Northern Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1857-12-23 00:00:00

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WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 23, 1857.

THE DAY'S NEWS•

Fr At the Bankruptcy Court, yesterday, the case of
Mr. Doherty, late a corn-merchant in this town,
came before Mr. Commissioner Stevenson. We
report the proceedings at full length. It will be
seen that Mr. Doherty refused to answer a great
number of, question-8 which might criminate him-
self. The total amount of Mr. Doherty's debts
are about £lOO,OOO, £83,000 of which are secured.
He began business in 1851 with £2,000 only, and
at the time of his stopping business operations.
he was in debt to the Liverpool Borough Bank to
the tune of nearly £33 000.
The proceedings of a meeting of the creditors of
Messrs. -Wright and North, shows the manner in
which paper accommodation is carried on iu the
iron districts.
Although ihe money market is stated as showing
improvement daily, commercial disasters are, just
now, very frequent. Depression continues in the
manufacturing districts, and destitution among
the operative and labouring classes. Want and
discontent are spreading in the northern counties ;
and riots so abrining as to call for the inter-
venticn of the military are occurring on several
points. For some days past the colliers in
Lord Granvrle's pits, aboUt Barnsley and
Hanley, have assumed a menacing attitude,
and commited serious damage. These riots, how-
ever, are the rcsult of a strike, not of want of
work. At Middlesborough, in the North Riding
of Yorkshire, there have also been serious dis-
turbances created by the ironworkers there, who,
to the number of 400 or 500, paraded the town,
demanding work or bread. A detachment of the
sth Dragoons had to be brought in all haste from
York. Altogether, we fear, there is anything but
a " merry Christmas" this year awaiting the work-
ing population of England.
The case of alleged perjury by a gentleman
named Robinson, in the celebrated action for
°rim. con., tried in Liverpool Borne years ago, is
now before the Court of Queen's Bench. The
evidence is almost a reiteration of that already
published. We shall, in to-morrow's publication,

give a detailed account of the present ation. Want
of space prevents us doing more than merely
alluding to it here.
Two of the three Birmingham gun makers,
charged with having felonious possession of mili-
tary storee, were convicted at the Warwick Assizes,
on Monday. From the revelations made on the
trial, there can be no doubt but that the govern-
ment stores have been long and systematically
robbed, and any measures that may be taken to
suppress such serious losses, and to punish the
guilty, should meat with general support. We are
not aware of the intention of the prosecutors as to
pursuing their crusade against the wrong-doers,
but wheth::r further proceedings are taken or not,
Mon iey's convictions will act in a salutary manner.
The prisoners were not sentenced.
Yesterday another fatal accident occurred from
the eagerness of the public to obtain a view of the
launch of the Leviathan. A number cf persons
had congregated on a craft a short distance below
Millwall, having been ferried across from the
opposite side of the river, when a gentleman,
stretching himself forward, lost his balance, fell
overboard, sank, and was drowned. After beinv
in the water nearly an hour the body was found,
having been carried by the current a considerable
distance down the river.

There was an interesting meeting of colliers and
a few employers at Wolverhampton yesterday. It
was explained by one of the colliers that circum-
stances would not allow them to send a written
invitation to every employer, but they had an-
nounced their meeting to the whole district. The
same spokesman read a calm and respectful
address upon what the colliers consider to be their
painful position.
Some few days ago, Mr. F. W Stevens, a London
stock-broker, preferred a charge of robbery against
a gentleman named Killby, and that the charge was
dismissed by the Lord Mayor. 'We regret to learn
that the disgrace which Mr. Killby conceived to be
attached to his confinement in a police eell, has so

preyed upon his mind, that he has committed
suicide.

The inquest on the body of the young woman
Maria Blackmore, who was murdered at the fashion-
able watering-place of Lynton, in North Devon, has
terminated in a verdiot of wilful murder against
John Barwick.

In a case which came before the London Court
of Bankruptcy, yesterday, the debits were under
£2OO, and the assets were still lose, consisting of a
" donkey and cart," not yet realised. Really it is
time these matters should go to the Insolvent
Court, the main principle of this court being that
it is a tribunal for the distribution of assets.
It would seem that the campaign of the India
Reformers has forced the Government to a decision
respecting the East India Company, and such
decision is said to be the almost sompletwannilli-
lation of the Company.
From abroad we have several interesting items
of news. The Imperial decree abolishing serfdom
in the LiAsusnian provinces of Russia, is published
in the St. Petersburgb. newspapers. It bears the
form of arescript, addressedito the Governor-General
or the government districts of Groin() and Kowno,
and to the Military Gsvernor of the government
district of \Vilna. The fundamental principle
of the measure is, that the proprietor is only
proprietor of the soil, and not of the man
who tills it, and it establishes distinct rights for
both parties, for him who gives the soil, and for
him who gives the labour ; the latter being
secured against removal, and having even a legal
prospect of becoming the owner of the land which
he tills and of the house in which he lives.
Herr Von Manteuffel, the Prussian Prime
Minister, has taken pains to explain to the artisans
of Hamburgh why Russia has refused to lend
them money. Among other things, he says
that it was far better they should apply to
Austria, as they afterwards did, because the
Austrian Bank, not being in the embarrassing
position of that. of Prussia, which is obliged to
rsalise its notes, could petter part with any hard
cash it happened to possess. Nor could Prussia
persuade herself that any advanca of money on
her part •could have proved effieacious against
the commercial crisis, as events afterwards have
amply testified. But the Prussian Ministers of
course bad immediately taken the lsmand made
by Hamburgh into serious consideration, as the
welfare of that commercial emporium must always
be dear to Prussia.

It may he now said that even the North of
v.urope, which has suffered most from the monetary
crisis, seems to have been the worst. It is not the
help afforded, but the bankruptcies, which have
done the work. All over PI ussia, and in the interior
of Germany, only minor firms have succumbed.
The Kangaroo, screw steamer, arrived here
yesterday, with one day's later news from the
United Sates, and 250,000 dollars in specie. The
news is important President Buchanan has dis-
missed Governor Walker, of Kansas. He had also
caused Mr. M`Keon, District Attorney for New
York, to be removed from office. it appears that
Brigham Young is determined to oppose the
United Slates troops, and there seems to be no
doubt, but that a collision will occur between the
Mormons and the military, this winter.

THE 8.8.'5, that is, the Bullionists and san-
guinary Bears, are caught in their own trap.
The Manchester " Pig upon Pork" bills cannot
he rediscounted at ten per cent. Lombard-street
has survived the dishonest assaults of the London
Times. Messrs. OVEREND, GURNEY, and Co.,
and other discounters, who can get money
without going to the Bank of England, are cash-
ing bills largely at eight per cent. OVERSTONE
and Co. cannot do this. They have gone the
full length of the tether, and Llrd OVERSTONE'S
paper, the London Times has gone round just
seventeen-thirty-seconcis within forty-eight hours.
Our cotemporary thinks now that, the Bank of
England ought to treat the dictation of the ten
per cent. Premier with contempt. He sees gold
flowing into all the sewers of the Metropolis.
The FIFTY MILLIONS lost by a six week's panic,
and the ONE HUNDRED MILLIONS lost by the
depreciation of home and domestic produce, are
not to be considered for another moment. Gold is
pouring in from all quarters, and the proprietor
of seventeen-thirty-seconds of the London Times
must have such a reduction of the rate of
interest as will enable his customers to make
" profitable investments" in low-class Cottons !
What a sudden change ! How the Bank of
England will be extolled for its excessive prudence,
and how Lord PALMERSTON will be reviled if the
rate of discount is not reduced to eight per cent.
instanter. The " Pig and Pork" interest must
not be sacrificed for another day ! We admire
the disinterested enthusiasm of Printing-house-

square on this very important subject. It is so
natural. Men must obey their masters. But will
a commercial nation suffer themselves to be
longer duped by such systemised juggling ?
We may rely on receiving large remittances of
gold from Australia and America, and well the
London Times knew that a large supply from our
Southern and Western Colonies was on its way
to England when it wrote to produce the com-
mercial and national catastrophe of 1857. Its
writers knew that the panic at New York origi-

nated with the mercantile classes who resolved
not to be "shaved" by the Wall-street Bufflon-
ists, Restrictionists, and Usurers. When the
American bankers refused to discount with a
superabundance of gold in their coffers, Wall-

street was besieged, and the Banks were forced
The movement became general

o close.

throughout the States, and it will be some years
before the American Bullionists attempt again to
tamper with trade. Here our readers see the
trus cause of the American crisis. Commercial

dishonesty, and a desire to wipe off the debts due
to foreign creditors, as the London Times has
alleged, was never dreamt of by the American
merchant. This is proved by the large ship-
ments of gold which have been o this
country within the last month. Tatre were no
first-class bills in the New York market; and
merchants, to save their credit, shipped bullion
to meet their Eig;ish bills. But We shall be

told that the ten per cent. wisdom of the PAL-
MERSTON Cabinet, and the extraordinary caution

of the Bank of England, have produced a favoura-
ble turn in the exchanges, and a rapid reflux of

of gold.

"Bah !" we say, to this Cockney blar-

ney. The commerce of America has righted
itself on the ruin of Bullionism.

Will the merchants and manufacturers of
these Islands follow the American example when
hankers run riot in trade ?: and will the B ullion-
ists take warning by the remarkable ,ar►.d

salutary precedent we have recorded ? For
the present, we must content ourselves
wits the marked revival which took place in our
Cotton Markets on Friday and Saturday. On
the first of these days 5,000 bales of Cotton
were sold. On t last, 10,000 bales were
sold. An advance of about id. per lb.
was realised on first-class Cottons, and an
improvement of id. per lb. was quoted for
inferior descriptions. On Monday 8,000 bales
exchanged hands. Spinners come down
from Manchester in considerable force, and we
have reason to believe that the largest buyers
on Saturday were the very holders who sacrificed
their stocks in the early part of last week, for
anything they could get in the shape of money.
There arc some sound practical deductions to be
drawn from these facts. The London Times
tells us that the failures in the provinces repre-
sent 35,000,0001. of liabilities. Can this
astounding statement cause any surprise, when
men are constrained to make forced sales on one
day in the week, and forced purchases three or
four days afterwards ? There can be no stability,
safety, or reliable profit in trade while Ministers
and political servants of the State are suffered to
interfere with the commercial rates of discount,
and London newspapers are allowed to make
millions of money for a clique of eighteen-pence
in the pound capitalists, by slandering trade,
and trampling on the commercial. integrity of
the whole country. If such a system is to con-
tinue, there is but one antidote the nation can
resort to, and much as we despise the dangerous
expedients which bye-gone demagogues employed
for political purposes, still the only safeguard
against panics will be the revival of the cry—
" Run for gold."

If we are to lose 150,000,0001. by banking
restrictions and currency quackery, every five,
seven, or ten years, some means must be found
of rescuing the commerce and industry of the
people from such intolerable penalties. The
practical and successful example of the American
traders is before our eyes. Banking restrictions
were resorted to on the other side of the

Atlantic, under the shallow pretext of checking

the drain for gold. The merchants resisted them,
by drawing out their deposits as far as prac-
ticable. The Banks suspended " cash payments."
But out came the gold. The respectable mer-
chants had no idea of paying the Wall-street
price for money, or allowing their English bills
to be returned with ten per cent. added to them.
They therefore insisted on having gold to export,
and the Banks were forced to disgorge. The
gold is coming to us consequently, and will con-
tinue to come, until confidence between America
and England is restored, and commercial paper
is no longer despised by eighteen-pence in the
pound bankers, and their hireling newspapers.
The Cotton Market of Liverpool has, to the
astonishment of the panic-mongers, survived the
crisis, and once more presents one of the best
challenges for the employment of. money. Low
classed cottons, which have hitherto
been neglected, are forcing their way
upwards, and although the stocks of
the the finer qualities. are for the present
comparatively in excess of the demand, we anti-

ticapate an active demand far them when the
larger number of the Lancashire mills can be
said to be at work. Meanwhile, pric7s in
America will probably continue low and
unsteady until the news by the next
outward ►nail reaches the States, when trade in
the American ports will assume a more cheerful
tone, and regain its natural buoyancy, to the
great displeasure of interested Alarmists on
both sides of the water.

THE question of Indian Reform, not only as
regards the temporal Government but spiritual
welfare of the native population, has been well
ventilated in the City of London during the
past week. The meetings held at Willis's-
rooms, and St. Martin's-hall, have given to
certain eminent public individuals an opportu-
nity of enunciating their opinions and senti-
ments on the very important Matters to which
we have just made reference. Bat it is not in
the metropolis alone that the public attention
has been called to the past, present, and future
rule of India. There is scarcely a corner in the
United Kingdom where you will not meet the
inquiry, " What will Government do with
.regard
to the East India Company's Charter ?" We

reply, abolish it ; and, in support of the adoption
of this course, shall take a cursory glance at the
governmental management of Hindostan by the
Hon. East India Company.
It is, just now, one hundred years since Gene-
ral CLivs fought the memorable battle of Plassy,
and, with the nominal loss of twenty-two sol-
diers killed and fifty wounded, scattered an army
of nearly sixty thousand men, and subjugated an
empire larger and more populous than Great
Britain. It is undeniable that the result of that
engagement decided the fate of India. Since

e period to which we allude, brief though it is

in the history of a great nation, England has had
an onward career of aggression and subjugation
until she has at length acquired a sway, direct
and indirect, over the inhabitants of Asia, who
are numbered by hundreds of millions. As Mr.
ROEBUCK and Mr. Justice COLERIDGE, at the
meetings alluded to remarked, the assumption of
Governmental rule over such a vast portion
of the habitable globe, and a population so
numerous and far removed from civilisatimi,
and the heavenly influences of Chris
tianity, involved upon the conquerors duties
of no ordinary character—duties which relate to