The Northern Daily Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1857-02-28 00:00:00

back from the Austrian frontier, but he will be
furnished with a document by the frontier autho-
rities, which will enable him to reach his•destina-
tion. 3. In future no foreigner will be obliged to
pay a tax for permission of sojourn in any Austrian
city or town.
The Madrid papers now aver that the only object
of the projected expedition against Mexico is the
occupation of Vera Cruz. How the rest of the
world would look upon the disturbance of corn
merce by the milita.ty capture of so important a
commercial place as Vera Cruz is scarcely doubt-
ful. Six months ago we noted the suspicious mis-
sion of an agent of ,Santa Anna to Madrid, and it
is remarkable that the menacing attitude of Spain
dates only from.that time.
The despatch of a Danish note in reply to the
demands of the German Powers about the Duchies
is confirmed. It• is known too that it negatives
those demands; and in the actual position of this
question, and looking at the feelings it has aroused
in Germany, we confess that there ate reasonable
grounds for apprehending a resort to hostilities.
With respect to the state of affairs in China, the
Paris Pays states that private letters from Macao,
of January 10, affirm that the Emperor of China
has placed the five ports of the empire, which are
open to Europeans, in a state of siege. bhould this
news be confirmed the consequences to European
commerce will be very serious.

THERE is to be but one nationality in the
British Isles ! Hibernians and Scotians are to
sink their Celtic loves, and to become Saxon and
sanguinary. The assimilation is to be so per-
fect in laws and literature, habits and customs,
ethics and manners, that we question if the
keenest observer will not be as much puzzled to
distinguish the difference between the three
races, as the sagacious Nigger was when he dis-
covered that CZESAR was very like BRUTUS—
particularly like CESAR. But Parliament is
taking a very round-about way of securing the
required uniformity, especially with respect to
the assimilation of the laws of the three coun-
tries. The Judgments' Execution Bill may be
taken as a tolerable specimen of the great circle
sailing of Parliament. In this case, we have
three distinct sets of high judicial authorities,
administering the law in the high courts of
their respective countries, at assizes and quarter
sessions. Each has the power of hearing civil
causes, recording judgments, and issuing execu-
tions. The whole are localised, for the express
purpose of saving the pockets of suitors, and
securing the prompt and impartial administration
of the law. Actions are brought in the court of
the district in which the cause of action a rises,
the natural presumption being, that that plan
gives both the plaintiff and defendant the best
chance of obtaining evidence, and prosecuting
the proceeding at the least possible expense.
There appears to be some wisdom and justice
in these arrangements, and if they are to be dis-
turbed at all, why not at once introduce the Code
Napoleon, make Westminster Hall the seat of
the superior courts for the three Kingdoms, and
let all executions issue from thence to the sheriffs
of English, Irish, and Scotch Counties ? If the
Judges of the Sister Isles are to have jurisdiction
in this county, and vice versa, we shall still have
three sets of superior courts enjoying one un-
limited jurisdiction. This surely cannot be
necessary. One set of courts ought to be enough
for one jurisdiction; more especially when it
appears to be the fixed determination of Parlia-
ment to have one code of laws for the whole
realm. We want no Irish wit nor Gaelic
eloquence to shower their charms from the bench,
or from beneath horse-hair and ermine, to give
force to English law, and a high character of
impartiality to the administration of justice.
These are sacred trusts which ought not to be
confided to provincial mummers.• If English
law is to prevail over Irish jury-packing, national
weaknesses, and party failings—Scotch love of
all things Scotch—England must find judges to
administer her laws. We could not entrust
alien judges and barristers with the practice of
courts from which they have been most carefully,
and, it may be, most providentially excluded.
It would not do to tell these hosts of local
judges and barristers that they must make way
for English horse-hair and petticoats ; nor are
we to be asked to submit to the execution of
judgments in England, obtained in courts, the
law and practice of which may be more nearer
akin to those of the Cannibal Islands than any-
thing English. The Irish historian of true
Emerald purity, and the adventurous spirit of
MACAULAY, have forewarned us of what we have
to expect from the tribunals of justice in their
respective countries. Not that their laws are more
imperfect than they are here, but that their ad-
ministration gives far less public satisfaction.
Cases of individual hardships in private life mul-
tiply daily to give strength to the very proper
conclusions arrived at from historical research.
It is notorious, in fact, that there never was a
period in the history of our provincial law courts
in which greater cases of hardship and extreme
suffering are chronicled to the world. To recover
a trumpery legacy from a dishonest executor or
administrator, a widow or an orphan must have
thrice the sum to invest in bills, briefs, and
bags. To recover a debt of any considerable
amount, a fortune must be staked, and as for a
poor man's enforcing his legal rights against a
rich neighbour, or alarge joint stock company, it is
totally out of the question. Such is the state of
the law; and to what should we attribute it but
to the existence of three distinct sets of superior
courts, and the exorbitant fees demanded from
suitors, in addition to the millions which the
public are charged annually for the administra-
tion of justice.

Our Law Reform Societies have, by some sin-
gular fatality, passed over the mass of abuse
which is to be found under the head of suitors'
law costs, and the large sum levied on the
community for the salaries of judges and
their numerous staffs of officials, down to
the unconscious and drowsy tipstaffs, whose
snores often keep the judge awake, and the
bar from sharing in his slumber. The
Law Reformers in the House of Commons
have been equally unfortunate in their search
for a palpable grievance on which to
bestow their genius as legislators. Mr. CRAU-
FURD, on whom the Government have fathered
their Judgments' Execution Bill, has never. pro.

bably, considered what the practical effect of the
PALMERSTON bantling would be, as we have
done. He may possibly be endeavouring to
introduce the small point of the wedge of
centralisation, and hopes, ere long, to see
English Judges executing the law through-
out the length • and breadth of their newly-
acquired juris ction. In the meantime, we do
not believe that Irishmen or Scotchmen would
be satisfied with the judgments recorded in
English courts in favour of English creditors, or
that the traders-or merchants of this country will
be content with the verdicts and judgments
pronounced in Irish or Scotch courts. We
therefore anticipate no measured share of oppro-
brium from Mr. CRAUFIIRD j and we venture to
predict, that should his bill become law, it will
lead to intolerable confusion, and increased
cost to suitors.

Du. DUNCAN'S Medical Report is a document I
of great importance to the inhabitants of Liver-
pool. It brings down the mortality of the Borough,
in all its melancholy details, to the moment at
which we are entering on a new sanitary era.
We now know that, in the period to which the
report relates, 776 deaths occurred from diarrhoea,
60 from dysentery, 1 from ague, and 26 from
cholera. Fever is not treated with the same
care, and we are only allowed to know that the
deaths from this cause, or rather typhus, amount
to 342, or one in 1,236 of the whole population,
while they ranged as high as 987 in the
metropolis. These being the diseases which are
said to spring mainly from an insufficient supply
of water for sanitary purposes, and water essen-
tially bad in itself, we now have the data required
to enable us to judge of the effect the filthy Pike
drainage will have on the public health of Liver-
pool. These statistics are, however, in the hands
of corporate committees and officials, and without
wishing to impugn the character of either one or
the other, we would have our readers receive
them for just what they are worth.

The attention which has been devoted to this
branch of the corporate business since the Pike
water has reached Liverpool, has not failed to
excite the attention and laughter of a large
section of the Ratepayers. Some have noticed
the frequent visits made by Mayors and ex-
Mayors, Aldermen, and Pike Town Councillors
to Cornwallis-street. Few will forget the bustle
and confusion which prevailed in that locality for
several days after Dr. SHERIDAN MUSPRATT'S
analysis of the Pike liquid appeared in the
NORTHERN TIMES. LUTHER'S flight from Stutt-
gardt scarcely caused a greater commotion among
Cardinals, Monks, and Friars than that appalling
disclosure led to among the jobbers, corruption-
ists, and toadies who infest the Town Hall ; and
from that moment up to the present the most
wonderful attention has been bestowed on our
sanitary records ; still, we start on a new era
when we are to receive an abundant supply of
water for all imaginable purposes, and of such a
pure quality that no danger is to be appre-
hended.

Should any great increase take place in the
sickness or mortality produced by cholera, fever,
diarrhoea, dysentery, or ague, we have Dr.
DUNCAN'S report to refer to, and as the public
will take good care to watch diligently the actual
state of the health of the town, there will be no
difficulty in setting the Corporation right, if there
should be any apparent discrepancies in their
returns. The health of the town has shown very
marked progressive improvement, according to
Dr. DUNCAN'S report, ever since the supply of
well water has been increased. This is proved
by Dr. DUNCAN'S statement that, "in the four
" years (1837-40) immediately subsequent to the
" passing of the Registration Act, one in about
" 450 of the inhabitants of Liverpool died annu-
" ally from fever; while, in the last four years
(1853-6) the yearly deaths were not more than
" one in 1,035. In the metropolis, during the
" same periods, the fever deaths were one in 690,
" and one in 987 respectively. The contrast is
" gratifying, and may be taken as an index of
the extent to which sanitary operations have
been carried out in the respective places."
These comparisons show that we are in a highly
satisfactory condition with regard to health
and hence the great anxiety the public feel with
respect to changing that most vital sanitary
element—water.

Had we been falling off either in the supply or
quality of the water, the inhabitants have been
using through the periods to which Dr. DUNCAN
alludes with so much gratification, the Pike
deluge would have been received as a most timely
and providential boon ; but; as it is, we fear the
greatest consternation is felt regarding the future.
If we return to the old totals of mortality, there
can be but one reasonable and just cause
assigned for the lamentable catastrophe, and
the Pikeists must prepare for the opprobrium
which Dr. DUNCAN says attends a town infested
with fever or other epidemics. There will be
no limit set to the public indignation, if the
Pike water should be found to contain " the
" seeds of cholera and fever," and it will be vain
to attempt to disguse their return to Liverpool,
should they re-appear during the next summer.
In the meantime, the authorities ought to turn
their attention to that Guinea Coast settlement,
more familiarly known as Vauxhall Ward.
Mark what Dr. DUNCAN says on the subject :--
" The rate of mortality, of course, varied mu..-. 1
" in the different districts of the borough, rang-
" ing from 21 in 1,000 in North Toxteth Ward,
" to 39 in 1,000 in Vauxhall ; the latter, as has
been invariably the case, presenting the highest
" death-rate." This is a frightful announce-
ment.

The deaths in London, from the most fatal
disease, Are one in 987, and in Liverpool one in
1,035 ; while in Vauxhall district they are, from
all causes, 39 in 1,000. This, we say, is a grave
reproach to the Corporation and sanitary staff
of Liverpool. If sickness could be confined to
certain localities in populous towns, it would be
bad enough ; but the strides made by the Ines-