The Northern Daily Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1857-01-31 00:00:00

Council from the ambassador extraordinary in
Paris, which announces that the Conference
relative to the Neuchatel question will be held
in Paris. At first a German town had been

named, but was opposed by Switzerland,. who
asked that, if possible, Paris should be selected,
and after it London. It thus is evident that
the wishes of Switzerland on the point have been
realised.

We regret to observe that there is at present
much suffering in Sweden and Norway. All the
accounts which come from the small ports at the
bottom of the Gulf of Finland and the northern
frontiers, draw a sail picture of the misery which
prevails among the unfortunate inhabitants of
Lapland and Finmark, bordering the North
Cape of Norway. Their crops of rye and barley
had completely failed, in consequence of the con-
tinuance of wet weather. All their hay rotted in
the fields from the same cause, and almost all
their cattle were slang,htered, from the inhabitants
not having forage to support them. Hundrals of
persons are dying daily of starvation, and those
whose physical strength enables them to contend
against their privations are compelled to live on
the bark of trees ground and cooked with oats.
In order to alleviate these sufferings, charitable
committees have been organised on the -opposite
costs of the Gulf of Bothnia, to collect contribu-
tions in kind, such as corn, flour, vegetables, and
spirits, which will be con‘'eyed to them across the
ice in sledges. As an addition to the sufferings of
these poor creatures, the cold is of a severity
rarely experienced even in these icc-bound coun-
tries

We have later accounts from Madrid. The
journals of the 2 ith inst. give some details respect-
ing the republican conspiracy, the discovery of
which made some noise a short time ago. The
conspirators, it seems, were arrested in the Galle
de la Magdalena, where: were seized some four
thousand proclamations, exciting the army to
revolt and to assassinate their officers ; some fire
arms, a cap of liberty, and a list of persons in
complicity with the heads of the plot. The leader
of the conspiracy was a retired colonel, and M.
Becerra, the captain of the national guard, whose
arrest has been announced, was mixed up in it.—
The affair is described as of no importance. At
Barcelona employment had been provided for the
working men, and all alarm of an outbreak had
ceased.

A. further perusal of our Australian advices per
the Overland Mail informs us that the financial
position of the colony of Victoria was never in a
more healthy state. The banks were doing a large
and steady business. Shares generally were at a
premium. The land in cultivation was equal to
143,000 acres, and a bounteous harvest was ex-
pected. The yield of wheat was 27 bushels per
acre, of potatoes 6 tons. The imports of goods
were large, but a brisk demand was looked for. A
correct census was to be taken in December. On
22th October, 27,543 ounces of gold were entered
at the customs for the Heather Bell to London.
Sugar was scarce, and in demand. The prices of
gold ranged from 73s 31 to 77s 61, according to its

origin, Balarat taking the lead. Nuggets are
reported of 71bs weight; 134 ounces, Sze. In
Tasmania, the Fingal gold ftdds continued to
engage attention, and the quartz was believed to
be very rich.

THE Ticket-of-Leave Men's Meeting, which
we reported in the NORTIIERN TIMES of Wed-
nesday, is typical of the age in which we live.
Centralisation, whether it be confined to intel-
lect and prosy preaching, or embraces the
various elements of government and mercantile
life, will produce the same uniformity of idealism
and action. Hence we must all expect to become
Cockneys in time. As we read, we most gene-
rally think ; and once an effeminate or morbid
warp is given to the public mind, the result will
show itself in puerile antics and abstractions of
dotage. In treating criminals according to the
Metropolitan notion of things, we appear to have
an illustration of childishness, the danger of
morbidity in riper years, and the silly propensi-
ties of old age. We first of all set three police-
men to catch each thief in the country. Then
we try the felon, convict him, and send him to
prison to he punished and reformed. The ver-
dict of a jury is put in force. The criminal is
punished, and is reformed according to law.
The change in the object of our commiseration,
we must assume, does take place, from the fact
of his being allowed to go at large before his full
period of penal servitude has expired. But this
is not enough. A strange sort of philanthropy
here claims to be heard, and it makes us brand
the reclaimed criminal as he leaves his prison
cell.

We give the man whom we think fit to be
restored to society a parchment brand, by which
he may be known wherever he sets his foot ; and
instead of leaving him free to get his bread, if
he can, we take from him his only chance of
earning an honest livelihood. What, then, can
we expect of these deplorable beings except a
speedy return to a life of crime ? Every day in
the year we send hosts of offenders to prison,
and let them loose again to return to their old
haunts, and a man may be convicted
summarily :half a dozen times, and still
be able to find employment in the locality
where his whole character is well known.
But the Ticket-of-Leave man is marked
and can rarely ever shake off the stigma
which belongs to the title given to his first
offence. There is but very little justice or
charity in dealing with criminals after this style.
I f the convict is thought to be sufficiently re-
formed to entitle him to a release from bondage,
he ought to be allowed to go free, with the
understanding that his next offence would, be

visited with transportation for life. The very
fact of his being a recaptured convict should be
sufficient cause for sending hint out of the
country. The injustice of the present system is
made more glaringly unjust when we consider
that the convict who remains in prison, or serves
his entire period of penal punishment, is released
without any ceremony, and is not made known
to magistrates or police, unless some accident
should reveal his former crime. I-Tow many
incorrigible convicts--men who have never made
any profession of their innocence, and never

showed the least desire to reform—have returned

home after twenty years' transportation, and are
now at large. Why then attach a condition to
pardoned criminals which cannot be applied to
equally bad and dangerous characters ?
The paltry distinction has forced many Ticket-
' men to return to their former vices, and the
stories told about them have so alarmed the
public that it would be an act of mercy to send
them all out of the country, or supply them with
food, clothes, and shelter for the remainder GI
the time they may have had to serve in prison,
and then let them go free without let or hin-
drance. As is, the men who have been reformed

by prison discipline and spiritual exhortation
appear to be specially marked for persecution.
Take the case of the man who spoke at the late
meeting. Here was a Ticket-man in a situation.
He is watched, his antecedents made known, and
the man is discharged. This is a most abominable
case of hunting down a wretched being when he
was endeavouring to regain his lost character.
And the result is, that the bulk of these released
prisoners are afraid of coming forward to make
their real condition known. This, however, is a
most mistaken notion. They have nothing to
apprehend from publicity so long as they keep
clear of crime ; while appearing boldly to answer
for themselves, and showing that they are
reformed men, they must in time overcome the
prejudice the public feel against them, and set a
good example to their fellow Ticket-men which
many may follow. Should Parliament, then,
take up the ticketing system, let us hope that
they will do away with the many anomalies which
it exhibits, and either give the reformed criminal
a free pardon, or keep him in gaol until the full
period of punishment has expired, and he can
return to society without any bar to his getting
his bread honestly. This may save London from
being captured by hobgoblins, and the Cockneys
in the provinces from being annihilated by a
handful of untameable savages.

TUE Liverpool Corporation propose to open
their Parliamentary campaign of 1857 with a
Birkenhead Dock Bill. The ghost of the Bill
which was contemptuously rejected last year by
SIR WILLIAM CLAY'S committee is to be paraded
again at the expense of the Borough, and to the
great joy of the battalion of professional gentle-
men who make such matters their prey. The
Doak Committee do not apply to the House of
Commons for a completement of the act of 1855,
and power to execute the works left unfinished,
according to the decision of former Parliamentary
Committees, as we find it embodied in the Bir-
kenhead Dock Acts. They will not make docks
to suit the convenience of railway companies, nor
according to Mr. RENDELL'S plan, as the Legis-
lature has directed. Their scheme has been
submitted already to-a Commons Committee. It
was rejected, and the rival plans were adopted,
and a peremptory order made to the effect that
the docks should be constructed in accordance
with Mr. RENDELL'S design ! Notwithstanding all
this, we have been credibly informed that a con-
siderable amount of work has been done in those
docks in direct opposition to the stipulations laid
down in what may be called " The Birkenhead
" Dock Construction Acts."

It would be difficult to devise a better way of
making corporate carrion for professional buz-
zards. Mr. JOHN STEWART'S knowledge of tidal
and other nautical matters connected with dock
making, and Mr. CHARLES TURNER'S contempt
for railway bodies, would be of little importance
to the Dock Ratepayers i< the litigation they
are about to create was to fall on their own
pockets. But when it must reach other's,
and threatens to carry the bane of
Liverpool Dock management and local oppres-
sion, namely, irredeemable indebtedness, to the
opposite side of the Mersey, it is high time for
the unanimous voice of the Ratepayers to inter-
pose, and ask—" What do those gentlemen
" mean ? Are they going to attempt to beard
" Parliament, and endeavour to cajole a Com-

mittee of the House of Commons a second

" time ? " To be sure they are. To induce the
Legislature to sanction one deviation from the
plans already approved, they propose many ex-
tensions, as vast almost as those embraced in the
4,000,0001. bubble. Acquiring laud and bor-
rowing money are subjects which have evidently
received the usual amount of attention from the
Dock Committee. The sagacions members of
that body seem to have discovered that posterity
will press en the opposite side of the Mersey, and
most perceptibly towards the north of Birken-
head. They propose, therefore, to give com-
merce such facilities in that direction as were
never dreamt of before.

Existing docks are to be altered, and
everything brought to face about, to meet
the future wants of the port of Liver-
pool. Was this meant to arouse the vested
interests on the other side of the river, and to
make Manchester take the field in defence of her
adopted maritime outlet ? The Dock Commit-
tee's Bill is not, however, the simple measure
which Parliament and the public have been led
to believe it would be, as will seen by this para-
graph of its preamble :—" And whereas the
" Birkenhead Docks may be rendered most
" available for the commercial purposes of the
" Port of Liverpool, in connection with the
" Liverpool Docks, by the alteration of certain
" parts of the works which, by The Birken-
" head Docks Act, 1855,' were directed to be
" constructed nd completed, and by the con-
" struction cf certain new and substituted
" works ; and it is expedient that the Corpora-
" tion be empowered to make such alterations
" and such new and substituted works ; and for
" that and the other purposes of the said under-
" taking vested in them by the Birkenhead
" Docks Act, 1856,' to borrow further and other
,‘ sums of money, to acquire land, and to obtain
" an extension of the time limited for the corn-
" pletion of the said Birkenhead Docks ; but
" the several objects aforesaid cannot be effected
" without the aid of Parliament : &c.,
There is far more in this quotation than we have
been led to look for at this early stage of the
amalgamation of the two Dock Estates.

When we first advocated the purchase of the
Birkenhead Dock property we expressed a
humble hope that it might not become the arena
of jobbery, and that the Dock Committee would
seek nothing more thin a simple transfer of the
estate as it stood, and would endeavour to make
the most of it at the least possible cost. How a
desire, in which the shipping interests, and
mercantile community generally, must have parti-
cipated to a large extent, has been responded to,
the Bill before us amply exemplifies, The Bir-