The Northern Daily Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1857-02-02 00:00:00

day. Meantime, we hope that the gentlemen .of
Liverpool, holding seats in the House of Commons
will give the matter their earnest consideration:
and advocate no system of legislation which will
a110w..0f.. the midnight . visitation
,of marching
soldiers, or the intrusive calls of designing militia-
men who require no billet, but procure one merely.
to enable them to extort both money and drink.
As to the licensing system it involves the discus-
sion of the question of ' vested rights," so that
great care must be taken in legislating upon the
Matter, lest We do injustice to many thousands of
the community who have involved all the property
they possess in establishing and carrying on the
trade which they now follow. As we said before,
b )th questions shall receive further notice at our
hands.

Her Majesty will hold a PTivy Council at the. Castle this
day (Monday), for the purpose of giving her sanction to
the Royal speech, to be' delivered to-morrow, in Par
liament, by the Q teen's Commissioners, on opening the
ses,im. The Privy Council will be held early, since the
Ministers are expectedjto arrive at the C.stle at half-past
twelve o'clock, and arrangements have been made for their
conveyance from London by a special-railway train. At the
Council, it is also expected that her Majesty will appoint
the high sheriffs throughout England and Wales, for the
present year. After attending the Q. teen's Court, the
Ministers and the 01Ticers of her Majesty's. household are
expected to return to town by a special railway train, in
order to attend the two State Parltimentary banquets given
by Loris Palmerston and Granville to the Ministerial sup-
porters in the Houses of Commons and Lords.

A Cabinet Council was held on Saturday, in Lord
Palmenton's office, Dawning street, which was attended by
the noble Premier, and by the Dake of Argyll, the Marqnis
of Lansdowne, the Earls of Clarendon, Granville, and
Harrowby, Sir G. C. Lewis, Sir G. Grey, Sir C. Wood,
Lord Stanley of Alderley; Mr: Baines, Mr. Vernon Smith,
and Mr. Labouchere.

ROYAL LONDON MILITIA.—A meeting of commissioners
of lieutenancy was held on Friday last, at Guildhall, for
the purpose of making arrangements for calling out the
militia. The colonel reported- several, vacancies for
lieutenants and ensigns. A special court was appointed
to be held on Friday, the 13th of February, to receive
applications from candidates for the vacant commissions.

RUSSIAN GOLD.—Accounts from Nishnei-Novgorod
report the arrival there of two valuable convoys of gold
froin Siberia, en route for St. Petersburg, weighing together
25,5721b5. of gold. The same accounts mention that
an important alteration in the mode of obtaining this
precious metal hitherto pursued in Siberia is about to
take place.

ALICIA RACE MADE A WARD IN CITANCERY.—OR Sat-
urday an application was made to the Court of Chancery,
for the appointment of a guardian to Alicia Race, whose
name has of a sudden become so well known. Alicia Race,
the daughter of a sergeant of Marines, who died at
Petropaulovski, and whose widow was obliged to apply to
the Patriotic Fund for support, is now in the high position
of a ward in Chancery. By the report o? the case, it will
be seen that the two churches are now fighting their
battles over again. Alicia Race is, of course, the shuttle-
cock to be tossed from one to the other. The father
having been a Protestant, hls_ children were brought up
in that faith, and were placed at Protestant asylums
by the Patriotic Fund Commissioners. The CathoPo
priests, however, discoved how the matter stood, and set
on the mother to obtain the custody of her son, and then
to obtain the daughter they put on the screw and refused
to place, the boy at school unless they had the daughte r
also. The mother, against her own better judgment, is
compelled:to demand the removal of her daughter.from a
school where she was improving daily, and where ehe
was treated with unusual kindness. The Protestant
feeling of the ladies forming the committee of the Asylum
is then raised. • They refuse to give up tee soul of their
protegee to the guidance of the Catholic Church. Hard
words follow, and, at length, the law is called in to decide
the quarrels
,',of the churches, and two of the highest
courts of the country are occupied in discussing this ques-
tion. The Protestant side pay a sum of into court to
give it jurisdiction over the ward's property," and thus
the valuable time of the judges is frittered'away in decid-
ing upon contests raised by religious animosity. It was
even a question yesterday Whether the judge should not
sit during the short recess which occurs next week to
continue hearing this highly important case. The spiritua 1
welfare of the chili was of such importance that the place
of her religious devotions for this day must imperatively
be decided, and it was not until after much consideration
that the Catholics would consent to give an.undertaking
that she shOuld not be taken to a Catholic church before
the next hearing of the case._

MR. FREDERICK PEEL ON THE INCOME TAX.--In the
course of his speech at the Bury income tax meeting, Mr•
F. Peel observed that as far as his predilection was con-
cerned, he should be glad to see the income liable to this
tax starting from £l5O a year and upwards, and that he
thought the meeting might look with confidence to a solu-
tion of this question being made by the government which
would meet the public sentiments upon the subject.

THE SPIItIT THADE.—The impulse given to the manu-
facture of spirits in this country by the large demand
from Australia, Russia, Spain, and France, where the
distillation of spirits from. grain has been prohibited, has
led to a considerable increase in the price of gin. The
six great distillery houses of London are producing col'
lectively between 200,000 and 300,000 gallons weekly. It,
is said by those conversant with the operations of the
trade that this access of demand is equal to that of forty
millions of population, and equivalent to a rise of one-
third in sale. The profits of the business are said to be
very large,.' but •the enormous expense of the plant
required and the vexatious operations of the Excise have
rendered it almost a monopoly.

MR. M‘GREGOR, M.P., AI7D THE ROYAL BRITISH BANK.
—The Scotsman, in a severe article on the conduct of Mr.
J. M'Gregor, M.P., in connection with the Royal British
Bank, exhorts the electors of Glasgow to require the hon.
gentleman to take office under Government as Steward of
the Chiltern Hundreds, or in other words, to vacate his
seat.

IMPORTANT TO MA.TaNnas.—The Trinity Hduse body,
in conjunction with the Board of Trade, have placed
a gun of heavy. calibre on Holyhead Telegraph Moun-
tain, which is to be fired during foggy weather each
half hour Greenwich time, from five p.m., until the
arrival ,Of the passenger boat, and every quarter of
an hour from 11.30 p.m. until the mail boat arrives.

A MAN LAUGHING AT HIMSELF.—On Friday the wife
of a respectable tradesman at Herefard, wa3 personally
superintending the conversion of sundry ingredients into a
savory mess called " giblet soup," and having taken the
vessel containing the same,, to the back premises, to test her
palate, went back to the horse for a taster, and returned
with celerety • but, presto ! the giblet soup, saucepan, and
all, had vanished like a dream. Every hole and corner
was searched, but in vain, and otir good housewife was
almost inclined tie believe that some wicked elf had played
tt ran unhandsome trick. Let us change the scene. As
the master of the house was returning home, he observed a
large black bitch busily engaged in lapping a very hot, and
apparently savoury mess, near to the door of a respectable
tavern ; and being somewhat facetious, he observed to a
friend or two standing near, with his risible fdeulties
strongly excited, that the old dame had "boned" some-
body's " hashed" mutton. Having enjoyed the
fun, he hastened home to enjoy the giblet soup, but
found his wife in the greatest diarnay, lamenting the loss of
the whole. Who can paint his chagrin and astonishment
when the fact flushed across his mind that he had been
laughing at his own loss. Too much chagrined to return to
the spot, he sent to the place a boy, who found the landlord
of the tavern scolding his servant for having left the sauce
pan in the street. The fact-is, the sagacious old bitch had
entered the yard just at the time the soup bad, been left
without a guard, and she at once seized the e-ncepan by the
handle and toddled off with it, until compelled to drop it
through its heat, when she was :obserVed to place it
down very carefully. She had thus carried it about one
hundred yards. On the following day she was observed
with a whelp, keeping watch, while the youngster went up
the same entry in search of afresh supply of giblet soup.—
Cheltenham Examiner,