Northern Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1857-10-01 00:00:00

education and position gave some plausibility to
their slanders; they have been denounced as
partisans from whom an impartial administration
of justice was not to be expected; they have been
reprobated over and over again as Orangemen,
prepared on all occas one to sacrifice principle and
position to their Orange prejudices ; but no
attempt has been made to substantiate any of these
assertions. The evidence of Lord Enniskillen
before the Commissioners has called out leaders
in the Belfast journals. Respecting the Orange
Society, the Mercury of that town says :—" Look-
ing to the future peace of the country, we really
think it is full time that a Confederacy so mani-
festly useless, and yet so liable to he perverted to
dangerous purposes, should be abolished alto-
nether. Lord Enniskillen stated that the Orange
Society was re-Drganised for the purpose of coun-
teracting the pernicious influence and machina-
tions of Ribbonism—this was the only ground on
which he justified the revival of an institution
which, in the history of Irish politics, had earned
for itself the hostility of all parties in the state—
which has been condemned by both Houses of
Parliament and by the Crown. No doubt, the
new organisation is very different, indeed, from
the old one, but there is a vast deal in a name,
and it is difficult to persuaue people that the Orange
Institution of 1.857 is not, to all intents and pur-
poses, the Orange Institution of 1837. Besides,
the law is strong enough to deal with Ribbonism,
and every other form of secret society, without
the aid of the Orange Confederacy. Indeed, if
that Confederacy did not exist, the law would be
much stronger.

The Chancellor of the Exchequer has made a
speech at Kington in support of the Indian fund.
Sir S C. Lewis contends that the rebellion in Hin-
dostan is not a result of misgovernment, for Eng
land has conferred greater benefits on the people
of India than it has derived from them ; that the
native population has shown no disposition to
join the mutineers; that he is glad to think the
city of Delhi is not to be assaulted, but reduced ;
and finally, that ministers are prepared to show
they have neglected no means to make the autho-
rity of the Crown respected in India, and to
protect the lives and properties of its subjects
there.

The Continental news is not of much importance
this morning. The Emperor Francis Joseph left
Vienna at midnight on the 28th, No Minister
accompanied him. The meeting with the Czar will
therefore bear a strictly private character. It is
expected that Francis Joseph and Alexander will go
from Weimar to Dresden, and that King Frederick
William will likewise make a trip to the capital
of Saxony. Before the Emperor Alexander
departed from Stuttgardt, on the 28:.h, he met the
Emperor Napoleon at the villa of the Crown
Prince of Wurtemburg Only Count Walewski,
Prince Gortschakoff, and one of the aide-de-camps
of the Emperor were present a this reunion. The
Pattie, in a leading article commenting upon the
petition of the Bordeaux merchants, observes that
the " miserable relics" of the ancient French
possessions in Hindostan still consist of 188
square miles of territory, containing 200,000
inhabitants ; and it opines that the French
Government is disposed effectually to exer-
cise in all its plenitude the incontes-
tible fight to protect these possessions, and
thus to lead the way to a revision of the treaty
with England of May 30, 1814, which is "offensive
to our national dignity, and leaves our establish-
ments exposed to manifest danger." A letter from
Marseilles states that Mdlle. Rachel is at the last
extremity, and that her children, her mother, and
her brother have been summoned by telegraph to
the place where she is living, near Cannes.

SOME fifteen or sixteen years ago we remember
a number of ministers, chiefly of the Independent
and Baptist decomination, associated themselves
together under the name of the Evangelical
Alliance. They met periodically at various towns
in England and Scotland ; this year the meeting
has been held at Berlin, with the special sanction
and approval of his yrussian Majesty„ Some
twelve hundred clergymen assembled froth various
countries—France, Holland, Sweden, Germany,
Spain, Russia, Prussia, America, Scotland, Eng•
land, &I. They gave each other the right hand of
fellowship, made speech's, dined together, pre-
sented an address to that great and 'mighty
potentate the present weak ruler of Prussia, and
were received at the Palace. We cannot altogether
join in the somewhat contemptuous estimate
which some of our cotemporaries mAke of the
purpose and results of these meetings. They may
not accomplish all that was expected, and probably
they are of less consequence to the universe
.than
their authors fondly dream. But yet there may
be something good and promising even in these
one-si led and Sectarian assemblages. The
Alliance was foundel on a very proper and natural
desire to reach something more of unity among
Christians. How strange and discreditable it
appears that men and denominations who profess
the same re!igion of Christ should be so alienated
from each other—oftentimes hostile. Could
nothing be done to lessen this undesirable state
of things, and to produce more brotherly feeling
and combined action ? The Alliance was projected
to meet this want and accomplish this object.
Roman Catholics boast of their unity ; they taunt
Protestants with their diversities. BOSSUET, a
learned Roman Catholic divine, of France, wrote
the well remembered book called " The Variations
of Protestantism ;" and though CHMLINGWORTH'S
" Harmony of the Protestant Confessions" is also
extant, yet both sides continue to repeat against
each other the charges of corruption of Christian
doctrine and departure from Christian unity.
Why should not Protestants, sinking minor
differences, aim at showing that they also possess
a substantial unity ; not, indeed, an external
unity, under one acknowledged head, but a real
unity in the profession of a few grand and corn
prehensive principles ? In this kind of feeling
the society originated. It was to wipe off the
reproach of schism and division from the Pro-
testant name.

Behold how these Christians love one another !
was said of old See how Christians hate and
oppose each other, might be said in later times.
This is the stigma to be removed. Besides, there
cannot bo a doubt that the idea of unity preserved
in the Roman Church, how much soever it may
have been lowered and perverted, is still a sound
Christian idea. We have CHRIST'S prayer that his
disciples might all be one ; apostolic Exhortations
to maintain the unity of the spirit in the bond of
peace ; and reproofs because of the schisms and
dissensions that were beginning to show them-
selves in that early time. The object aimed at ty
the Evangelical Alliance was therefore laudable
and Christian, and most desirable if it could be
realised. How far the object is practicable among
Protestants, and whether the Alliance went wisely
to work are other questions. The Alliance laid
down a creed, and excluded those who do not
accept of that creed. It therefore excluded many
liberal Christians of England, America, France,
and Germany, &c., who do not accept of the
doctrines usually voted to be Orthodox. But no