Northern Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1857-07-21 00:00:00

THE DAY'S NEWS.

There was not much business of importance
transacted in either Houses of Parliament last
night. The rumours that prevailed in the City of
London yesterday, respecting the Mutiny of the
Bombay Army, was strongly denied by the Govern-
ment. The Chancellor of the Exchequer announced
his intention of abandoning the Savings' Bank
Bill. A somewhat desultory conversation ensued
upon the war with India, without resulting in any
practicable result. The House of Lords was
engaged in discussing the Mersey Conservancy
Bill, which was read a second time, on a division
of 23 for the bill, and 15 against it. The chief
speakers were the Duke of Newcastle, Lord
Ravensworth, Lord Wensleydale, and the Earl of
Derby. Of course the reading of the bill a second
time implies that it will be opposed on its further
stages. Lord Campbell, it appears, is to create
another discussion respecting the Oath of Abju
ration.

The first meeting of the newly constituted Board
of Guardians of Toxteth-park was held yesterday
at the public offices, Toxteth-park. Mr. G.
Horsfall was elected chairman ; Mr. Alpass, vice-
chairman, and Mr. Cleaver, clerk. Of course, no
business of any moment was transacted, but in
the course of a short time the board will be in fair
working order. We hope that the severance of the
Toxteth district will tend to the advantage of tae
ratepayers in both Unions.
Yesterday, the Recorder, Mr. Gilbert Henderson,
opened the general Quarter Sessions of the peace,
and delivered his usual charge to the grand jury,
from which it appears that there is still a great
increase of crime in the borough, the numbers of
committals for trial from the 13th of May to the
17th of July being no less than 266 persons. At
the same time it is gratifying that there were
not any crimes of magnitude noted in the
calendar. His worship alluded to the new regu'a-
tions in regard to penal servitude and transporta-
tion, and explained the leading provisions of Sir
George Grey's proposal, which we published in
extenso a few days ago.
The Police Court cases are at all times matter of
interest to our readers. We refer to our reports,
and would call attention to the case headed A
Curious Charge about Murder," but as the case is
to be further investigated tc-day, we refrain from
further comment. The " Mysteries of Dance-
street" is well worthy of notice, as it shows the
positive evils of intemperance, whilst Mr. Cros-
thwaite's decision respecting buss conductors, wil
be a warning to all who take an interest in the
regulation of these important public conveyances
The election for a member to represent the City
of Oxford, in the room of Mr. Neate, who was un-
seated, commenced yesterday. The candidates
were Mr. Thackeray and the Right Hon. E. Card-
welt. The show of hands was declared in favour
of the former gentleman, and Mr. Cardwell's friends
demanded a poll. He was not present on the oc-
casion. Both parties are confident of success.
We understand that the deputation of liberal
members appointed at the meeting on Thursday
last, on the question of the Parliamentary Oath's
Bill, will wait upon the Premier this day. A
London cotemporary of last evening, states "if
they intend to ask him what he proposes to do in
the matter, he will tell them in effect that he pro-
poses to do nothing. Already has he intimated
his intention to give no support to Lord John
Russell's bill; and is it to be supposed that,
seeing he allowed Lord Harrowby, a member of
his cabinet, to absent himself from the critical
division on the Parliamentary Oaths Bill, he can,
with any sincerity, countenance the course pro-
posed by Mr. Dillwyn ? The truth is that the
noble lord is insincere in the question ; and the
Liberal members who slavishly follow his lead are
unconsciously betraying their constituents and the
principles they profess.
Reports from the North of Ireland reach us that
Orangeism has broken out into angry effervescence
under the influence of the 12th of July; and riot
and bloodshed hold their orgies nightly in Belfast,
that eminently intelligent and loyal town. Mr.
Justice Jackson, himself at one time a fiery
Orangeman, has felt himself bound to read a sharp
lecture on the subject to the gentry of Downshire,
in which county also serious and fatal riots have
occurred.

A great step in the direction of free trade is on
the eve of being taken in Germany. In the Zoll-
verein arrangements the difference between the
excise on beet-root sugar and the customs duty on
foreign-grown and refined sugar has hitherto acted
as a powerful protection to the manufacture of
beet-root sugar ; so much so, indeed, that the im-
portation of foreign sugar has dwindled into
insignificance, and the exchequers of all the Zoll-
verein States have severely suffered. This latter
circumstance swept away all remaining opposition
to the free trade demand for an equalisation of the
sugar duties, and a special Conference is now en-
gaged at Berlin, in laying down the terms of the
new arrangement.
The Pays, a French ministerial organ, asserts
that Mazzini has been informed by the British
Government that although England will not cease
to offer an asylum to political refugees, he cannot
be allowed to make preparations here for revolu-
tionary enterprises abroad. The responsibility of
this assertion must, of course, be left to the Pays.
Letters from Paris in the Belgian journals
contain some hints as to the results of the inquiry
which the French police is pursuing with regard
to the Italian outbreak. As they are' unauthorised
communications, they must be received with
caution. It is reported that the French
Government coincides in the representation made
by the Italian Governments to that of Great
Britain, respecting the alleged European dangers
created by giving refuge to Italian refugees in
England. Count Walewski, and Baron Hubner,
the Austrian ambassador, have been in conference
with Lord Cowley on the subject.
The news from Spain, as might have been anti-
cipated, reports little, save the numerous execu-
tions of the captured insurgents, who it seems
were all condemned by military tribunals. As a
result of the failure of the negotiations carried on
for some time between the Mexican plenipo-
tentiary, Signor Lafraqua, and the Spanish govern-
ment, we now hear of
serious preparations for an
expedition against Mexico in the ports of Cuba.
Reliable information from Berlin confirms the
previous announcement, that the two German
Powers have again delayed federal measures
against Denmark, until the discussion of the
constitution by the Holstein Diet shall have taken
place.
A " dismal" rumour, has been current to the
effect that the whole of the Bombay army had
mutinied and joined the Bengal revolters, was
published this morning by a cotemporary. This
alarming intelligence, it is hinted, has reached
England overland through the medium of Russian
mercantile house. We believe that there is no
truth in the report. The tenor of all the authentic
i ntelligence received by the reoent mails" from

India, which represented the Bombay army as
perfectly sound, notwithstanding the spread of
successful revolt in Bengal, would of itself have
led us to reject this rumour, originating as it does
one knows not where or how. But besides this
reason for considering the rumour a silly or
" dismal " fabrication, we have the assurance that
no intelligence from India, later than that brought
by the last mail, has been received up to the pre-
sent moment, either by the Government, or at the
East India House.

The Parliamentary Election Committees pro-
ceeded to prosecute their investigations yesterday.
That entrusted with the Falkirk Petition proceeded
with the evidence, it had not gone far when Mr.
Phinn, who was counsel for Mr. Merry, the sitting
member, said he could not resist the evidence
which had been adduced against Mr. Merry's
agents, and he must therefore retire from the case.
The committee room was then cleared, and on the
re-admission of strangers, Sir John Pakington, the
chairman, announced that the decision of the com-
mittee was that Mr. Merry by his agents had been
guilty of bribery and treating, and that therefore
the election was void. The Weymouth and Mal-
don Committees were engaged in taking evidence,
but nothing peculiar took place.

THE Dock Committee is adopting a somewhat
singular, and, to our mind, objectionable course
with respect to the Mersey Conservancy Bill.
At the meeting held on Thursday last, Mr.
SMITH expressed an anxiety to be made acquain-
ted with the tenor of a report which had been
presented to the Parliamentary Committee,
respecting the proceedings in Parliament in
regard to the Bill in question. The Chairman,
at the outset, deprecated any discussion on
the subject, alleging that any further debate
upon it would be highly prejudicial to the
interests of the Dock Estate. Mr. SMITH, finding
that the standing orders of the Committee were
against the views which he entertained, gave
notice that, on Thursday next, he would move
that the resolution of the Committee on the 9th
instant, adopting the report of the Parliamentary
Sub-Committee on the proceedings in Parliament
on the Mersey Conservancy Bill, be rescinded.
This notice provoked a debate, which clearly mani-
fested the determination of the Committee not to
tolera e any public discussion on the subject.

Now we must join in the principle set forth
by Mr. HUBBACK, that as the representatives of
the Dock ratepayers, the Committee should have
an opportunity of discussing the aforesaid Par-
liamentary proceedings in such a manner as
would enable the public to form an opinion upon
their respective sentiments on the subject. The
habit of managing important public trusts in
secret conclave, and of allowing a Sub-committee
of three or four persons, to control and regulate
such matters as the Mersey Conservancy Bill,
by their mere fiat, is preposterous. Mr. CHAS.
TURNER'S doctrine, about the inexpediency of
giving to the public the information Mr. SMITH
sought to obtain, was identical to that avowed
by Lord PALMERSTON a few hours afterwards in
the House of Commons, when he argued that it
was not desirable that the public should know
what were the actual operations of the Govern-
ment, in carrying on the war with Persia. We
have elsewhere alluded to the unconstitutiona
nature of the principles enunciated by the
Premier on Thursday night, and, as the ground
taken by Mr. TURNER, Mr. BOLD, and other
members of the Dock Committee, for preventing
the public from knowing what steps had been
taken, and what further efforts will be made to
defeat the Mersey Conservancy Bill, we need not
pursue the argument further to prove that it is
untenable, and in its operations must prove
injurious to all the parties whose interests are at
stake by the nefarious project of the men of
Manchester, and their interested a e'tors.

We hold that the principle of conducting the
affairs of public bodies in secret, and refusing to
the Press an opportunity of placing the people at
large in possession of everything calculated to en-
able them to judge whether such bodies discharge
their duties with efficiency and zeal, is open to
the strongest objection• It begets suspicion that
all is not right; jealousy, and afterwards con-
tempt, follows. Moreover, it has been a fact—
but too often demonstrated—that " secret
management" has ended disastrously for the
parties engaged; with such a system, some how or
' other, corruption and jobbing creep in, and
evils of the greatest magnitude follow. We do
not mean to insinuate that there is jobbing in the
Dock estate. Far from it. But we contend that
the fact of preventing discussion on the Parlia-
mentary proceedings, connected with the Dock
estate, is not only discourtesy to the ratepayers, but
an inference that all the steps which have been
taken therein, will not bear public scrutiny. We
are willing to believe that such is not the case, still
we cannot come t 3 any other conclusion. Sooner
or later, all that has taken place in the matter
must be known, and it would come with a far
better grace, were Mr. TURNER and those who
act with him, to be less reserved; for, assuredly,
we have passed the age of " secret conclave,"
and one sided Committees.

Mr. SMITH was met by a motion, proposed
by Mr. Alderman BOLD, that. Mr. SMITH'S
proposition should be discussed with closed
doors, and was carried by a large majority—only
three members voting against the Alderman's
proposal. We have said enough to satisfy our
readers that the standing orders of the Dock
Committee, like those of both Houses of Parlia-
ment, require revision and alteration. We have
also showed every one that the practice of con-
ducting important debates, in the absence of the
reporters, tends to the disadvantage of the
public, whose servants the members of the
Dock Committee are. Whilst on this subject we
cannot refrain from expressing our surprise that
the people of Liverpool should be so long without
having a public meeting called, in order that they
may give an emphatic expression of their unmiti-