Northern Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1859-02-05 00:00:00

sian'army,

Among the notices of motion at an early day-
during the present session, we notice a bill by Mr.
M'Cann, for the sale of grain, flour, meal, potatoes,

&c., wholesale and retail, by the pound avoirdupois,
its decennial multiplies, and aliquot parts ; and a
bill by Mr. William Brown, as an amendment to
Mr. M'Cann's motion, to weigh, in place of
measuring grain, that 1001bs avoirdupois be called
a cental, 2001bs a ton, and that 5001bs be con-
sidered equivalent to a quarter of eight bushels,
and that the inspectors of weights be authorised
to stamp weights of 10, 15, 20, 25, 501bs. Both
these gentlemen were speakers at the meeting in
Liverpool at which the cental was adopted.
Election matters are again engaging the atten-
tion of several counties and towns. We have a
despatch from Galway, which states that Sir
T. Reddington has retired from the contest in that
town, and now the only candidate is Mr. John
Orrel Lever, the originator of the line of steamers
from Galway to the United States, To-day, the
electors of Linlithgowshire will be asked to send
Mr. Charles Baillie to Parliament. He is the
present Lord Advocate of Scotland, and has no
seat in the Commons. Mr. G. Dundas retires from
this county, having received a colonial appoint-
ment. Mr. Calthorpe and Mr. Pakington will
certainly have a fight for it in East Worcester-
shire ; and we may also anticipate a struggle at
Banbury.
A Dublin paper tells a wonderful story of a
gentleman discovering one night, lately, about 100
men, at secret drill, at a place within gunshot of
Dublin Castle, and who are said to be members of
a Phcenix Club. As the Dublin police is a very
vigilant and quite übiquitous body, it does seem
natural in the editor to add to the tale an expres-
sion of surprise that such doings should have
remained unknown to the authorities:
The Rochdale Town Council have passed a reso-
lution in favour of Reform. Very slender opposi-
tion appears to have been made to the proceeding ;
and when it was liroposed to take the opinion of
the Town Clerk, whether purely political questions
should be discussed by municipal bodies, a worthy
Alderman remarked that the opinion of that official
" was not worth a rush." Finally, the original
motion in favour of reform was carried by 21 to 2.
The Vectus, with mails from Bombay, arrived at
Marseilles on Thursday night, and the mails left
for London yesterday morning.
A despatch from Lisbon, dated yesterday, states
that the mail steamer Avon had received some
damage, and was lying at the Berlanges Islands.
Two Portuguese steamers had been sent to her
assistance.
The Bank Returns, as published in last night's
Gazelle, show an increase of £146,108 in the
amount of bullion, £288,910 in active circulation,
and a decrease of £221,065 in the reserve of notes.

THE IMMINENCE OF WAR

NOTWITHSTANDING the - hopeful assurances of
Ministers at the opening of Parliament, that
although the condition of affairs in. Europe was
critical, war was scarcely probable, there are yet
circumstances in the confederacy of France and

Sardinia for Italian objects which make an out-
break very imminent. Lord BROUGHAM very
forcibly exposed, in the House of Lords, the pre-
text of Sardinia in coming forward as the
disinterested champion of Italian freedom when

her real intention was her own aggrandisement.
Well might the noble lord express his sorrow

to see that Sardinia had departed from her

,ound and

religious policy

and his

that the universal

reprobation which had

been expressed would cause her to think twice

before persisting in it. But then there is the
French Emperor's policy to 'be considered, as well
as the Sardinian King's ; and one scarcely knows

how to reckon upon that

The real interests of

France would never be served by such a war as