Northern Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1859-03-14 00:00:00

THE NORTRFARN TIMES, MONDAY, MARCH 14, 1869

foreign to my bosom." This ib• not to be regarded
as merely the strong phrase of tht.' philanthropist,
but as the expression of a feeling of humanity
which
belongs of right, or ought to do, to every m.-‘mber of
the family of mankind. It was the avowal of one who
had not .either the advantages or the responsibilitiet;
of Christianity,—for he was a heathen who lived
more than a century before Christianity had any
manifest existence. But he felt, and thought, as a
man,—and as every man ought to feel and think.
And yet how comparatively few of us there are,
even in our Christian community, that really do so.
How many of us there are of whom, on the contrary,
it may with only too much truth be said, that they
are " formed either of such impenetrable matter, or
wrought up by habitual selfishness to such an utter
insensibility of what becomes of their fellow-creatures,
as if they were not partakers of the same nature, or
had no lot or connection at all with the species."
Such, indeed, must they be who can examine Maps
like these, which, with so much true and earnest
philanthropy, our learned and benevolent townsman,
Dr. HUME, has taken such pains to prepare, and
then fold their hands, and say to themselves, this sad
and shocking state of things which they represent is
no business of ours, and we won't move, no not our
little finger, to amend it !

These Maps of Liverpool Delineated were pre-
pred, it may be remembered, all the more
graphically to illustrate Dr. HUME'S valuable
pamphlet on the subject, which was noticed in our
columns at the time of its publication a few months
since. It was there stated, with regard to the
seeming hopelessness of setting about remedying
such a state of things as their delineation presents,
that " few will be so absurd as to expect that we can
ever get rid of difficulties, in making men what
it is desirable they should be. Least of all—is such
a thing possible in a large town where they have
many wants, and are surrounded with many tempta-
tions ; and where ungodly masses are mutually
attracted to injure by their misapplied faculties, and
corrupt by their vicious example. But on the same
principle that sanatory regulations improve the
health of any place, though they can never get rid
of disease and death, so we may secure much good
which at present has no existence, and remove much
evil which presses us with the weight of a millstone.
We can at least maximise' the good, and minimise '
the evil." And this is certainly most true. Let us
hope that many who examine these Maps, and see*
Liverpool thus delineated, will come to think so, and
act accordingly,—and more especially those who are
placed in circumstances to feel most closely, because
addressed to them so personally, that very perti-
nent inquiry of a great Prophet of old,—" Is this
your joyous city, . . . whose merchants are Princes,
whose traffickers are the honourable of the earth P"

whom'Sardinia. has been, not apparently so much
outwitted as out-knayed.

Still it is not quite certain, the French journals in
the Imperial interest are stating, that, after all, Louis
NAPOLEON will desist from his original hostile inten-
tentions. " What the Emperor wished," says one,
from the very day when grave dfficulties arose in
Europe, and when a misunderstanding took place
between France and Austria, the Emperor wishes still."
While another distinctly declares, that "as negocia-
tions are pending, the Emperor consented to the in-
sertion of the article in question to show his modera-
tion ; but that if the present difficulties are not
diplomatically solved—if Austria, in a word, does not
yield - he will not shrink from the consequences."
But then if this were so, why did his Majesty's
cousin, Prince NAPOLEON, resign ? Why he has re-
signed, was professed -to be because the Emperor
is shrinking from the consequences of his own pro-
ceedings, and is leaving the Royal father of the
Prince's bride, obtained on the strength of them,
forlorn and deserted.

Such is the present complexion of the case. The
French Emperor has evidently broken his word to
the King of Sardinia. If the result thereof be peace,
one cannot but rejoice, Yet 6ne can at the same time
have DJ:, respect for the Imperial defaulter.

. THE GARSTON RAILWAY ROUTE TO LIVERPOOL.-It
would be seen by our report, on Saturday, of the proceed-
ings of the Parliamentary Committee on the Bill that has
been introduced in the House of Commons for the purchase

of the Warrington and Stockport Railway by the London
and North-Western Company, and which involves the
transfer of the route from Liverpool via Garston, that the
Preamble of the Bill has been declared to be proved ; and,
further, that the Birkenhead, Lancashire; and Cheshire
Junction Company shall have running powers for through
traffic between Altrincham and Manchester. The latter
decision, our report stated, appeared to take the promoters
of the Bill by surprise ; for it was no doubt more than they
bargained for. But it is evident the Committee considered
that the public interest required such an extension of the
scheme, and that it would be the most effectual means of
preventing anything like monopoly on the part of that
powerful company whose interests such a Bill will so mate-
rially strengthen in this neighbourhood. Liverpool, how-
ever, will gain a great practical advantage by having the
line from Garston continued to the town. This is the
object in which the people of Liverpool are mainly inter-
ested.- And its accomplishment will certainly have the
effect of removing a great anomaly from our midst,—that,
we mean, of having a railway brought to within some five
or six miles of the town,.but not allowed, from very partial
and interested considerations, to approach any nearer its
confines, thus necessitating the expensive and
_cumbrous
recourse to tedious land carriage from its present depot io
the great terminus alike of its goods and passenger traffic.
The only fear is that there may be a monopoly of it in the
hands of the North-Western. This is to be guarded against ;
and we trust that in the Bill this will be done.

SUPPLY OF WATER.—The meeting we reported on
Saturday, on this subject, of manufacturers and others, li
deeply interested in the equitable adjustment of the question
of the cost of the water furnished by the Water Works, must
have suggested to the town at, large the' necessity of some
more fair and reasonable means being adopted, than there
is at present, for regulating the charge according to the
quantity of water supplied. The object of the Corporation
is, or ought to be, not to make money by the Water Works,
but to provide a constant supply of purer wholesome water
at a remunerative charge to consumers. This charge may
be regarded as of the nature of a rate, or municipal tax ;
with this difference, certainly, from ordinary rates or taxes,
that they who pay it get, fully and fairly, or ought to do,
" v.alue received." The object, therefore, should be to
divide the expenses of the Water Works as equally as
possible among those who benefit by them, and in a due
proportion to the quantity of water, or amount of benefit,
which each inhabitant derives from them. The value of
rated premises into which the water is conveyed
would afford some test of calculation as to the
proportion of payment that it would be just and fair to
require, but for the extra consumption which certain manu-
facturers and others, for their own special purpdses,
severally take, which renders it unavoidable, perhaps, to
adopt, in such cases, a system of charging according to
quantity. For this purpose, meters are required by the
Water Committee of the Council to be used. We do not
see that there ought to be any objection to this, provided
the ratio of charge by the meters be uniform, fair, and
reliable. To secure this was, we presume, in fact, the real
object of the meeting in question, and to-day a deputation
is to wait upon the Water Committee to urge a more
equitable scale of charges to large consumers ; and we trust
that the interview will tend to a satisfactory result.