Northern Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1857-06-12 00:00:00

THE DAY'S NEWS.

In the House of Commons, last night, the
Vaccination Bill was introduced and read a first
time. Mr. V. Smith at some length detailed the
alterations which have recently been made in the
regulations of the service for officers in the army
in India. The New Insurance Bill will, according
to Mr, Wilson, be introduced next week. This
gentleman stated that, on the first vote of the civil
service estimates, he will make a general statement
as to the nature and causes of the ineaease of
charges under these estimates since 1852. Mr.
Wise introduced the subject of the Dutchy
of Lancaster. He complained of the very
prodigal expenditure indulged in, and at some
length proceeded to analyze the receipts and ex-
penditure. He showed that the revenues of the
Duchy were eaten up by burdens, and only existed
on paper. During the last 19 years the total
revenues were £722,900, of which only £251,000
went into the privy purse, and the outgoings were
£171,960. The hon. member enumerated the
number of officers, and their salaries, connected
with the Duchy, and appealed to the Government
to provide a remedy. Mr. M. T. Baines de-
fended the administration of the affairs of the
Duchy, and said that economy for some years past
had been exercised. and, after some conversation,
the matter dropped. Mr. Kinnaird called attention
to the administration of justice in India, and
moved resolutions to the effect that the present
administration of the lower provinces of Bengal
does not secure to the population the advantages
of good government, but that the mass of the
people suffer from oppression from the police, and
the want of proper administration of justice, and
that it is desirable that the government should
take imme hate steps to inquire into the social
condition of the people, and to ascertain what
measures of amelioration have been taken, and
also that such report be laid -on the table of the
House Slr. Dunlop seconded the motion. Mr.
V. Smith opposed the motion, and defended both
the Government and the India Directors for their
proceedings.
We are in possession of three day's later news
from the United States, and it is rather of an im-
portant character. General William Walker and
staff had arrived at New Orleans in the steamer
Empire City, via Havannah,which reached the first
named port on the 27th ult., with the California
mails. General Walker and the force under his
command, two hundred and sixty men—all that
remained of his army—abandoned Nicaragua on
the Ist May, were received on board of the United
States sloop-of-war St. Mary, in which vessel they
were convoyed to Panama. The Costa Ricans
were permitted to take no part in the terms
agreed upon between General Walker and the
American commander. It is stated that the
immediate cause of Walker's surrender was
a threat of the commander of the St. Mary
to seize the schooner Granada. Walker was
enthusiastically received by the people of New
Orleans. The despatch from which we learn these
particulars calls it a capitulation, but it was a run
for life, and a narrow escape at that. Walker and
260 men—all there were left of the grand " army of
liberation," took refuge on hoard the United States
sloop of war St. Mary, at San Juan del Sur, and
were landed at Panama. Thence they came to
Havannah, on the Granada, and connected there
with the Empire City from New York for New
Orleans Thus ends, for the present at least, one
of the most flagrant piratical crusades that ever
disgraced a civilised nation. No doubt there will
be grand parades and rejoicings over the head filli-
buster, whose marches through the Isthmus are
distinctly marked by the rude groans and bleaching
bones of the hundreds of credulous dupes who
followed him in his unhallowed career of blood and
crime. New Granada has ceded an island in the
bay of Panama to the English as an offset to the
Mclntosh claim. Lieutenant Strain, the leader of
the Darien exploring expedition, died recently on
the Isthmus. The news from California is un-
important. The Illinois left Aspinwall on the
19th, with two millions in treasure. Some of the
New York journals publish the inaugural address
of the President of New Grenaila, which they pro-
nounce as " a remarkable document?' He recog-
nises the necessity of cultivating good relations
and intercouse with the nations who, under the
influence of Christian civilisation, have become the
depositories of science, arts, and power. The
causes of the present political degradation of
Spanish America are touched with a philosophic
and truthful spirit,' and the necessity of time to
effect a change in the ideas, prejudices, habits, and
social condition of the people, are insisted on in a
calm but strong manner.
The message closes with
some remarks upon the proposed federation of New
Granada. In another column we publish a start-
ling narrative of the villany of Elder Pratt, the
Mormon missionary, and his tragic death at the
hands of an injured hpband. The account put..

ports to give the facts in the case pretty ntich as
they occurred up to the last act of the drama, and
from it may be learned what ruin may be worked
by a
.specious scoundrel, and the lures of a false
and licentious faith. 4- Pratt, it appears,
was a missionary of the Mormons at
San Francisco, and while there he fell in
with a weak-minded woman, wife of a person
named M‘Lean Ultimately, this woman eloped
with Pratt, and on the parents of M'Lean's wife
learning the heartrending intelligence, they begged
that her three children should be sent to them.
This the injured husband consented to, and the
children, in due time, arrived at New Orleans, and
took up their residence with their grind parents.
The children's mother, in the meantime, learned
these facts, and proceeded to New Orleans and
visited her parents. She got hold of two of her
children, and departed with them. Her husband
leafned this, and immediately left San Francisco,
arrived at New Orleans, and passed on to St.
Louis, where he had heard the guilty wife, her two
children, and Norman elder, were staying. He
arrived there, had Pratt arrested, and tried for
abduction and seduction. Pratt was acquitted,
and left St. Louis, on his way to the Salt Lake City.
M`Lean followed, overtook, and shot him, so that
he died in two hours. Such is the sequal to this
melancholy affair. ' •
There is not much domestic news of importance
this morning. At a special general meeting of the
members of the University College (London), held
on. Wednesday, a resolution was adopted con-
demning the proposal of the Senate to make
persons eligible to become candidates for degrees
in arts and laws 'who have not received a colle-
giate education.

A conference of ministerial advdcates of the
Maine Liquor Law is now sitting at Manches'ter.
We are afraid the reverend divines will not do much
towards ridding the country of the scourge of
intemperance. They would no doubt go much
further than Mr. Hardy, "and altogether close up,
not only beer-houses, but public houses.. A Lon.
don cotemporary in noticing the discussion. in the
House of Commons on this subject, says :—" The
multiplication of coffee and beer-shops haS been
one great step to social amendment; they have
helped to antagonise the gin-palace, and deserve
encouragement rather than restrictive and tyranni-
cal legislation. The allegation of increased
drunkenness, however, is a gross fiction, and we
are glad to find it was so pointedly discountenanced
by Mr. Ker Seymer and Sir George Grey. The
course taken by the latter was highly honourable
to the Government, for he, of course, represented
their views, as regards the Beer Bill It is well
that Ministers should not lend themselves to this
system of peddling interference with the interests
of large classes, without any solid or suffi-
cient reason. Nothing would he more likely to
damage the popularity of the Government, than
straight-laced legislation, under, the pretext of im-
proving the morals of the humbler orders, whilst
a profound deference is shown to the habits and
indulgences of the wealthy. The classes who
patronise beer-shops are acute enough to detect
any one-sided measures for abridging their com-
forts, and courageous enough, as they have shown,
to rssent what they deem insult and injustice.
The destruction of property by the fire at Pick-
ford s warehouse, in London, is much greater than
was at first supposed. There are various rumours
as to the origin of the fire, but none of a positive
character. By some it is alleged that the fire was
caused by the sparks from the chimney of one of
the'barges igniting some hay or straw in the gal-
lery ; by others, that it was from one of the men's
pipes, or a lucifer match. Certain, however, it is
that the premises, with all they contained, are
destroyed, and the estimated loss altogether is
little short of a quarter of million of money. It is
stated that at least 40,000 quarters of corn were in
the building, the whole of which has been burned.
Yesterday the Hon. and Rev. John Thomas
Pelham, D D., was consecrated to the bishopric of
Norwich, at St. Marylebone Church, by the Arch-
bishop of Canterbury, who was assisted by the
Bishops of London, Gloucester and Bristol, and
Ripon. Prayers having been read, a sermon was
preached by the Rev. Henry Venn, D D., Preben-
dary of St. Paul's. The Bishop elect was then
presented to the Archbishop. who went -through
the usual form of consecration, and Dr. Pelham is
now in unbroken contact with Peter the Fisherman
and Paul the Missionary Apostle.
In our paper of yesterday we alluded to the
exclusion of reporters from the interview with
Lord Palmerston on the subject of Medical Re-
forms. From an account of that deputation
which appeared in the columns of three of our
contemporaries, it might appear that we had made
a mistake as to the exclusion of the reporters. In
the Globe we find a notice of the deputation, con-
cluded by the statement that " the reporters were
not admitted." The Morning Post mentions the
same fact, and adds that the gentleman sent from
that journal was refused admission We beg to
assert that no person in the remotest degree con-
nected with the reporting department of the daily
press was present at the interview with that depu-
tation. Has Lord Palmerston turned reporter?
At the Court of Queen's Bench, yesterday, Sir
F. Thesiger moved to make the rule absolute
which had been obtained in this case against Lord
Ernest Vane Tempest upon the prosecution of
Cornet Ames for a criminal information. Therule
had been enlarged once or twice in consequence
of the solicitor for the prosecution not having been
able to serve the rule. The rule called upon the
defendant to show cause why a criminal informa-
tion should not be filed against him for assaulting
Cornet Ames, and for inciting that officer to com-
mit a breach of the peace. The learned counsel
said that he had the affidavit of a person who
had been to the house of the defendant
and had attempted to serve the rule. When
he went he saw a livery servant, who said
that Lord Ernest Vane Tempest was not in,
and that he could not give it to him until he came
in. He hoped the court would make the rule
absolute, as there could be no doubt that Lord
Ernest Vane Tempest had purposely got out of
the way for the purpose of avoiding the service of
the rule. Lord Campbell said there could be no
doubt that this was so, and he and his learned
br )thers were of opinion that the rule ought,
therefore, to be made absolute. Rule absolute
accordingly. _

Of local news there is nothing calling for par
ticular attention this morning

At the approach of the elections, a general lull
seems to spread over France. Instead of the
bustle, the liveliness, the noise, the debates, the
discussions, the vituperations to which we are
accustomed in England on such occasions—signs
of vigorous health and superabundant energy—a
silence like the silence of despair and utter hope-
lessness, broods over the whole country, from the
Rhine to the Mediteranean. The government has
spoken words of sham encouragement and unmis-
takeable menace ; and no real response has been
given. Mr. Billault's circular has deceived
no one, but it has angered no one. The
electors saw bayonets and cannons bristling
between its periods; but this has always been the
case with Imperial proclamations and addresses.
They learned nothing from the carefully con-
structed sentences—nothing,' save that the cha-
racter of the government under which they suffer
is unchanged ; that it is sternly resolved, whilst
making the most moderate professions and uttering
the most honeyed language, to stifle in its birth
any aspiratio❑ after liberty, to trample out every
reviving spark of eourage ere it is fanned into a
flame.

The other d.iy the Swiss Federal Assembly met
at Berne, and a committee was appointed to con-
sider the message .of the council proposing the
acceptance of the treaty relative to Neufchatel
The President of the Assembly spoke strongly in
favour of accepting it.

WE are not among that class who entertain
doubts as to our supremacy in India ; neverthe-
less it is but fair to admit that the accounts
received by the last few Overland Mails, justify
an uneasy feeling respecting certain revolts
which are reported to have taken place

among the native troops. According to advices
from Umballah, dated April 21, they
had burned their lines, and .killed or
wounded several European officers. At that
date we are told that the sepoys were in a
dreadful state of excitement. Meetings and
discussions on the all-absorbing topic: were
frequent, and the worst was anticipated.
"Where the matter will end," writes a corres-
pondent at Umballah, .‘ it is impossible to
say, but that the crisis is at hand, which will see
either the destruction of the growing hydra, or
the subversion, in some measure, of the authority
of the British Government, is apparent from
existing circumstances." This is, no doubt, an
overdrawn and highly coloured pictuie. Still it
contains as much of truth in it as must satisfy
the most sceptical, that there is among the native
army of India a disaffection sufficiently strong,
and extensively spread, as to be dangerous to the
existence or interests of the Government.-

The occurrence of mutinies is not unusual,
but their extinction has been effected with
comparative facility. All military history shows
that they are common incidents connected with
an army. Hence it is that they are calculated
upon, and the means to be taken for their repres-
sion provided. The most unsatisfactory portion
of the late news from India is not of a mutiny,
but the fact that similar incidents had taken
place at distant points of the territory, Coupled
with the no less disagree able idea, that where
direct insubordination had not been shown, there
were unmistakeable signs of turbulence and
discontent.

As far as the information which has reached
us, 'the cause assigned for the disaffection of the
native troops, is " the uncleanly nature of the
cartridges given them to use." To us this may
appear flimsy and fallacious. Not so to the
native soldier in India, who is influenced by
religious prejudices, and ideas of ancient date.
To interfere with either would be both impolitic
and dangerous.

In such a case, the better remedy to apply
would be a timely and graceful concession,
attended by some measure which would teach
the people whom we have to rule, a salutary
lesson of obedience to the constituted autho-
rifles. But we fear we must look beyond the
issue of " uncleanly cartridges" for the origin of
the entemtes among the Indian sepoys, Our
experience of this arm of the British service tells
us that it is not because they are idle" that they
have become discontented; and that the discon-
tent and disorders which have taken place cannot
be traced to the fact that they have no more
kingdoms or territories to conquer. Although
brave and hardy in the hour of battle, and
ready to sacrifice the last drop of his blood in
vindication of his Sovereign, we cannot regard
the sepoy as a soldier in the ordinary accepta-
tion of the term. He enrols himself as a soldier
not for the sake of fighting, but simply that he
may belong to what he regards a profession, and
which will impart to him more comfort, and give
him better pay, than any other to which he could
resort. It, too, gives him a life of semi-idleness,
and ensures him, provided he outlives the service,
a /small provision for old age. This feeling
accounts for the fact that there is: no lack of
recruits for the Indian army. Under such cir-
cumstances, we think that it is unfair to accuse
such an army of being instigated in their late
conduct at Meerut, Barrackpore, and Umballah,
from a sheer desire of military glory and dissa-
tisfaction, with their position as a soldiers. We
must, therefore, seek for other causes—and that,
too, in a different region.

Any reflecting mind who has watched
narrowly the policy of Russia—its overweening
anxiety to strip England of a portion of her
Indian Possessions—will at once confess, in all
probability, that Russian gold and Russian
influence is at the bottom of the matters upon
which we write. At resent they may not be
practically engaged in the perfidious dzsiga of
attempting an attack upon our Asiatic Posses-
sions; but we all know that in times of
profound peace, and when we were on terms of
the closest friondship with St. Petersburg,
aggressive designs such as we have suggested
were entertained, and engaged the serious
attention of the late Czar; and that now we are
only feeling the influence of schemes concocted
during our occupation of the Crimea—a period
when reinforcements to our decimated army
were on their way to the Red Sea and through
Egypt. We also know how the military deeds
of the allied army before Sebastopol were•
chronicled in India. England was always held
up as weak and ineffective, France all power
and efficiency. When a field was fought, and
the truth narrated. the Russian version instantly
appeared, so that one would almost suppose it
had been an extraordinary edition of the St.
Petersburg Gazette, supplied by electric tele-
graph.

It is to this that we are disposed to trace the
present spirit of turbulence which reigns in the
Indian army. The masses of the population;
who always have some grievance to put forth,
influence and act upon the army. One supposed
weakness instigates ignorant and desperate men
to gain th.eir objects by force and violence. If
not curbed in time, it may go too far,. and the
peace and welfare of 150 millions of people—
not to speak of our mighty commercial interests
which are at stake—demand instant, energetic,
and, severe measures of repression. On those
who have charge of our affairs rests a
deep and weighty responsibility in this mo-
mentous matter, If there be anything in #49