Northern Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1857-07-25 00:00:00

such persons crime is virtually unknown, and if
this amelioration in their position has produced
such marked results, can there be any doubt
that similar effects would be produced on
others less fortunately circumstanced ? None
whatever. But what can we expect from those
steeped in wretchedness, poverty, filth, and de-
gradation ? What but their natural sequence
—crime !

The condition to which vast masses of our
labouring population have been reduced by the
insane rage for cheapness, is most deplorable ;
with such a state of things as is disclosed in a
report, from the pages of which we recently
quoted, how can we expect anything but moral
and physical degradation. The report in ques-
tion was compiled by the, Guardians of the
Poor for Kingston-upon-Hull, and is a most
sensible and elaborate document. Speaking of
the remuneration given to needle women and
others, numerous cases are cited, shewing that the
weekly earnings of those poor creatures did not
average more than from 2s. to 3s. per week, even
when their hours of labour were protracted from
an early hour in the morning until late at night;
to say that such a pittance was a just remunera-
tion for such toil, is absurd—it is an outrage on
common sense. With such rewards for eighteen
hours of incipient drudgery, it is no small wonder
that poor creatures—otherwise honestly disposed
—should fall into temptation, and from dire
necessity—not choice—become plunderers, pau-
pers, or prositutes ; and who are to blame for
this state of things ? Society at large. The
rage for cheapness has become a chronic malady
amongst all classes, and has led to infinitely more
wretchedness and crime than even drunkenness
itself. And it will continue until such time its
atrocities has been fully exposed, and its patrons
held up to that scorn, which their folly, if not
their wickedness, merits, If this is not done,
the blame shall not be laid at our doors.

AMERICAN SECURITIES.—In 1838, a season of great
commercial embarrassment fq)lowing the speculations of
1833, a bank was established in New York, called the
North American Trust and Banking Company. Its
capital, unluckily, was not a moneyed one, but consisted
of bonds and mortgages, unconvertible at once into money,
but, as the event has shown, substantially good securities.
The general failure of the Western and Southern States to
pay their interest caused the company to stop payment in
August, 1841. Previous to the failure of the company,
and while still in credit, in the winter of 1840, the com-
pany executed bonds to thl amount of about 1,000,000
dollars, and transferred various bonds and mortgages to
the trustees as security for their payment. This was
called the " Million Trust." In April, 1840, a similar
transaction took place, and bonds to the amount of
500,000 jdollars were issued, and secured by a trust
deed, called the " Half-million Trust." The bonds in
these trusts were taken by English purchasers. Another
trust deed was made for the benefit of American creditors,
and among them of the United States Bank. These trust
deeds have been the subject of litigation; unparalleled in
the American courts. For fifteen years the receiver of
the bank and his counsel have exhausted all the:powers
of the law in resisting and obstructing the execution of
the trust. At length the cases were brought to a hearing
before the Supreme Court of New York, and the trusts
were affirmed. The cases were taken thence to the Court
of Appeals, where they were argued in January last by
eight counsel. The Court held two sessions a-day, and
the arguments congumed en entire month. The pleadings
and proofs were of monstrous magnitude, and the argu"
ments more full and learned than in any case.ever argued
before the bench of New York. The decision'rendered on
the 3rd inst. fully establishes the validity of the trusts.—
Letter from New York.

THE SUEZ CANAL.—M. Ferdinand de Lesseps has sent
a letter to the members of the various chambers of com-
merce in Great Britain, in reply to the assertions of
Lord Palmerston on the subject of the projected canal.
Passing over the personalities in the speech, he says :
" On the first point, touching the commercial advantages
resulting to Great Britain, I answer with :the authority
of your dictum, pronounced with full competency, and
after a searching examination and discussion. My answer
is in your unanimity—in that of eighteen commercial and
manufacturing towns consulted by me throughout the
United Kingdom. You have all declared that a direct
communication by sea between the Mediterrranean and
the Red Sea, shortening by one half the journey to India,
would be advantageous to English commerce. On the
second point, I oppose to Lord Palmerston's statement
the report of the international commission, composed of
eminent engineers and nautical men, English, French,
Spanish, Austrian, German, Dutch, and Italian, who,
after two years of minute study and careful exploration of
the ground, have decided, in the name of science, that the
execution of the canal was not only practicable, but that

it was even easy. I oppose to the statement of the
First Lord of the Treasury the sanction accorded to the
plans of these engineers by the Academy of Sciences of
the Imperial Institute of France. You will decide between
the authority of this verdict, emanating from the science of
Europe, and that to which Lord Palmerston vaguely appeals
without revealing it is precise terms." M. Da Lesseps
then replies to the political objections to the scheme'
founded on the alleged dangers to our route in India, and
to the integrity of the Ottoman empire. He then takes
up the statements personal to himself :—Lord Palmerston
has thought himself authorised in affirming in terms which
in an address of serious import, it would be unsuitable to
repeat, that I had come to England in order to lay a snare
for the purses of the English, and to practice on the
credulity of capitalists simple enough !to believe
in a visionary undertaking. You, gentleman, can say
whether in my conduct, or my language there, has ever
been anything to justify imputations of this kind. Have
I ever once made an appeal for capital ? You will re-
member that, on the contrary, I declared to you, repeatedly'
it was not subscriptions for shares I sought from you, but
an expression of opinion. If in the allotment of a capital
of 200 millions of francs, England is to receive hereafter,
in common with France, a share of 40 millions, this is an
act of deference which I have thought due to a powerful
commercial nation, directly interested in the execution of
the new ship route. But so little is English capital needed
in the enterprise of which I am the promoter, that if the
share reserved to England were not accepted by her, that
portion would be:entirely absorbed by the supplementary
applications which I have received from various parts of
the world."