The Northern Daily Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1857-03-02 00:00:00

accommodation as is enacted by the billet

he had endeavoured to obtain from govern-
ment a modification of the French legislation,
but had failed, before the lively opposition of the
merchants of Bordeaux and Nantes. All the wit-
nesses agreed in denouncing the terms of the
contract made with Fox, Henderson, and Co. The
Moniteur publishes the official returns of the price
of wheat for the three weeks ending Feb. 15. The
average is 27f. 81c., being an increase of 72c. as
compared with the preceding month. The highest
price attained was 33f ,at Marseilles, and the lowest
22f. 10c , at Charleville.
With respect to the Neufchatel affair, we are
informed that it has taken a favourable turn during
the past few days, and instructions for the Am-
bassador at Paris, Count de Hatzfeldt, are to
be sent off in a few days, and it is said that they
are of such a nature as to leave no doubt of the
early conclusion of the affair.
Our Austrian advices do not possess any features
of importance. Letters had been received from
Milan, detailing the Emperor Joseph's visit to the
several interesting monuments, buildings, &c., in
that city. M. de Bruck, Minister of Finance, has
arrived in Vienna from Italy.
The latest intelligence from Prussia states that
it is untrue that M. do Wildenbusch, Prussian
Ambassador to Constantinople, has been recalled,
as stated by some journals. That diplomatist has
merely obtained temporary leave of absonce to
visit this capital. The Berlin Chamber of Deputies
terminated the general debate on the divorce bill
on the 25th. Art. 1 was then adopted in these
terms :—" Amongst the causes of divorce hitherto
admitted, the following shall cease to exist-1, re-
ciprocial consent ; 2, incompatibility of temper ;
3, improper intercourse when only suspected ;
4, insufficient proof of exemplary conduct of a
wife separated from her husband." This de-
cision abrogates Art. 687 of the general law of the
country.
According to letters from Hamburg, it appears that
the last accounts given of the proceedings of the
Schleswig Diet went too far, in saying that they had
decided that the German language should be the
one generally used. What really took place was
the adoption of a proposition for an address
to the King, praying his Majesty to interfere in
favour of instruction in the German language.
This proposition was adopted after a very stormy
discussion, which lasted not less than seven hours.
The session of the State of Schleswig has been
closed, but before separating it rejected the pro-
position of the Government, relative to the levying
of the taxes for the years 1856.57 and 1857-58. It
was on the occasion of this rejection that the Royal
Commissioner declared that such conduct was a
violation of the constitution, and rendered the
majority responsible for the consequences which
may result from it.
It is stated that an exchange of despatches has
lately taken place between the Cabinets of
Vienna and Turin, of a somewhat serious
nature. M. Buol is understood to have pro-
tested against the encouragement which Pied-
mont offers to the national cause of Italy. The
reply of M. Cavour is stated to be dignified and
loyal. The correspondence is reporte to have
been submitted to the governments of England
and France. The Austrian cabinet has found, it
appears, little sympathy in Paris, whilst at the
same time her Majesty's advisers have not, by any
means, encouraged the threatening language of
Austria. The relations between Austria and Pied-
mont are not likely to improve. The former
seeks to bully the Sardinians, and they are not in
a position to accept insult.
We have Constantinople advices to the 20th in-
stant ; and from them we learn that the commis-
sion for organising the Turkish gendarmerie had
been nominatec! The English fleet was still at
Bujukdere. Two intendants had been arrested at
Constantinople for being concerned in a consi-
derable robbery from the treasury of the Sultan.
The Hungarian Mehemet Bey had accepted a
high command among the Circsasians ; and 400
Poles who had belonged to the legion had left for
Circassia. The Russian flotilla in the Caspian
Sea was, it was said, to land 2,500 men at
Astrabad.
Thereis not much additional news concerning Per-
sian affairs. Mr. Murray has arrived at Bushire, and
the English army have their head quarters at
Bussora. Teheran letters of the 4th inst. state
that the French and Turkish ministers at Teheran
have received instructions to support England in
the present difference with Persia. The former, in
particular, has been charged by his Government
to urge on the Shah the necessity of ratifying the
treaty which has been negotiated in Paris, and the
draft of which has been submitted to the English
Government, and otherwise to co-operate to the
utmost of his power towards the satisfactory
solution of the question.
There is nothing of importance from Greece. A
student had been found concealed, with arms on
his person, in King Otho's Cabinet at Athens on
the 21st inst. He was declared to be insane.
The official journal of Sicily states that Spinozza,
second leader in Bentivegla's movement, and
several other fugitives had been arrested by the
9:,:qsistance of the peasants.
We ihave Sydney advices to the 27th ult.inclusive,
by the ai
7ival of the ship Maid of Judah, off
Plymouth, wfill. X 25,000 worth of gold dust.
Politics were in a quiescent state, and commercial
affairs were steady and encouraging. The receipts
of gold dust from the South Awtralian fields alone
averaged more than 5,000 ozs weekly:- _The price
'at Sydney was £3 1.6 s 6d per oz. The Money
market was steady, and an active demand prevaileLl
for stock and bank shares.
Up to the hour of going to press there was no
intelligence of the British and North American
royal mail steamer Africa, which was to sail from
New York on the 18th instant. She is now out in
her twelfth day, and is hourly expected.

THE House of Commons has now before it a
bill for the better regulation of beerhouses, and
extending the licensing system to coffee houses
and oyster rooms. Some portions of the proposed
enactment are praiseworthy and salutary, but
others are highly objectionable, tending, as they
do, to introduce, surreptitiously, rules of an ex-
ceedingly harsh, inconvenient, and impracticable
character. Connected with the licensing system
there is a question of much interest and import-
ance to the publicans of the United Kingdom—
a question, by the way, which should long ere
this have been satisfactorily adjusted, and the
evils arising therefrom completely eradicated.
As the law now stands, licensed victuallers
only are compelled to billet soldiers. They are
obliged to receive and attend to the requirements
of the billet as often as it is issued upon them—
to rise at all hours of the night, and despite of
every annoyance and inconvenience, to receive
and provide for the soldiers quartered upon them.
This the soldier knows, and he is nothing loth
to insist upon the fulfilment of every right which
the billet confers upon him, A system such as
this is objectionable, because it is exclusive and
unfair. The only class in the community selected
for billeting soldiers upon is that of the licensed
victualler, He is also obliged to afford tempo-
rary accommodation to the raw recruit or the
ignorant and besotted militiaman, whilst all other
portions of the public are exempt. The magis-
trate, the banker, the merchant, and the country
gentleman, are free from the compulsory man-
date of the billetmaster, although it would not
require any great amount of argument to prove
that they of all other portions in the community
are more indebted for the services of the military,
and should be Amongst the first to provide such

system.
All laws which are exclusive in their character
are not only unjust in principle but oppressive
in practice. And if we were to ransack every
folio, leaf, and page, whereon are written the
statutes of England, we could not find a single
enactment which bears more clearly upon its
face the impress of exclusiveness,
injustice, and
oppression, than that to which we now refer
Let us examine the validity that it is unjust and
oppressive. As a body the licensed victuallers
contribute more to national and local taxation
than almost any other trade or calling. They
cannot, like the draper, the hatter, the cabinet
maker, the ironmonger, the butcher, the baker,
or the thousands of other callings which are
everywhere carried on, commence business with-
out let or hindrance. They must first obtain
and pray for their license, which is an annual
drain upon their pockets. Their premises are
generally high-rented, and consequently their
poor rates and other local taxes are proportion-
ately heavy. Again, the slightest infraction of
the law subjects them to pecuniary penalties,
which go to increase the national or local reve-
nues. Under these circumstances, we contend
that, if there is to be an exemption from the
billeting of soldiers, the licensed victuallers are
fairly entitled to that exemption, True it is that
the enobled peer, and the wealthy commoner,
the merchant prince and the banker, the broker,
and the tradesman, pay their income and property
tax, so also does the publican—they contribute
to the customs, and excise duties, so also does
he. Neither he nor his family can use any one
commodity that is taxable without first paying, as
every other member of community does, the utmost
fraction of duty charged thereon, Yet he must keep
an open house for soldiers on the march. His
family must be subjected to the rude demeanour
of an infantry soldier, the objectionable conduct
of a raw recruit, the disgusting practices
of a country militiaman ; and though last by no
means least, his household circle must be liable
to the contamination of a swearing dragOon or
the blasphemous oaths of an intoxicated trooper.
To reject a billet when presented subjects the
publican to pains and penalties, and might
perhaps place the renewal of his license in
jeopardy. Nothing further need be urged to
prove the injustice of this most objectionable
enactment.

But we have said that it is oppressive as well
as unjust. The truth of this position becomes
apparent, if we take into account the hours and
the circumstances under which hundreds of billets
have been and still are issued. A regiment
cross over from Dublin, and reaches Liverpool at
or shortly after midnight. They at once repair
to the billet office, and get their respective billets.
Imagine, then, a family retired to rest, after the
fatigues and labour of the day, suddenlyroused
at that particular hour when "the early village
cock has thrice done salutation to the morn" by
the mandatary knocks of a " marching" soldier
armed with the military missive alluded to. He
must obtain admission. In vain does the land-
lord apologise and regret that all his beds are
occupied, or that it is then an hour when it
would be impossible for him to obtain lodgings
" within a convenient distance." The soldier is
inexorable. He stands upon his right, and
although the former may be obliged to leave his
own bed, sleeping accommodation must be-found.
Surely a law which enforces such reqthrements—
which confines billets to the proprietors of public
houses, and issues them at all hours of the night
as well as day—is nothing else than unjust and
oppressive, It victimises a single class of the
community, so that the others may be free from
the burden and annoyance of providing for the
temporary lodgment of her Majesty's troops. Be
it further observed, that soldiers are the servants
of the entire public. They go forth to fight the
battles of their country without distinction of
class. They defend the liberties, they protect
the persons and the property of every single
member of the community, regardless of his
wealth or poverty, his trade, profession, or
position. Every man has therefore a direct
interest in the accommodation and comfort of
the soldier, and is bound, by the principles of
fair play and justice, to contribute, according to
his means and position in society, towards the
expense necessary to secure that comfort and
accommodation.
But, in addition to the foregoing objections,
it is a notorious fact, that in many cases billets
have been obtained for fraudulent purposes—
that the young recruit, who has a home in the
very locality where it is issued, as well as the
militiaman, whose wife and family reside in the
same town, apply for and obtain billets on a
publican, so that they may extort money and drink.
Nay, more, it has been known that recruiting
officers have lent themselves, in more cases that
one, in this town, to this mean and re;prehen-
sible conduct, If the upper classes were sub-
jected to Euch petty annoyances as these there
would be a shout of indignation, which would be
heard from one end of the country to the other.
Independent of these considerations, there are
other reasons why the billeting law now in force
should be entirely remodelled. When the act
was passed, the country was in an entirely differ-
ent position from what it is now. These regi-
ments proceeded from one part of the country to
the other, by marches of ten or fifteen miles a
day ; when they arrived at a country town, the
statesmen of the day considered that public
houses were the most available places for obtain-
ing lodgings for the soldiers, and, like all
their legislation of that day, the pre-
sent scheme was concocted with the view
of saving the aristocratic and wealthier
classes any trouble or annoyance. The times
have, however, changed, and by aid of railways
and steamboats we can transport any number of
troops from any one point of the country to the
other without the necessity of issuing a single
billet. A regiment is ordered from Woolwich or
Chatham to Cork, Dublin, Belfast, or Derry ; a