Northern Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1857-10-06 00:00:00

for his opinions and comments on the conduct
of the British Navy, to which he belongs. He
is a member of the House of Commons, too, and
has there displayed the peculiarities of his public
and private character in a manner that at once
makes one anxious to hear what he has got to
say about India. Well, the Admiral has had
his say. He has spoken to the operatives of
Bury, and, as usual, it contains some portions of
natural good sense, mixed with a spice of
absurdity. He considers that the Ministry are
not alone to blame for the delay which has taken
place in the despatch of military relief to India;
the people, he says, are also culpable. Right,
Sir CHARLES—the people are to blame if they
tolerated delay, and aided the savage Sepoys of
Bengal to carry on for a more lengthened period
than was absolutely necessary the deeds of
cru-lty and brutality which each despatch from
India narrates. Sir CHARLES is troubled that
the blue jackets of England cannot take part in
the bloody contest on the banks of the Ganges ;
yet he steps out of his way to eulogise the
Government by telling us that the Cabinet of
Lord PALMERSTON may have been remiss at first,
but have made ample amends by their subsequent
energy, and then dilates upon the fact of thirty
thousand men having been sent round to India,
and the further reinforcements which are to
follow.

Here we are at issue with Sir CHARLES, and
cannot help thinking that there might have been
much more activity displayed, and a more earnest
desire manifested to cope with the mutiny at a
much earlier period ; and, what is more, we
would be disposed to regard the activity and
conduct of the Admiralty in a much more favour-
able light, if we saw them desirous of devising
ways and means to employ our naval tars in the
contest. Experienced as a naval offi.3er, Sir
CHARLES NAPIER failed, at least he studiously
avoided saying one word about employing a
strong flotilla of naval gunboats. If we can
traverse, with these implements of destruction,
the intricate and shallow rivers of China, and
penetrate into the interior of the province of
Canton, what is to hinder us from sending forth
a fleet of well-equipped steam gun-boats up the
Ganges and the other leading rivers of India,
when disaffection, mutiny and murder has shown
itself? We answer, nothing but Governmental
neglect or indifference. Sir CHARLES NAPIER
would have talked much more-sagaciously at
Bury had he demonstrated how and by what
means we can send out some four or five thousand
of the navy to take part against the murderous
Sepoys. Thousands of English sailors pant to
have an opportunity to take part in the contest.
Country and clime have but little effect upon
these men. From their very youth they have
been obliged to rough it. Feats of strength and
agility are common to their nature, so that as a
storming patty at Delhi, they would be matchless.
Again, there was inconsistency in the speech of
of the gallant Admiral; for, while eulogising the
ministry for its later actions, he attributes to it
the undesirable quality of " weakness" in not
making the army and navy fit for every emergency,
and gravely hinted that Lord PALMERSTON, being
like other ministers, permitted that unfitness,
from " a fear of losing his place." Sir CHARLES
NAPIER'S speech is quite characteristic of the
He has mingled with a good deal of
professional rubsish some truths which will do
the administration no good. Although we are
not quite certain but, as the hero of Acre, he
would very much like to be appointed to a seat
at the Admiralty Board, where he could carry
out his theories and opinions, notwithstanding
their impracticable character.

Most of our readers know that the Secretary
of the Navy, Mr. BERNAL OSBORNE, who
addressed his constituency at Dover, is considered
among the most witty and satirical speakers
in the House of Commons. As such, he was
dreaded by every Tory Ministry in office since
he has had a seat in the House. The Whigs
have found him a most important and valuable
advocate. At length he was rewarded with
office. This has muzzled him on any occasion
where he could find fault with his party. His
speeches now are rare, and quite harmless, com-
pared with those delivered in former days. The
one at Dover the other day was, however,
remarkable from the fact that, after a " thick and
thin" defence of the Government in all that it has
done since the commencement of our Indian
troubles, he, in the most dexterous manner,
availed himself of the horror which the brutalities
and butcheries of the mutineers have planted
in the breast of every Englishman, to draw off
attention from the errors of omission and com
mission committed by those upon whom the
high, important, and responsible duty devolved,
of maintaining the integrity of the Empire, and
stemming with alacrity, effect, and permanency,
the avalanche of insurrection. Upon this part
of the question Mr. OSBORNE has had his reply
from " the other side of the House ;" for, among
the very few good things said by Mr. DISRAELI,
the country must feel with him that our first of
duties is that of moderating the outcries for
indiscriminate vengeance into something more
approximating to the heroism of Christians.
The pugnacious member of the Treasury Bench,
ere he makes another speech like that which he
delivered at Dover, will do well to read the pages
of England's history in India, and then ask
himself the question—has not England com-
mitted awful atrocities upon Hindostan, and has
she not, more than once, attempted a war of ex-
termination ? Is not the council of the " angry
boy" of the Admiralty, that of another attempt at

exterminating the native population of India
from their own soil? No one can, or does, for a
moment countenance the deeds of violence and
blood which stains the character of the Indian
Sepoys. They are shocking to contemplate—
but awful, and truly sad in the extreme as may
be the ejects of this mutiny in India, they must
have had their causes. To-morrow we are
"commanded" by Her Majesty the Queen to set
apart that day to fasting, prayer, and humilia-
tion. That will be an appropriate time to enter
into an enunciation of the topics suggested by
our concluding remark.

AT the last Special Meeting of the Water
Committee their Pike engineer, Mr. HAWKESLEY,
was again present, and certain members of the
committee interrogated him closely as to the
future of the Pike, and the probabilities, if any,
of improving the quality of the water. As
usual the replies were indefinite, but he gave
the committee to understand that he had never
pledged himself to the question of quality, and
that the water was as good, if not better, than
he had anticipated, and in his opinion quite
good enough for the stomachs of the people
of Liverpool. As his answers were not satis-
factory more definite replies were insisted on,

when the great little man waxed wroth, declaring
himself to be a grieviously injured man, that
he had sacrificed everything for the corporation,
and had his professional character jeopordised
for his zeal and fidelity—that he had received
10,5001. was true, but the money had done
him no good, that the continued assaults made
upon him and his scheme had rendered him
perfectly miserable. That in having brought
the water to Liverpool he had fulfilled all he
ever undertook to do—that for the future he
was resolved to wash his hands of the committee
and the scheme —that he must no longer be
considered as the paid servant of the corporation ;
but, he magnanimously added, that if the. Water
Committee stood in need of his valuable advice
he was prepared to give it at any time without
fee or reward. Generous offer, indeed !
—one which he might make with the full
certainty that it never would be accepted.
Of Mr. HAWKESLEY, personally, we know
nothing, and care less ; with individuals, as such,
in our public capacity, we have neither friendship
nor hate; we deal with the acts of public men,
and not with the men ; and when we find an
opponant convinced or coerced into an acknow-
ledgement of error our antagonism forthwith
ceases. Mr. HAWKESLEY is, according to his
own sheaving, a fallen and a miserable man,
and under other circumstances we would not
add to his degradation ; but there are circum-
stances in his case which, for the present at all
events, steels our helrts against pity or
sympathy. We recognise in Mr. HAWKESLEY
the author of a scheme which we have over and
over again denounced as one of the most
wicked and disgraceful ever conceived by the
mind of any man ; a scheme which had for
its object the withholding of a first necessary
of existence from a community of 400,000 souls,
which has to a certain extent in its partial
development deprived our poor of one of the
greatest blessings providence could vouchsafe
them—an ample supply of pure water.
This Pike scheme was founded in decep-
tion; and has been reared to its present
proportions by a system of reckless tyranny,
oppression and injustice, such as never was
inflicted on a confiding people. Have we not
witnessed our champions of freedom—our
cosmopolitans, liberal and enlightened patriots'
the very men who were ever to be found in
the van of human progress, fighting for the
cause of mankind, who, once brought under
the influence of the spells of this necromancer,
become the veriest tyrants that ever cursed the
earth —have we not witnessed the havock made
amongst party-ties, and the fatal shipwrecks of
old and tried friendships during the fierce
conflict which interested, unprincipled, and
unscrupulous men so long waged, in order to
accomplish their own sordid purposes ; and can
we forget all these things now that the recoil
has taken place, and pity them who did so
much to circumvent us ? Certainly not.
The Pike has fallen, and crushed its author
amongst the ruins ; so perish all, say we, who
practice similar courses. Mr. HA WKESLEY'S
severance from the Water Committee is now
a matter of little moment. Would that we
could have conveyed to him the congratulations
of the people of Liverpool on his retirement;
as it is we, in common with our fellow-townsmen,
only rejoice that a stumbling block is removed
from the path of our Water Committee, who
are now at liberty to follow the dictates of their
own honest convictions without the dread of
being overridden by their own servant. We
regret that the Committee did not, at their
last meeting, decide conclusively on an imme-
diate return to the well supply, without any
further boggling about the matter. True, the
Town Clerk was absent, and as his presence
is considered essential prior to their coining to
a final conclusion on the subject an adjournment
took place until this day. We confess, these
repeated adjournments are most tantalising,
to say tilt: least of it.
We do hope that the committee will delay no
longer in complying- with the expressed wishes
of the great mass of the people of Liverpool,
but that they, irrespective of every other con-
sideration, will direct that the well-water be
restored to them. It is not enough that their
engineer has become wedded to his own scheme

—of a double line of pipes--and that he intimi-
dates the committee by declaring his inability
to give an adequate supply unless his own pro-
ject is carried out. We trust the committee will
submit to no dictation, or anything appertaining
to it, from any servant in their employment.
There has been sadly too much of that already.
If the committee are not competent to decide
what ought, or what ought not, to be done, then
they proclaim to the world their incapacity for
the discharge of the duties they have undertaken.
It is the province of a committee to pass such
resolutions as may appear to them best suited to
promote the interests of their constituents, and
it is for their servants to carry these resolutions
into effect. Any committee acting otherwise are
worse than nonentities. We speak advisedly
when we say that no difficulty, no risk or in-
convenience, need result from the immediate
restoration of the well-water, if the matter is
only set about with an honest determination.
The " bugaboo" about the Corpozation being bound
by certain clauses in an Act of Parliament is
all "bosh?' No Act of Parliament can compel any
public body to perform impossibilities, nor would
the Legislature think of insisting on forcing un-
palatable water on the town, when there was
plenty of the pure fluid to give them. The
cry raised about danger from fire is equally
groundless. In short, nothing ought to satisfy
the committee, as assuredly nothing will the
town, save an immediate return to our well
supply, at all hazards.

Yesterday we published, from the pen of a
correspondEnt, a faithful account of the present
state of the water and the works at Rivington,
and we recommend itsperusal by the Water Com-
mittee. There is nothing particularly new Qr
striking in the report, but it affords abundant
corroborative proof, if such were necessary, of
the soundness of the views .we have ever ex-
pressed on the subject. There is now no (Neel
to be gained by exaggerating the abominations
of the Pike water, and our correspondent has
carefully abstained from all such; but he has
seen and said enough to convince any un-
prejudiced mind that the Pike is what all must
now admit it to be—a, total failure, not only as
regards the quality of the water, but the quantity
promised is evidently not to be procured. We
have previously declared our intention not to
say or do ought calculated to embarrass the com-
mittee, knowing as we do the difficult and some-
what perplexing position in which they are
placed, but we cannot help urging upon them
the absolute necessity which exists of putting
an end at once and for ever to the state of
suspense in which the town has been so long
kept on this most important subject. And we
hope we shall be enabled to announce to our
readers, in our next impression, that their
decision has been in unison with the anxious
wishes of the whole town—a result which will
be hailed by universal acclamation.

We read in the Weekly Dispatch :—" The conscience
money' paid to the Chancellor of the Exchecrier is some
index to the moral sense of the nation. Peed), makes a
joke of it ;we regard it with pride and hope. It shows
the strength of the small still voice' among us. It marks
the lusty vigour of our ♦irtue. Taxation is a species of
obligation about which the notions of mankind are prover-
bially lose. A payment to Sir Cornewall Lewis must indeed,
indicate the throes of an over-mastering ♦irtue. Here is
another form of the same spirit, from that epitome of
the hopes, fears, and passions, the wants and wishes of
the world, the advertising columns of the Times :—' Never
too Late to Mend.—lf any young ladies who were at
a school close to Leamington in 1836, kept by an unmar-
ried lady (since dead), can recollect the fact of having lost
some small sums of money—supposed to have been lost,
but which were really stolen from them by the advertiser,
she will feel obliged if they would wrae a few linos to say
whether the amount may be returned or given in charity,
and address M. R , Nil desperandum, General Post-office,
London, to be kept till called for.' Since 1836, for twenty-
one long years, has this secret sin rankled in the repentant
heart. Like the ball in the woanded soldier that the
surgeon's art could not probe, it weighs upon the system,
but' is cast out 'at last. ' Were :really stolen by the
advertiser.' She will not only restore, but make-
confession. Restitution is not enough, nor repentance,
she must render every 'jot and tittle of her shame and
confusion of face to the uttermost farthing Your sin
will fled you out,' says the prophet ; better still, this
penitent has found out her sin."
The Leader thinks that: the :vegetarians and total
abstainers have been deprived of one of their best argu-
ments by the horrible events in India. " Who• that has
endured a lecture on the immortal virtues of the crystal
flaid and the physiological effects of green stuff, has not
heard how it mollifies the character, and inspires humanity
with a saintly moderation ? Who has not been told of the
meek Hindoo and the sober Mohammedan? Well, we see
at last what these rice-eating and water-drinking fellows
are. How the honey, herb, rice, butter, curd, and sugar-
' eating, and milk-and-water drinking rabble have revelled
in blood ! How the chivalrous nobles who slay their
maidens at the approach of pollution have tossed naked
English girls into the street to be outraged, tortured, and
trampled to death ! They must not kill a rat, snake, or a
83a, but give them a thousand white women and children,
and the water-drinkers will become worse than cannibals.
Among the Marquesas savages, when it was resolved to
eat a virgin, they simply took off her clothes, laid
her upon a block, passed a knife into her heart,
and thus mercifully prepared her for the fire. So, at
least, the old ,voyagers say. But these Brahmins,
who feed like lambs and drink like gazelles, and these
Mahommedans who hold fermentation in horror, fasten
men and women to trees while they whip their children t
death, or wring their necks, or carve them to pieces ; the
blood of the infant is dashed in its mother's face, the
husband sees his wife ripped open. Verily, there must
be no further allusion to India by the disciples of Por-
phyry. They must not say again, Look at the Hindoo
who eats rice and drinks water; he would not willingly
harm an insect, and establishes hospitals for superannu-
ated cows ;' or, Mark how the Moslem, who drinks
water will not tread upon a piece of paper, least the name
of God should be written upon it.' He has trampled on
the image of God itself; and we have no intention of
arguing that he would have been a less brutal coward
had he fed on flesh and inebriated himself with brandy
instead of bhang. All we insist on is, that a vast number
of vegetarian total abstinence fallacies will be exploded,
in a popular sense, by the incidents of the Sepoy rebel.
lion."

A curious result of official printing and publishing is
shown by the annual reports of parliament of the Patent
Cornm, ssionerw. It appears that, from the beginning of
their operations, in Cc'ober, 1852, to December, 1856, they
have expended in printing £119,886 lfi.s. 9d , and have
sold printed copies-of specifications, indexes, &c ,to the
amount of £3,932, so that they have on hand unproduc'ive
stock of the nominal value of nearly X 116,009.