Northern Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1857-10-19 00:00:00

a very dell state indeed. A large number of work-
men were out of employment, and, in fact, a " labour
panic' prevailed. This is the third within three
years, and, as a Melbourne paper says, it seems
to annually recur, like the " ague fit." The
labouring population were about holding a meet-
ing, for the purpose of adopting resolutions,
and devising means for the relief of those out of
employment, but if the Melbourn Age is right, they
might as well sit by their fireside•--if they own one
—while the land is in the hands of the squatter,
and government striving to pass a bill for their
sole benefit. The people of Victoria, including
both houses of the Legislature, were at their wits
end what to with the Chinese. These latter seem
to be a regular incubus on the morality
of the general population, and ways and
means would have to be devised for their
" extermination." A bill had been introduced into
the House of Assembly, which, doubtless, would
pass into law, whereby all Chinese, above 14 years
of age, would be required to pay a tax of £1 per
month for liberty to stop in the colony. Non-
compliance with the regulations to be an offence
punishable by fine and imprisonment. A rumour
prevailed that the Governor-General was about
to resign, being dissatisfied with his present and
former cabinets. In Parliament very little
business had been trar.sacted. The ministry were
endeavouring to pass the Squatter Bill, and the
resolution to do away with state aid to religion, had
been passed, but the act is not to come into
operation until 1861. The Squatter Bill is con-
demned by the majority of the inhabitants of the
Colony. New South Wales had been visited with
storms and floods, by which great damage was
done to life and property. The dead lock
between the two Houses of the South Australian
Parliament still continued. The Assembly
have, by an almost unanimous vote, denied the
right of the Council to interfere in any way with
money bills, and the Upper House appears to be
equally firm in maintaining the position it has
assumed. It is presumed that a conference will
be held between the two branches of the Legis
lature on the subject. Commercial matters at
Melbourne were quiescent. The import marker
was overstocked. Gold realised 76.3. 61. to 79s
per oz. according to quality.

" So sure as GOD made MOSES," wrote the late
Sir CHARLES NAPIER, " unless the British
Government take warning by the past, and alter
their policy towards their Indian army, they
will rise up some fine morning, and find to their
astonishment that a revolt has taken place,which
may entail the loss of our Indian territories/
This blunt, but emphatic prediction was pooh-
poohed by the red-tapeists of the day, who set it
down as the vagaries of an old mad soldier. Yet,
the result has shown that the rough-and-ready
Scot was " nae sae daft." For the disasters of
the past six months have verified this most extra-
ordinary prediction almost to the letter. But red-
tapeism is not confined to our national official
departments, as the doings of our local legisla-
tors bear abundant manifestation.

Ten years ago, our Council were warned by
many of the ablest men of the day that they were
about to incur fearful risks by bringing water
from Rivington, by means of an enormous con-
duit, made of that most treacherous material—
cast iron. They were told that fractures would,
of necessity, occur, and that the results might
seriously compromise the Council. These warn-
ings were derided by the fanatical portion of the
Pike advocates as mere phantoms cmjured up in
the minds of those who were looked upon as
obstructives to the carrying out or their pet pro
jects.

Pooh, pooh I" said the Pikeists, " what
ignorant nonsense about broken pipes. Are they
not all carefully tested before being laid, and has
not our engineer cautiously provided a remedy
even on the contingency of any pipe bursting.
The patent safety valves are so constructed
and disposed of that, in the event of a fracture
occurring in any of the pipes, the valve would
immediately close of its own accord, and the flow
of the waterbe promptly arrestA." Practical men
doubted the efficacy of these valves, but their
objections were treated with contempt, and
characterised as the result of ignorance and

presumption.
Well, where now are the pleasant dreams of the
l'ikeists on this important branch of the subject,
and at whose door do the charges of ignorance
and presumption lie ? The reply is furnished
by the events of the past nine months. True,
we have not had to record the flooding of a
coal mine, or such, like awful disaster as yet
.but we have had ample warning of what is
ultimately in store for us, and as sure as we exist
we shall he aroused some tine morning with the
announcement of some such catastropte. We
stand.upon the brink of a precipice. We. have
' carried a destructive magazine over a country
honey-combed in all directions by mines, many
of which approach within a few feet of our cast-
iron conduit. This, when fully charged is, in the
natural course of things, at all times liable to
explode hinder pressure, even where the ground is
solid; but how much greater is the risk when
the pipe track is carried for miles over a mineral
district, where excavations are constantly being
carried on, -and subsidences frequently take place.
The bare idea of what the results would prove in
the event of a serious fracture occurring over one
of these mines, is enough to make one stand
aghast, for not only would there be a ruinous
loss of property, but in all probability life would
also be sacrificed, it might be, to a fearful
extent. These are not vague or idle notions,
advanced for the purpose of exciting alarm in the
minds of the timid ; far from it. What has
previously occurred is sufficiently significant of
the future.
Already the pipes have burst in many places,
doing considerable damage, although, as yet,
nothing of a very serious or fatal character has
taken place. Within a very short period, there
have been three or four such, although the cir-
cumstances are kept as much as possible in the
dark. On Friday evening week, one of these
occurred in a field near St. Helens. The water
was observed to rush 'out of a hole in the
ground, about eight p.m. The alarm was
instantly spread in all directions, yet it was not
until late on Saturday t-hat the impetuous torrtnt