The Northern Daily Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1857-04-07 00:00:00

at the Court of St. Petersburg. The harvest all over
the East promises to be a very good one. A great
conflagration at Saloniki, in Macedonia, had
destroyed five hundred houses.
The Pope has, by decree, authorised the religious
communities of the Catholic world to subscribe to
the new Roman railroad.

IN our paper of yesterday, we published a
letter from Mr. CHARLES TURNER, denying that
the report of the Town Council's Committee upon
the " bales and trusses' investigation was
brought up before the production of a report
from the Town Clerk upon the same subject,
and giving an unqualified contradiction to the
statement that the firm to which he belonged
ever charged a higher rate of Town Dues upon
the articles in question than was paid by them to
the Corporation. Upon these points we can only
say, that the statements were not made by us
upon any authority of our own. Both have been
emphatically made, over and over again, in the
hearing of the public. The latter statement,
which always appeared to us to present the
sharpest point of the charge made against Mr.
TURNER, has been repeatedly urged by men
whose assertion upon any ordinary question
would be received by the public without the
slightest doubt. We need scarcely, therefore,
express a hope that Mr. TURNER will not con-
sider us his accusers, or even believe that we
have any particular anxiety to fasten the charges
upon him. If the assertions to which we referred
in our article of Saturday be truly made, it
would be impossible for the warmest friend of
Mr. TURNER'S to dispute the correctness of our
inferences. If these assertions, so repeatedly and
distinctly urged, be untrue, Mr. TURNER'S
bitterest enemy cannot deny that he has been
most unjustly dealt with. We have before us
his emphatic denial of the most serious part of
the allegations. and can have no hesitation in
saying, that unless some convincing proof to the
contrary be given by those who urged the point,
we must consider his denial of that portion of
the charge as conclusive. It is a matter of regret
and no slight surprise to us, that the denial of so
serious an accusation was not somewhat earlier
made.

We have a little to say, however, in reference
to the lengthened article in yesterday's Mail
upon this subject ; the Mail being, we presume,
the specially constituted organ, during the late
contest, of that party under whose auspices Mr.
TURNER suffered defeat. The article we refer to
opens by pronouncing our manner of expressing
our views to be dictated by " diabolical inge-
" nuity." When a writer starts off with the
word " diabolical," it will be easily understood
that with the limited resources of our language
he can scarcely keep increasing in power as he
approaches the climax. Accordingly, about the
middle of the column, our article is merely
" malignant ;" and at the close there remains no
more powerful adjective wherewith to brand us
than the comparatively gentle and complimen-
tary term "libellous." We would 'suggest that
hereafter it would render the general cireiA, infi-
nitely more powerful if the writer were to open
mildly with the phrase "libellous ;' and then
warming in his honest and disinterested indigna-
tion, gradually become vehement with the word
" malignant', and denunciatory with " wicked-
° ness and falsehood", until he finally exhausts
his powers and overwhelms his enemies with
the grand climax-phrase "diabolical." nut
this, however, we only suggest as, a matter of
taste, and in the spirit of brotherly criticism.
We have nothing to do with that portion of
the article which deals with the gentlemen who
have brought forward the charge against Mr.
TURNER. We need not vindicate them from
the Mail's assertion when it declares them to
have brought forward a charge " utterly and
"absolutely false to the knowledge of
.those who
made it." We shall not discuss with the Mail
their personal weight and character; but the Mai
charges us with having made one or two asser-
tions which it proclaims to be " utterly false
and to these we desire with a fitting conciseness
to answer.

" The Committee," says the Mail, " which
" acquitted them of dishonourable intentions,
" never appealed to their disavowal of such
" intentions on their part as in any manner jus-
" tifying their decision." One glance at the
Report of the Council's Committee will show
that the decision acquitting Messrs. SANDS,
TURNER and Co. of any dishonourable intention,
expressly stated, among the other grounds on
which it rested, the solemn denial of these gen-
tlemen themselves—not that " bales" had been
entered as " trusses," but that in doing so they
conceived they had been doing wrong.
"It is false," declares the Mail, " to say that
" two members of the Council protested against"
the Report. Over and over again it has been
stated in our hearing, and in public meetings,
that two members of the Committee of Council
did protest against the Report. If this be false,
the falsehood does not originate with us. If it
be false, can any thing be more easily disproved ?
The names of the gentlemen alleged to have pro-
tested have been repeatedly published within
the last fortnight, and neither has denied the
statement.

" It is also false," the Mail adds, " that Mr.
" HUGH HORNBY concurred in such a protest."
Mr. HORNBY was not, we believe, a member of
the Council's Committee, nor do we at present
know whether he took any part in reference to
it. Against the verdict of the Committee out of
doors he made the following somewhat emphatic
protest in the Council on the 14th of November,
1843 :

A verdict of acquittal had been passed on Mr. Sands,
but upon what grounds ? The defence was not rested on
denial of the facts ; nor did it rest on the assertion of
Messrs. Sands and Co. against the facts ; but it rested on
an open and bold denial of the injustice of the practice.
(Hear, hear.) And yet these gentlemen came to this
decision—" That, in the opinion of this meeting, there is
not the slightest ground to justify the imputation which
is attempted to be cast upon these gentlemen." Now,
what imputation had been cast upon these gentlemen ?
Mr. Corrie had stated facts ; he had stated that they were