
the Roman Catholics were struggling for political
freedom and for the redress of other grievances, but
he never knew any evil result to arise from the
open expression of Catholic feeling and opinion,
while in adopting the present course they were only
adopting that pursued by other classes of the com-
munity,"— such a remark, we say, suggests a suffi-
cient excuse for their proceedings ; and when, to
this, he added the expression of, his hope, " that in
dealing with the subject they would not allude to

any political party in the state, or refer to any
Government, as all they asked was even- handed

justice, whatever party was in power," he certainly
disarmed, in the very outset, all opposition, could
any have been offered on such an occasion:

But when they came to the practical business of
the meeting, they presented, we cannot but think,
a claim to the liberal sympathies of the English
people, Protestant though the great body of them
undoubtedly are, which it would be difficult to
resist. The first resolution, for instance, setting
forth, " that by the constitution of this country, and

in particular by the acts of the legislature in regard
to such of Her Majesty's subjects as are not of the
Established Church, it is recognised as a high and
sacred principle, that full and perfect liberty both in
religion and education should be enjoyed by the

people of this realm,"—such a declaration as this, so
full of trust, and so characteristic of justice, can
never, in an age like the present, fall powerless and
objectless uport the public mind of England.
What they complain of is, that they have not that
perfect liberty, in religion and educkion to which,
as British subjects, as living under institutions which
provide that there shall be no disqualifications on the
score of religion, for any privilege which, as English-
men, even the poorest and humblest of them, have a
right. As another of their resolutions set forth,
" that notwithstanding the great and unquestionable
principle of our laws, a large number of Her
Majesty's (Roman) Catholic subjects, inmates of
prisons and workhouses in England and Scotland,
are at this time deprived of the full and free 'exercise
of their religion, both as to religion and education,
viz., by defective and unfair registration in- work-
houses, by obstructions to the entrance and inter-
course of the (Roman) Catholic clergy with (Roman)
Catholic inmates, by strong inducements held out for
the attendance of (Roman) Catholics at Protestant
services, by visits in private of Protestant chaplains,
by the placing of (Roman) Catholic children under
Protestant teachers and in Protestant schools, by
removing them from the legitimate influence of their
pastors and friends, and by various other ways. of
management in detail." Nov this, it must in fairness
be confessed, is not just and under the circum-
stances of this country. It is a grievance - a real, an
intolerable practical grievance, and that too in