Northern Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1857-07-03 00:00:00

THE DAY'S NEWS.

A full report of yesterday's proceedings of the
Committee to inquire into the Liverpool and Bir-
kenhead Docks' Bill will be found in another part
of to-Jay's paper. The object of the bill is to
exempt ships using the docks on the Cheshire side
of the Mersey, and not using the Liverpool docks,
from certain rates which they now pay to the
Liverpool Dock Trustees, if any part of the cargoes
aro shipped or discharged within certain limits in
the stream of the Mersey. The Committee
have, we are glad to see, rejected the bill.
Sir James Graham stated, that the committee
were quite unanimous that considering the rights
of the creditors, the rapidly increasing trade of the
Mersey, the tide-way, and the narrow channel, they
would injuriously affect the rights of the creditors
and inflict a great injury upon commerce if they
were to entertain the measure. The committee were
quite unanimous in the opinion, that they
cannot pass the preamble of this bill. The St
Helen's Canal and Railway Bill, the last
of the series so connected with Liver
pool, was then proceeded with. This bill is
opposed by the Liverpool Corporation and the
Liverpool Dock Trustees. The object of the bill
is somewhat similar to that of the bill just rejected
by the Committee. Tr romplaing of thA Dues
levied upon ships loaded and unloaded in the
Garston and Widness Docks, and the Sankey
Canal, all within the port of Liverpool, and seeks
to exempt these places from the jurisdiction of the
Liverpool Dock Trustees.
In the House of Lords last night, the bill autho-
rizing the Great Northern Railway Company to
meet the frauds of Redpath, passed a second rea-
ding. The Adulterers Marriage Bill, the object of
which was to provide that after divorce on account
of adultry, the guilty parties should only be
allowed to marry again before a registrar, was
negatived by a vote of 62 to 23.
Mr. Duncombe will this evening in the House
of Commons, move a resolution to the
effect, that when the seat of any member
of the House has been declared void,
by an election committee on the ground of bribery
or treating, no motion for the issuing of a new writ
shall be made without seven days' previous notice
being given in the votes. A somewhat lengthened
discussion took place on Mr. Locke King drawing
attention to the large sums of public money which
had been expended by the Criminal and Scotch
Law Commission, without any result having been
effected, and moving that an address be presented
to her Majesty praying that the services of the
Commission be dispensed with. Sir F. Kelly de-
fended the Commission, and stated that they hail
made themselves masters of the whole of the
statutes from Magna Charta to the last year of
Queen Elizabeth, and he hoped that, in eighteen
months or two years, the laws of the whole of the
United Kingdom would be consolidated. He
therefore hoped that Mr. Locke King would not
persevere in his motion. The Attorney-General
followed on the same side, as did Lord J. Russell,
and after some conversation the motion was with.
drawn.
At the meeting of the Dock Committee yesterday,
a deputation from the General Brokers' Association
attended, and entered into the suiject of sampling
in the dock warehouses. The deputation com-
plained that the samples, as supplied to the brokers,
were not fair samples of the quality of the bulk of
the produce warehoused. This had created great
suspicion in the minds of buyers, and the brokers
wanted some system to be adopted which would
drive such suspicion away. It wan arranged that
the Warehouse Committee should give their atten-
tion to the subject.
The Wallasey Local Board of Health held a
meeting last evening. The annual accounts were
submitted to the members, from which it appears
that the income of the year was £8,751, and the
expenditure £7,479, being a surplus of £1,272.
At the Health Committee meeting, yesterday, it
was stated that the deaths during last week were
only 188, about 40 less than the corrected average
of the corresponding week in the previous ten
years.
The Liverpool Fioral and Horticultural show
came off yesterday The day was beautifully fine,
and the atten lance was most numerous and re-
spectable. A full report of the proceedings, in-
cluding a list of the prizes, will be found elsewhere.
In the London Court of Bankruptcy, Messrs.
SYere, Walker. and Co., lately trading in Liverpool
and London, have passed their examinations.
We have again devoted great space to the report
of the trial of Miss Smith, at Edinburgh. Miss
Smith is a young lady who has moved in the most
respectable ranks of life in Glasgow, and she ap-
pears to have, for three days, submitted to the
gaze of a crowded and an excited court with calm-
ness and self-possession. This is the ordeal she
may have to encounter for some time, for the
trial will be one, like that of Palmer, of a very
prolonged character. In looking at some of the
• Scotch newspapers, one would wonder why she
should have a trial at all, for we perceive that,
following the practice of many journals in
London, they do not condescend to suppose that
the prisoner may possibly be innocent, and
every criticism and description is written upon
the assumption of unquestionable guilt. The High
Court of Justiciary, however, conducts its pro
ceedings with the greatest sense of justice. Evi-
dence is taken for the prosecution before any
speeches are allowed to be made. The speech of
the advocate who prosecutes comes after, not be-
fore the evidence, and this prevents the jury from
being prejudiced by antecedent, comment, and

supposition. Not the least remarkable feature of
this trial will be the defence set up for the posses-
sion of arsenic by Miss Smith. It was by arsenic
her lover appears to have been poisoned, and, we
believe, it will be proved that the prisoner pur-
chased poison of that description. The defence, it
is said, will turn upon the use of arsenic as a cos-
metic preparation, ladies in Edinburgh and
Glasgow, as is reputed, being in the habit of using
arsenic, as well as belladona, to brighten up their
countenances. An Edinburgh cotemporary says
that a copy of Blackwood's Magazine will be pro-
duced containing an article by the late professor
Johnstone on cosmetic preparations, in which the
use of arsenic, as a means of beautifying the skin,
is somewhat fully treated. This article, it is said,
was read by the prisoner at the time of its publi-
cation, and first induced her to use that drug for
the improvement of her complexion, a habit which
she had since regularly indulged in.
The foreign news this morning is very meagre.
The Danish note has been received at Berlin, as
we are now informed by a telegraph from an
official source. It is stated that Lord Palmerston
desires the dispute to be transferred to an Euro-
pean Congress.
The discovery of a revolutionary plot at Genoa,
is confirmed, but no names or particulars are as
yet given,
From St. Petersburg we learn that the new
tariff law has been an agreeable surprise to ship-
pers. Iron, which was prohibited, is now admitted
at a moderate duty,
At Rome the appointment of M. Mentes, the
Mexican Envoy to that Court, is regarded with a
very unfavourable eye.
The issue of new voting tickets for the
three elections which are to take place on
Sunday commenced on Wednesday. The inde
pendent candidates are General Cavaignac, E.
011ivier, a lawyer, and Dareinon, editor of La
Presse

A. letter from Hong Kong states that Sir J.
Bowering and the French Minister were to leave
for Singapore to meet Lard Elgin and Boron Gros.
No important operation would be undertaken
before the arrival of the ambassadors of the two
great powers.
The screw steamer North American arrived here
yesterday afternoon from Quebec, which port she
left on the 20th June. Amongst her passengers were
Sir Edmu d Head,Governor-General of Canada,lady,
two children and suite, also a number of officers and
men belonging to the 16th Regiment. As soon as
Sir E. Head landed, the steamer proceeded to
Queenstown to land the troops. On the voyage, a
birth took place on board ,and a death the latterbcing
a private in the 17th Regiment. A complete sum
mary of the news by this arrival will be found in
our impression of t;-day. General Sir William
Eyre had been sworn in as acting governor-4eneral
during the absence of Sir E. Head. The steamer
Canadian, we regret to say, had not been rescued,
nor did it appear likely that she would be, at least
for some time to come. The crops looked well.

TnE mighty and important interests which
Liverpool has just now at stake in the Mersey
Conservancy Bill, and the determination of the
promoters of that unprincipled scheme will
plead our apology for so frequently referring to
the matter. It is certainly no joke to be robbed
of an income amounting to 100,0001. per annum,
and particularly where the right and title is as
valid as both law and equity can make it. Yes-
terday, we alluded to what took place before the
Committee on Tuesday, when Mr. MEREWETHER
declined to recognise the validity of the decision
of the Committee regarding the Conservancy
Bill, as far as its preamble affected the measure
for promoting the construction of the Birkenhead
Locks. Tne Committee having met, kni Monday,
the Counsel representing the Corporation of
Liverpool intimated their intention of withdrawing
the Construction and Management Bills. This
step was not taken without clue deliberation, and
we cannot avoid saying that, under the circum-
stances, it was the only course in justice to the
ratepayers which the Corporation could adopt.
Mr. MEREWETHER stated the views of the Cor-
poration on this matter, and showed that,
according to the standing orders of the House
of Lords, the bare acquiescence in the preamble
of the Conservancy Bill as amended by the Com-
mittee of the House of Commons would deprive
them of all opportunity of opposing the measure
in the House of Peers.

By the course adopted by the Corporation of
Liverpool, and the circumstances of which
they were not the originators, and over which
they had not any control, our neighbours across
the Mersey have had their prospects of prosperity
adjourned for two whole years ; seeing that
nothing can be done, should the Conservancy
Bill become law, until the new board has applied
to Parliament for the necessary powers. Well
would it have been for Birkenhead, if her best
interests had been less under the control
of certain avaricious Railway Companies.
Ere this the Corporation of Liverpool would
have been doing for the township that which
the former never can. Besides, those who idolise
Mr. RENDEL'S plans may rest assured, be the
new Board of Conservancy constituted as it may
that Liverpool interests will prevail, and that
the schemes which have been projected for the
Docks, on both sides of the Mersey, in,all proba-
bility will be carried out.
But this is not the matter of deepest moment
to the people of Liverpool just now. Her first
care should be to resist, as far as resistance is
practicable, the attempt to deprive the Corpora-
tion of Liverpool of the Town Dues. We have
frequently shown in these columns that these
Dues have been purchased by our forefathers,
and the fact of such purchase rendered the
private property of the people of Liverpool.
The sum paid for them in the first instance,
it is true, was small, but the income, at the
same time, was in proportion. By foresight
and judicious management, by looking to the
future as well as the present, and acting under
the conviction that Liverpool was to be the

commercial metropolis of the world, our fore-
fathers managed, by a judicious expenditure of
the Town Dues, to improve the port and
borough of Liverpool, until it has attained that
undeniable prominence which rouses the jealous
feelings of the city of Manchester, albeit the
property of the latter has been dependent
upon an onward progress. Without the means
of wafting to the shores of the Mersey the
Cotton Wools of the world, the spinning-jennies
of Manchester, her steam looms, her print