Northern Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1857-10-07 00:00:00

middle classes, aroused by Crimean disasters.
As is our power, so is our responsibility.
A great French Statesman said, a few months
before the mutiny broke out, that the
remarkable thing was not the existence of our
Indian Empire; but how little our statesman
seemed to know about it, and how little our
middle classes cared about it ; and he was right !
The middle classes of thi; country have not
cared one straw about India; have never made
themselves acquainted with the vast country
whence so many of them draw their fortunes,
and all of them procure half the luxuries of
their homes. The very idea of India was a
" bore " to them ; they would not listen to a
speech on the subject from their representatives,
and their members would hardly " make a
House " when important measures connected
with the welfare of 150 000,000 of English
subjects were to be discussed. This indifference
has ceased; we are willing enough to listen
or to read now ; but we have not been roused
from our apathy till the honour of our daughters
had been violated, and our sons murdered.
Nor is India the- only subject on which we
have shown great indifference. In all the great
interests of our nation we are too careless, and
too self-confident. Blest with freedom, civil
and religious beyond all other nations, we are
not devoting ourselves, heart and soul, to the
great duties to cur fellow subjects which devolve
upon us. De.spotic Emperors issue edicts, which
attempt to provide for the poor, educate the
ignorant, and reform the criminal, and the
responsibility of the middle classes in those
countries is small indeed ; but in this happier
land these movements spring from ourselves, and
it is on us that the responsibility of poverty,
ignorance, or crime devolves, as it is we who
will suffer if we do not faithfully discharge it.
Do we value our political power enough, and do
we always give our voice and vote on all subjects
from purely disinterested motives, and for what
we, in our consciences, believe to be for the good
of all ; or do we hardly care to defend our
electoral privilege it attacked, or walk up to booth
or hustings, if it be inconvenient at the moment ?
Do we select the best man for the place, even if
he he too honest to bribe, or too independent to
cringe ? Are we prepared, if called upon, to
step forward and take our share of the work,
even if at some sacrifice of inclination or money ?
or do we throw the responsibility on some one
else if we can, and as long as society is
agreeable and business lucrative, follow the
example of GALLIO, and " care for none of these
things." Meanwhile, is there no band of
" Sepoys" at our very gates, brought up in every
species of crime, which may one day turn upon
us ? Is there no army of heathens in this very
city, whom our sectarian differences prevent us
from converting to an honest life and a future
Heaven.

Let us all, then, on this day which has been
set apart by those in authority as a day of
Humiliation and Prayer, think rather on our own
omissions than on those of Ministers or Gover-
nors-General, meditate as to the political good
each can do in his own sphere, however humble
it may be, and pray that we may show no care-
less indifference to the happiness of our fellow
subjects here or in India, and that Gcn will give
us each grace,to do our duty in that state of life
in which he has placed us, and to discharge
aright our own responsibilities.

RECRUITING. —" J . W. M." writes to the Times :—I was
stand ng with URIC curiosity before a very taking plac aid,
headed with 'he Queen's arms, and underneath the bold
legend, 4' Britons, arise ! avenge your slaughteerd country-
men and countrywomen in the Els," (ell in bold capita's) ;
then " l'he Indian Mutiny !" beneath which there was a
very glowing account of the glorious life of the British
soldier ia India, which, oa the whole, was not much
exaggerated, for it merely stated that he was generally
carried in a palenquin if inclispesed for marching,
and that he had a servant to attend to him when
in cart.p or cantonments, with a constant service
of hot c ff,e, tea, and creature nourisnments when
on duty, whin I observed two young men approach
the wall on which it was placed, and began to read it.
They were well-dressel, stou' young fellows, of the middle-
ranks, and very goad stuff far soldiers—at least they would
have served willingly with Cut's or Lygon in the old da,s,
and no disgrace to them. But aq they read they laughed,
and Sergeant Twiggs, who was lying perdu in a little nook
close by, and who popped out his mach be-rib aided head
at th, sound of their footsteps in the quiet cloister-angle
of the old cathedral yar ', at once began to grin sympatheti-
cally with them, and gave a narsoaie nod, which plaiely
said, "Ah, you're too good for roe—you see through poor
rviigee flummery," and then he poppe I i❑ agair.
che young mea laughed heartily when they came to the
end, and then went in to visit the cathedral.
Now, why dil they lau-gh ? Because they knew the
placard was a lie and its promises himbug, and that
Twiggy, the moment they took the shilling, woad t laugh
in their faces, and send them off to try their hot coff,e and
paler-ruins and native servants at Brompton Barracks,
cheek by Jowl with the general sweepings of society, which
consitute a pr p ,rtion of the rank aid file of our—is of
all—soldiers. I watched on, and very soon came three
lads of the bumpkin order—two hobbl.ltheys who
would grow into fine stout five-nine men—one a sinewy
3 oungster the beau ideal of a light cavalry man, and
evidently used to horses from the peculiar curve
of his leg, and absence of calf to it. One of them
read the placard for the others. Twiggs advanced
hopeetil'y, his face radiant with smiles, a veritable
Mars triurnphans. "Now, my lads," he began, but he
was cut short by a horse laugh, " None of yer gammon of
us, Mister Sergeant, don't you think we knows 'ow you
served the Militiers ?" and so they departed. Now, what
Sergeant Twiggs ever did to the,Militia I don't know, nor
could he tell me, but it was evident that on the mind of
these young men was engraved the permanent idea that
Twiggs was a deceiver and a liar because he wore a red
coat and wanted them to enlist, and because faith had
somehow or other been hroken with some friends of theirs
by him or his like. And this feeling is, I fear, very common.
It has arisen greatly, I fear, from the false pretences
under which many rec►uits are entrapped; but,
above alt, I believe it is to be treed to the exaspera-
tion prcdnced in men's minds when they have
enlisted by finding that their bounty is a mere myth, and
that their pay is ab3orbed under all sorts cf forms and

excuses. What would my friend Titmarsh's ♦ery elegant
domestic have said, if the day after he had covenanted to
shed round the said Titmarsh the glories of his presence,
and to give him aid and succour in the affairs of his man-
sion, at £3O per annum, he was told, " Your livery cost
e £2O, and I pay a guinea a year for the powder in your
hair, and the beer costs me—?" Would not Jeames, ere
he got thus far, have given him instant warning, and com-
menced pulling off his smallclothes instanter, ere the sen-
tence was finished, and have told all his friends Titmarsh
was a scoundrel, and no gentleman. But John,
his brother, who 'listed in consequence of the parish
constable having something to say to him from the
guardians, and who has made up his mind to do something
very handsome for the poor thing out of his bounty, and to
save 6i. a-day out of his pay for her—he can't give warn-
ing, he can't get away when he hears that all bounty and
most of his pay are mere figments of the recruiting sergeant.
Bat he, too, tells all his friends. Depend on it we must do
away with the present system of obtaining soldiers under
false pretences, and our excellent clergymen would do good
service-if they promised, as no doubt they will be justified
in doing on Humiliation Day, that the country will deal
honourably and generously with those who come to
her assistance in the hour of need. Let us not be
deceived by the talk of 1,000 men recruited per
week. Ask any officer of expe:ience how many of them
he would take if he was not co elpelled ? `• Why," said a'
old officer in command of a regiment to me the other day,
out of 20 men I'm compelled to let into the regiment
there are not five who will ever make soldier, fit to fight ;
the old sort somehow or other are not to be bad." How
many do you think of the Tipperary Militia, whose dis-
missal was attended with a riot, became the men. right or
wr, ng, thought themselves badly treated when they were
stripped of their clothes by the government, will go into
the Line now ? And yet, if names affords an index of
nativity, it is not the Scot but the Lishman who is
fighting hardest, and getting most knocks, in India
just at present. Emigration has dried up many a
pr life stream which went to swell the twrent of
our armies formerly in the Highlands and in Ireland, and
I much fear that a similar effect will be produced in Wah s
and Englaral. A most intelligent ironmastcr told me the
other day at Wolverhampton that it was scarcely pessible
to procure hands, because the able-bodied were emigrating
—to escape what ?—the enrolment of the militia. At the
bo tom of all this aversion to military service, I am satis-
fied there is not on'y the feeling that the profession of
arms is rot " r expectable," but the persuasion that those
who foll)w it have begun by being dupes, and then close it
ingloriously by duping others. Keep faith with the lower
classes as well as with the higher. Make the word '• sol-
dier" s)nonyrno :s with "armed citizen paid for his ser-
vices by the S:ate, with prospects of rank and money," and
you will get abuedance of the youth of the middle classes
to serve in the ranks, especially if there are regiments which
get a name for being composed of that class. Let us make
any sacr,fice, pay any millions, ere we resort to foreign
mercenaries.

THE LATE EARL FITZ WILLIAM, K.G.—The Right Hon.
Charles William Wentworth -Fitzwilliam, third Earl
Fitz villiam, Viscount Milton, of Norborough, county of
Northampton, and Baron Fitzwilliam in the peerage of
(he United Kingdom, and also fifth Earl Fitzwilliam and
Viscount Milton in the peerage of Ireland, whose death
was announced in our impression yesterday, was born in
Grosvenor-square, London, May 4th, 1786 ; so that at
his death he was in his 72nd year. He was the only son.
of William, fourth Earl (some time Lord-Lieutenant of
Ireland), by his first wife, the Lady Charlotte Ponsonby,
a daughtor of the second Earl of Beasborough, and great
gr ndson of Thomas, Maruis of Rockingham, whose
title it was at one time rumoured was intended by Earl
Gey for the deceased peer's father. The nobleman so
recently deceased was educated at Trinity College, C.m-
bridge, and represented the county of York in the Lower
House in seven successive parliaments, between the years
1807 and 1833, and succeeded to the Earldom on his
father's death, February the Bch, 1333. In the House of
Lords he was a staunch but not indiscriminating supporter
of the liberal government, which, however, he occasionally
opposed by both voice and vote, as on the debate stirred at
the commencement of the present year relative to the
China question, and the conduct of Sir John B owring in
regard to the Arrow. In 1853 he was appinted a deputy-
lieutenant for Northamptonshire, and in 1336 received the
royal license authorising him to adopt the surname of
Wentworth before that cf Fitz eilliarn, as it had been
previously used by his father, to mark. his descent from
'I homes, first Marquis of Rockingham, to which we have
alluded above, his grandmother having been sister and co-
heir of Charles, the second and last Marquis. He w
honoured with the blue riband of the Garter in 1851.
Earl Fiezeilliim married in 1836 Mary, fourth daughter
of Thomas, first Lord Dundas, and sister of the first Earl of
Zetland, by whom, who died Ncvamber, 1, 1830, his lord-
ship had issue—first, William Charles, late Viscount
Milton, who was born in 1812, and who died in 1835. having
for a short time represented the Northern Division
of Northamptonshire, without leaving male issue by
his wife, Lady Selina Jenkinson, a daughter of the Eatl of
Liverpool; second, William Thomas Seencer, the present
Viscount Milton, who was born in 1815, and married in
1838 Lady Frances Douglas, eldest daughter of the 18th
Earl of Morton, by whom he has a numerous family ;
third, Ge age, M.P. for Peterborough, who has represented
that borough since 1841 ; fourth, Charles William, who
has sat fur Melton since 1852. He has also left four
daughters, of whom one is Lady Mackenzie, of Scatwell'
county Ross, and the youngest is the wife of the Right
Hoe. It. Vernon Smith, M.P. The present E rl was
M.P. for 11,1 ton from 1837 till 1841, and again from
1846 to 1847; he was (lected for Wicklow in the Parlia-
mont of 1847, and reelected in 1862 and in the present
year. He was appointed Lieutenant Celonel commanding
the West York Yeomanry Cavalry in 1815, a Doputy-
Lieutenant for the West Riding of Yorkshire in 1853 and
Lord-Lieutenant of the Wsst Riding, on the death of the.
Earl of Harewood, early in the present year. In 1565,
Hugh Fitz vi liana, Eq , of Sprotburgh, in the co inty of
York, collected the roc )rds of the ancient family of F•tz
william, from which it appears that they t-ace their
pedigree up to Sir William Fitz Allem, Ambassador
at the Court of William, Duke of Normandy, who attended
that p ince iu his invasion of England as Marshal of his
ermy, and, for his va' oar at the battle of Hastings, was
presented with a scarf from the arm of the C onqueror. His
son married the heiress of Sprotburgh, which continued in
the posseseion of the family in a direct line of succession
down to tee reign of Henry VIII. In that reign we find
his de cat. dent, Sir William Fitzwilliam, of Milton, North-
amptonshire, and of the city of London, serving as Sheriff
of London in 1506, and subsequently al:ermen of Bread-
street Ward. He had been for some time in the retinue
of Cardinal Wolsey, and, retiring to his house at Mil!oi.
there gave his o 1 i mister a kind reception in the hour of
his eisgrace. For thi; conduct he was rebuked by the
King, but replied that he had not acted out of con-
tempt for his Highnes', but out of gratitude towards
his kllen master. Satisfied and pleased with the
answer, King Henry knighted him on the spot, and
made him one of his Privy Council His grandson, Sir
William FitzwiTam, was Lord Deputy and Lord Jus'ice
of Ireland from 1560 •0 1594, and is thus no'iced by
Fuller in his " Worthies of England" : —"Sir Willm was
five times Lard Doputie of Ireland,—a sufficient evidence
of his honesty and ability, Queen Elizabeth never trusting
twice where she was once deceived in a Minister of State.
And she also preserved him in the power of his place in
that sending over Walter, Earl of Essex, to be Governor
of Ulster, the Earl was ordered to take his commission
from the Lord Deputy." The grandson of this Sir
William was raised to the Irish peerage in 1620 as Baron
Fi4william, of Liffori, county Donegal, and his successor,
in 1716, was advanced to the earldom of that kingdom.
The third earl of the Irish peerage who was made an
E peer in 1712, and advapeed to the English earldom