The Northern Daily Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1857-06-06 00:00:00

THE NORTHERN TIMES.---LIVERPOOL, SATURDAY, JUNE 6, 1857.

question; but their efforts were unavailing, for after
a sitting of some four hours the meeting broke up,
without coming to any decision. As it appears rather
odd that a merchant, a draper, and a parson should
take it upon themselves to be umpires in a dispute
between master and workman in the building
trade—What can they really know about the
matter ?
At the Po ce-court, yesterday, Mr. Macfie, the
sugar refiner, was fined £5 and costs for not con-
suming his smoke. This is the fourth or fifth
time that this gentleman has been mulct in a
similar penalty.
The foreign intelligence this morning is of no
great importance.
The forthcoming elections in France are worthy
of observation, since a higher importance is to be
attached to the nation's judgment respecting its
government, gagged although the utterance of it
may be, after it has had five years' experience, than
when it knew nothing of it at all. Symptoms of a
revival of public political agitation in that country
are not wanting, and one at least of the numerous
parties whose hopes had been adjourned by the
coup d'etat, shows its readiness to profit by the
discontent of the others, and has now entered the
field of electoral action.

The movement against the Charities Bill in
Belgium, which is at the same time a movement
against a spurious parliamentary majority, con-
tinues with unabated force, but is now confined to
the regular field, the municipal corporations, to
whom in Belgium, more than anywhere else, im-
portance is to be attached.
The Russian Grand Duke Constantine is now
the guest of the King of Holland, after having
paid a short visit to the King of the Belgians, at
Antwerp.
An industrial exhibition is about to be opened
al, Warsaw.

A despatch from Algiers announces that three
of the Kabyle tribes, against which the war has
been undertaken, have submitted. The chief
importance of the despatch is in what it does not
say. The Beni Raten, the most powerful of the
tribes, whose love for independence is at the bottom
of the contest, has not yet come to terms.
Quarrels have broken out between the leaders
of the Circassian mountaineers, and Sefer Pacha
has succeeded in driving Naib Emir, his com-
petitor, out of the country.
We are informed that there is'a general feeling
on the part of the inhabitants of Matta that the
present system of Government in that island-
requires revision ; and a petition is in course of
being drawn up, praying the Queen to grant'
Administrative Reform in their Government.
The petition will be powerfully supported by the
Maltese community. The press and the people
of the island are already clamorous for its pre-
sentation.

The Bank returns of last night show a total
amount of bullion in the Bank coffers of 10,332,4021,
or an increase of 227,575/. compared with the
returns of the previous week.

A CRISIS seems approaching in the United
States of America. The permanence of the
Union will be severely tested; and the vexed
question of Slavery is the root of the matter.
United as we are to America, by more than mere
commercial ties, nothing that th:eatens American
institutions can be a matter of indifference to us.
We have a great interest at stake, depending on
the way in which this affair may be settled.
Our Cotton supply is seven-ninths of it derived-
from America, and our best foreign customers
are there—if we may consider the Americans as
foreigners, and not rather our own. people, and
our own institutions, literature, and language,
transferred to the other side of the Atlantic.
The immediate cause of the present renewed

was. cA/D item ele.4. esv• is; ..a., RIIIIII,TIIIP

tribunal in America on what is called the DIM
SCOTT case. The declarations and decisions of
several State Governments are directly in the
teeth of the highest authorities al Washington.
Nine or ten local States' legislatures have already

pronounced against converting the entire
republican territory into slave land. Already
Massachussets, Maine, New York, Pennsyl-

vania, Ohio, Wisconsin, Connecticut, &c., have

declared against Washington, the Fugitive Law,
and the South—and the agitation is spreading.
Some of the very best of the American citizens,
and the most powerful among the States, seem
to be in earnest. It is impossible that the great

battle can be much longer deferred. And here,
as in every field, we say, " Heaven defend the
right." The arm of Providence is the prudence
and energy of man. It has been publicly
proclaimed that the fugitive slave need no longer
pursue his flight to the sacred soil of British
America, putting the Canadian border between
him and his bloodthirsty pursuers : for that an
asylum may now be found at home ; that citizens
with white faces are ready to defend the dark
man, and throw the shield of law over
him : that they have actually fortified their
houses ; and the South has dared to come and
drag its victim from the sanctuary which
humanity and Christianity is now rearing
around him. This is a solemn period of trial for
American institutions and citizens, but there can
be no doubt of the final result. Slavery is
accursed of GOD and man, and cannot endure :

for in this Universe, built by GOD, and ruled by
Him, " ever the right comes uppermost, and ever

Ls justice done."

Some are fearing the dissolution of the Union
in the coming struggle. We hope otherwise ;
but better so than be perpetuated a Union
founded in hideous injustice, cemented with the
groans and tears of the dark man, and increasing
by means of the growing degradation of the
devoted race. It is not in human nature to
endure this. We, in Britain, have the kindliest
and most brotherly feeling to the Americans ; we
feel their greatness and glory to be our own.
Lord NAPIER, at the Washington banquet,
recently, spoke the feeling of the Government
and the people of Great Britain and Ireland in
reference to our American relations. The
existence of slavery in America is a trouble and
a disturbance to us as well as to them. We
earnestly wish them and the world for ever puri-
fied from this plague spot, and fruitful mother

of evils.

There is one way in which we can indirectly
help them and subserve the cause of freedom
without any direct interference. We can
avoid all causes of misunderstanding between the
two Governments till the great controversy is
settled. It used to be sai4 that whenever ow


own Government desired to divert the attention
of the people from domestic reforms, it managed
to get up a quarrel with the French, or some
other nation. In the excitement of a foreign
war, home improvement was forgotten ; reform
was shelved ; and the people hoodwinked for
some time longer. The Turco-Russian war was
the cause or the pretext for dropping Lord
JoBN RUSSELL'S Reform Bill. Now that
that war is ended, ministers will find that the
people of this country are not so oblivious
as Sir WALTER SCOTT'S DOMINI'? SAMPSON.
A similar policy for personal objects has been
noticed in Americrn Presidents. When they
desire their own re-election and the countenance
of their party in power, they patriotically, of
course, get up some dispute with England. This
diverts attention from embarrassments at home,
and gratifies the ignoble passion of a few to defy
the " Britishers." But it is meant to tide over

the presidential term of four years, and to
subserve re-election or to perpetuate slavery.
We trust that no difference between us and the
United States will serve as a plea for withdrawing
the American national mind from dealing with
this great moral problem of slavery. We could
therefore wish that the Central American
question had been settled and put out of the way.

It might gratify some to foment a war with
England, in order to prolong. the existence of
slavery, or to adjourn that practical solution
of it which seems now at hand. We are too
earnest wellwishers of America to gratify that
insane and unloyal wish. The longer accounts
remain unsettled, the more fearful wilt be the
final reckoning. There are now numerous slave
desertions, reported. The national mind is now
being aroused, from Maine to Florida, and' from
the Hudson to the Mississippi. The dark man
fought in the ranks of the revolutionary war for
American independence ; and' the fathers and
founders of American liberty declared, in that
world-famous document, that " all men are
born free, equal, and independent." Thousands
and- millions in America now feel that it is

time to give that declaration a fresh and expanded
meaning by the extinction of an institution,
strangely named " domestic," which, so long
as it exists, renders the- boast or American
liberty a lie and a libel, a mockery, a delusion,
and a snare,

IT is not an agreeable task to have to censure
an act, done by a public body, in the- name of

generosity, and to find fault with a favour
conferred :upon a valuable public servant. We
cannot, however, help expressing our very

decided disapproval of the unthinking spirit of

liberality with which the Town Council, on
Wednesday, voted away 1501. of money not their
own, as a gift for which no necessity ought
ever to have existed. The Deputy Town-Clerk,

having been heavily- overworked. becomes, as a
matter of inevitable result; incapacitated for
continued labour of the same unreasonable kind,

and is forced to seek leave of absence in the
hope of a restoration to health. The Finance
Committee, who admit the undue amount of toil
forced upon their officer, seek, as it were, to•
atone for their fault, by the vicarious. compensa-
tion of inducing the Council to present him
with what, in plain words, is a donation of 1501.,
to enable him to visit some climate more
favourable to convalescence.

The Council—who usually when there is a
proposal to add sixpence a-week to the salary of
a porter, debate, harangue, and divide for hours
—grant the request at once, and apparently look
to the public to applaud the generosity which
cost the donors nothing. Two or three
members have, indeed, sufficient sense of justice
to oppose the motion, but it passes easily enough,
notwithstanding. Now, we neither mean to
treat this question lightly on the one hand, nor
to insist upon too rigid an adherence to prin-

ciple on the other. But we should like to know

whether the same generosity will be extended
to every hard-worked clerk in the employment

of the Council, who has struggled for years
to maintain his family on 30s a week, and who,
falling sick at last, must seek change of air
in the workhouse, unless the sympathy of his
employers can find its way down to his obscure
misfortunes. The public officer of whom we
have spoken, and for whom we feel much respect,
has had for some years a very considerable salary
—4501. a year. It is not looking for superhuman
prudence to expect that provision might have
been made out of such a stipend for the common
emergencies and calamaties of existence. To
say that this money ought to be given, because
of extra duties, is a pretence which can deceive
no one. When the extra duties were being
imposed upon the gentleman in question, the
Council should have been informed of the fact,
and have had the option either of at once openly
increasing his salary or procuring him additional
assistance. It is not very long, we believe,
since his salary was actually increased, to meet
growing duties ; and if equal reason had been
shiwn now, the Council would scarcely have
refused a similar act of justice. But the public
can hardly favour the principle, that the com-
mittee are, on their own responsibility, to
overwork an officer, and then, when the mischief
has been done, expect the Council, who knew
nothing of the matter,- to pay compensation
for it.

Mr. SHEIL justly condemned the Finance
Committee for their alleged overworking of the
officer, and correctly pointed out the false
economy as well. is positive cruelty of which
they proved themselves guilty. The Finance
Committee should learn that LagßEE's principle

of "using up fast and buying more" is costly
cheapness in the end. The members of the
Committee might indeed, with great pro-
priety, adopt a suggestion made by
Mr. JEFFERY, and make up a subscription out of
their own pockets, to compensate the men they
have worn out with work. But we most
emphatically object to a course which is unjusti-
fiable in every sense, and towards every party
involved. It is unjust to overwork a public
servant. It is wrong to adopt a principle which
tends to remove from individuals the sense of
responsibility to the chances of the world, which
should secure self-dependent and continuous
prudence. It is most unfair towards the Rate-
payers—many thousands of whom are very poor,
very sickly, and with no employers to make
them generous presents—to give away their
money, in order to atone for wrong-doings in
which they had no part. It is, perhaps, most of
all, unfair towards small salaried officials, to
whom, it is needless to say, no such magnani-
mous consideration would be shown. Such
generosity, if extended equally to all, as we
presume is the case in the private instance of
Mr. EARLE, may be prudent, just, and even
economie in the end. But if charity only holds
out her favours to men with large salaries,
as Providence is I) umourously said to take the
side of large armies, those who feel some
sympathy with the smaller people cannot help
questioning the justice of her mission. Charity
performing her office with the money of others,
holds a sufficiently questionable position; but we
apprehend there can be no question at all, when
she limits her benefactions to. those who could
best dispense with them; and, assuming an
aristocratic air, only drops her b)unties into
hands which wear gloves to receive them.

THE NEW AnTRALIAN CLIPPER SHIP; GENERAL WYND-
HAM —There is hardly a week that the great pioneers of
Australian trade and emigration, Messrs. Gibbs, Bright
and Co., of the "Eagle line of Australian packets, do
not add a first class vessel to their noble and extensive
fleet. We have now to notice the last addition in this
respect, which is a noble good ship, called after a noble
man. The General Wyndham, which has been put on the
berth, and has since the announcement of her sailing day
rapidly increased in the estimation of emigrants—for the
cabins an board are filling quickly. We had an opportu-
nity of inspecting her a day or two since, and from an
elaborate examination into all the details, it may be said
she is about one of the most complete ships we have seen
in the trade. She is not, 'Lis true, one of the largest vessels
of this kind ; but there are many circumstances connected
with her that require attentive notice. Although she is not
the largest vessel in the trade, it will be seen that her
tonnage is about 1,800 ; so that she is nearly equal to the
largest vessel in the trade. However, the great objects
desired in emigrant ships are comfort, convenience, and
proper accommodation,—three ingredients which the
General Windham possesses in an eminent degree. The
aim of the owners in this, as in every other instance con-
nected with their favourite vessels, being to combine the
three requisites, so that passengers may really possess
-what they absolutely require on a voyage, and at an
expense that cannot fail to please all classes of emigrants.
It is well known that the great bulk of emigrants for
Australia go in third and intermediate cabins, and it has
ever been the care of Messrs. Gibbs, Bright, and Co. to
see them Properly 1,-."4-",1 and I"AT...A Tr is always
pleasurable to notice the improvements made, and daily
making, for the last two or three years in this respect ; and
so far as the General Wyndham is concerned, she has the
best berths we ever saw provided in both these cabins, light-
some, cheerful, well ventilated, aril great height between
floors and ceiling, all indispensable adjuncts, are here
secured. Nothing better than what she possesses, in
these respects, could be obtained ashore. During the
week, the ship has been inspected by a number of scientific
and mercantile gentlemen, who pronounced her as nerfeet
in every point as it is possible to make a ship. There is
another point, and not the least; interesting to emigrants,
namely, the attention bestowed in the victualling depart-
ment, both as to quality and quantity. The usual care
observed in the vessels of this line, has been paid to the
General Wyndham—everything is ample in quantity and
and first-class in quality. From her performance as a
sailer, on her first voyage (just completed after building),
it will not be too much to say, nor too much to expect,
that she will not only sustain her own character, bu' that
of the famous and favourite line, to which she belongs.
She is set down for sailing on the 15th, and as the house
is noted fer its punctuality, intending emigrants must be
on the alert to secure places. The splendid new ship
Florence Nightingale is the suceeediag packet, and of this
vessel we shall have something to say next week.

ANOMALIES IN THE TIMBER TRADE.--.Mr. E. Cho.loner

timber merchant, of this town, in his last circular, com-
plains of the many existing anomalies, inconsistencies
and restrictions imposed by the Customs authorities on the
article of timber ; and it is to be hoped that the authori-
ties may be induced, now that their attention has been
called to them, to remove the restrictions so justly com-
plained of. Mr. Chaloner says—" Baltic sawn stuff can
be now exported to Australia and elsewhere much be-
neath the cost of all American, and also cheaper than
Colonial deals ; for even under a declared system of Free .
Trade, these last cannot be exported or even bonded,
without first paying a Customs duty of 7s 6d per standard
or 81 per cent. on the first cost—say on St. John spruce
deals. They cannot even be transhipped to another
colony without this imposition. On the contrary, all
foreign wood, sawn or unsawn, may be bonded or other-
wise transhipped, free of all Customs duty, such being
equal to about 50 per cent. on the first cost of those
foreign or Baltic deals, which are those more in competition
with colonial. So that the staple manufacture of the
colonies cannot here escape the 81 per cent. tax, while the
foreigner can save. or indeed in a way recover, about 50
per cent. on his manufacture—as it were on declared
' neutral ground. The operation of this anomaly is to limit
or deprive this port of its legitimate export trade in sawn
fir (being the way in which the wood is now chiefly im-
ported) by directly influencing orders in favour of British
ports nearer than Liverpool to Europe ; for instance, the
St. Petersbnrg white deals, now selling in Hull at .4'B 103
per standard in bond, and other kinds at 103 per
standard (and even lower), meet effectually our St. John
deals (this last being of uecessity always duty paid) at
103 per standard. It is somewhat inconsistent that the
ship wrought of pitch pine in her masts, spars, planking,

&c., and employed to carry the like material to our own

artizans while rewarded with freight may herself be sold
free of duty in Great Britain, while the raw material thus
brought must he taxed as above for the essential repairs
of the like or any other ship in England ; and further.
whilst all furniture, and most shipbuilding woods are
admitted duty free, pitch pine, extensively used for both
purposes, is subject to the high duty of 7s 6d to lOs per
load. It seems not enough to reward the foreigner with
employment to supply and carry this first class, indeed
imperial shipbuilding wool, for the English artizans, but
the superaddition of from 22 0 26 per cent on the first
cost must be imposed by the Customs here, on a wood,
too, brought from a region producing cotton, on which the
dnty has been cancelled ; and though the latter comes
also from British possessions, the former is not imported
from any of our colonies. Our insular postion, and naval
pre-eminence alike demand the removal of a restriction so
anomalons—essentially so, on a delared principle of Free
Trade," In a postscript, Mr. Chalmer adds :—" The duty
on this cargo of sawn wood is £2OO, and if exported must
be paid ; whereas any other sawn wood, except Colonial,
can escape all Custom's duty whatever ; all other wood
may be bonded—Colonial cannot 1 A similar cargo to
that ex Elizabeth Ann Bright, the Lucy Thompson, was
exported and the duty Raved to the importer, but the
board considere(l Ni not to be A precedent."

AMTJSEMENTS.