Northern Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1859-05-30 00:00:00

an interestingcharacte

body of Mrs. Bat

to a close, the jut

murder" against some person unknown. Jones, the
clerk, who is in custody .= suspicion, has been before
the magistrates.—The particulars of a diabolical
attempt to murder a London policeman, will be found
in our columns. It would seem that, early
Saturday morning, .the

policeman heard a great
noise in a house in .the Minories, and on getting
into the house, he found an enormous sized
black-fellow breaking all the furniture in the house.
He tried to seize himi and was following on the roof,
when the black turned on him, and stabbed him in
the head, neck and shoulders, so injuring him that
he is not expected to recover. The culprit was
secured. It is thought he is a lunatic.—A prisoner,
in custody of a dctectiue-officer, made a most daring
and successful escape from a railway train on. Satur-
tlaring I day, about a mile from the Minories. The officer

was left in the railway carriage with one of the skirts

of the prisoner's coat —Another serious tax defalca-

tion in London has been discovered, the ampuut, it is
feared, being much greater than the • £7OO which is
at present deficient.—Two cases of alleged kidnap-
ping of voters at Lyme-Regis have transpired, the
preliminary examinations of which have been tried.
The Court of Queen's Bench granted a rule nisi on
Saturday against the Mayor of Lyme-Regis, Mr.
Hurton, for improper conduct as returning officer at
the late election for that borough.

The Funds continuo to slightly improve.

We give the report of the official enquiry into the
loss of the Pomona, on her voyage from Liverpool
to New York. The conclusion arrived at is that,
" having materially weighed all the circumstances
which appeared torus to have led to this lamentable
shipwreck, we are.of opinion that great blame is
attached to the late master, Charles Merrihew,
inasmuch as that, when the light was seen at 11 p.m.
and supposed to have been the Tuscar, no soundings
were taken to verify his position, and subsequently
standing to the northward for four hours, he bore
up due west before any indication was given, either
by sight of the Blackwater Light vessel, or a cast of
the lead, of his position. We therefore find that the
Pomona was lost by default of the master."
The health of the Duchess of Kent was improving
on Saturday.

THE RIFLE

CORPS MOVEMENT,

THE Quakers are undoubtedly a very amiable
people. As members of society they possess many
excellent qualities ; andin all the relations of private
life they are generally most exemplary. But they
are only suited for tinies:43f peace and quiet. When
there are wars, or even ,rumours of wars, they are
quite out of their element. Their principle is
peace at any price ; and it needs no conjuror to tell
us„how unsafe, how unpeaceable a peace that would
be,if they had the making of it. Suppose that the
affairs of England were at this moment in the hand's
of a:a:taker Parliament, and a Quaker Government:
'What would be the consequence ? Why, we should
simply- be left naked to our ,enemies. There would
be no ships of war allowed to go forth to guard our
ek&nnels ; and no military defences would be per-
mitted tat our coasts. Not non-intervention merely,
but _non,-resistance, woald be the order of the day.
The ine:alble consequence would be, our exposure
Iggression of any neighbouring hostile

to tae

Power, or to any Power whatever that_ saw and
could not-resist the opportunity -of invading and
despoiling As. There are Powers in the world that
would think:nothing of proceeding ,to enslave us, if
we would let them —that would, if unresisted,
"block up seas, rivers, or harbours.; depopulate
cities ; condemn fertile regions to eternal desolation ;
cut off a country from its sources of' provision, or
deprive it of those commercial advantages to which
its climate, produce, or situation naturally entitle it."
Such calamities have been inflicted, before now,
where there was not the means of forcibly preventing
them ; and they would be again— ay, they would be
inflicted upon ourselves, in no very long time, did we,
under Quaker legislation and government, surrender
all ourpowers of defence and resistance. In such ,a
case, the day would assuredly but too soon corn;

when it would be said—
" That England, that was -wont to conquer others,
Rath made a shameful conquest of itself." •

This wouid be the sure and swift result, we May
depend upon it, of abandoning all idea of defending
our country film aggression— or even of neglecting
to be prepared to defend her when the occasion
arose. It is the assurance that England, should the
three'corners of the world come in arms against her,
is ready to " shock them," that deters her enemies,
whether open or disguised, from daring to assail her.
But under the Quaker system of non-resistance, this
would cease to he her position. 'or under that
system, not only is war unlawful, but to stand forth
in self-defence is unlawful also; The civArd is not to

as " dangerous careful drill sedeants, and
nursemaids will be instructed to avoid certain lanes
during certain hours, as they would the Valley of
the Shadow of Death. Merchants will dream •of
Thermopylae and patriotism, parade-grounds and
small glory, over their bales and ledgers ; clerks will
hear the roar of invading cannon in the rumble of
,every heavy street waggon; farmers' sons will
spurn the tame insipidity of villages and arable
land for the dissipation of the market town,
and the ecstacy of appearing as Free Mounted
Cavalry Rangers in the market-place." And so
it goes on,—exclaiming, with bitter satire, at
the end of its taunting paragraph, " How glorious!
How sensible! How patriotic ! How cheap !" But,
anon another vein is tried. The question is attempted
to be presented according to Cocker. " Every man
his own soldier !" it is argued, "is not a very
creditable cry in a country which spends one-third
of its enormous annual income—or four and twenty
millions sterling—upon what the Admiralty and
Horse Guards call our means of defence. We have
engaged in no wars of defence for nearly two •
hundred years, and yet we have accumulated during
that period our eight hundred millions of depressing
debt." But here our contemporary proves too much.
Why have we engaged in no wars of defence for
nearly two hundred years ? Why, but that, when-
ever such a war was threatened, we prepared, in
self-defence, to enter upon it so formidably as to
affright the would-be invader from his purpose. In
the proud and palmy days of the former NAPOLEON,
when an invasion of England was one of his ambi-
tious and vengeful designs, our armed volunteers it
was that deterred him from his desperate attempt,
ready to pour down, as he knew they were, in legions
upon the coasts of their sea-girt isle, and drive back
the rash intruders to be engulphed in the waves on
which they had been borne, madly exultant and
defiant, to our shores, in the vain hope of making the
English nation lie at their feet as its conquerors.
And so will it be again, should such an attempt be
foolishly made. We do not mean to say it is
altogether probable that it will,—though one does
not know what may happen should a rupture un-
happily ensue. But it is the part of wisdom and pru-
dence to be prepared for it.

THE COURT.

The Queen and the Princess Alice visited the Duchess of
Kent on Friday morning, et Clarence-house, St. James's.
The Duke of Cambridge and the Princess Mary visited
the Princess 'Frederick William at Buckingham Palace.
The Queen and Prince Consort, the Princess Frederick
William, and the Princess Alice, paid a visit to the Duchess
of Kent in the afternoon. Her Majesty also took a carriage
drive. The Equerries in Waiting attended on horseback.
The Queen and Prince Consort, accompanied by the
Princess Frederick William and the Princess Alice, honoured
the performance at the Haymarket Theatre last evening
with their presence. The Royal suite consisted of the
Duchess of Atholl, the Countess Perponcher, Lord Crofton,
Count Perponcher, Lord Charles Fitzroy, and Lieutenant-
Colonel Ponsonby.

The health of ihe Duchess of Kent is greatly improved

THE FASHIONS FOR AIN-E.—Among the most remarkable
novelties in the fashions of the present season, we must
notice the adoption of birds as trimmings for hats and
bonnets. On a recent occasion the Empress of the French
wore a bonnet of white crape, with a humming bird placed
on a spray of lilac. And on riding-hats birds of consider-
able size are placed as ornaments, and none but those who
have seen it can imagine the pretty effect of the cock phea-
sant in its glorious plumes at the side of a riding-hat.
Among fashionable stuffs, printed cambrics have many
admirers. The new fashions in this material are remark-
able for elegance and simplicity. Many of these are made
in small checks of various shades, on a white ground, like
the narrow striped and checked taffetas, and it is on this
account they are called pereale taffetas—in plain English,
cambric sarsenet. This new material has a very good effect
in sea green and nankin ; it is also very pretty in pink and
blue, and in various shades of lilac on a white ground. To
those among our readers who wish to unite elegance with
economy, we particularly recommend the percale taffetas.
The actual taffetas,_ of course, still remain in favour.
Of these taffetas some of the newest have small Pompadour
brochde flowers on a white ground, enclosed in checks,
formed by a very fine coloured line. Dresses of this mate-
rial should be trimmed with bows of ribbon, matching, or
at least in harmony, with the colour of the stuff. Some of
the Milanais taffetas are in broad striped violet, green, or
brown, in two shades. As relates to the make of dresses, it
is a known fact thatr there has been an attempt to restore
the fashion of skirts ; with the breadths cut narrow at the
waist, and gradually widening towards the bottom ; but we
shall be much surprised if this fashion gains ground. Sleeves
are made fiat at the top of the arm, and open from the bot-
tom to the elbow, showing the full tulle or muslin under-
sleeve, or the thicker muslin one in a morning dress. There
is another style of sleeve in vogue, made very wide and open,
lined with silk, and trimmed round the inner edge with
quilled ribbon. The sleeve is suitable to warm weather.
Bodies of dresses are made either pointed before and behind,
or round. The plain skirt is not discarded, but it must be
worn very full and long. In the way of trimming, quilles
have disappeared, but applications of a darker material than
that composing the dress have a very-good effect in design-
ing the corsage, and imitating the effect of the basque.