Northern Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1859-10-26 00:00:00

THE SAN JUAN MISUNDERSTANDING.

The New Yor.l. Herald, of October 17th, con-
tains the following remarks on this subject, under
the head of " Important from Washington—Our
Relations with England." The bad spirit of
these remarks is that of too many of the people of
the United States towards England, wherever an
opportunity is presented of displaying it. Let
us hope that a better spirit will animate the
councils of the United States Government, not-
withstanding that there is one in those councils
who is himself animated by a very similar spirit,
and which he, no doubt, rejoices that there is
once again the occasion for manifesting in his
official capacity—we mean General Cass.
The Pacific Ocean is to be the great field for
the development of the American and English
branches of civilization, and both nations have
their views turned to its future. This fact has
just produced a curious coincidence in Washington.
It will be seen, by our special despatch, that
Lord Lyons, acting under the orders of his
government, presented yesterday to Gen. Cass
two very conflicting documents. In one of these
England thanks our government for the assistance
rendered by our naval forces to Admiral Hope
while endeavoring to get a foothold in China ;
and in the other she demands explanations from our
government in regard to the proceedings of Gen.
Harney in occupying one of our own islands on
the other shore of the Pacific. Our correspondent
informs us that Gen. Cass is preparing a reply to
the latter communication, which will cover the
whole ground of our claim to the San Juan island,
so that it can be laid before the President to-day
on his return from Wheatland.

That England should thank us for being in the
wrong on any occasion would be characteristic
of her. From our error she might derive advan-
tage ; but in the present instance we are decidedly
wrong in her behalf, and she may well thank us.
As for her demand for explanations about the San
Juan Island, we trust she will receive them from
General Cass in a clear and conclusive form. Let
her be told that we have occupied it for the same
reasons that would induce us to send troops to
occupy any other portion of our territory, It
belongs to us beyond a. doubt. The spirit and the
letter of the treaty gives it to us and the act of
Parliament defining the boundaries of the British
province of New Caledonia virtually recognises
our rights, as we have shown on a former occasion.

England is anxious to secure every point of
land she can that abuts on the Pacific. Australia
and New Zealand do not satisfy her. She must
have the coast of China, and has always regretted
that she gave up Oman. The islands that
dot the Pacific are in numberless instances the
subjects of some British claim. And now,
while she is seeking a war on the eastern
shore of Asia, she assumes a belligerent tone in
regard to a point on the western coast of America.
It is not a point where joint occupancy, as
in some other instances of boundary diffi-
culty, makes it a matter for negotiation. It is a
question of clear and indisputable right on our
side. But the prospective grandeur of the Pacific
commerce blinds her, and her old instincts of
territorial acquisition misguide her. She claims
more than belongs to her, in hopes to make a
bargain and split the difference, and puts on a
warlike tone, as is her wont whenever Palmerston
has her foreign affairs in hand. These things
should have no weight in the question. If she
wants a piece of our territory, let her come and
take it if she can. Perhaps her desire may not
be sufficiently strong to fight for it, but let her
not be told she can do so if she wishes. General
Scott is out there, and we have troops there.
More can be sent if required. We doubt not that
General Cass will be able to say these things to
Lord Lyons politely, and yet in a way that he can
clearly comprehend. We hope he will do it.

Mr. Gladstone's secretary, replying to a letter from
the " Foreign Affairs Committee," at Sheffield, is in-
structed to state that " Mr. Gladstone shares your
anxiety that the proceedings we are to take in China
should be strictly agreeable to justice and humanity."

GETTING STEAM UP.—Mr, G. Clark, engine builder,
Monkwearmouth, performed a clever feat in engineering
last week. After being launched, the steamer Thames
was taken into North Dock, where Mr. Clark com-
menced on Thursday night to put in her machinery,
consisting of a pair of marine engines and a tubular
boiler, about twelve tons weight. The machinery had
to be conveyed from the factory in pieces, and it was
put together and fixed in the vessel, with steam up and
engines in motion, in less than twenty-five hours.—
Sunderland Herald.

. SNOW STORM IN THE NORTH.—Kendal and the sur-
rounding district was visited on Saturday and Sunday
last with copious showers of snow, which gave to the
country its usual wintry appearance much earlier than
for many years previous. Throughout the whole of
Saturday, and on the previous evening, the cold was
intense, a keen frost having set in, and on Sunday the
snow was found to he Ramo inches thick in the immediate
vicinity of the town, Towards cveniug, however, much
of the snow had disappeared, though a considerable
quantity still lay on the ground.
MR. JOHN MITCHEL.—Mr. John Mitchel, who is now
in Paris, has commenced a series of letters in the Irish-
man. In the last he puts the following questions :
" Who," exclaims Mr. Mitchel, "will make the Emperor
sure that the. Irish people wait for him and pray for him?
How is he to know that 250,000 fighting men would be.
found to follow his eagles from Bantry Bay to Dublin,
and from thence, if he chose it, across to Liverpool ?
How, above all, are the people—the people of all classes
and creeds—to be brought to look steadily towards this
as an , event not only possible, but probable, and which
to each of them bring joy or sorrow, just as they
way (ie-,:_lean themselves in it ? "
GIRL NT TO DEATH.—CRINOLINE.—On Mon-
day, Mn Herford, coroner at Manchester, held an
A
inquest on a girl, aged fezteeri, named Mary Ann
Timperley, who died on Sunday frox;
burns. She wa
the daughter of an iron ner, and!ivod Itosi;;:2°T"I
.s.
court, Rosamond-strtet, Upper Brook-stred, And 011
Friday, soon after ten o'clock, she was seen running in
the court, with her clothes inflames. A young woman,
,named Elizabeth Ellis, threw a rug over the girl, and
-succeeded in extinguishing the flames, but not until the
hoops of her crinoline had fallen to the ground. The ,
poor girl was then taken to the Royal Infirmary, where
she died on. Sunday. Soon after her admittance, she
told Elizabeth Ellis that she was lifting the kettle on
the fire when tke accident happened, and the coals
ignited the muslin of her crinoline.--The verdict was
" Accidental death."
DEATH OP AN EMINENT BRISTOL MERCHANT.—A
telegram was received in Bristol on Saturday, announcing
the somewhat sudden death, at Baden-Baden, of Mr.
Conrad W. Finzil, the head of the well-known and
extensive sugar refinery firm at Bristol. The event was
wholly unexpected, as the family had received letters
from Mt. Finzil only a few days previously, announcing
his intention. of shortly
.returning to England. Mr.
Finzil was the architect of his own' fortune, having
risen from the ranks of journeyman to the eminent
position he had occupied long previous to his death.
He was of German extraction, and, by several im-
portant improvements in sugar refining, protected by
patents, had amassed a princely, fortune. Perhaps no
man dispensed a larger amount anonymously in. charity.
The asyluins at Bristol, at which about 1,000 orphans
are fed, clothed, housed, and educated without any public
appeal in their behalf, and which, perhaps, are the most
remarkable, institutions of the kind in existence, partook
to a' great extent of Mr. Finzil'§- large-hearted but un-
obtrusive
,beneirolence. The hospitals of the city, the re-
storation of ' the noble church of St. Mary Redcliff, and
all cases really deserving, were liberally assisted by Mr.
n.ail. Where other men equal, perhaps, in position and
fortune, gave their tens, the deceased gave his hundreds,
and many a subscription liSt is extant in which the well
known name of C. W. Finzil appears for £l,OOO. Mr.
Finzil was a 'Conservative, but he was no partisan, and
he preferred doing good by .stealth to mingling in the
petty contests of politicians. - In his removal the chari-
table • institutions of Bristol have sustained a great,
almost an irreparable and his memory will be long,
cherished as one of the munificent benefactors of the city
of his adoption. Mr. 1.`1!.17iN accompr.iiitl by Mr.
W. Brittan, the faniilv solieitor, left for Baden-Baden
on Saturday evening, for the purpose of bringing the
remains of the deceased to Bristol for interment.