Northern Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1857-10-08 00:00:00

THE DAY'S NEWS.

Yesterday, the 7th of October, was, as the Queen,
Victoria 1., commanded, observed as a day of humi-
liation and prayer, at least, so far as the outward
foams of opening of some of the churches of the Es-
tablished religion went. We were sorry, however,
to oliserve such an amount of drunkenness and
debauchery as disgraced the streets of the " good
old town," indeed the day was observed more as a
feast day than &fart day. There is no doubt that
the people sympathise with the sufferers in India,
but they are aware that 10,000 troops will do more
good in that portion of her Majesty's dominions
—we really beg pardon, the country belonging to
the East India Company—than a dozen of fast
dap or days of humiliation and prayer. The loss
to the working class alone by the observance of
the day would be suffizient to pay a large bounty,
and purchase the kits of a rather formidable
company. We publish the outlines of several of
the more important sermons delivered on the oc-
erlSlBl3. At the Unitarian Church, in Hope-street,
Yr. Itobberds preached a most excellent sermon.
Be was of opinion that the oonduct of the British
is India, although not fully atrocious enough to
merit the retribution that had been heaped upon
the wives and families of the officers who had been
OD barbarously treated in that portion of the British
Colonies, were still to be palliated. To him it
appeared that the very fact of the Indian atrocities
wing occurred was a deep reproach to England
That an army formed, trained, and officered by
Britains themselves, exposed to the influence of
British civilisation and example for so long a
aeries of years, should now commit such fearful
deeds—the very fact indicated either that there
must have been some provocation rankling deeply
*swag them. or at least, that our nation had been
greatly wanting in the duty of elevating the moral
condition of the multitudes brought under their
arway. Re did not believe that large bodies of men
were so gratuitously fiendish as it was common in
this case to assume. If men systematically com-
a/lifted such atrocious deeds, it must either be
ender the influence of some strong provocation,
—palliating although not justifying them—or
else under the infatuation of infatuated
bigotry, Mr. Hugh NV Neile delivered a
Roost impressive sermon on the occasion,
at St. Paul's, i a Princes' Park. We are glad to see,
ea the whole, that the ministers of the Gospel did
not think it for the benefit or the furtherance of
any church, sect, or religion, to preach in a tone of
maudlin sympathy with murderers and traitors ;
the highest laws are those of justice; the truest
mieny is that which ensures protection to the in-
nocent; the purest pardon is that which is granted
to the unconscious dupe and the delirious subor-
&nate after the ringleader and the instigator letee
been made to pay the penalty of their crimes.
There is no fear that the scattered and seditious
Sepoy army will be stricken with universal retribu-
tion; large numbers will die under the stroke o 1
the bayonet, or at the cannons mouth, or upon the
scaffold ; and it would be a mockery of all human
taw were the authors and abettors of _unnatural
atrocities to escape the due reward of acts so foul,
so flagitious, so surpassing the limits of all former
villany. But it is as much a waste of words.as an
insult to the British people to plead against the
employment of unnecessary torture or of indiscri-
minate massacre to avenge the Sepoy mutiny, with
all its awful consequences. Large bands of the

rebels will for the next few years be making '
their submission in the British camps, and it
is an unpardonable exAggeration to suppose that
they will be unmercifully given over to the hang-
man ; they will be received with clemency, and
when the stain upon our authority has been wiped
out, the severest retort we shall make on the
traitors of India is, that by our conduct and
example we shall prove ourselves better than they.
This will be no season of humiliation and prayer,
unless the public mind be concentrated upon the
real causes of the calamaties we are suffering, and
be brought to the conviction that India has been
thrown into a state of destructive confusion, not
because its natives have been cruelly wronged; not
because we have confiscated the dominions of im-
becile sensualists ; not because we, as a European
and Christian people, have succeeded the occupants
of Mohammedan azd Brahminical thrones; but
because, affecting to be free, we have acted like
slaves, abandoned the task of government to a
single class, and slumbered in insensate apathy,
until we have been roused by a storm of thunder,
and compelled, amidst the wail of captured cities,
the groans of decimated armies, and a cry of terror
throughout the lend, to assemble in our churches
and petition foe deliverance from evils that have
been brought upon us by our criminal fatuity
We are now coefidenrly expecting, in the course
of a day or two, a fortnight's later news from India.
It will, of course, be by telegraph, no doubt from
Consul Craig, of Trieste, and the majority of the
messages either absolutely wrong or greatly exag-
gerated.
In the meantime we perceive that a
Scotch cotemporary has published the proclama-
tion of Sir Colin Campbell, the new Commander-
in-Chief in India. The Commander-in-Chief does
not say anything about leading the troops to ven-
geance, but he speaks of rewards that will be con-
ferred upon faithful services, and by the blessing'
of God he hopes soon to be able to restore tran-
quility to our Indian possessions. We have pri-
vate advises from Calcutta which repeat the asser-
tion that the Governor General and Sir Colin
Campbell are at issue as to the proper measures to
be taken to suppress the rebellion.
Of local news there is, of course, nothing in ad-
dition to the ceremonies in connection with the
day of humiliation and prayer. The man, Dunn,
who was stabbed at Birkenhead on Sunday, is
recovering.
The steamer India; arrived here yesterday with
four days later news from the Canadian provinces,
hut it does not possess any features of importance.
We regret to say that our advices are very doubtful
in the expectation that the steamer Canadian,
recently wrecked on the St. Lawrence, can be re-
covered. The Montreal papers ha'e published
the details of the c"nsus accounts for the year
1856 It appears that the population of the
Provinces of Upper and Lower Canada is now
fully two millions and a half.

From the Continent we have no news of the
least impor'ance to-day. The process against
the Neapolitan Insurgents will commence on
the 28. h instant, at Salterno.

A despatch from Lisbon announces that the preli
minaries of marriage between the Duke of Oporto
and a princess whore name is not stated are
already settled. The duke is about 17 years of
age. In Lisbon it is considered that a war between
Brazil and Paraguay is inevitable.

Tint Government Commissioners have finished
their labours in Belfast. They have taken the
testimony of both parties; received the thanks of
each, made their bow to the people of the capital
of Ulster, and retired to Dublin, to con over the
evidence prior to delivering their " verdict." No
investigation, private or public, has for a
lengthened series created such an amount of
interest. Its cause the parties interested
therein—and the strange occurrences that took
place, almost daily, during the inquiry—gave to
the whole affair an imp'ortance that many a
matter of much greater significance never
attained. Any one who has paid the least
attention to the evidence collected by the learned
Commissioners must be struck with the apparent
indifference with which the Irish Executive viewed
the religious animosities and the fierce and brutal
manner' each—Protestant and Roman Catholic—
treated the other. These two sections of the
people of Belfast—i. e., the bigoted zealots on
both sides—influenced by hereditary strife, and
inflamed by the counsels and harangues of
political and religious mountebanks, made
warlike preparations for bloody conflict,
and continued the perpetration of deeds
of atrocity for a number of weeks,
during which the 1)cal authorities, and the
Executive sitting in Dublin Castle, remained
passive "spectators of the fight." The conse-
quence of these renewed riots has been loss of
life and property, as well as dangerous wounds
upon even harmless and well-disposed citizens.
Hitherto the inhabitants of Ulster have prided
themselves, and justly too, upon their love of
peace, law, and order. When rebellion stalked
abroad in Leinster, Munster, and Connaught, in
1848—when seditious MITCHELL and treasonable
MEAGHER—when hireling scribes, who are now
ashamed of disloyal deeds—and mountebank
politicians, whose chief aim was to fatten on
the gullibility of an innocent-minded people,
inflamed the passions of a populace—when
sedition, treason, and riot were the order of the
day in nearly every quarter of that ancient king-
dom Hibernia—Ulster was free from the leprosy
of disaffection, and the Government of the day
had little trouble in controlling the " Cabbage-
garden " propensities of its green-coated
" heroes." A place situated as Belfast is—inha-
bited by an honest, an independent, and well-
disposed people, should not turn rebellious. If
it do so, there must be something wrong in its
government and municipal regulation. Be it
also observed that municipal mismanagement is
not without the cognisance and indirect approval
of the Executive.

We have frequently alluded to the street
preaching at Belfast, and also condemned the
would-be clerical spouting at Liverpool, and other
places in the surrounding localities. There may
be those who think that such efforts to promote.
" GOD'S glory" an essential and indispensable
necessary. In all humility, we differ
from them. Many reasons induce us to
believe that street-preaching is unnecessary ;
but, independent of its necessity, we have to ask
ourselves the important question, Does it in any
way promote the professed object which its advo-
cates hold forth ? The police records—not at
Belfast, but Liverpool, and other places we could
mention—show that such theological exhibitions
do much more harm than good.
Apart from these considerations, the enquiry