The Northern Daily Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1857-04-25 00:00:00

SHIPPING INTELLIGENCE.

GIBRALTAR, April 14.—ArrivA: Steamship Beyrout,
eight days from Liverpool, with bale goods for Beyrout
(cleared). Steamship Euphrates, six days from Liverpool,
with bale goods, for Corfu and Trieste (cleared). Steam-
ship Danube, six days from Palermo, vith fruit, for Liver-
pool (cleared). 15th: Steamship Damascus, from Alex-
andria and Malta, with cotton and wheat, for Liverpool
(cleared). 10th : Steamship Taurus, from Palermo,
Naples, Genoa, and Marseilles, with a general cargo, for
Liverpool (cleared.)

THE EXTRAORDINARY ABDUC LION AND

DEFILEMENT CASE.

In our last notice of the c-,arge against Richard George
Clarke and Rosa Bush for the abduction and defilement
of Elizabeth Harris, the daughter of an opulent Jew
clothier in James street, Buckingham gate, it was stated
that the depositions of the several witnesses were to be
read over and signed at Westminster Police court on the
following day, the case having then apparently closed, but
the proceedings were subsequently deferred until Thursday,
when some important additions, including the defence of
the female prisoner, were made to the evidence before given.
On arriving at the deposition of Mrs. Bourne, who keeps
the house at Notting hill, where Miss Harris was found
by her friends, Mr. Painter put several questions respect-
ing what occurred when she was fetched home from there.
Witness said that when Miss Harris was fetched down
from the room by her, to see her mother, who was in the
parlour, the latter asked her if she did not think her con-
duct very wicked, because the intimacy was with a Chris-
tian, when she replied that she was going to be married the
next morning, and that she was seventeen next birthday.
She was also asked, when fetched away, whether she
would be locked up in a police station or go home,
when she replied that she did not care which way it was,
She did not seem glad or sorry when informed that her
mother had come for her, but too frightened to say any-
thing. There being an imputation thrown upon the testi-
mony of this witness by the prosecutrix's friends, Mr.
Paynter directed that another person who accompanied
the mother to fetch her home, should be sent for, which
was accordingly done. Witness (&tr. G. Dale, of 6, Cathe-
rine-street, Pimlico) stated that when he and. Mrs. Harris
went to the house to fetch the latter's daughter.home,
'he went up stairs with the landlady, while the mother
remained below. Miss Harris and Rosa were together in
their raom, and at the time he entered wore engaged in
making some pastry. He sail to Miss Harris, " Are not
you ashamed to leave a good home in the way you have
done?" upon which she made no reply. Rosa then said
that Miss Harris was under her charge until Mr. Clarke
came. He then asked Miss Harris whether she would
rather go home or go to prison, to which she replied she
did not care where she went to, so long as she was taken
from that place. He then asked her whether she had g t
anything in the room, when she pointed Co a new body and
skirt of female apparel upon the bed, and said, "That dress
has been bought for me for my wedding." When Miss Harris
was spoken to by her mother, she said she should never
have gone away but for Rosa. She subsequently said,
" You know, mother, lam seventeen." She had, previously
to that, said that she was going to be married on Sunday,
and that she liked the man Clarke, and when informed that
he was a married man, she said, " Then I hate him."
Sergeant Loom added to his evidence that prisoner (Clarke)
although a married man, lived apart from his wife
at Charlotte street, Pimlico, and frequently cohabited
with another man's wife in Peter street. The male
prisoner declined to say anything ; the female made
the following .statement :—The account given of
me by Mils Harris is altogether false, and she knows it is.
So long ago as last Christmas Day she wanted me to ask
her mother to let her go out with me in order that she
might then leave her home, but I refused. Six weeks
ago she asked me if I would hide the pink bonnet she
new has on, in my box, as she wanted to go away in it.
Eight days before she went she put her clothes under some
soldiers' coats on the stairs, ready to take them away.
She told you in her statement that she never saw him
alone. She had Clarke in the house with her all the
night her sister was confined. I did not take her from
home. She said to me, " Take and put on your frock, and
let's go, if you have any respect for me, never mind the
dinner." That was while her sister had gone to be churched.
We did not walk to Kensington. She called a cab, and
paid for it. I had no money, and we both went into the
barracks to look for Clarke. We both looked for lodgings,
and took them together. Mr. Clarke gave Mies Harris
money, not me ; he gave lOs and 4s, and Miss Harris gave
me money at the lodging to go out and buy a cotton
dress and apron. She never wanted to leave.the lodgings.
She owned the truth when she was fetched home. She
said. I did not take her away. She often wrote to Mr.
Clarke, and he wrote to her, but the letters were entrusted
to me by her di-ection. I only carried a message once
or twice. Miss Harris having repeated that the money
was given to Rosa, not to her, both prisoners was fully
committed for trial under the Bishop of Oxford's Act.

BELGIAN STATISTICS.—The official return 'of tha popula-
tion of Belgium, made bplo the 31st Deceml- er of last year,
shows that the total population was 4,530,106 souls. The
return also shows that the number of electors in the king-
dom was at that date 89.631. It results from a statis-
tical account r(cently published that there existed in
Belgium on the 15th October, 1846, 11,968 monks and
nuns, and that on the 31st Dec., 1856, the number had
increased to 14,853, being an augmentation in ten years
of 2,885,

I MEETING OF SHIPOWNERS AND MASTERS
OF VESSELS.

A general meeting of shipowner's, masters, officers, and
engineers, of the mercantile marine service, was held in
the Cotton Sales' Rooms, at one o'clock yesterday, for the
purpose of having a petition to Parliament submitted, in
reference to the powers of the Board of Trade to investigate
the causes of wrecks and casualties, and the manner in
which those powers have been exerc3sed, and for other-
wife carrying out the resolutions read at the general
meeting held on Friday, the 3rd instant. There was a
very numerous attendance of shipowners, masters, and
other parties concerned. The chair was taken by Captain
Read, president of the association. There were also
present William Potter, Esq., Ralph Brocklebank, Esq.,
Edward Heath, Esq., &c., and the principal shipmasters
of the port.
The Chairman said—Gentlemen, it becomes my duty,
as chairman of the Liverpool Marine Asssoeiation, which
has convened this meeting, earnestly to call on the mem-
bers of the Mercantile Marine Association for their unani-

mous support to the petition which will be read, and which
has' been, prepared in acordance with the resolutions
passed at the last meeting, held here exactly three weeks
since. In the first place, gentlemen, I have to thank the
council of the association for the honour they have been
pleased to confer on me in their selection as chairman.
I believe a more efficient selection could have been made;

but whatever my personal feeling of inability may be in
the discharge of the highly important duties of your
chairman, these duties shall ever command my utmost
exertions. Before directing your attention to the petition,
I ought to mention that there is a latent feeling
abroad that the association seeks to establish its
existence on ceitain prescriptive and coercive
rights. lam by no means astonished at the prevalence
of this feeling ; it is a strong, convincing proof that we,
as a class, are not only unrepresented, but, being animals
of purely amphibious nature, we have hitherto had others
to frame legislative enactments, which, in their wisdom,
are deemed most suitable to creatures alive'to instinct, but

dull in reason.. I ask you, gentlemen, with _ the fin-

press of the 19th century visibly stamped on the
growing intelligence of the people of this country, where
each successive flow of the tide of knowledge produees an
invigorating power in science and art,—l ask you is it not
a stigma, that we have hitherto not merely acquiesced, but
tacitly acknowledged onr supineness, our inability to occupy
that proud position—the free and spontaneous exercise of
our intelligence on all questions affecting c ur interests ?
G entlemen, I have no hesitation in asserting that the nega-
tive indifference we have so long exhibited on all qua-
lions relating to our welfare, has produced a mostbaneful
effect—not only with respect to ourselves, but likewise on
the shipping interests of this country. We have allowed
public opinion to reach almost the pinnacle of injustice.
We have forged manacles for ourselves, which we have
unresistedly exhibited; and not till the merchant shipping
interest have felt the weight of penal enactments, havewe
attempted to arouse ourselves from our ignoble position.
Nay, more, we have to tax ourselves with a high moral
delinquency. We have forborne to throw into the scale
of progressive improvement the weight of cur social
position ; we have refrained from exercising the moral
responsibility of the position in which Providence
has placed us ; and we have left our seamen
to • wallow in ignorance, and to receive at the
hands of landsmen that which it is the ehighest dig •
nity to confer—knowledge. Gentlemen, in a leadit g
article in the Times of the 16th instant, it adopts the idea
of some general uniform for the service, on the ground
that it will conduce to elevate the masters and officers of
of the merchant service, not merely in their own opinion,
but also in that of the public. I do not wish to contra-
vene the opinion of so high an authority ; but it is clear,
unless we seek to elevate our character in the estimation
of the public—if we wish to ameliorate the evils of our
own class—if we are to take part in the great struggle of
human improvement—the external tinsel of a unifirm will
not accomplish those ends ; on the contrary, it will further
tend to give permanence to our already isolated position,
and stamp us with a badge of mental. servitude.
Gentlemen, I ask you are you content to remain
in this negative state—will you still hide the light
of your intelligence under a bushel? Will you allow
reason, with which God has endowed man, to continue
an abnegation ? I venture to assert that the shipmaster's
of the United Kingdom will proclaim in a loud
voice that will be heard above the waters that gird our
island home, that they will not. Let us, then, in this, the
first seaport of the world, arouse ourselves, and show that
beneath the dust and ashes we have been so long be-
trodden in, there lay the living embers of a fire that only
required fanning to produce a flame, which-will give addi-
tional lustre to the intelligence of our country. Such,
gentlemen, are the high objects of the Merchant Marine
Service As,ociation ; and in the name of the council, I
call on the merchant-masters of this port not only to
endorse the petition, but to enrol themselves in the ranks
of its members; and thus give indisputable proof that the
foul stigma which has so long rented on us is a calumny of
the foulest dye, and that we are worthy, by our intelli-
gence and standing, to take a leading part in the great
social improvement of the age. The council appeals for
the support of the great shipping interest of this port. They
do so the more confidently, because prior to any renunciation
of its leading objects, and at a lime when it was supposed
that its prejudice was rampant, some of our greatest ship.
o wners nobly came forward, and by their support and counte-
nance not only give renewed energy to its infancy, but to
the kingdom, their assurance of the honour, integrity,
and highmindednees of their commanders. (Applause.)
Gentlemen, no arguments are necessary to prove the
identity of our mutual interests. Any legislative enact-
ment which presses on the one will equally press on the
other - (hoar)—and while the council of this association
recognises the right of the country in demanding from us
the highest proof of the nautical and scientific knowledge
of our profession,..we look on the Shippin.g Act of 1854 as
not only arbitrary and unjust, but, in most if its provi-
sions as a direct violation of the great principles of the
constitution. (Hear, and applause.) Gentlemen, I shall
not detain you longer; I must leave to the numerous gen-
tlemen I see around me the expression of their sentiments ;
and although I might freely enlarge, I trust that the en-
lightened principles on which the association bases its
operations are such as to command the supp rt, counte-
nance, and assistance of the merchant shipowners of this
port. (Hear, hear, and cheers.) I shall therefore call
on the secretary to read the petition.
The Secretary then read the petition, after which
Captain W. C Campbell proposed the first resolution,
I the effect of which was that the petition be adopted and
signed by all marine officers present. He took occasion
to rema k that he understood it had gone forth that that
association was got up for the purpose of coercing ship-
owners. No such thing, he emphatically declared, was
ever thought of by those who organised the association;
and he felt . hurt that any shipowner should have thought
the parties connected with it could be guilty of such an
idea. ([tear, hear, and applause.) He hoped, however,
that such a belief was not general, and he thought those
who entertained it could not have looked into the thing
carefully. (Hear, and cheers.) The interests of ship-
owners and masters had always been one. (Hear, bear.)
The object of the association was to try and elevate them-
selves into the position which they felt they ought to occupy.
Other associations were perhaps got up for the sake
of the pocket, but in that association nothing
would be received which would not be returned,
for there were to be no paid • officers, excepting
one, in the whole association. The object was not to end
with the adoption and presentation of the petition. They
oped to form themselves into such an asso Ration as would
enable commanders both to impart and acquire knowledge,
and would give the shipowners an opportunity of knowing
more about the commanders than they had previously
done. Some persons had been asking whether there was
to be a provision made ley she association for the widows
and orphans. tfe was afraid it was not likely their friends
would advance so largely as to enable them to. carry out
such an object; but he hoped they would be the means
of doing some, good for the widow and the orphan, incs-
much as they would raise the respectability of the men.
(Hear, hear.) By joining that association, too, they
hoped 'that masters would be, enabled to keep their ex-
penses down, and thus be in a position to join an insurance
society, The speaker also briefly alluded to a report
that the association was especially a steamship association
which he completely contradicted, and after some farther
remarks concluded by proposing the resolution.
Captain Henry Cox seconded the resolution in an- able
and practical address. He strongly condemned the system
under which courts of enquiry into the causes of collisions
and disasters at sea were held. He reminded the meeting
that naval officers were tried by a naval court • martial
and military officers by a military court-martial, and he
claimed for the merchant marine at least some portion of a
similar right. He replic), to an article in the Shipping
Gazette, -which hinted that the demand of merchant
mariners was as unreasonable as if criminals were to re-
quire to be tried by juries of criminals. He showed how
utterly inapplicable such an instance palpably was, and
added that masters of the merchant marine did not even
demand to be tried by abody composed exclusively of their
own profession, as in the case of naval and military
commanders, but were quite willing, if necessary, that the
tribunal should have some magistrates on ft, provided it
bad some qualified nautical men. Moreover, he declared
that, ac cording to the present arrangement, the master
who had to give up his certificate before he was declared
guilty was treated worse than a cabman, who was not
compiled to take the badge off his arm until some cffence
had been proved against him. The naval as essor, he
complained, was accuser, prosecutor, judge, nd jury.