Northern Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1859-02-17 00:00:00

J. R_ CAMERON,

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THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 17, 1859.

THE DAY'S NEWS

The non-arrival of the French mail leaves us
with a deficiency of Continental news this morn-
ing. The telegraphic accounts received, however,
continue quite as ambiguous as before. La Presse
maintains that the question of Central Italy cannot
be separated from that of Northern Italy, and it
foreshadows the possibility of Count Cavour's
withdrawal from office, in the event of any hesita-
tion being displayed by France. There were 8,000
persons at the grand ball given by the city of Paris,
on Monday night, in honour of the Princess Clotilda.
The Austrian journals have been ordered to
moderate the tone of their articles relative to
France.

Austria has proposed to the secondary German
powers treaties of alliance, with a view to ascer-
tain eventualities, and three of them have con-
cluded a secret convention with her ; but it is only
to be acted upon when the war shall be carried to
a different theatre than Italy. So long as it shall
be confined to that country, Austria
prefers to act
alone.

Le Nord asserts that Prussia,
hay, to a certain
extent, become the arbiter of the proesent situation.
Prussia will not promise France t
ai
ntain her
neutral attitude under any eventuality, nor can
r interest
she pledge herself to Austria to make
cause with her in any conflict in which e commonon
and her honour, in her double quality of great
German and great European power, shall not be
engaged.
The Queen of Spain has granted a pardon to Mr.
Parry, the Englishman who was condemned to.
death for having struck a Spanish sentinel.
The Breslau Gazette says, that a new loan is
in contemplation in Prussia, should events take a
threatening turn.
In the Spanish Chambers of Deputies, on the
11th in.st., the President of the Council drew at-
tention to the necessity of increasing the defences
of the country. He particnlarly alluded to Port
Mahon, because England and France, in the event
of a war, would endeavour to get possession of
that island to command communications with
Algeria. He also pointed out the necessity- of
fortifying Ferrol, as an enemy might, in a week,
destroy its arsenals, which had cost so many

Owing to the resignation of Lord Ebrington, a

vacancy is about to take place in the representation
of Marylebone. A deputation has already Waited.
upon Mr. Jacob •-Bell, but owing to this gentle-
man's distressing illness, he is reluctantly
compelled to forego .the honour of representing
the constituency. Various other names have
been mentioned, and Mr. F. Romily has 'issued an
address. Mr. Romily goes for Reform and the
Ballot, and a policy of peace abroad, and will
probably be returned unopposed. .
In the House of Commons, last night, petitions
were presented by Mr. Horsfall, from the ship-
owners of Liverpool, praying for an enquiry into
the causes • which depress the shipping interest ;
and Mr. A. Turner, from a dissenting body in
Manchester, in favour of the bill for enabling dis-
senters-to become trustees of endowed grammar
schools. Similar petitions were presented by Mr.
Kershaw, from Stockport, and several other
honourable members. Lord Bury moved the
second reading of the Marriage Law Amendment
Billithe object of which is to legalise marriage
with a deceased wife's sister. Mr. A. B. Hope
complained of the pertinacity with which this
measure was revived session after session. After
some discussion the bill passed a second reading.
At the WeSt Derby Board, yesterday, there was
some slight skirmishing between Mr. Kirkus and
Mr., Shaw, but it did not amount to an actual
" scene." The business transacted was not of much
importance.

At a special meeting of the Royal Infirmary trus-
tees yesterday, it was resolved to take some steps in
the shape of an appeal to the public to aid the
trustees in paying off a debt of £6,000, incurred
in draining and improving the buildings.
The annual meeting of the Liverpool Female
Penitentiary was held yesterday. The institution
is in an encouraging position.
Mr. Gough was yesterday elected: a Commis-
sioner for Birkenhead, in the place of Mr,
Eddowes. Mr. Gough polled 285 votes, and Mr.
87.
Hughes, his opponent, 198 ; majority for Gough,

THE MERSEY DOCKS AND HARBOUR
BILL.

THE large majority by which the second reading
of this Bill, in the House of Commons, was carried
the other night, appears to have very agreeably
surprised the town, after the formidable opposi-
tion with which it was thought to be threatened.
False rumours of defeat, to which one of our
contemporaries was but too ready to give
extended currency, had occasioned, in certain
quarters, considerable apprehension ; which, how-
ever, would seem to have been wholly unfounded,
since the second reading was passed by a majority
of seventy-nine, in a pretty full 'Rouse, a
majority sufficiently decisive to show the- strong
fealing of approbation with which the measure, is
regarded. in Parliamen t.

The opposition to the bill would seem: to be of a
two-fold character. It is not by any means a lceal
opposition, but one quite outside, and therefore
very unreasonable. As Mr. FoßvooD• stated

at the meeting of the Chamber of Commerce, the
Dock lloard "did not expect that in going to
Parliament for a bill of such a modest character,
they should have met with an opposition, quite-ex-
traneous to the interests of the port—an. opposition
not connected with the port, nor, as far as heeould
learn, from parties connected with the trade of the
important counties of Lancashire and Yorkshire."
Judging from the circumstance of the amendment
for postponing the second reading having been
moved by one of the members for Cheshire, it was
apparently an opposition emanating altogetherfrom
the opposite side of the Mersey, and thereibre of a
most partial and interested character. ft was
moreover, as directed against the second, reading,

so unfair as to amount to a positive refusal of any
opportunity to the Dock Board, to whom we must
do the justice of giving due credit for their anxiety

to promote the interests of the port, to urge their
arguments in its favour before a Committee of the
House.

But there was another quarter also from which
opposition. proceeded. Members of the late
Ministry, as such, spoke as well as voted against
the second reading. Mr. LOWE, formerly of the

Board of Trade, charged the Dock Company with
having failed in their engagements with that
Board, in 1858,—declared that, in fact, the
Company had altogther violated the conditions of
the arrangements into which they had entered
with it, the works they had then undertaken to

c3mplete being still unfinished; and Sir BENJAMIN
ILL, formerly of the Board of Works, asserted
that this very Bill would be a violation of their

engagement " not to expend more than a certain

sum of money on the Liverpool side till the

Birkenhead Doeks were in a state approaching
completion." But the present President of the
Board of Trade, Mr. HENLEY, who is acknow-
ledged to be a man of no ordinary discernment
and penetration, evidently could not discover any
violation of obligations which the Dock Company
had contracted with that Board.. He could
not understand, he declared, why all Dock im-
provement should cease at Liverpool until certain
unremunerative works ' had been completed at
Birkenhead. He believed, in the increasing com-
merce of Liverpool, and would therefore enable
the Dock Company to provide the necessary
Dock accommodation. Mr. TURNER, one of the
members for Manchester, supported the Bill,
expressing his belief that the works at Birken-
head would be carried out in their integrity ; but,
at the same time, expressing his conviction that
the commerce of the Mersey rendered further
Dock accommodation absolutely necessary. And
these sentiments evidently found a powerful, not
to say a general echo in the House, which passed
the second reading by the decisive majority we
have mentioned.

The Bill in question, as our local readers are
aware, is mainly for power to raise £300,000 for
the purpose of providing increased Dock accom-
modation on the Liverpool side of the Mersey.
That this accommodation is to be obtained by
the completion of some necessary works at the
north end of the Docks, in order to afford greater
facilities for the inland trade, and in connection
with it to the timber trade. Whatever com-
plaint there may be, in any quarter, as to certain
parts of the Dock Board's general management
of the important property under their
carge,
there can be no reasonable objection to such
a proceeding as this. A Special Committee of
the Dock Company has now the task in hand of
investigating the working of the Docks and Quays,
in which, it is thought; there has been
hitherto considerable fault ; and the assur-
ance has been given that that Committee
will endeavour to discharge its duties

THE NORTHERN TIMES, THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 17, 1850

fully and fairly, so as to secure the redress of
whatever may be wrong.' In' the meantime, the
Dock Board are bound to provide With as little
delay as possible, such further accommodation as
the growing necessities of the port demand ; and
it is to enable them to do this that they make their
present application to Parliameirt, in which it is
certainly most important to the interests of our
commerce that they should not be thwarted.

investigation of titles—allowing a period of fifteen
months for their examination and dispute ; and
when 'the Court has made an adjudication, and
issued a declaration thereon, the effect will be that
it is efficacious in substance for the purposes of
change of ownership; that is to say, that it is to
be a declaratiOn 'which will enable a valid title to
be conferred on sale or mortgage, or on lease or

settlement, or in any other dealing which is
described by the law as a dealing
.for valuable
consideration. And of this declaration an office
copy shall be given to the owner, that will be a
certificate of his title to the land ; while on the
occasion of a sale the vendor and purchaser may
apply to the Court, and instead of a declaration of
title, there may be a conveyance from the Court to
the purchaser. Such are the principal provisions
of the Bill ; and they certainly appear calculated
to afford an effectual remedy to the mischiefs and
inconveniences of the present system. The Court
is^ to be called the Landed Estate Court ; and the
Tudges are to have been conveyancers, in practice
for ten years; or to have sat in the Irish Encum-
bered Estates' Court 7 the salary of the first Judge
to be £3,000, and of the second £2,500. It is
expected, however, that the Court, after the first
yam., will be self-supporting.
The Solicitor-Generale expressed his conviction,
that the measure will not only lead to a substantial
increase in the value of land, -but be of great
advantage% to the interests- of commerce. And
this, as the- learned gentleman observed

without

endangering any right of any person whatsoever,
without interfering with any long established
practice, and without any costly addition to ofEees
or officials, a step at least will have been taken,

and that neither a trifling nor unimportant one,
towards removing the complexity and expense
which has so long been the reproach of the law of

this country.'

THE POSITION OF PIEDMONT

It was not very likely that a mere Principality
of Italy would ever have assumed. the hostile posi-
tion that Piedmont has taken towards a great
Power like Austria, had it not been backed by
another great and rival Power. And it is impor-
tant, we think, to bear this circumstance in mind,
in considering the case as it now stands—a case
so full: of danger; as it has more and more become,
to the peace of Europe. The King of Sardinia
has that Italian. Principality as a portion' of
his kingdom. Sardinia proper- is an island
in the Mediterranean, the principal portion
of which, is waste land. There is nothing of any
political importance in its sovereignty ; on the
contrary, it is only remarkable fe.r its political
insignificance. The kingdom of Sardinia, it is true,
extends•beyond• Piedmont, but it is this portion of
it (as a Principality) which gives the King his
importance in Italy. The seat of his government,
and the seat of his residence, Turilt is the capital
of Piedmont—Et fortified city of some note, the
situation., of which, at the conflux of the Dania
with the Po, is one of very considerable
advantage. But with all this, the King of
Sardinia, we repeat, was not very likely, with his
'comparatively limited resources, to assume a
menacing attitude to the Austricin Empire, without
that amount of support which,, through the recent
alliance, he has secured from France. And:for
what object, it may be asked, on the part of France,
—or, rather France's Emperor ? for the nation
itself has little to say in it Since there is no

real grievance to either one or the other, that is,
sought to be redressed, and there are treaties which
justify Austria in her position, the object may not
unreasonably be suspected to be an indefensible
one, when judged of in connection with so mc-
mentous a question—and it cannot be fairly judged
of apart from it—as the peace of Europe.
The position of Piedmont cannot be shewn to
be such as to warrant. the threatening demonstra-
tions which the Sardinian Government has made.
Count de CAVOUR'S excuse is, that " without any
fact having taken place either with us or in any
other part of Europe, the Austrian Government an-
nounced that it should send a fresh corps d'armee
into Italy, and that announcement was followed
by the execution of it with a rapidity and determin-
ation which appeared to remind us of the warlike
movements of the French Empire." But this is not
strictly correct. A fact had taken place, the fact,
namely, of the King of Sardinia having entered
into an extraordinary alliance with the Emperor
of the French, avowedly with reference to the
Italian question. And quite enough has since
been acknowledged, with regard to that question,
t o shew that Austria had good cause for looking
to the defence of her interests and her authority
in Italy. Count de CAVOUR pretends, that
" Austria assumed an attitude not defensive, but

truly offensive, whilst nothing had taken place
with Piedmont ; while it had made no movement
of troops, and while there was a complete truce in
diplomacy, as some time had elapsed since
Piedmont had occasion to call the attention of
Europe to the affairs of Italy." But it was this
very circumstance that created all the suspicion.
Had Piedmont called the attention of Europe to
the affairs of Italy, it would have been one thing,
and quite a legitimate one : it was quite another
thing, and one full of alarm, for Piedmont to call
the French Emperor's attention to it, by himself,
and to enter into not only a political but a family
alliance with him, involving the active co-opera-
tion of his vast armaments, and he the while
himself sheaving hostile feeling towards Austria.
There are Sardinian statesmen, we see, who
take much the same view as this of the question in
dispute. Count SOLAR DELLA MARGARIT4 for
instance, has opposed, in the Piedmontese
Chamber, the alleged necessity of any preparations
for war. " He felt convinced," he said, " there
was not a man present who could evince so abject
a spirit as not to rally round the King at a
moment of danger. But when a question was
brought forward which involved the idea of war
and all its concomitant calamities, the most
patriotic might hesitate, and pnidence recommen-
ded a strict investigation into the truth of the
assertion that the country was in danger." He
naturally concluded, therefore, where there was no
attestation of any such truth, that they were only
provoking hostilities. And as " to approve of a

loan for the purpose of arming troops and
providing munitions of war, would be to not only
sanction hostilities but to aid in seeing them
commenced," he could not vote for such a measure.
The Marquis COSTA DE BEAUREGARD took a
similar view of it. " Piedmont," he said, " was
preparing for war, and Count de CAVOUR was
doing all he could to provoke it." And this
remark having been met with cries of " No, no,',
he replied to them, emphatically, " Yes, yes "
maintaining that the warlike policy that had been
adopted has placed the kingdom in a perilous
position. " And," added the Marquis, ." for my
part, I will not give any encouragement to such a
policy. I will not approve by a vote of confidence
a policy which should always be opposed—a policy
which has done' so much injury to the internal
situation of the country." This policy, be it
remembered,. is the alliance-with -France policy.
It would never have been pursued had not Louis
NAPOLEON come forward to suggest, to incite,. and
to sustain it.

The position of Piedmont, then, is a Use
position, and one- as perilous as it is false. The
King of Sardinia has committed al great mistake,
and the sooner he retracts, and corrects it, the
better will it be far his own peace;. and the peace-
of Europe at large. His Majesty's First Minister,.
the- Count de C.I.VOUR, admitted that there
is arrayed against his present policy " the
opinions manifested by the English Government,
the. English Ministers, and the principal
speakers who took part in the discussion on the
Address, having expressed opinions favourable to
peace, and contrary to the pretended projects of
Piedmont to enter on an aggressive war." Let
him, then, ere it be too, late, advise his Royal
master to, defer to those opinions. He may depend
upon it, that they are opinions much sounder and
more disinterested than any which the French
Emperor would seem to have given ; and a regard
to them will not only secure the real interests of
Piedmontrbut promote that great object, without
which the progress of improvement, either
there or anywhere else, can never be advanced—
the peace and the tranquillity of Continental
Europe.

THE lONIAN QUESTION,

THE difficulties of this-

question, which Mr