Northern Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1860-02-04 00:00:00

LIVERPOOL CORN.

We had a fair attenance at market for a' Friday;
_the
tone of the Wheat, trade was steady, and a moderate
business was done at the full'qubtations of Tuesday last ;
French 'shoats Were less easy to ptirchase,' and in som6
cases Made :a trifle more money. Flour was in better
request than of late, and prices were steadily maintained,

SAEURDA, FEBRUARY 4, 1860.

THE DAY'S NEWS.

The proceedings in the House of Peers yester-
day, present few topics for remark. With pro-
bably only one exception, those in the House of
-CominotiS• alipbarS to be equally uninviting as
regards commentary. In answer to a question by
Mr. King-lake, Lord John Russell stated his con-
viction that there is nothing of a dangerous
character in the French Government placing its
,arrnaments on " a proper footing." " There was,"
his lordship naively- observed " great activity in
our, dockyards; and:he did not 'believe that there
Was. any cause for mutual jealousy." The ratifi-
cation of the French: treaty; he said, would take
place to-morrow (this day), arid the 'negotiators
on our part had' beep Lord Cowley and
-.Cobden. The Other business before the FlCatse,
although confined merely to' the answering of
interrogatories, was important,. probably more
with a view to future contingencies than to pre-
sent cireumetances.

The feeling of consternation produced by the
Emperor Francis Joseph and his Ministers' harsh
treatment of the Piotestant deputation from
Hungary, to which we yesterday referred, is
spreading like wildfire in all directions of the
empire; and our surmise that this grave fact
will probably be the starting point of important
events is confirmed by the latest reports. The
Protestants are determined not to submit, whit-
ever be the consequences. Referring to these
circumstances, the leading journal remarks, " the
young Emperor seems to combine in himself all
the weaknesses of our Charles I. and all the stupid
bigotrY of our James 11. . . . The difficulty
is precisely that which beset our James 11. He,
like Francis Joseph, had to govern a Protestant
and a free people, whose institutions had been
assailed, and whose religious fears had been
aroused, and he ended by being sneered at by

i, . _
shrewd—prieits as a- simpletim --who last—three
kingdoms for a .mass. Here, in our day, is an
Imperial pilgriM travelling in the same_path.."

The woollen trade in France is considered, par
excellence, a' branch of national industry. T$ _
production of woollen cloths in France at pre-
sent
exceeds- five hundred millions of francs, and
the export of woollen goods , amounts now to a
hundred and sixty millions of francs. The re-
mainder of three hundred and fifty millions of
francs gives to each inhabitant of France a very
small complement. The native wool is the pro-
duce of thirty-five millions of sheep, and is a very
inferior produce, and very scanty—the whole
quantity being only sixty-five millions of kilo-
grammes, whiChTs-not nearly equal-to one-half the
demand; a-much larger quantity being imported
annually. There are three thousand woollen manu-
factories, employing two hundred and eighty thou-
sand operatives. The duties imposed on foreign
wool on its arrival in France are very high, and
on woollen stuffs they are exorbitant. But there
is no reason .to look for anything but increased
prOSPerity'tPihe manufacturers in coniequenee Of
the reduction of duties, and the removal of prolit-
hition. For, ,as the Paiii -correspondent of the
Times justly argues, "it was said that the intro-
duction of cotton would destroy the French
Woollen trade ; on the contrary, it excited and
spurred on the woollen manufacturers ; sine
then they have become every day more -wealthy,
and the reduction of the existing duties': will pro-
duce a- similar effect."
Mr. Cardwell's reply, as Chief Secretary of
State for Ireland, to the Roman Catholic Bishops,
on the subject of national education in Ireland,
states ;that thei.Gcrvernment are determined to
adhere to the principles of the system so clearly
laid down by -the` Earl of Derby, when Secretary
for Ireland, inlis well known letter to the Duke
of Leinster in 1831, whereby the legitiMate rights
of the clergy, and the just independence of the
laity, are secured, - and which are adverse to the
demands of the Roman- Bishops, as being calcu-
lated 'to substitute an injurious sectarianism. iit
education for the present well-tried and successful
national system. The Chief Secretary shows, in
this reply, that a large portion of the public grant
of money, as at present administered, is already
enjoyed by schools under Roman Catholic 'patrol'
age ; and in answer to the complaint of an impro-
per interference with the special functions of the
clergy, it is urged that the principles recorded ja
Lord. Derby's letter appear to afford no opening
for any such complaint, . and, therefore, if any
grounds for it exist, that they have only to be
pointed out and proved to the authorities to
secure instant redress. To show how largeV
Roman Catholics participate in the benefits of
the grants, Mr. Cardwell adduces the following
facts :—" Of the total number of 5,335 schools-11/
connection with the board in March, 1858, and
educating in the whole 569,000 pupils, 3,685'
schoolS were under Roman Catholic patrons, 354
481,000 pupils belonged to the Roman Catheli°
Church ; of every 100 pupils in attendance,; B`l
were Roman Catholics ; of the teachers of all
classes in the service, 80 in every 100 were ltn/
man Catholics ; of every £lOO paid to the teacher"
£BO were paid to Roman Catholics."
At a public meeting of the landholders in the
several baronies between Bandon and Skibbereen'
held- on Wednesday, at Dunmanway, the
purpOse of considering the advisability of atend-
ing railway communication through that kteli;
sive district, it was agreed, amid a great (101°'
tumult, caused by persons who attended for the
purpose of disturbing the meeting, that in copse,
queued of the failure of two efforts to extend the
railway through these extensive districts of the
West Riding of Cork, by capital raised solely
upon shares, the guarantee sanctioned by. the
several presentment sessions of the baronies, et
the rateof five per cent. interest upon a rn°LetY er
the capital; not to exceed' £6,000 per mile,
ought
be approved of; and a committee,, consisting of
the Earl of Bandon and eight oth9rs, was al-
pointed to attend before the Grand Jury of the
county of Cork to obtain such approval.
At,the nineteeth annual soiree of the Burnie.,"
Mechanics' Institution, held on Thursday evening'
Colonel Towneley in the chair, General the Hen'
Sir J. Y. Searle% K.C.8., in the course of his
address said, in reference to the Rifle Voluntcei.
Corps, " they would be of the greatest possible
use on the flank of an army to protect it, to Pry
vent its being turned, and to harass the enemy by
cutting off his supplies. He believed that if ever"'
man would arm himself with a rifle it would be
impossible for a nation thus in arms ever to be
subjugated."
By the arrival of the screw steam-ship Sep
York at Southampton, we are put in possession 0f
intelligence from the United States to the 05t
ult. So late as the 20th, no Speaker had 1)00
elected by the House of Representatives; an
great public inconvenience had consequently
arisen. The serious impediment to the busing'
of the State was beginning to receive generili
expression. Out of doors, an all but uniiersil
reprobation was expressed at the factionary r;
sistance to the settlement of a mere official, an
the procrastination was being loudly complainea
of. In the House itself, the impatience se engenci
dered was manifesting itself in expressions an
scenes as discreditable to the general feeling 115
they are undoubtedly inimical to public business;
How the difficulty will be obviated, or where /
will end, there does not appear at present 04
means of ascertaining.

ui
THE arguments with which the " LancasP•re.
Reformers' Union" are about to assail the ears-
the Legislature, or the ears of its accepted Ref°rll:
teacher, belong to that class of plausibilities
so easily land us in sophistries and here°°;
These are the men who are willing .to make