Northern Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1859-10-21 00:00:00

THE MORTARA ABDUCTION.

All the efforts of Sir Moses Montefiore and the
deputies of the British Jews having proved ineffectual in
obtaining the restoration of the child Mortara to its
parents, a committee of gentlemen in the city felt that
some protest was demanded on behalf of the British
Christians, and the following protest having been
privately circulated, has been most extensively signed,
and a copy of it has been forwarded to' the French
•,,,
ambassador
" Whereas a Jewish child, Edgar Mortara, son of
Momolo Mortara, late of Bologna, in Italy, was on the
24th of June,. 1858, forcibly seized and taken from his
parents, by order of the Cardinal Viale Prela, Arch-
bishop of Bologna and Legate of Pope Pius IX. And
whereas the ground of the said seizure was, that the
said child, Edgar Mortara, had been secretly baptised
by a Roman Catholic maid-servant six years previ-
ously, being then of the age of twelve months. And
whereas the said child was, by order of the said car.,
dinal legate, conveyed by night, under an escort of gen-
darmes, to the Convent of San Pietro in Vincoli, at
Rome, and is there detained contrary to the wish, and
notwithstanding the protestations of his parents ; and
whereas the Government of France has invain urged the
court of Rome to restore the said child to his patents;
and whereas Sir Moses Montefiore, Bart., at the re-
quest of the deputies of the British Jews, made on
the 22nd of December, 1858, went to Rome, in
their names to present a memorial to the Pope, signed
by the whole of the said deputies, asking for the
liberation of the said child, Edgar Mortara ; and
whereas the Pope refused even to see Sir Moses
Montefiore ; and Cardinal. Antonelli, Minister of State,
has declared to Sir Moses Montefiore ,that the-
Roman Government will not release' the child; and
whereas it is a dishonour ' to Christianity in the
eyes of the Jews among all nations that the sei-
zure and detention of the said child, Edgar Mortara,
should be supposed to be consistent
,Iyith, the princi-
ples of the Christian religionl—Now, we, .the under-
signed British Christians, do hereby protest and declare
that the proceedings of the Pope of Rome in taking
away the Jewish child, Edgar Mortara, from his parents,
and educating him, contrary to his, parents' will, in the
Roman Catholic faith, are repulsive to the instincts,of
humanity, and in violation of parental rights and
authority, as recognised in the laws and usages of all
civilised nations ; and, above all, in direct opposition to
the spirit and precepts of the. Christian religion.

The subscription for the memorial of thelate Alexander
von Humboldt has now reached the sum of 70,000 thalers
(X 10,500), and no doubt is entertained that a much larger
sum will be fortheoming. •

THE 84TH REGIMENT.—On Wednesday, the Mayor
and Corporation, and the Master Cutler and Cutler's
Company of Sheffield, presented addresses to Colonel
Lightfoot and the officers and soldiers of the 84th Regi-
ment, recently returned from India. The soldiers were
drawn up on, three sides of a square to receive the ad-
dresses ; two flags captured in India being placed in
front of the square. Colonel Lightfoot, in the course of
his reply, paid the men a very high compliment. They
had, he said, done their duty admirably during +l,O
—1..10 of trap vurziptligu, wnicn was a very severe one,
during twenty-eight months, in one of the most, terrible
climates in the -World ; they went through -an amount of
service which it was beyond his power to describe, some-
times without shoes to their feet or clothes to their
backs, and yet without a single murmur, their only
anxiety being to come across their enemy. (Loud cheers.)
At the termination of the proceedings, the men gave
three cheers. for the Mayor, the Master Cutler, and
Corporations.
MURDER OF A WOMAN BY HER HUSBAND.—Another
of those shocking tragedies which have of late dis-
graced the southern division of Staffordshire was
enacted in the town of Wednesbury on Tuesday night,
the actor being a man named Benjamin Owen, land-
lord of the Cottage Spring publichouse, and the
victim Mary Ann Owen, his wife. Owen is about
forty-six years of age, and had previously borne a
fair character as a peaceable, welt:disposed man. His
wife was a few 3 ears younger. Owen had been to the
neighbouring town of Walsall that day, and returned
somewhat intoxicated ; and having lost a consider-
able sum of money. These circumstances, especially the
latter, created irritation in the poor woman's mind,
tinctured by jealousy. About nine at night, following
an altercation, Owen pushed his wife out of doors, and,
going after her, commenced beating and kicking her
most savagely until she dropped insensible. The
neighbours sent for the police, and a medical practitioner
was also promptly in attendance; but the unfortunate
woman was beyond the reach of human aid. The
murderer was immediately taken into custody and con-
veyed to the lockup. He expresses deep concern for,
what he has done, and appears to labour under great
depression of spirits. The poor woman has left one
child, a little girl seven years of age.

ANOTHER ESTIMATE OF MR. BRIGHT'S EULOGIES ON
THE UNITED STATES.—We have been favoured, says the
Manchester Guardian, with the following extract from
a private letter written by a very intelligent man, who,
after a residence of three years in the Western States
of America, has returned with very decided opinions
on the climate and the people :—" Do you personally
know anything of Mr. Bright ? Scraps of his
speeches, laudatory of America, have found their
way into the American papers. Of course he thinks
and means what he says. Perhaps he does not
think better of the Americans than I did before
going there. But there are many things that a man
can have no idea of until they come within the range
of his own experience. America is one of those things :
it has no parallel, can find no point of comparison, in
the Mind of an Englishman—even though he may be as
familiar with the mind and manners of many people in
Europe as he is with those of his native town, where he
has spent his years from infancy to manhood. Depend
upon it, no ' traveller ' who has ever passed a few months
in America, returns much the wiser or better informed
about the people, than if he had stayed at home. If
he has eyes, he cannot fail to observe the deteriorated
physique of the people, their uncouth demeanour,
i and many of their offensive habits. But not the
heart of the people—not even their politics, or the
practical working of their political institutious—can
he know anything about. He must reside among them,
be one of them, as far as he can. Were Mr. Bright
to go through the same discipline as I have, I cannot
doubt that his views and feelings would undergo a
similar change. The working classes in the United
States are not only worse paid and worse fed, but they
are also more heavily taxed, than in England. This
may be new to you, as no doubt it would be to Mr.
Bright; but I can assure you that it is both literally
and substantially true. * * Mr. Bright would come
to the conclusion, after residing among the people and
knowing them, that England has nothing to learn from
e
America ; nothing to imitate, but much to avoid. He
would for ever drop any allusion le America as as
abating onen
rule,t he would
object of political emulation.
principle,"
haWrecriiitiacneten prerogative
finddegr eethatofhis that there • is no
'to teach the nations how to live;'
ent worthy of her imitation; and
other state or government
in
that the many abuses of our government Church and
Englandantihpaaathny
masses; and the perfection of the legislative and execue
State must find their own remedy—the elevation of thy
moans—in the fuller development of British
tivc branches of our constitution, must find their onl-
otot loosltig

OCTOBER 21: 1859