The Northern Daily Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1857-02-17 00:00:00

LIABILITY OF SHIPOWNERS.

A very numerous deputation, from the sailing and steal
shipowners of the United Kingdom, among which were
the chairman and deputy chairman of the Liverpool
Shipowners' and Steamship Associations, accompanied
by Mr. William Brown, M.P., Mr. Marston, M.P., ttoandMr. J. C. Evart, M.P., waited on Lord Palmerston, at bis
private residence, on Saturday afternoon, to urge upon
his lordship the necessity of putting a limit, of
reasonable extent, on the liability to which shipowners
are liable under the Merchant Shipping and Passenger
Acts, from accidents occurring without their fault Or
privity, and to submit to him a draft of a bill to limit in
such cases the liability of shipowners to the stataarf
amount as regards life, and, further, to the maximal,*
sum of £l5 per ton for steamships, and £lO per ton for
sailing ships. The deputation was introduced by Lord
Elotham, and Lord Palmerston was addressed on the
subject of the bill by Mr. Anderson, on behalf of the
Steam Shipowners' Association of London ; Mr. Caving,
M.P., for Belfast ; Mr. Graves, on behalf of the Lire"
pool Shipowners' Association ; Mr. B. J. Thomson. ea
behalf of the Liverpool Steamship Association ;
Fagan, M.P., Mr. Bowyer, M.P., Mr. Pearson of Hull,
and other gentlemen. Lord Palmerston assured the
deputation that the matter would receive the immediate
consideration ,t,f the Government, and that he would
shortly inform the parties who waited on him whether
the support of the Goveament would be given to the
bill.

THE ROYAL BRITISH BANE',

No arrangement, it appears, has yet been come to by 64
shareholders of the Royal British Bank, relative to the claims.
made against them by the creditors and depositors. At a meet..
jog of shareholders recently held a proposition was agreed oP°S.-
for the payment of a certain sum, which, with the amounts to
bo realised from the assets of the estates, would give a dividend-
of about 163 in the pound, and it was intended in the cog°
of the present week to call a pnblie meeting of the creditorto
with a view to the consideration of this proposal. I,C
appease, however, that a body of seventy-nine of the Dow
shareholders, who dispute their liability as sthill, on the
ground that they were induced to join the concern it;
false and fraudulent representations of the directors, law
nearly the whole of whom are at present on the Continent,
have declined to be any parties to the proposed arrangt
ments. Notwithstanding the clear and emphatic decision (A
Lord Campbell, in the Court of Queen's Bench, as to thl4
liability of this class of shareholders to the depositors, the
parties have been advised to carry an appeal to a higher
trihunal. It it is difficult to account for the infatuatioll
which urges these shareholders to incur still greater expenses
in litigation, and that, too, of the most hopeless descrir
tion. Then the legal adviser to the body of shareholders
consenting to pay the 6s. 6d. in the pound, requires it
a preliminary condition, the conseat of the whole body of
depositors to accept such compromise as a final satisfaction c°
all demands upon them. The most sanguine among the!
advocates of the compromise have never imagined that theY
could succeed in obtaining perfect unanimity among all th/J
creditors, but they conceived, and very reasonably, that if Old
thirds or three fourths of the body consented to receive Ir;s td
the pound instead of the full 20s, they would relieve the share.'
holders from nearly one fourth of the entire burden of thet
liabilities. The whole of the negociations may be said to b°
now brought to an end; the committee of depositors have
now resolved that they will not consider any compromise utiles
a guarantee fund of £20,000, as an earnest of the good faith to
the shareholders: be at once deposited in the hands of trustees;
This condition had not been complied with on Saturday night'
and it is said to be the intention ei the body of creditors itnro°4
diately to issue writs against the shareih;2ders for their indiii;
dual accounts. The committee of depositors :rPresents ab°ll
3,000 of the creditors, and in a day or two the pZ....!)lic 1
expect to hear that in addition to the thousands of p 00—,.,
already expended in contesting the rival jurisdiction of t°'
courts of law and equity, the wide spread misery and raid
which some hundreds of executions have alre-dy caused, the°
will be added the expenses of 3,000 writs, and the legal PL°4
ceedings consequent thereon. It is also stated that 20
Marcus, the original petitioner, has instructed his solicitors!
Messrs. Harrison and Lucas, of New Boswell Court, to take
the necessary steps for getting an appeal to the House of Lord,
heard during the present session, for annulling the adjudicatiot
of bankruptcy of the Royal British Bank. The point vrllLc'
will he raised for the consideration of their lordsiYips is TO
validity of the act of bankruptcy.

MISCELLANEOUS CIVIL SERVICE.—The amount paid in!t
year under the head of Miscellaneous Civil Service Ti"
£6,652,143 3s. Bd.
SIR W. CLAY'S RILL TO ABOLISH CFR/BCET RATIO."'
On Satnrday, Sir W. Clay's bill was issued to abolls
church rates. By one of the clauses, all church rates, IS
every parish throughout England and Wales, are to bit
abolish9d from the passing of the act.
PASSENGERS TO AND r,iost FRANCE —According to
a return ismed on Saturday, the number of passengere.to
and from Franca and this county was, in 1832, 16,404, to'
Franca, and 19,178 from France. The last year given last
in 1855, when 16,798 went to France, and 20,733 from
France.
Mr. Milner Gibson, Mr. Roebuck, Sir William Cali
and about twenty other members of parliament, have
accepted invitations to the dinner at the London Tavern'
next Wednesday. with which the voluntary party intend
commencing their parliamentary campaign for the prereot

year.
PARTNERSHIPS DISSOLVED,—B. A, Schaffer, -•
Budenburg, and F. C. Phillippsan, Manchester, vendors "'
Schaffer's patent steam guage ; P. Ezekiel and Co,. Mac'
chester, importers of foreign goods ' • Andrew and Barker'
Mancherer, paper stainers; G. and H. Smith, Manchester'
sugar refiners ; j and J. Marsden, Belton and elsewherai
Lancashire, brickrnakers ; R. and W. Cooper, Birkenholt
and Deptford, merchants.
FRIGHTFUL ACCIDENT 13Y FIRE.—On Sunday afternol
an accident of a frightful character, which it is feared Wit_
terminate fatally, happened to a woman named Carolie:
Moris m, who resides at Peckham, near London. T. 14,
unfortunate woman, who it appears is severely afflicted With
paralysis, was sitting by the fire, when an attack of V.`!
malady came on, which precipitated her forward on th°
fire, A neighbour, on entering the poor woman's WO;
found her on the floor enveloped in flames, and burned
dreadful manner. She was immediately conveyed to 0';
Thomas's Hospital, where she now remains sin a vest
precarious state.
4}, tbd
HEALTH OF LORD ELLESMERE.—We regret 4Lia
health of the Earl of Ellesmere does not continue to Pr
gress towards perfect convalescence so steadily as his frid.
en 0
could wish. His physician pays him a daily visit, and no
but his most intimate friends and the members of his fa°ll
are permitted to see his lordship. Itehae not been thoughi
advisable for the earl to leave town ; and as his healtL'".
too delicate to bear carriage exercise, a suite of _rooms hal
been thrown open on the ground floor of the mansion over'
looking the Green park, and, with the windows all or;
the noble invalid is wheeled through them in a bath al,
for a certain time every day. The points chiefly insister'
in the regimen prescribed for the earl are quiet and rep
and, of course, the absence of all excitement.—C°
Journal.
WHIGGISM.—A London morning cotemporary conclude°
an article on the Naples Correspondence" in the follof;
ing words Another lesson which the Liberal part,' Id
this country ought to learn, unless their delusion is leer°
all remedy, it is utter filly and mockery of placing 113 •
trust whatever in Whig statesmen as the champions of
oppressed nationalities The very keystone of their fore`el-3,
policy is the preservation of the ' balance of power,' and tk"
meats the maintenance at all hazards of the existing stated
system in Europe ; and while that is the great and goill§
principle of European politics, there is no hope for rPu„,
liberty, as the object of that system is to secure the p,rel.,
"theor of sovereigns and not the rights of peoples. "lb.
or without secret treaties, we may be quite cure that td
partisans of the balance of power' theory, always will O
must guarantee the integ the
of the Austrian c'omini°rllt
otherwise what becomes of the political Equilibrium, "
overthrow of which, in 'Whig estimation, would make
" Tho whole creation to its centre nod,
And nature tremble to the throne of G3D.''
THE LATE MELTON MURDERS.—Oar readers will re be
ember that at the time the public were shocked hiero,
horrible tragedy enacted at the Thorpe tollgate, near Mein /.
in the summer of last year, the efforts to discover the kac,
with which the murders were committed proved quite uouto
cessful. It will be some satisfaction, however, even llovin'ne
know that the knife has been found, for although no -era
doubted the justice of the conviction under which Br°,lo
was executed, yet as the criminal left the world without 'v.
slightest confession of his guilt, anything whioh comPletter
the chain of circumstantial evidence against him is a niathat
which must be interesting to the public. It appears, eel
on Saturday last, a MA named Wm. Steel was enilm°/hig
by Mr. George Wood, of Melton, to scour the ditch ill
r"di
field opposite to the Thorpe tollgate, and about 20 Y,,s„ife
from the house. In doing so, Steel turned up the i'•,oo
which there is no doubt inflicted the fatal wouudo,ritref
the old man Woodcock and his grandson, on the night as
the nth of June last. It is identified by the witnesse"tba
exactly corresponding with the ono seen by them Ple,
possession of Brown previous to the murder, I,llAe
butcher's knife about 5 inches long in the blade, bat
inches long in the handle. It is nearly rusted through'is e
the marks of the blood are quite preceptible ; and it
ti the
little bent as if by violence. The field is situatetl shoo,
opposite side of the road to the toll house, near 0-1° • e
and is doubtless the one Brown went up after c0n3112110
the murder, as it is in the direct line he took for the Sead 00
dyke, where it is supposed be washed the clothes he °a
when he committed the murder,—.Leicester Afercury.