Northern Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1857-09-14 00:00:00

that he was influenced by public duty alone,
poured out a torrent of invective and abuse
which completely prejudiced the Council against
poor WDONALD, and this, of course, sealed his
fate. Mr. JEFFERY pressed his motion to a
division, and the result was what might hare
been anticipated. With the thunder of Mr.
COOPER'S denunciations ringing in their ears,
many of the members who it was believed would
support the memorial recorded their votes the
other way, nor do we wonder at their doing so,
under the circumstances.

Unfortunately, for Mr. COOPER'S serenity, Mr
M'DONALD has yet to be heard in his defence ;
and if his allegations prove correct, Mr.
CoopEres credit for candour, honour, and
veracity, will receive a shock from which they
never can recover. Mr. M`DONALD asserts that
the charges urged against him last Wednesday
were precisely the same which Mr. COOPER had
made use of upwards of seven years ago,
when he was dismissed by the Water Com-
mittee of 1849, of which committee Mr.
lIARBORD was chairman. Mr. M‘DoNALD had
been accused by Mr. COOPER and others, and
the accusations had been entertained during his
absence, the first notice he had of any proceed-
ings pending against him being an announce-
ment of his dismissal in the papers of the day.
That he immediately appealed to the Council
against that decision. That his memorial was
referred to the Water Committee, who reported
against Mr. 11‘DoNALD's dismissal, declaring
that the charge of making dishonest or incorrect
assessments made against him was unfounded ;
that all his assessments were proved to be per-
fectly correcl-, and the mistakes were the fault of
others, not Mr. MDONALD'S. In short, the
committee found all the charges against him " not
proven," and unanimously recommended him to
be restored to his office.

When this decision was announced the worthy
alderman's ire was excited to the last degree ;
he redoubled his invectives against poor
M`DONALD j he denounced the Water Com-
mittee as partial, and declared that they had
been bamboozled by Mr. MWONALD, whom he
described as a cunning electioneerer, who. had
brought ward influences to bear on the com-
mittee.. These charges were indignantly re-
sented by Mr. PICTON and others. The result
was that Mr. COOPER moved the appointment of
a special committee to investigate the whole of
the charges. This committee consisted of six
members, three of whom were magistrates. The
investigation occupie'd six days, and at its con-
clusion Mr. M`DQNALD was declared innocent of
all that was laid to his charge, and they unani-
mously resolved on recommending his instant
restoration. Yet, in the face of this decision of
hia own c nrnmittPo_ this nhace nlrlarrn%n per-
tinaciously persists] in renewing his charges
whenever he has the chance of doing so.
We can only say that if Mr, M‘DoNALD's
statements are true, more atrocious conduct than
that of Mr. COOPER it never has been our lot to
record. What are we to think of the
Council who permit their chamber to
be converted into an arena where such
men as Mr. COOPER can be permitted,
with impunity, to damn the fortune and reputa-
tion of any one who has been honest enough to
tell the truth, in opposition to the interested
views of Pike jobbers. It is for the Council to
say. Assuredly, if the statements furnished by
Mr. M.DoNALD prove to be facts, as we believe
they will, then is Mr• COOPER inexcusable. Hi
conduct is a disgrace alike to himself and the
body to which he belongs—it is utterly beneath
contempt. But we shall see who is right bye-
and -bye.

A MAN.—The wide world over, where shall we find an
" individual man ?" One cast in a distinct and separate
mould; a non-conformist; obedient entirely to the laws
of his own being ; refusing to be kneaded. over by the
customs and conventionalities of the society in which he
is born ; with a coat that is not stuck all over with out-
side badges ; with a face firm enough to brave open
ridicule,'and a heart stout enough to execute its own early
and inspired conceptions. It is not such a wonder, after
all, that the old Greek cynic went about in the day time
with a lantern :hunting for a Man. They are really.raro
articles, and must needs be hunted. for a great while
before finding. We are all too much plastered over
—so chipped away—so sand-papered off—that the
wonder is we know our best frieuds from morning

till morning again. There is so much tameness and
sameness—we are so evenly ruled] in by parallel
lines—that to see one and know him is to see and know
the whole class of which he is a representative. Con-
sidered after this fashion, it was not such a grave joke of
the Greek trifler, after, all, who went around with a
single brick, as a sample of the house he was so anxious to
sell. How,we ape and mimic—pattorn after, and counter-
feit How we abandon our own c-onvictions, and chase
after fashionable notions not one half so good. How we
wait for other people to speak first, as if they inherited a
better right to speak than we. r. How we plod and follow
on, like a troop of idle sehoolboys, having no fixed make-
up of our own. nothing by which we are ready to take
a stand, and then sturdily to defend it. To be yourselt—
strictly yourself—is half the battle. Differ rather than
al ways subscribe. On the corner stone of that fabric which
we entitle manhood, is the monosyllable—No! He who
early learns the use of that,invaluable word, has learned
the way to peace, and comfort, and safety already. An
easy compliance kills out everything. No friction is
engendered in the character, and we experience none of
the healthy shocks of a good, honest resistance. If a man
will 'only learn to look up to himself, and take counsel
now and then of his better thoughts and words—if he will
but teach himself, under God, a greater trust in his own
soul—if he will resolve to give over this guess work study
of others, and offer his own native instincts and impulses
a chance—he may thenceforward hope that a new future
will begin to dawn on him. Respect for others need not
degenerate into servitude. But respect for one's self—
that is the very alpha and omegaLof all inward com-
mands. Rather than this servile concession and corepli•
ance we prefer to see even stubborn old prejudices
growing out of the character. They at least will hold the
native soil together, and so an individual life may become
compacted at last. As for your downright, honest
prejudices, they aro after all to be respected, and freely
and heartily admitted to one's friendship. There are
many things in the world a great deal worse than
prejudices. They are the tough and fibrous, roots that

hold a man down to the plane of life, and keep him firm
in his place. The winds of ;controversy, and looseness,
and ridicule may blow as strongly as they choose from
every quarter ; but there he stands. is not every
popular tempest even that can move him. He is somewhat
of himself. He holds a position. His resolution is not a
mere pool of water, to be drawn off into other men's
conduits and channels. It is a rugged and well
compacted mass, granite in its material, that, if it
will not overbear, will not at least consent to be
overborne. There is no existing evil without its
counterpart'of good; and,„there are far worse things in
the world than honest and hearty prejudices. The
masses, too, like to look up to a man. They inwardly
respect one who stands a head and shoulders taller than
they.Slt is natural for them to receive their opinion
second-hard, without the trouble of making them up for
themselves. In the midst of such influences, we under_
stand how hard it is for onelnot endowed with more than
usual energy, to make his mark for himself. All the sur-
rounding circumstances are against him. And yet out
of these very untoward circumstances, it is possible for
every man to build up a career and a character that shall
be wholly worthy of his highest ideal. All that a man
wants, to begin with, is resolution. By no other instru-
mentality can he over hope to become finally free.—
American Prper.

TIIE HUDSON'S BAY COMPANY'S CEIA.RTER AND TENURV.
—The lease of the Company in Vancouver's Island, as
well as the license to trade in the Indian territory, over the
richest prairie districts in British America, expires in
1859. It is to be hoped that all these will ba opened to
trade and settlement under the Canadian government.
The Charter granted by Charles the Second is said to be
illegal. Canada demands, as an act of justie,e, that this
shoald be referred to the proper legal tribunal here, where
both parties can be heard by counsel. If the Company
can prove their righ's, the country can purchase at a fair
value ; if the grant be decided to be i'legal let the
monopoly cease. The government cannot halt, but must
do its duty, with which interest, influence, or family con-
nccliens must not interfere. The last mail from Canada
has brought accounts of public meetings being held at
Toronto (see the NORTHERN TIMEI of 11th inst.) and
other cities, on the receipt of tha report of the Committee
of the House of Commune, which has given no satisfietion,
One of the speakers adding " the country was not theirs to
give, but ours," when an address to her Msjosty, and both
houses of parliament, praying "that the license of trade
may not be renewed, and that the claims of the Company
under the Charter may be imasediately brought to issue
and extinguished" was carried. The home government
Ins only one straightforward courss to pursue—to have
the matter decided by the tribunals of the country.
Nothing else will satisfy the Canadians. And it is better
to do this at one', as an act of justice, than to be forced
to do so through pressure from without. We have
Eisteru troubles enough on hands without driving; by
injustice, the most loyal colonists into, disaffection.

THE BRITISH PEERAGE SINCE HER
MAJESTY'S ACCESSION.

While the public are interested in the elevation of Mr.
Macaulay and Lord Robert Grosvenor to the Peerage, it
may not be out of place to lay before our readers a brief
resume of' the titles thus far conferred since Her Majesty's
accession. On the 21st day of June, 1837, Queen Victoria,
on corning to the Throne, found the House of Peers com-
posed of about 450 members, exclusive of the spiritual
lords and the Scotch and trig' representatives. Her Ma-
jesty's first act was to give an;English title to the Scot-
tish Duke of Roxburghe, then just of age, by creating him
Earl Innes, and to elevate to the Earldom of Leicester
the late father of the House of Commons and the friend
of her Royal father, Mr.T.W.Goke, of Hollaham, who had
often refused the inferior dignity of a Baron. At the coro-
nation, in June, 1838, Mr•Fonsonby, the ex-member for
Dorsetshire, Mr. H. Tracey, for Tewkesbury, Sir J. Wrote
testy, forstateerdshire,and Mr.P.lVlethuen,forWittseire, all
of whom had lost their seats at the previous general
election, were advanced to the English baronies of De
Manley, Sudeley, Wrottesley, and Methuen. At the
same time her Majesty conferred English baronies on the
Irish Lords Lismore and Carew, and on the Scottish
Earl of Kintore, advancing Lords King and Dundas to
the earldoms of Lovelace and Ze,tland, and the Earl of
Mulgrave to the Marquisite of Normanby,:and summoning
the present Duke of Leeds to the Upper House as Lord
Osborne. In the course of the same year the title of
Lord Vaux of Harrowden was revived in the person of
Mr. G. Mostyn. In the course of the following year
Lord Melbourne elevated to the peerage a " batch "'of his
own more immediate friends and supporters, including
ais own brother Frederick, long ambassador. at Vienna,
who became• Lord Beauvale ; Col. Talbot, many years the
liberal member for the county of Dublin, as Lord Furnival;
Sir John T: Stanley, as Lord Stanley Of Alderley ; Mr.
Villiers Stuart, as Lord Stuart de Decies ; Mr. Charles
Brownlow, who long sat for the county Armagh, as Lord
Lurgan; and Mr. Beilby Thompson as Lord Wenloelc—a
title which had for a short time bean enjoyed by his bro-
ther, the late Sir Frances Lawley ; while Mr. A. French,
the veteran M.P. for Roscommon, accepted the title of De
Freyne. At the same time in Mr.,Chandos Leigh the an
cient barony of Leigh was revived, and Mr. Ridley Col-
' borne, who had sat for many years for Wells and other
places, became Lord Colborne, the first and the last of
that title. In the same year the:;late Lord Ponsonby'
then ambassador at Constantinople, was promoted to a
Viscountcy, which has since expired with him; Mr.A.ber_
croraby, after a four years' tenure of the Speakership,
was advanced 'to the title of Lord Dunfermline ;, the an-
cient Carnoys title was also revived in the person of Mr'
Thomas Steno'', who had. sat for Oxford for a few weeks
in the first reformed Parliament. About the same time
Mr. Spring Rice, cn resigning:the Chancellorship of the
Exchequer,becameLord:lionteagle of Brandon; Lord Auc-
kland, the Governor-General of India, was advanced to
an earldom ; while the titles of Lord Keane and Lord
Seaton were conferred on two general officers who had
seen more than the ordinary share of foreign military
service. In 1849 Mr. Miles Stapleton obtained in his
favour the revival of the ancient Barony of Beaumont,
and Sir Jacob Astley, the eXenember for Norfolk, that of
Hastings. In le4l another " batch'` of elevations were
gazetted just before the retirement of the Melbourne
ministry. English baronies were then conferred on the
Scotch Earl of Stair and the Irish Earl of Kenmare,
while Sir John Campbell became at a leap Lord Camp-
bell and Lord Chancellor of Ireland ; Sir Hussey Vivian
and Sir Henry Parnell were made respectively Lords
Vivian and Congleton, the late Duke of Norfolk and the
present Errl of Gostord at the same time being called to
the Upper House in their father's baronies, and Lords
Barham and Segrave being advanced to the earldoms
of Gainsborough and Fitz Hardinge. Not long after-
wards Mr. Poulett Thompson, then Governor-General of
Canada, was created Lord Sydenham, but the title, we
believe, became extinct within the year. In August, 1841,
Lord Melbourne resigned, having conferred no leis than
42 coronets in four years. It is but justice to his successor,
the late Sir R. Peel, to state that he discontinued the es-
tablished practice of confer ring the honours of the Peerage
with a lavish hand. On taking office he found that there
were two gentlemen whose services he required in the
Upper House. They were the eldest sons of Peers, and
had long enjoyed seats in the Commons. These noblemen
Her Majesty was pleased at once to call to the Upper
House in their father's baronies, and they aro now the
the Earls of Derby and Lonsdale At the same time the
late Lord Hill, the .Comeeander-in-Chief at the
Horse Guards, was advanced from a Barony to a Vis-
countcy. Sir Robert Peel remained in office till the close
of the summer of 1845, just five years ; but during that
time the only other Roglish peerages conferred were the
Barony of Metcalfe (since extinct) on the late Slr C. T•
Metcalfe, the Earldom of Ellesmere on Lord Francis
Egerton, and the Viscountcy of Hardinge on Sir Henry
'larding, besides the advancement of General Gough to a
barony, and of Lord Ellenborough to an Earldom, for
their Indian careers. On their return to office in 1846, the
Whig party renewed their practice of increasing the
Peerage., In the five years during which Lord John Rue-