Northern Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1857-07-29 00:00:00

THE DAY'S NEWS.

The Lords' Committee on the Mersey Conser-
vancy Bill wss struck yesterday. The members
are five in number, viz : Lords Chichester, St.
Germans, Falkland, Beauchartip, and Romney.
We have later news from India. We regret to
say that Delhi has not been taken. The last
accounts from that place are to the 15th of June.
The beseiging force had been before the city for
eight days, having arrived there on the Bth. The
general in charge of the expedition was waiting
for reinfor!ements. Our accounts further state
that all the western provinces of the Bengal
Territory, were in a state of insurrection, and
the postal service with Calcutta was inter-
rupted. The disarming of the native regiments
continued. This news appears to have been
in the hands of government at an early hour
yesterday morning, for it was rumoured on the
Stock Exchange as early as eleven o'clock, that
intelligence of the non-surrender of Delhi had
been received, yet it was not published before six
o'clock. This is too bad. The government cannot
surely think that a few hours time elapsing from
the receipt of the news to its publication, can at all
have any influence one way or other. Further
despatches on this question will be found elsewhere.
While on this subject, we may mention that the
Berlin telegraphic Correspondence of the 26th an-
nounces that the States of the German Zollveroin
have demanded an indemnity from the British
Government for the losses their subjects suffered
by the boml,ardment of Canton—the bombard-
ment having taken place without that previous
notice to the foreign consul which the international
law demands. The collective note of the Zollve-
rein Government has been presented through the
medium of Prussia. No doubt the representation
will receive the kindest consideration—England
and Prussia are about to be united by a matri-
monial alliance.

A certain authority is attached by foreian poli-
ticians to the statements of the Morning Post, on
account of its real or supposed connection with
Lord Palmerst m. We mention this because that
journal brings yesterday a charge of a very grave
character against the Russian Government—
nothing more nor less, in fact, than that the dis-
content of our Indian troops, which has now broken
out into mutiny, is the work of Russian agents,
instructed and paid directly by the Foreign-office
at St. Petersburg. " There is abundant evidence,"
says the Post." both in Fort William and Leaden-
hall-street, of the proceedings of these Muscovites,
and we should not be at all surprised if some of
the Oude nobles and functionaries, and same of
the Brahmins, were under-agents in the pay of
the paramount and superior practitioners who
were immediately instructed by the Russian
Chancery."
In the House of Lords last night a petition
from the Mayor and Corporation of Liverpool,
suggesting the establishment of Courts of Recon-
ciliation, was presented by Lord Brougham, who
recommended it to the attention of the Lord
Chancellor. The Fradulent Trustees' Bill was read
a second time.

In the House of Commons last night Sir G. Grey,
on the motion for going into committee on the
General Board of Health Committee, explained
that it was necessary to pass a measure for the
powers of the Board of Health before the end of
the present session, unless parliament were of
opinion that its powers should expire. The go-
vernment thought it was unnecessary to continue
the board as a separate department, and it was
proposed that the powers ves'ed in the board
should be placed in the bands of the President of
the Council, aided by the Vice-President of Council
on Education, who would represent the board in
the House of Commons, so that the parlia-
mentary responsibility would be continued. Mr.
Knight moved that the bill should be read a second
time that day six months. After some slight dis-
cussion the House went into committee on the

bill, and clause 1, which transfers the
power of the existing Board of Health to the
Privy Council of Education, was expunged. A
refractory witness in the G, eenwich Election
case, who refused to reply to the questions put to
him by the committee, was yesterday committed
to prison by the chairman. The House of Com-
mons in the evening sanctioned the refractory
witnesses's incarceration. Sir De Lacy Evans
brought on his motion respecting the education•
and instruction required by commissioned officers
of the Army, but was ultimately prevailed on to
withdraw it, on Sir John Ramsden entering into
particulars of the Government scheme on
the same question, which would be introduced
next session. Colonel French moved the
issue of the writ for a new election in the room
of Mr. O'Flaherty, who had been unseated from
Galway. Mr. Clive, the chairman of the commit-
tee, opposed the motion; and moved an amend-
ment to the effect that her Majesty do cause an
inquiry to be made into the existence of corrupt
practices during the last as well as former elections
in the county and town of Galway. The Attorney-
General for Ireland supported the amendment,
which was carried without a division. Col. French
then moved that a new writ be issued for Mayo in
the room of M' G. H Moore. Mr. Scholefield
moved, as an amendment, that the Attorney-Gene-
ral for Ireland be directed to prosecute _the Rev.
Peter Conway, and the Rev. Luke Ryan,-and that
the issue of a writ be suspended during the
present session. Ultimately, the amendment was
adopte 1.
Yesterday, Baron Rothschild was again re-
elected member of Parliament for the City of
London, without opposition. The Guildhall was
not inconveniently crowded, nor was there much
excitement: Mr. M. T. Smith, M P., having pro-
posed, and Alderman Wire seconded, the nomina-
tion of Baron Rothschild, and no other candidate
presenting himself, he was declared duly elected.
Baron Rothschild then came ferward, and was
received with much cheering. In addressing those
assembled he went over the well-known history of
the Jew-Bill agitation ; and he said that Lord
John Russell had pledged himself to resort to any
constitutional means to accomplish this object,
and that while the constituency of London stood
by him (Baron Rothschild) he should stand by
them till success was achieved. Votes of thanks
to the Parliamentary supporters of the Oaths'
Bill, and to the Sheriffs, were passed, and the
proceedings terminated.

Mr. Baird, who represented Falkirk in the laQt
parliament, is again a candidate in opposition t o
Captain Hamilton. Mr. Baird is an ironmaster, at
the Garlsherrie works, near Airdree, a maderate
conservative, in favour of free trade, and a revision
of the excise laws - He was first returned for
Falkirk in 1851, defeating Mr. James Anderson by
50 votes.

Another unhappy individual has been sentenced
to die. At Maidstone, on Monday, Stephen Fox,
aged 24, was indicted for shooting Mary Ann
Hadley. his sweetheart, out of revenge for having
abandoned him. He was found guilty, and Mr.
Justice Willes sentenced him to be executed, with-
out holding out any hope of mercy.
Our Irish exchanges publish a letter from the
pen of Mr. William Smith O'Brien, in which that
gentleman gives an account of the adventures of
his portmanteau at the time of his capture fol-
lowing the Ballingarry rebellion of 1848, and of the
way in which, as he says, its centents were
dishonourably examined by- government
" detectives of high grade." Far general readers
Mr. O'Brien's letter has only a historical interest,
but its publication has also an immediate political
object. Sir Thomas Redington, who was in 1848
Uuder-Secretary for Ireland, is at present one of
the candidates for the representation of the county
Galway ; and the letter purports to expose that
gentleman's dishonourable conduct respecting the
contents of the portmanteau, for the purpose of
damaging his election prospects.
Our advices frcm the Continent this morning
are interesting. Very alarming rumours of the
actual assassination of the Emperor of the French
prevailed in London yesterday, and, whether
well or ill founded, they caused the funds to
decline. Our last accounts from Paris do not
make mention of any such outrage.
2., a.. ,ne present,
airier-
ence between the Powei s represented in the Euro-
pean Commission at Bucharest, and in the diplo-
matis Conference on the Principalities at Constan-
tinople, will end in France refusing to recognise
the validity of the Moldavian elections and, con-
sequently, the legality of the state of things arising
from them as established by treaty right. The
behaviour of the Moniteur in the question seems to
confirm this rumour.

The prosecutions arising from the late revolu-
tionary scheme continue in Italy as well as in
Spain. In the meantime it is reported from Turin
that threatening, or rather warning letters, which
seem to announce an impending Communist
outbreak, have been received there by various
persons.

THE course of the Divorce Bill, like that of
true love, has not run smooth. In the Commons,
on Friday evening, an attempt was made to
delay it, or to get rid of it altogether, under
colour of deferring it till next session. We were
very sorry to see the name of so distinguished a
person as Mr. GL ADSTONE in the opposition to
this bill. The Pretnit!r very properly, and with
some power of sarcasm, resisted the postpone-
ment. Gentlemen had had abundance of time to
consider the bill; and his Lordship gave a gentle
hint that the session might be prolonged till this
matter was satisfactorily disposed of. He recol-
lected to have once at least continued in session

till the middle of September ; and he could not
consent that the House, like idle school-boys,
should run away from their task.

The opposition to this Bill appears to us
groundless and misplaced. Even though five
thousand of the clergy have signed a declaration
that it goes against their conscience, and that
they believe the dissolubility of marriage is con-
trary to Scripture. Now, how is it possible to
sustain such a proposition in face of the unde-
niable fact that the New Testament itself names
at least one justifying cause for divorce. No one,
with the Old Testament in his hands, could
affirm the indissolubility of marriage ; but the
New Testament makes conjugal infidelity a
sufficient ground for divorce. How, then, can
it be indissoluble ? Marriage is a solemn,
sacred, civil contract between two parties,
voluntarily entered into, in presence of God
and society, and involving deep responsibilities.
But when the conduct of either party frustrates
the main purpose of the union, surely it would
be immoral, cruel, and tyrannical to continue
an enforced association, and to refuse the natural
remedy and slight alleviation of separating. If,
as we are now told, marriage is indissoluble, wh y
did not the five thousand clergymen lift up their
voices against the continued and habitual con-
duct of the House of Lords in granting divorces ?
Where slept the consciences of the Bishops in
permitting this solemn and repeated violation of
the Divine Law by the highest authority of the
realm ?

Yet this has been going on for some two

hundred years, and the right reverend Fathers
in God have taken it lightly to heart. It was-
written of old, "The zeal of thy house has eaten
me up"—but where has been the zeal of our
episcopal guides ? When rich suitors came to
their House for relief from an ill-assorted mar-
riage, when did my Lords the Bishops make the
walls ring with their indignant protests in favour
of the inseparability of the marriage tie under all
possible circumstances ? Never until the middle
classes and the poor came asking for the same
relief which has always been conceded to the
rich. The House of Lords has always done
exceptionally, and by special legislation, what
this bill proposes to do regularly, and by ordi-
nary course of law.

At the root of this agitation against the bill,
there must surely be some great misapprehen-
sion. If its real nature were understood, much
of the hostility would be disarmed. The Bill
creates no new ground of divorce. Simple
infidelity on the part of the wife constitutes, as
before, the ground of divorce ; but simple infi-
delity on the part of the husband is not a suffi-
cient ground, along with this there must be
bigamy, or four year's desertion, or dangerous
cruelty, or the infidelity must be of that parti-
cular kind which is called incestuous. Surely
no one can really believe that this is unloosing
the marriage tie, and relaxing the bonds of
morality. The Bill has the merit of more
clearly defining the grounds of divorce, but
it has the vice of still leaving the woman at a
disadvantage; it does not give her the same
justice which is afforded by the law of Scotland.
There is still one law for the man and another
for the woman. The vice of the husband must
be more heinous than that of the wife, before
relief can be obtained.

In the opinion of many who are no less moral
than its opponets, the Bill might go much farther
and be all the better. The cost will be reduced,
and instead of the cumbrous machinery of three
courts, there will be the simple expedient of one.
So far as it reaches, the Bill is a good instalment,
and will easily be amended into something
better. We hail it, not as being all that we
could desire, but as being as much as we are
likely to get from the Legislature in the present
state of public opinion respecting this grave and.
important subject. We believe there is a very
general desire that some such measure as this
should become law, and that the relief which it
promises is needed in many quarters, There
is, of course, nothing which may not be abused.
Marriage itself is abused ; money may become a
root of all evils ; the tongue that should speak
the truth may lie ; and the fingers may steal that
ought to be employed in useful working. But
the possible or the actual misuse of a thing is no
argument against the right use of it. From the
recent division giving a large majority in favour
of proceeding without delay with this Bill, we
confidently anticipate that it will soon pass into
law; and when this shall be the case the country
will probably be of opinion that it is one of the
best things the new House has done, or probably
will do during the uncertain term of parliamen-
tary existence.

MONDAY last was a day of unusual importance
to the Old and the New World. The American
war vessels, Niagara and Susquehanna, sailed
from the Mersey on their way to join her
Majesty's ships of war Agamemnon and Leopard,
on the west coast of Ireland, for the purpose of
laying down the Telegraphic Cable that is to
connect America with the United Kingdom.
No event, of either ancient or modern times,
can lay claim to such importance as is attached
to the completion of the Atlantic Telegraph. It
addresses itself to the people of both nations
directly and indirectly, collectively and indi-
vidually—lays the foundations for peace and
amity between both countries.—and aids the
march of Trade and Commerce, and the mental
and moral improvement of all their people.
Many of the disputes which have occurred
between Great Britain and America have been
the result of misconception at the outset, but
which, after mutual explanations and conces-
sions, have been amicably arranged, and peace,
at first endangered, placed. upon a firmer and
much securer basis. Nevertheless, owing to
the distance between Washington and London,
much time has been necessarily consumed in
diplomatic arrangements, and the leading journals
on both sides the Atlantic have been occupied in
fanning the warlike propensities of the p eople.
This has had an injurious effect. It has fostered
feelings of national pride, hatred, envy, and
unworthy emulation. The wheels of Commerce
have become disarranged, and public confidence
and security unsettled. It is for the interest
and the advantage of England and America
that such things should not be. The prosperity
of the one country is the gain of the other.
The commercial advancement of England adds
to the commercial greatness of America, and
the reign of peace between the two exalteth both,
not only in the estimation of their respective
populations, but in the eyes of the whole
civilised world. The mission of the Niagara
and Agamemnon, accompanied by the Susque-
hanna and LeOpard, will realise to a certainty
these latter objects. England's Queen can
exchange greetings with America's first magis-
trate. The foreign minister of each nation can
hold intercourse, and their respective ambas-
sadors can apply to and receive from their
Governments instructions upon this or that
question. National negociations can be effected
with less trouble, and greater facility, than the