Northern Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1857-09-16 00:00:00

TO CORRaiPONDENTS.

Wm must decline the Insertion of the Letter of Mr. George Turnbull,
to defence of Mormoniam, as wa cane ,t lend ourselves in any
Awe to countenance Po'ygamy, which it oponly defends and
Justifies. Besides, there is too -nuch assertion an I to) lit Is proof
of facts In his epistle. The copy may be had oo application at the
ogee.

e Jnrtrn Xiig~ `z~

WEDNESDAY SEPFEHBER 16, 1857.

THE DAY'S NEWS.

We supply our readers with further telegraphic
despatches from India. It will be seen that the
news is still of a very serious character; that
additional regiments have revolted ; and that the
Europeans in the Interior are in a sad state
Delhi seems as far fro:n capture as ever, and it is
melancholy to state that 503 of the British had
been killed in some thn days by sorties from the
besieged city. Gen. Havelock had burned down
the town of Bithoor, and afterwards defeated
the rebels, then some 10,000 strong, about eighteen
miles from Cawnpore. Gen. Havelock expected
to reach Lucknow about the Ist August. There is
a statement in one of the London papers of yester-
day respe2ting Nena Sahib, which, we think, ought
to- be received with the greatest caution—" Nena
Sahib, after destroying his family, had committed
suicide " This is very unlikely indeed. We do
not regard the mutiny at Kalapere of the 27th
Bombay Infantry, as indicating a general disaffec-
tion amongst those who have hitherto remained
faithful to their salt. It must be remembered that
it was in the Southern Mahrattan country that it
took place, and we believe that there were many
Mahrattan Mussulmans in the ranks, who regarded
the miscreant Neva Sahib, as their legitimate
chief. The great bulk o : the Bombay army
are, however, low caste Hindoos, and there has as
yet been no reason to doubt their fi lklity. Madras
had continued loyal and free from disturbance, and
the reinforcements arrived at Bombay, will terrify
the conspirators and Frevent the explosion of any
plot that may have been entered into. If Agra be
only safe, we shall continua perfectly satisfied with
the news—which, taking All thines into considera-
tion, is as good as could reasonably have been an-
ticipated, The Times says that there is reason to
conclude that while the Bombay Presidency
has bsen only slightly affected by the contagion
of mutiny that of Madras has still escaped without
a taint Above all. and as our chief source of
confidence, it should be recollected that every
fortnight which brings no improvetpent• to the
prospects of the rebels materially betters our own.
We have now information to the 1511 of August
that the Government was not only holding its
own, but acquiring mere and more ascendancy
in the various districts dis•urbed. A monk
from that time would probably bring to Calcutta
the first of the reinforcements sent from England,
and after those arrivals we night rely with con-
siderable assurance not only upon the security or
our detached garrisons, but upon the gradual
re-establishment of the British power on a basis
more solid than ever." Tne full details of the
news will, we are in hopes, reach us in time for
insertion in to-morrow's publication. They will be
of great interest.

It will be seen, and no doubt with much pleasure,
that the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland is not going
to let the Belfast riots continue if he can at all
prevent them. Yesterday he held a Privy
Council at Dublin, and immediately after issued a
proclamation, in which Belfast is virtually declared
in a state of siege, under the Treasons' Felony
Act. W.- hope that this will have the desired
effect. But as late as Saturday evening last there
were several rows in the streets of that town, and
firearms were used at random On Sunday, hen--
ever, there was a tolerable degree of quietude, the
Rev Mr. Hanna not preaching in the streets—no
doubt discretion was the better part of va-our—fer
as the magistrates has issued a proclamation
against large assemblies, we doubt not if that Rev.
gentleman had gathered together a crowd, that he
would have found his way to the nearest Bridewell.
The Times hints that Hanna may come off the
worst in the end. " What if a mob at Belfast is
so blind to its own interest and to the ga:,d inten-
tions of Mr Hanna as to reuse to be disciplined
by him ? What if it bears the trial and probation
imposed on it very iil ? Mast if it proceeds to ex-
tremities at last and breAlc.i the preacher's head ?
Mr. Hanna woul I doubtless submit to the fate
with the eittitatim of a martyr, but we should have
to deplore the loss to the community. The magk-
trate must guard against this possible result,
among others, and defend the disciplinarian
enthu3iast against himself."
We to-lay present our readers with a full report
of the inquest, so far as it has gone, on the body of
the lady found, on Seurdlty last, near Bristol. The
body has not yet been identified, and the physician
who had examined the corpse, stated in his
evidence, as his opinion, that the deceased had
been murdered, as her throat was cut in such a
Manner as would be impossible by a suicide.
The details of a most deliberate murder in
Nottinghamshire, will be found in another column.
The local news to-day is not of the least interest.
Last night the Rev Mr. Butler, late a zealous
Roman Catholic priest, but now a Church of
England clergyman, was presen'ed with a purse
containing upwards of £BO. This presentation
was " an act of gratitude for the energy he had
displayed in exposing Popery."
There is really nothing more in our domestic news
'ailing for comment in this column. We may men-
tion, however, that the London j3urnals speak with
admiration at the amount subscribed at the meet-
ing about India on Monday. We hopo that the
sum thus promised is not one-tenth of the amount
that will be ultimately collected. Next to Lon-
don, Liverpool has the greatest stake in India ;
nay, if that most obnoxious monopoly -which
has heretofore been granted to the East
India Company, was abolished, Liverpool would

have the first interest in India. She
would extend her trade with the East, and
eclipse London in her tonnage with that nation
as she now doss in the value of the merchandise
exported from the ports respectively. Surely then
it behoves Liverpool to act on the generous side.
Our countrymen are out in India fighting our
battles, if some of them fall, and leave their wives
and families in a comparative state of destitution,
TI y should we not do all in our power to relieve
them? And we are sadly mistaken in the spirit
of our fe low-;ownsmen, if they suffer any other
portion of the English Empire to eclipse them in
their cff.trings to assuage the sufferings of their
countrymen, and though last, not least, their
countrywomen in India.

We now turn to foreign affairs. The Emperor
of the French is heading valiaet assaults, dispos-
ing of hosts of antagonists, gaining splendid vie
tories. Cannonades, onslaughts of cavalryand
try, and skirmishing, are his daily occupation•
However, it is all done in play. The antagonists
whom hedestroys are a creation of fancy,and the con-
querors whom he leads, are loading their muskets
with innocent powder. His designs in the camp
of Chalons are a singular sox': of peace work,
but still they are harmless and peaceable, and
the victories of Chalons will not render
him overbearing or ambitious at Stuttgardt.
The sittings of the Diet of Holstein have been
closed. Tne Diet will now bring the- grievances
of the Duchy before the tribunal of the Get man
Confederation.

The vintage has commenced in several parts of
the Continent The wine this year will be of
excellent quality, and in many places large in
quantity.

- The Ost Deutsche Post, a very ministerial organ,
is of opinion " that the interview at Stuttgardt
is an event wh'eh should set Germany thinking."
It adds that there are many parts of the Eastern
question yet unsolved, and that the military
sources of England are absorbed in India.

The Ai'gsbury Gazette says that the Emperor
of Au3'ria would leave Vienna on the 16th, to pay
a visit to the Prussian monarch at Berlin. As
the Emperor of Russia was to be in Berlin on
the 15th, and the Emperor Francis Joseph
intended to pay a visit to the ex Emperor Ferdinand
at his summer palace before procoeding to Berlin,
the two Emperors would not meet at the Prussian
court.

We had two arrivals yesterday from Australia,
but neither brought late news—viz , the Anglo
Saxon at Liverpool, and the George riTArshall at
Littleharripton. The former brings about 160,030,
and the latter .E 103,000 in gold and specie.

IT is with pain and regret that we have learned
of the bigoted doings of the people of Belfast.
We have been accustomed to look upon that
rising town and its industrious and enterprising
inhabitants as a model which the rest of Ireland
would do well to imitate. We regarded it as a
place where the greatest reg ularity and the utmost
respect for the law prevailed. Little, indeed,
did we think that the people of such a town
would so far forget themselves—outrage every
feeling and principle of decorum, and assume the
practices of the frantic bigot, reason and modera-
tion being dethroned by the monster demon,
political and religious strife and animosity. But
so it is. The occurrences of the last two or three
weeks have manifested an impropriety and an
unreasonableness of conduct on the part of both
Catholic and Protestant, which would disgrace a
race of people, strangers not only to civilisation,
but the peaceful admonitions of religion.
What do we find in the truly flourishing town
of Belfast, the seat of learning and piety in
Ulster, just now ? Nothing less than an open,
a bitter, and a determined religi:us crusade,—
the Protestant shooting the Roman Catholic,
and the Roman Catholic, in his turn, stabbing,
or otherwise grievously and feloniously wounding
his Protestant fellow-townsman. Each party
seems bent upon the destruction of every one
who disputes the soundness of his religious
tenets. The town is the scene of general com-
motion. The reports of fire-arms, and the
clanking of other deadly weapons, are matters of
daily—aye, and nightly occurrence. In a word,
the deadly conflict is a trial of strength between
Protestantism on the one hand and Roman
Catholicism on the other.

Belfast, like nearly all the other cities and
towns in Ulster has certain districts where the
inhabitants exclusively belong to a political
religious sect. Thus Hercules-street and the
neighbourhood of Smithfield, for mob violence,
the chief resort of " gun-club" disciples, whilst
Sandy•row, is no less famous for Protestant
Defence Societies and Orange Lodges. Far
be it from us to utter one word against the right
of every man holding and exercising perfect
liberty of conscience, and such religious and poli-
tical principles as he pleases to adopt. That is
the birthright of every British subject. Tne
moment it is assailed, that moment is an attack
made upon one of the fundamental principles of
our much boasted Constitution, But in the
exercise of civil and religious liberty, as we have
defined it, the law and the well-being of society
demand that nothing shall be done or said which
is calculated to become a nuisance, or lead to a
breach of the peace. The moment that either
occurs, the executive authorities are bound to
interfere and repress the same. S3cial disorders,
fomented by religious prejudice and party pas-
sions, is an evil of the most serious magnitude.
It does not, like most other of the diseases
which visit and afflict the body politic, die out
after a temporary confusion. If allowed, it
increases in extent and intensity. Like the
mountain torrent, it has its origin in small
beginnings, an ..l the single drop of rain increases
as it rolls down the mountain side, accumulating
every inch in its descent, until it reaches the
valley below, where it bursts forth a mighty
avalanche, carrying all before it. So also do
party fueds like those with which the commercial
metropolis of Ulster is now cursed. The duty,
then of repressing such outbreaks has become
imperative, and those who administer the law
should act with promptitude and decision.
In applying a remedy to the social evils with
which Belfast is at present afflicted, it is neces-
sary to consider the character and extent of the
causes which have produced such mischievous
tfects. The main incentives to the deeds of
violence which we chronicled last week, are

"Street Preaching." The Protestant pa.rty, led
on by a Rev. HUGH HANNA determined to

make theological exhibitions of themselves every
Sunday afternoon, on the steps of the Custom-
house. This a deluded and ferocious knot of
Roman Catholics would not permit—at least
without interrupting the proceedings—and ulti-
mately resorting to acts of violence to effect their
improper purpses. In such a line of conduct
the Roman Catholics were wrong—egregiously,
unpardonably, and shamefully wrong. If their
opponents, in meeting for the purpose of open-
air preaching, were acting contrary to law, there
was a remedy without the unmanly recourse of
brickbats and butchers' knives; while, on the
other hand, if the law sanctions such prac-
tises in this land of Protestant liberty,
then were the assailants cf the Protestants
clearly at fault, and as such liable to severe
pains and penalties. It appears, however, that
when the magistrates were called upon to punish
these aggressors, that they acted in such a
manner as to afford no protection to the advo-
cates of street preaching, but, at the same time,
give an indirect encouragement to their assailants.
This was weak-minded and impolitic. Hence,
as time wore on, the troubles increased, until
lives were lost, and the " Modern Athens" of
Ulster rendered an "Acaldema ;" more like a
city under a state of siege, than the abode of a
free, religiously disposed, happy, and prosperous
people.
To street preaching we have an objection.
We have seen enough of it in Liverpool to
convince us that it is uncalled for; brings GOD'S
Word into contempt ; lights up the embers of
religious strife ; and, not unfrequently, becomes
a positive nuisance, and leads to a breach of the
peace. With the right to collect congregations
to hear street preaching we will not now inquire.
If we grant to the Episcopalian and the
Dissenter the right to descant upon their pecu-
liar forms of faith, and the most efficacious
means of obtaining a passport to the Kingdom of
Heaven, we cannot but decree to the missionaries
of Rome an equal right and liberty to hold forth
upon what they deem Protestant heresies of the
Church of England, the impious doctrines of
Predestinarianism, and final perseverance of the
Saints ; nor to extol the beneficial tendencies of
the confession, the " Glories of Mary," and the
nature and tendency of a pilgrimage in purgatory.
Furthermore, the license claimed by the street
preachers in Belfast, and other places, warrants
the Mormons to take their stand, and descant
upon the blessed plurality of wives, and such
like abominable theological absurdities. Any
one who chooses can, of a Sunday afternoon,
visit several localities in Liverpool, where he
will find the Protestant town missionary on the
one side, and a Latter-day Saint on the other,
explaining the respective tenets which they hold
respecting GOD, Heaven, and Hell. 1'; is not a
matter of unfrequent occurrence to find the
respective preachers contending against each
other by bellowing in a style resembling the
frantic efforts of maniacs.

Without a doubt such exhibitions are a public
nuisance, and should not be tolerated. But
when these preachers indulge, as many of them
do, in language of an impertinent and offensive
character, the evil becomes.more serious; They
who are insulted will, and do, seek their revenge.
Thus, instead of GOD'S glory being promoted,
the DEVIL'S mission is most effectually aided and
assisted. One instance of this kind will suffice.
The Rev. /JUDD HANNA, of Belfast, issued an
address to his followers last week, in which, after
inviting them to caution, temperance, and for-
bearance, he proceeds to illustrate his idea of
these principles. He says—" Your ministers
have a legal right to preach in the open air : no
man can honestly deny that. You have also a
right to listen to them. Let them choose con-
venient places for their services. When you
assemble around leave so much of the thorough-
fare unoccupied that such as do not choose to
listen may pass by. Call that clearance the
Pope's pad.' " Although Mr. HANNA enjoins
"temperance" and " forbearance," he feels no
hesitation in expressing contempt for the Head
of the Church to which nearly fifty thdusand
of his neighbours belong. We all know the
.dreadful consequences that have followed this
irreverent use of the name of the Pope, and
particularly in an Irish town ; the eflect is as
instantaneous and almost as destructive as fling-
ing red-hot cinders into a barrel of turpentine.
For the present we shall not say more on the
Belfast riots and street preaching generally.
The Irish Executive has appointed a commision
to inquire into the whole affair. When that is
completed, and the report made public, we shall
have some further remarks to make.

THE PANIC IN NEW YJItK.—In the city article of yes-
terday's Times we find the following:—The progress of
the panic in the New York Stock-market reported by the
Arabia is such as has never been previously witnessed in
any commercial city. A further average f4ll of from 10
to 20 per cent. had occurred in all the principal railway
stocks in addition to that of like magnitude announced by
the previous steamer, and there are several descriptions
which are n,w not worth a quarter of the price at which
they stood at the beginning of the year, although the mar-
ket was then thought to have suff::ree, from a long period of
undue depression. Erie were quoted, ]9 to ; Read-ng,
53 ; Michigan, Southern, 17; Panama, 79 ; and Illinois
Central, 91. The latter stock had touched 84, but had
subsequently rallied. New York Central was the only
stock that had escaped a further decline, the price being
still 72. This company is free from thating debt, and its
comparative stability is due to that circumstance, yet
since the Ist of Janua-y it has fallen 21} per cent. The
most severe revulsion had been in Illinois Central, owing
to the directors having made a call upon the shareholders
of 10 per cent. The company have a fllating debt of
X 760,000, a part of which woe about to tall due, and to
avert all difficulty in tneOting it this step had become