Northern Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1859-12-13 00:00:00

necessary, in the Chinese waters.

We yesterday alluded to the intention of the
French Government to introduce a revision of the
tariff of customs.duties. 'We now learn, that such
revision is 'expected to be-undertaken in a spirit
favourable to free trade. One immediate •conse-

qUence of this ought to be, a large reduction, on
- . •

our part, of the duties on French wines. It is
true that hitherto our relaxation of customs duties
have not been reciprocated by France ; brit if this
is now to be done, it will certainly be our truest

wisdom to meet it with the utmost liberality.

It is now reported. that Lord Wodehouse is to
go to Paris to assist Lord Cowley as our repre-
sentative at. the approaching Congress. The,
-1-toriting Herald complains that Lord Cowley- is

paying a heavy penalty for the honour of repre-

senting England on this 'occasion. " \Tory ,un-
jUsay;" it obsen'es, "the—unpopularity with which
the policy of the present Government is re-
. • , •
garded throughout the country is relleeted
upon• the nobleman who is • selected to' carry
it out ; and doubts as to the propriety of
e-ltrusting an ambassador with the duties

Aie -obviously. those of •a• member of
tl cabinet have degenerated into it depretiation
cf .the qualifications which Lord Cowley un-
(.1.;a.,:..my possesses Tor his present position:
And then the writer proceeds to remark, that
to visit
,th.e. shorteethings of the Minibtxy on our
representative at Paris is evidently to put the
sadille on the Wrong horSe, and to lighten the
red delinquents of a great portion of their
respehisibility." And so we thi.lh. f._', .1 de-
linquency there may be, surely Lord Cowley is not.
involved in,it. There can be no question what-,
ever, in short, as is further well observed, that
"the fact that our Paris ambassador has been
the trusted servant of three successive Ministries
ought to be a sufficient answer to those who
find in Lord Cowley's, personal services a disk
qualification for the important office thrust upon
him by the necessities of the Whig Ministry."
The business of the Winter Assizes for S outh Lan-
cashire was commenced yesterday, at St. George's:
hall, by Baron Martin. The. Right Hon. Lord
Stanley was, on this occasion, 'foreman of the
grand jury. In his charge to that important
body, the learned judge remarked, that, althoUgh
the calendar vas rather light as regards the limn-
ber of the prisoners to be tried, the quality of the
offences charge' was of an unusually- aggravated
ch4itter. Out of sixty-two cases, he expreP.,:el
hid r-gret to find that not fewer than .-four teen
wore for hom;cide. Although, perhaps; not more'
than one- er two of them presented the featuyes of ,
the clime of melrder. He remarked,and his re-
marks are, ur_happily, significant, " they (that is,
the crimes) exhibit the most re:_•K-I-ss violence I

, .
. . .
;have had the Misfortune to, read. It appears;
that, 'in this -county, upon • the slightest
offence upon-- a dispute-- between .personS
who immediately before were' upon the most
friciißy the party offended- has. ;lc—
course to the Anife, to ,an iron tool, or any other
weapon that comes to his. hand ; and noon several
, •

of these occasions—l dare say not less than ten
or a 'dozen of them—you will, the man
iratnediately- killed by the violence applied; to
Under these eircumstances. There aro three
of the most appalling cases. One of them is_
of a child. A- inan received some insult froM
some boys. Ile. immediately seized some iron
weapon which'Was at hand, and fi-c.ng, it at • a
child,' -who' died immediately afterwards." His
Lordship proceeded to remark also upon another
case, in which a woman in 'a drunken frenzy
stabbed and killed her husband, he, being also at
the time drnnlr. He neat, 111. terms Of mild.
though strong condemnation, adverted, to a prac-',
tice which in some instances seems to prevail—of

policemen taltingeonfeSsions froin parties sehargba
with offences. This he properly zharacterised
contrary to law, and at variance with the' general
praCtice of police affairs.
Thrdiigh the, intervention of the telegraph we
are- in receipt of a digest. of the news brought
by the Canada, which sailed from Boston on the
30.
The Canada arrived at Queenstown
yesterday afternoon, bringing fifty-nine pas,
Senaers, 'and 24,000 dollars specie. Tiythis cbtn=
ihunication we learn that the total loss of life by the
Wreck of the steamer Indian has been eseertained

officers of his court. But it had its effect. It

produced a
_sensation. The Jury plainly .mam-
fested the.. impression they had thus received.
AU impression, we repeat, had thereby been pro-
auced on the mind of the Jury,—a popular im-
pression, favourable to the case of the plaintiffs,
and, of course, unfavourable to that of the defen-
dants. Nor was the summing up of the Judge,
able and impartial though we admit it, in some
respects, to have been, calculated to remove very
effectually, if -at all, the impression they had thus
received. Besides, as the case was put before

them, it was one of a very conflicting nature—
one, which gave great room for doubt,—whieh
left it very much with the Jury to give either
one party or the other -the _benefit of that doubt,
without any consciousness of injustice or wrong
to one side or the other, according as they might
happen to conclude. The first part of the ques-
tion was plain enough, perhaps,—namely, whe-
ther the veskl had received the injury for which
compensation was sought by the interposition of
Of a rniid- bank at the entrance of the- doc-IT
but the next division of the question was
one of a very different character. The Sierra
Nevada might have been stopped by a bank of
mud at the entrance of the Wellington half-tide
dock; but it might not be that the defendants,
by their servants, had the means of knowing the
state of the-dock; or were -negligently ignorant of
it. These, then, were the issues on which the Jury
were called upon to pronoun Ce. a , verdict. But,
.as v a have- said; there is- reason to believe that
they did:not altogether comprehend those. issues,
-the latter more 'especially ; and their returning
into, court, after an absence of some twenty
Minutes, to be further enlightened upon the sub-
ject, May be taken as pretty conclusive proof that
;thely were still somewhat at a loss how to decide.
again, when they had retired a -second time, it
ben•?an to_ be disputed by counsel whether, after
•_! _ _ _ _ _

all; the Judge had put the case fairly to the Jury, I
as respects the second issue—the issue, 'namely, •
, •
that involved the responsibility Of the . defen-
dants in _their having:_ the means Of knowing
the state of the dock, or • their being negli-
gently ignorant of it. This was anew ex-
plained to the Juyy, and they retired for further
deliberation. Nor was it until at least another
half hour had expired that -they again returned
into court, having made up their minds. Yet
even then they• did not at first appear quite pre-
pared to deliver , a verdict ; for . the foreman,
instead of doing so at once, began to address the
Lord Chief Baron as to the remuneration they
ought to receive for their lengthened ser vices, a
question which certainly might*have had no little
to do with the verdict. But the Judge very pro-
perly told them, that they had better return their
verdict first ; and having done so Tor the plaintiffs,
their: counsel not :unnaturally rose to intimate
that, having contented With his clients upon the-
su'.)ject, they readily assented to his proposition
to increase the ordinary

Such, then, 'were the circumstances under
,which this most important case was decided; and
they were circumstances, we contend, everything
:considered, most unsatisfactory to the interests of
justice. The question of remuneration, we repeat,
was one calculated to affect very materially such
a decision as this. In saying "so, we disclaim any
intention to reflect upon the Jury. We. merely
-speak of it, in the nature of things, as indicating
1,
aninfluence, which ought to: have had nothing to
do with such a ease.

In justice to the Dock Board, it ought not to be
kept out of view, in considering this case, that
they have incurred the severe penalty that has
been inflicted, very much by their anxiety to
afford every convenience to the Shipping Interest,,
—to give the best opportunity for vessels getting
into dock as soon as possible, instead-of availing
themselves of the pretext which might so often
ai ise, of there being obstructions at the entrances
of the docks which must render delay inevitable
—often to the serious inconvenience, if not loss of
the waiting ships. By shortening the time of
docking, and by forbidding their servants to dock
any ship after the tide has reached a certain

point, any recurrence of 'such an accident as that
to the Sierra Nevada, for which the dock estate
is called upon to pay such serious damages and
costs; may henceforth be avoided. It will be an
avoidance, however; that may operate very
seriously . against the Shipping Interest. To
keep the entrances of the docks always free.
from obstruction in
.a river so full of silt and mud,.
as the Mersey is found to be, and such large
quantities of which arc frequently thrown up in
a single tide, must always be a very difficult
matter. But if the dock estate, is to be mulcted
in this way for such an accident as that which
occurred to the Sierra Nevada, certainly much
more liberal aßowance must henceforth he made
for any restricaVe regulations -which the Dock
Board may enforce, than the popular feeling has
been in the habit of conceding. The case there-
fore, which in the Court of Exchequer has just
been decided, has a two-fold illustration. It pre-
sents our Jury system in a very questionable
light; and it shows how public bodies must, after
all, look to their own security, even at the risk
of interfering with what may be popularly re-
garded as the public convenience.

THE political system tinder which we live is
an awkward one to apply. theories to. Yet at
the same time, such is the nature of society, and
the extent of licence in modern ways of thinking
and experimentalising, that nothing is easier than
for mediocre minds to, be continually attempting
and levity, or good intentions
it. It is a circumstance of some alarm, but no
less true, that great care should be necessary lest
the merest vanity
backed up with the poorest pretence and the
smallest kmiwiedge, should work irreparal;le

mischief in things affecting 'most closely our ,
natone.l well-being. As there is now a pretti
general consent that no changes should be adJuit-
ted into our system of government which do act
naturally flow from its first principles, a service
is done When the ideal of the Constitution is on-
tinually kept before the popular mind as a correc-
tive to those crude but sometimes taking theories
for which its favour is solicited.

- If we begin our examination of such the9riesl
by admitting, as the simple character of the Con-
stitution,-that it is nothing but a collection Of
expedients, suggested by circumstances and cla-
berated 'by time, for bringing into activity the
most useful and appropriate form or forms of go-
verning, of 'giving expression to the mast in"
part ant .phases of national life, and embodyingf
for practical purposes, the accumulating lessons
of experience, we fix ourselves at a point whence
we can, with tolerable safety, diverge into meal
of the speculations, whether of empirics or of
philosophers. It is a difficult question, stated
beforehand, how to construct the best machine of
Government,—a machine 'Which will work with
most ease, and the longest without getting out of
order ; which, with the fewest hitches and
drawbacks, will turn out a good and serviceable
article. That is, an article which will give the
most satisfaction to the largest number ; or, if
we choose to put it so, the most dissatisfaction .
to the smallest number, arriving as near at a

point of perfection as we can fairly expect an).-
thing to do in this botched, shuffling, misshapen'
system of compromise, in which actual human
nature has to live as it can, and not as abstract '
human nature would. It is comparatively eel,
to put together, or rather imagine, a compact and
perfect sort of theory on paper. But the objet"
tion to such theory is,that whereas it might be
,gnitable'for beings living under a more perfect
Theocracy than has ever been in the world, it i°
by no means fitted for humanity as we find it'
And the objection is the most fatal that could be
offered. It admits of no philosophical reply, and
needs no philosophical corroboration. For iO5
in itself a practical difficulty, , which all men
'Would like to see. overcome, and cannot. Tll°.
theory will never be put into working, for tlic"
best of all reasons, that it cannot be got to works
It is:self-cancelling. Putting a negat: vein°
a well known decisive resolution of refilled
methods of reasoning, it my be said of it'
von ambulanclo solvitier. Besides, the as-
gumption of a perfect Theocracy, such as could
alone admit the application of the theory,,,Woula
render speculation about it superfluous, as men
would find it ready made to their hands:
As then we cannot find on earth the.
required, nor that theocratic form of government
which 'would save us infinite trouble and nUmber
-less Mistakes, perhapswe shall be content to tabu
it as the next best advantage, that we do fled
ready made a tolerably serviceable and working
machine- whichwhich`it Would be difficult, prObprobably'impossible, to improvise for ourselves even in ,
generation or. two. Every age is entering it°
the labours' of former ages, which scarcely Ic-e°'-
themselves that they laboured. The. proefS
of experience ,and the gradual growth' which i
evolves, is the- least self-conscious. And the le-
self-conscious are the reforms and the reformers'
which our ConStitution suffers and is hand)
by, the more genuine, and practicable, 413
permanent thoY - will be. The mole'
that the -English Constitution is set uPol. 131
doctors on all sides, and prescribed for out of
the pharinacopeias of political philosophy, thl
moment we may count upon as the crisis -
condition, and the little accent farce played °l4
before its decay. Perhaps even we might
upon the signs-of bustle and anxiety as the at
quest, and concl'ide that the patient is•nAr-o
e
departed. What time --and circumstances
....... . till
have produced, the same agents must as gra-12e' •
and as insensibly -amend and adapt. N° (1,,
aII
man, or set of men, made . the Constitution, 0
• If th
no one man, or set of men, can remake it.
os'"
experimentalists, with their beautiful and WI
lir
sible theerieS, can point to any crisis in °
history when politicians went down to the fon a
• •
dations, Ore 'Up the• Constitution by the re-ot, f-
'
reset it upon' new and definite principles, 10 011
perhaps lend an ear to their ambitious sc
The reforms of Simon de Montfort or Arebbis-
- Magna Charta or the Bill of 1--lu 110
t
did not testify to the changeability e. 0
"00.•:!
English Constitution, but rather to its 111. ti)
10
querable elasticity, its power of looking bac
o.oto
itself after its own principles, as well as of 1110 f lts
growth, and the durability and permanence a ocif
self-development. When men wish to Jai 110';
foundation, arid talk of the old principles as ,eft
ing been outworn, and become unfit for
arise.
conditions, we do well to be alarmed; not bectol
of strangeness in details, but because of a 1110.ensot"
of procedure unknown to our history, rercand
to the leading idea of our past national life,a vel
sharply and Violently transitional intoColti
order of things. Unless the Constitution
oh.
es,,vor
be safely and consistently amended and 1"' aO,
amendment
by the
rf,l son-
o. on .0
to each passing age, and varyints
resides
f 0 it would not be so adapted as it has men'
But thisitself,
sd
as the only instrument of safe reform.
whico,
cern haS a
.reserVe fund of its own,
_og.sro'
powermust leo f
drawname n
ciously used is inexhaustible. When the tile
Iaos-
!
begin to,go upon the market of abstract P for
t hap a
11
il3'"
phy, or class interest, or political partisanshel! ►,:irFt
the means of pretended and extravagne 0
the result loss of influence and reputation,.
afterwards confusion andlaankruptcp.

tip
Orders have reached Woolwich for ineresrhogof
Regiment of Artillery from the present "strengt"iti w°
to 16 brigades. It is besides intended to 00,0„,iact
extra batteries to be horsed and manned with IS-1'
iege guns.