Northern Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1857-10-27 00:00:00

day, for the purpose Of organisidg a local relief,
fund -movement. Sir John recapittilated his views
of the Indian crisis, and still further illustrated and
defended the positions he had taken.
We have to give the record today of disastrous
storms at sea and serious :floods on land. A
large portion of the Eastern Counties Railway has
been flooded by an overflow of the River Lea. Ins-
C'Ranee damage has been done over a considerable
ant of the marshy districts of Essex; many
sheep and cattle have been drowned, and more than
one human being has
.perished. We also hear of
terrible floods in Kent and-Surrey, and other parts
of the country. We publish the details, which
our readers would anticipate from our telegram on
yesterday, of the wrecks, that took place on the
north-east coast, during the fearful gale which raged
on Thursday night. It Will. be seen that many
vessels, besides the Ontario, perished, and that
many hapless mariners found a watery grave.
'The local news this morning of any importance,
is entirely confined to the-prsceedings in connection
with the Municipal Elccticns, We report at full
length the various Ward Meetings held last night.
Of Foreign news there is not much this morning.
We are info Teed from Paris, that the French
Government is actually about to issue invitations
for the Conference on the Principalities to meet
about the middle of next month. Constantinople
letters are to the 14th instant, and consequectly
bring nothing concerning the Ministerial changes
announced by telegraph. The Constantinople
public ascribed no great importance to the visit paid
by the Sultan to Reschid Pacha, but it may have
reason to think otherwise by and bye.
'A malignant fever is -making great ravages at
Lisbon, which is .described as wearing the appear
once of a city of the plague.
.Berlin despatches announce the delegation, by
the King of Prussia, of his Royal powers to his
brother and heir. This sets at rest the rumours
that had been current .about a Regency. The
powers are transferred to the Prince of Prussia
only for the space of three months, or even
a shorter -period, should the King he able •,to
resume his duties. A journey of the King to Italy
:is spoken of.

`THE Empire Las been suddenly involved in .a
conflict of men, and a stern war of principles.
The mutiny in India has'brought Britain iwo .a
war against herself. Every shot fire' in such •a
contest is suicide, and every drop of blood shed
is -so much precious treasure lost to the nation.
4r.tl divided house cannot -stand ;" and from such
catastrophes history dates the fall of the
mightiest Powers. The cause of such melan-
choly disasters exhibit no
.greater variety than
the effect they produce. The chariot of unin-
telgible:grandeur rolls on smoothly for a time.
The great phantom of incomprehensible purpose
lives on until things assume substantial form, and
society exhibits a thousand antagonistic elements.
Political irconsistency is found to have given
place to :vaunting personal ambition, and the
whole .sehteme of social existence is discovered to
have been warped to suit the selfish ends of indi-
vidual or class interests. Whether the leading
events of m_rdern times have.any such tendencies
must be left to the cool and ,reflective portions of
the community to decide. Certain, it is, that we
have failed atellome and abroad to amalgamate
Christian and,Pagan elements. Oar armed con-
quests have been complete, our political ascen-
dancy indisputable, but our moral sabiugations
and Christian victories supply us with little for
present lau.dation,.er future hope. One hundred
,years bears witness to the fact that we have
neglected the Christianising of India; -and -now
we are called tupon,again to subdue one hund-red
millions of Pagan and merciless people.
;With such a:cigar:tie task before us, it is time
to inquire how this
.wort is to be commenced,
and what means vie. have at command for such
objects. An advance
,in :the banking rates of
discount to eight p-er cent.-for commercial acco-•
modation indicates that there is a strong suspi-:
cion entertained of present or...speedy insolvency..
It cannot be supposed that the profits in trade
are sufficiently high to.admit of any such interest
being paid for money to carry on the employ-
ment and..productive pursuits of ,she country. If
it is meant to cause " a fall g,erierally in the
prices of
...all commodities,"
.it must not
be forgotten that we have • been buy-
ing in foreign markets for the last
two years at famine prices, and that iLis almost
impossible to work up our present stocks at the
frost trifling profit. if this be true, as
.we are
prepared to prove; it is useless to talk ..of the
depression of prices. Confiscation of the sub-
stance of the merchant and manufacturer, and
the immediate prostration of the productive
industry of the realm, must be the inevitable
results, if not the manifest object in.view. If:
the heavy calls. of a distant war were superadded
to
,the pressing- necessities of trade and Coal'
merce, to justify the application of the bank
screw, then Ave say, the dangers of the crisis, be-
come threefold more palpable. It has .been
-reserved for the politicians and philosophers of
the present day to cajole the world into a belief,
that where two alarming difficulties exist, safety
lies in the creation
.of a third, greater than the
other two. Tll,-; theory of precipitation may.

require the adoption :9f extreme mfF.az•ures, to

(rive it what 13 call in the theatrical wurl.l

" startling efExt; " but it should he rememb3re:l,

that co.nruerce is th 3 mazazine of modern exis-

tend----the store-house of the ktation's substances,
bought at one price, and to be soli at a profit,

without political or legislative interference of

any kind.

That prices are so interfered with cannot be
denied while we have a bank screw, invented by
professional Tories, sanctioned by Whigs, and
guarded by a Parliamentary Charter, the primary
object of which our Bank Directors openly
declare to be, "to depress and cause a fall

generally in the prices of all commodities." That

these are its object and its practic.il effects will

be amply detno.istrated, within a very few days,

in the produce markets and the manufacturing

districts. The holders of produce cannot cofi-
tinu.-: to hohi at 8 per cent., and what class of

empllyers can continue w9rkin; at that rate
with a certainty of depreciated prices for his

produce ? And here, we ask, is this the m,naent—

when we are engaged in a war of wavrnaination ,

the end of which no man can pretend to foresee,—;

to throw the whole commercial world into a state
of consternation ? It may be very well for
Premier and the House of Commons to endeavour
to shake off all responsibility, in such cases, by
pointing to the statute book and exclaiming. ‘` It
is law." They are, nevertheless, answerable for
the consequences of those laws which they .have
sanctioned, even if they did not make them. They
are, however, morally and politically responsible
for every measure which adds to the pressure of
taxation, and renders the fiscal burdens of the
State oppressive and intolerable. It matters not
whether we are called on to pay scutage,,prisage,
butlerage, poundage, or the whole string of
imposts called Nova Customa, in the fourteenth
century--according to .the whim of the Crown,
the caprice of Parliament, or by a Royal
Chartered Bank, in the shape of 1 or 2 per cent.,
on nine-ten'hs of the mercantile operations of the
day. The moral effect and political consequences
are precisely the same. The Bank of England
exercises a power which no wise statesman would
leave at the discretion of any set of men, whose
responsibilities as private bankers are far greater
than those of bankers to a commercial nation.
They have a private connection to conserve. The
bullion holders and dealers are their best, and the
men who must have gold for their business their
worst, customers, and whenever the time comes
when they must please the former and curb the
latter, the interests of the State at large cannot
be regarded before all other considerations, as they
ought to be.

Here again, then, we have the Pagan elements
of politics making war against all the great moral
interests of the Empire, The besotted instincts of
the bullion holder cannot be made to amalgamate
with high-minded genius of a progressive age.
Foreign wars have added their 1 or 2 per cent. to
his dividends, and he does not see why internal
commotions should not be made to contribute to
his good fortune. It is more to his interest to

habituate his country to such calamities than
!otherwise. He thrives on national disasters, and
only feels ill at ease when money is cheap,
employment abundant, wages high, and prices
remunerative, and it is with men of this stamp,
holding the lever of this great Empire in their
hands, that we hope to conquer in arms, and
to p-rogress in arts, science, industry, and com-
merce ! But the whole of this precious system
is now on its trial. We have never before had
to fight an enemy, numbering 100 000,000 within
our own borders, with such machinery. A
deadly conflict of such startling magnitude
never before fell to the lot of any people.
It Cann 3t be supposed that we are to re-conquer
India by gold, and producing great and unpre-
cedented commercial distress at home. And yet
it appears that 8 per cent. is father to the
thought. If so, the parent is a disgrace to his
offlpring. But what is Liverpool about in the
midst of this monetary and war crisis ? Eight
per cent. led to intense anxiety, and large meet-
ings of our merchants, in 1847. Few who
witnessed the excitement of that period will
forget it. Sill, when war, of the most costly and
self-destroying character, has taken the place of
famine, all is passive, and may possibly continue
so, until the prices of all commodities are depre-
ciated, and universal ruin brought home to our
doors. But it may then be too late to look for
relief, and it would be better at once to lay it
down as a fixed rule, that when the Bank of
England raises its discount to 8 per cent, the
Bank,Charter Act of 1814 shall be considered
inoperative, and shall be suspencYed by order of
Efer Nlajesty in Council, or on the responsibility
of the ,Premier for the time being.

WE return to the Municipal!campaign, con-
siderably refreshed by good report. The
defences thrown up by the Corruptionists are few
and childish. Their ambuscades are amusing.
A few picquets guard, with laudable vigilance,
the great jungles of Twaddleclem on the left ; and
an odd, very odd, foraging party may be seen
struggling, with the ordinary difficulties of a
slough of despair, on the right. We only wish
it was in our power to give the same cheerful
account of the present ~,taste of the enemies' affairs
in India. It is well, 1114. w-ever, to have even so
much to animate us at home, at a moment when
matters are still looking so Bloomy abroad. The
Liberal electors are advancing boldly with the
Fit and proper men, anal no jobbery,"
written on their banners. And we say, in the
language of the camp, " Peter's Ward must
be carried." Lime-street atad Abercromby
Wards ought also to be won, ,and no
exertion spared wherever a Liberal can-
didate is to be returned. The Burgesses are
aware that the dock jobbers are about to renew
their application to Parliament for leave to
proceed with the 4 000,0001 dock extension job.
If this request should be granted, the dock debt
will be increased to over 1.5,000,000/. This
would be a pretty burden to lay on the com-
merce of one single port, in these Free Trade
times; and it must be remembered that such
things c3uid not be done by any Corporation if its
constituents were true to the trust reposed in
them. But on what grounds do the present
dock authorities pretend to justify their incurring
the heavy expense of an application to Parlia-
ment for dock extension, when ,they know full
well that their period of office must terminate
next January, when an entirely new, and
differently constituted, body are to take up the
management of the docks, and the conservancy
of the Mersey ?

Inotto—'

Is it merely to incur a useless expense and to