Northern Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1857-08-24 00:00:00

India. It is full of hope, and at the same time
pregnant with fear. The British forces were
in complete and undisturbed sway of the whole
conntry from Allahabad to Delhi, and if General
HAVELOCK could so contrive his plans as to effect
a junction with the forces at Delhi, and the
centre of the rebellion before the end of the
campaigning season, we might be said to have
regained—although cur forces are comparatively
small—nearly every vestige of our former supre-
macy. Be this as it may, we believe that the
British arms can hold out against the rebels
until the large reinforcements now on their way
to India shall arrive, then will our lost authority
be restored,:and signal vengeance inflicted upon
the aiders and abettors of such diabolical atro-
cities as have been perpetrated in India during
the last month or two. That vengeance ten-fold
shall be taken, is the inmost desire of every
subject of the British. Crown. And in order
that the country at large may -know what is
going forward, and the intentions of Government
fully proclaimed, we hope that Parliament will
not be allowed toseparate until Ministers make
full and satisfactory explanations thereon.

A FEW evenings ago, a debate took place in
the House of Commons which related to a matter
of much greater importance to the country at
tune Lnan was at nrst apparent. We allude to
the Bill for the Prevention of Crowding in
Lodging Houses. At first sight this was
supposed to be a measure relating to the metro-
polis alone, but a careful perusal of its clauses
has convinced us that it is applicable to the
country at large. .As such, it claims our
attention, seeing that there is such a large
portion of the population of Liverpool have
recourse to lodgings. The object of the
Bill is to regulate the Common Lodging Houses
of the country, and make them amenable to
police surveillance. Of course there has been a
hue and cry raised3against this attempt at de-
priving every man from being "King of his own
Castle." Hence, many Hon. Members took occa-
sion to badger the Ministry on the subject, and
like the first onset against the Divorce and
Matrimonial Causes Bill, they pleaded not only
the late period of the session at which it was
brought forward, but also complete ignorance of
its scope and ten lency ; whilst another class of
objectors urged that it interfered with every man
in the metropolis, and throughout the country,
as to the mode in which he chooses to live in his
own house, and_gave the police power to enter
every one's private dwelling. Now, were this
so, we should not only be the last to say a single
word in vindication of the Bill, but be among
the very first to denounce, with earnestness, a
measure aiming at such objects, and lend our
humble aid to defeat its further progress, by
any and every means in our power.

We cannot regard the measure in this light.
We look upon it as a humane and benevolent
attempt to rid our large cities and towns of what
are nothing more than physical and social
plagues. Let any one who is sceptical upon the
point visit the locality of Whitechapel, Scotland-
road, and several other districts which we could
name in Liverpool Let him examine the
squalid poverty, the filth and the disease of which
these districts are the centre, and sure we are, the
mind of such a man must be callous to human
wretchedness, and the innumerable ills which
follow in its train, if he did not feel grieved at
the sights to which we have referred, or refused
to recognise the necessity for some legislative
interference to stem the torrent of physical and
moral evils which flow daily from the polluted
streams of the redundant, poverty-stricken, and
immoral population of the localities which we
have named. In times of pestilence, or conta-
gious disease, we are armed with authority to
enter the dwellings of the poor, and compel that
they be ventilated and cleansed. This is done
as a measure of precaution, not only for the good
of the poor, but for the benefit of the public at
large. If our view of the miserable hovels to
which we have alluded be correct, great indeed
is the necessity for a rigid supervision of the
dwellings of the poor, and no matter what the
opponents to the measure may urge against its
provisions, we hold that the prevention of both
crime and disease are far better than their cure.
It was, however, somewhat curious that almost
all the speakers who opposed the Bill could not
gainsay the fact that a measure of the kind was
requisite, They harped upon the doctrine that
"every Englishman's house is his castle." But if
that " castle" is the centre of crime and pestilence,
spreading iniquity, disease and death everywhere
around, surely legislative interference is war-
ranted, so that the safety of the entire com-
munity shall be consulted. It is a maxim
in all civil Governments; that the good
of the many shall take precedence of
the personal advantage of the few. It was
ith this view that the Government originated
the Crowded Dwellings Prevention Bill. Nothing
could, we believe, be further from the intention
of Lord PALMERSTON than to sanction the pro-
gress of an enactment through Parliament which
had for its object an infringement of the liberty
of the subject, or gave the police a despotic
authority to tease and annc:y innocent and unof-
fending citizens. But should the wording of the
Bill, on a calm and deliberate consideration of
its provisions, warrant the suspicion that such a
power could or would be conferred on the police
of the country, nothing can be easier than to
expunge or modify such a clause, and adopt a
course of supervision less objectionable,
and more in unison with the spirit of

the British Constitution. What_we contend for
is, that in all our large cities and towns there are
certain localities which become the rendezvous of
the poor and destitute ; that these localities are
the nurseries of crime and disease ; and that it
is incumbent upon the governing authorities to
keep a strict surveillance over such streets, lanes,
and alleys.
Will any one justify the practice of ten or
twelve human beings—young and old, men,
women, and children—occupying for a dwelling
by day, and a sleeping apartment at night, one
small and confined room, without ventilation,
and surrounded by hundreds of its kind and
similarly occupied ? Who that regards health,
individually or generally—who that has any
respect for the morals of the people—who that
wishes to arrest the progress of crime, would seek
to perpetuate a system which leads hundreds to
an early anil untimely grave, and recruits, with
avidity and success, for the gaols and gibbets of
the country ? We are fain to believe that such
advocates are like angels' visits, " few and far
between." Yet it is to uproot such dens—to
see that no tenement shall harbour more occu-
pants than is consistent with health and comfort,
and to have a surveillance over those sinks of
iniquity where robberies are planned, debauchery
and immorality in all their nnA
phases carried on, and to rid the social atmosphere
of the physical and moral pestilences` that are
flying about—that the bill in question was brought
forward. Agreeing with the main object which
its promoters have in view, we should have
been glad to find it was so altered as to have
met the scruples of its opponents, well knowing
that a measure of the kind must confer lasting
and great advantages upon the whole community.
This, however, is not so, as the bill is withdrawn
for the present Session.

THE CHESTER CatmorAL.—John Blagg, who was tried
at the Chester Assizes, before Mr. Justice Crowder, for
the murder of a gamekeeper, convicted and sentenced to
death, is ordered for execution on the 29th instant.
Appeals were made to the Home Secretary, on behalf of
the prisoner, for a commutation of the capital sentence,
but after a careful review of the case, Sir George Grey
could see no reason for interfering with the due course of
the law.

We (Athenaeum) rejoice at being able to communicate
cheering intelligence respecting the health of Sir Edwin
Landseer, on the excellent authority of Mr. Bell : •' 15,
Langham-place, August 19. Having been with Sir Edwin
Landseer, or in constant communication, during his
present and former attacks of indisposition, I am enabled
to state that he has been suffering from the result of over
exertion in his profession, and has already derived benefit
from rest and change of air. The opinions of his medical
advisers justify the belief that he is progressing towards
recovery, and that he will shortly be enabled to resume
his ordinary avocations."—l remain, &c., J. BELL,"

Permission has been definitively granted for the passage
of English troops across the Isthmus of Suez. These
troops will take the railway, and will find at Suez boats,
taken up at Calcutta by the Rot India Company
waiting for them. According to arrangement, made by
agents of the company, thEse ships were to be in the Red
Sea by the ens of August at the latest. T'ne authorisation
granted by the Viceroy of Egypt does not extend to the
future ; it is only temporary, and special for the .exi ,ting
occasion."

POLITICAL REFUGEZS IN Exotatern.--Lord Palmerstou's
reply to Mr. Williams's question respecting the political
refugees in England is perfectly satisfactory. Lord
Palmerston says that no application has been made to the
English Government for the expulsion of any of them.
This is true ; the demeanour of Lords Palmerston
and Clarendon, when an attempt was made to
approach the subject, was sufficient —no applica-
tion was made. In politics as in love, an icy
manner can nip definite overtures in the bud. Not
the less true is it that several French diplomatists
—and we fear also some English ones—have spoken
confidently of the readiness of the Cabinet at St. James's
to comply with the wishes of the Government at the
Tuileries, in the vain hope of intimidating ill. Ledra
Roilin, and inducing him to betake himself to the
United Btatee. Lard Palmerston has, with the high
spirit of an English gentleman, and the brave bearing
of a British statesman, embraced the first opportunity
that presented itself to show the world that he will not
incur the risk of being even suspected of ceuctenancing
such a shallow intrigue. He gives the Emperor of the
French and his councillors to understand that the English
Government cannot for a moment entertain any proposi-
tion for the betrayal of political exiles who have entrusted
themselves to the traditional hospitality of Eeglend.
The English people an i Government have the ability
as well as the will to‘extend to political exiles that pro-
tection which even the mach I,ss powerful Government
of Switzerland was resolute to extend to Prince Louis
Napoleon in the days of his adversity. Nor will the
E •glish people and government be mystified and pre-
vailed upon to abandon their heriditary policy is this
respect by sham trials and plots concocted under the
auspices of police emissaries.--Express.

OUR COMMERCIAL RELATIONS WITH TURKEY,--The
' state of our commercial relations with Turkey is a ques-
tion which has of late assumed a somewhat increased
, importance, and has given rise to considerable comment,
more especially since, at the Paris Conferences, the subject
had been fully diseased, and an understanding arrived at
that a revision of the existing stipulations with the Porte
%vat called for, and would be proceeded with as soon as
practicable after the conclusion of peaee. It appears,
however, as was stated on Tuesday by Lord Palmerston,
in reply to an inquiry by Mr. Hadfield, that the settlement
of other questions on which the parties to the treaty enter-
tained diff,,rencee of opinion, have occupied the attention
of the negotiators at Constantinople for the past year, to the
exclusion of the commercial questions to which Mr. Hadfield
refers; hat we have the assurance of the Prime Minister
that, so Reins as the pending deliberations respecting the
Principalities have been closed, the whole subject of the com-
mercial relations of the Porte with other Powers will, in
conformity with the wishes of the Plenipotentiaries as re-
corded at the Confereeces, be fully opened and, it may be
hoped, equitably disposed of. The relations existing be.
tween England and Turkey are of long standing, and are
creditable to the honour and integrity of bath countries.
So fir back as the reign of Elisabeth the British Govern-
anent bad entered into specific arrangements with the Su-
blime Porta for the regulation of trade and the mutual
protection of their subjec s. These agreements were sub-
sequently embodied in a formal freaty, executed at Adria-
nople in September, 1675. A hundred years later (1799)
the Porte opened the Black S3a to British merchant vessels
' "on the same footing observed with those of the ;test
favoured powers." In 1809 was concluded the well known
Treaty of the Dardinelles which embraced all the provisions
of the Treaty of Adrianople; and by Art. 46 of that treaty it
was stipulated " that the English merchants having once
paid the duties on their merchandise at the re to of three