Northern Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1860-01-05 00:00:00

gious knowledge as for other subjects. The whole
proceedings were *highly— intere—sting.

At the meeting of the Town Council yesterday
an interesting, as well as protracted debate took
place on the subject of the Corporate Estate. From
the report of the sub-committee of Finance, it ap-
'Pears that the income of the Corporate Estate, from
all sources, for the year ending on the 31it. August,
next will be £107,074 ; and That the amount of
obligatory expenditure, up to the same period,
amounts to £91,062 also that the- 'expendi-
ture on account of schools, public charities, and
other similar institutions, usually sanctioned by
the Council, and on account of improve-
ments authorised by the Council, will be
£15,292. In course of the discusssion on
the Finance Committee's proceedings pointed
allusion was made to a purchase -of land made
some years ago by Mr. Alderman Bennett,
immediately to the south of St. George's
Hall. At the time Mr. Bennett purchased
the property in question, it was known that his
intention was to prevent that land from
being built on, as, if built on it would effectually
bar progress in the construction of a line of street
-straight in front-of the south end of St; George'-s-
-hall. In the estimation of many well informed
parties, the formation of that street was consi-
dered important in completing the general design
of St. George's-hall ; and, whether right or Wrong
Mr. Bennett, believing in the propriety of such an
improvement, risked his own money in purchasing
the property—no doubt a valuable one if built
on—but he refrained from putting permanent
structures on it. Having done so, it appeared
odd that his motions should be challenged by
parties professing to urge the town's improve-
ment. The questions raised by Mr. Jeffery
as to the details of income, value, and expen-
diture, with relation) to the COrporation leases
occupied a great portion of the Council's sit-
ting; but beyond keeping alive public atten-
tion to the subject, little was gained.
Another meeting of the Church Defence
Association \vas held last night, in the School-
room attached to St. Silas's Church. The pro-
ceedings, which were very interesting, will be
found detailed in our reporting columns. As
on other occasions, the property-rights of the
Church were ably vindicated by the Rev. Drs.
:M'Neile and Hume, at whose hands the subject
is certain to obtain a fair statement, aud, to the
honour of the town be it said, a patient hearing.

THE question which has been so long speculated
upon as fraught with vital consequences to the
United States of America, is every now and then
coming more prominently to the surface, seeming
as if it were close upon the point of decision one
way or the other; and then, under the weight of
a pre-ocCupied public opinion, falling back again
into the region of partial forgetfulness from
which it had emerged. This is the fate of all
great moral or social questions which do not come
immediately home to men's business and bosoms.
They do not lie on the surface- of the general
mind, and the very- depth of their lodgment
prevents any obtrusive presentation. They lie
in that region of the soul, where things, even
needing a practical treatment, are more thought
abOut and felt, than discussed and talked of.
They present many points for conscience to take
hold of: yet conscience needs a thorough sharp-
ening and awakening before it conquers its
tedium, and applies the spur so deep, and so re-
motely from every-day observation. It is this
natural reticence, when long continued, which
often deceives the bad men and the careless men
who perpetuate, or who tolerate old errors
and abuses. Yet when the outburst does
come, it is, -perhaps, the more overwhelming
for its long hqlding back. When the floodgates
do open, the torrent, long and noiselessly col-
lected, rages with surely prepared and irresistible
force. Men not upon the spot can discern the
signs of this with a more impartial and there-
fore more certain vision. And it is thus that the
whole civilised world sees in the slavery question
in America, a power of explosive material which
threatens, at no distant day, to bloW to pieces
the commonwealth in its present united aspect.
Its periods of subsidence are but the vidlent
efforts which the grosser and absorbing circum-
stances of every day make for the exclusive re-
gard which- they are so often, by the force of
accident, empowered to claim 'as their peculiar
due. But the receding tide, at every period of
its fall, leaves behind its fresh advancing mark ;
and in each periodical flux gathers more strength
from the ocean, and conquers an additional line of,
coast. The slavery question involves too many
feelings, deep embedded in the heart of humanity
ai d. in the spirit' of the Gospel, ever to cease
uncomfortably distracting the minds and con-
sciences of those who are in any way associated
with its maintenance. The rash zeal of those
who are too hasty and precipitate in the
propositions of change or abolition may, as.
some of the English Press suggest, tend
to lose all by foolishly rejecting compromise.
The moderate may be moved to the hesitation of
feai, and the interested to the strength of des-
peration:; but if Christianity has a grow ng ?over
in the United States, it is morally-and religiously
impossible that this question, shonld be burked,
or that it should not be now gathering strength
to disdain and, ultimately overcome all competi-
tion among political questions, and all opposition
from's-elfish and conflicting motives.

These reflections, or reflections of this sort, are
sometimes applied to certain political questions
of the day in this country, which in the mouths
of agitators, some specious and some violent, are
said to be demanding settlement and preparing
to extort it by the natural force of events. For
the present' We shall leave this limb •of the pre--
tended parallel, and confine ourselves to the