Northern Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1859-01-06 00:00:00

THE DAY'S NEWS

The monthly meeting of the Town Council took
place yesterday. The proceedings of the Finance
Committee were confirmed, after a pretty length-
ened discussion on the recommendation that the
Newsham Estate, north of West Derby Road, be
put up in one lot, and sold by auctions._ Mr. J. R.
Jeffery then introduced his motion, viz.:—" That,
in lieu of receiving the gross amount of purchase-
money or fine upon the granting or renewal of a
lease, a rent be reserved, payable either quarterly
or half-yearly, such rent being calculated at
a proper rate of interest on the amount,
of fine not paid. or deposited',. as 'herein-
after deposited ; and, in addition. thereto, such
further rate per eent. as shall be• sufficient; by
accumulation at compound interest, to equal at
least the present value of the gross fine, the
Council reserving the power, in ail, eases to which
this principle may be applied, to require payment.
or deposit at the time of sale or-renewal, of such
proportion of the gross amount of fine as the,
circumstances of each case may- seem to require?'
Mr. Jeffery, at considerable length, showed the
propriety of his motion being adopted. Mr..
Stitt followed on the same side. Mr. Stewart
opposed, and after considerable discussion the
motion was lost by a vote of 27' against 21.
Mr.. Hughes, Deputy Town Clerk, died very
suddenly on Tuesday morning. The -Council
passed a very high eulogium, upon the career of
the deceased gentleman.
The case of " Simon v. The Liverpool Mercury,"
has concluded. Mr. Simon keeps a public-house
known as "Dick's Coffee House," in Cable-street,
A number of gentlemen, forming the " Harrington
Club," were in the habit of dining at
Mr. Simon's. One day last year Mr.. Simon
missed a " bran new hat," belonging to himself,
which had been replaced by a " shocking bad'
one. He learned that the hat had been taken
away by a Mr. Junker, who had dined with
the Club on the day in question. On applying
to' Junker for restitution, he was treated
with contempt, and he accordingly summoned
Mr. Junker for the price of the hat. That
gentleman did not appear, and judgment went
by default. The Mercury, in reporting the
case, stated that Mr. Simon had represented
himself as being a member of the Club. The
club took umbridge at this, and ceased visiting
Simon. The latter averred that he lost £lOO a
year by their leaving, which they did through the
Mercury report, such report, according to Mr.
Simon, being untrue and written with malice. The
jury took another view of the affair, and returned
a verdict for the defendants.

Our readers will remember that, some time ago,
the Mercury published the particulars of an alleged
outrage upon a Miss Audley, by the cutting other
crinoline, &c., &c. Miss Audley complained to
the police, and gave the description of two men
who she averred had so insulted her. She after-
wards complained that letters of an abominable
character—containing obscenities most degrading
—had been put through the keyhole, or under the
door, addressed to her. A police-officer was
put to watch the house. One evening
he saw Mrs. Draper, wife of the owner,
enter the house. He then looked through
the key-hole and did not see any letter.
The next person who called was the milkman,
and on his making his appearance, Miss Audley
and Mrs. Draper stated that they had received
another of these degrading letters, which had
been put through the key-hole. The officer went
up and they told him the same story. At the time,
he knew that no one had passed the door or put
a letter through the key-hole since the entrance
of Mrs Draper, and he declared his conviction
' to be that the letters were placed inside, and that
they did not come from without. But this is not
all. What caused the above to be made public
was the arrest of a young man, for begging at the
door of Mr. Draper, on that night. Miss Audley,
after witnessing him being taken off to Bridewell,
went there, saw him, and said that he
was one of the men who had assaulted her. He
was accordingly booked on this second charge.
On being brought before Mr. Dixon yesterday,
Mr. Superintendent Ride stated that he did not
believe the prisoner committed the alleged outrage,
as the description at first furnished by Miss
Audley
the was so very different, that there could not
be
slightest reason for having him charged
with the offence. Mr. Dixon took this view of
the affair and discharged the prisoner.
At the monthly meeting of the Mercantile
Marine Association yesterday, the report sub-
mitted stated that the differences between the
London Association and those of Liverpool and
Southampton had not yet been adjusted.
Mr. Cardwell and Mr. Langston, the two mem-
bers for Oxford, have addressed their constituents.
Both speak strongly in favour of a satisfactory
measure of Reform, but do not attempt any very
intelligible definition of what they mean.
Mr. Commissioner Goulburn gave judgment
yesterday in the case of Davison and Gordon
the details of which have been before the public
in many forms. He refused the bankrupts their

certificates, but granted protection, the assignees
concurring, until further orders.
At the Central Criminal Court, yesterday,
Roper, the Greenwich corn dealer, was brought
up for trial, on a charge arising out of a suspicion
of setting fire to his dwelling-house some months
ago. The trial, in a certain sense, may be con-
sidered a cause celebre, and. it is expected to last
two days.

Sylvester Gale, the wholesale bigamist, who has
been figuring at the London Police Courts, pleaded
yesterday on five indictments for bigamy, and was
sent for four years to penal. servitude.
A terrible colliery accident has again to be
reported. On this occasion it was not an explo-
sion of fire-damp, but some negligence with the
machinery. The result is the violent death of
seven persons—three men and four boys.
Fresh accounts from North Italy represent the
Austrian garrison in Lombardy as already on the
war footing, and the plan of campaign is to involve
a large use of the new railway lines, not in exist-
ence in the day of Radetski. The Milanese
district is to be abandoned at the first outbreak,
and the strafegetic arrangements imply the
relinquishment of the banks of the Adda.
Warlike preparations are brisk at Cremona,
and great press is at work on the rail from
Bolzano to Verona, along which reinforcements
from Styria and the interior are to be poured into
Italy. Modena is in a fearful state of alarm,
especially at the news of General Garibaldi
having been taken into the Sardinian staff ser-
vice with the avowed intention of organising
guerillas, in which branch of profession he is
supreme. _ _ _ _

Between Spain and Mexico, it is gratifying to
know, there will be no hostilities. It is now offi-
cially announced Ly the Madrid Gazette that
Mexico has yielded to the demands of Spain.

IT would be gratifying to find from the few
remarks of the Recorder of this Borough, which
he addressed to the Grand Jury of the Quarter
Sessions, as reported in our impression of
yesterday, could one only be satisfied about it, that
the learned gentleman considered there was a
diminution of Crime amongst us, notwithstanding
that there is an increase in the criminal business of
his Court. Gratifying, that is, we say, if one could
really have no doubt about it. But, for our part,
we must confess that we are very sceptical on
the point. The Recorder declares—and not_ for
the first time either—that "the increased
labours of his court • seem to be accompanied by

a diminution of crime, strange as it may appear.
The present calendar is heavy," he adds, "for
the space of five weeks, but I see no reason to
change my view." Heavy indeed it was—con-
taining, as it did, some eighty-nine names of
prisoners for trial—the accumulation of but a very
few weeks. Their offences, it is true, were in no
case of a very atrocious character; but then such
offences are always taken before other and higher
criminal courts ;—and we must examine their
records also, before we can arrive at any just
and fair conclusion upon the subject. There
would certainly appear to be some ground
for the Recorder's persuasion, in the fact of
the gaol being somewhat less densely
tenanted now than it was. During the official
year, it seems, " from September 30, 1857, to
September 30, 1858, the daily average number of
prisoners in the gaol, throughout the year, was.
1,088 ; and the smallest number at any one time
was in May last, when the number was 984 ;while
last Sunday the number was only 833. This,"
said the learned Judge, "is a very considerable
diminution, and therefore you will. not be alarmed
at the extent of your labours ; nay, more, you
will see reason to hope that the trouble that
you and this Court take, is, to some extent,

effectual—more effectual, perhaps, than any other
method of dealing with prisoners for the suppression
of crime." We would not attempt to dispute these
conclusions. We do not deny the effectual opera-
tion of the Recorder's Court, a the disposal of the
criminal cases brought before• it. Rut we must

still take the liberty of doubting if there is, after

all, any such diminution of crime in the Borough

as to be a subject of congratulation.. Eighty-nine
committals, in five weeks, in. addition -bathe numer-
ous cases summarily disposed of,. day by day,
in the Police Courts, is too formidable an amount,

we cannot but think,, of criminal offence, to
warrant any very sanguine hope of a decided
diminution of crimp having taken place. It
may be quite true that they were "of so light
a character as to require no comment" from the
Recorder. But they doubtless indicated a

deplorable prevalence of what is too apt to be
regarded as matter-of-course crime,--though it is
still that sort of crime which tells of a sad state of
morals, in any community. Let us not, then,
deceive ourselves. Let us not be too ready
to lay the flattering unction to our souls that