Northern Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1859-03-09 00:00:00

amend the Poor Relief (Ireland) Act ; to amend
certain defects in the Oaths Act ; and another for
the Registration of Births, Deaths, and Marriages
in Ireland. The Mutiny and Marine Mutiny Bill
was read a second time, and the House adjourned
at 12 50.

The Reform Movement grows a-pace. Meetings
are now crowding fast upon each other. To-day
demonstrations against the government measure
will be made in a great number of towns. of import-
ance, and among them Birmingham, Oldham, Wake-
field, and Southampton. On Monday night a large
meeting was held at Newcastle, and another in Shef-
field, at both of which resolutions strongly condemna-
tory of the bill were passed unanimously. Last night
a meeting took place in Leeds. The Liverpool Meet-
ing to be convened by the Reform Association in
York Buildings has been postponed until this day
week.

The Tewkesbury Election took place yesterday,
and resulted in the return of Mr. Lygon, Mr.
Humphrey Brown, of British Bank notoriety,
having resigned shortly after one o'clock.
In a late edition, yesterday, we announced the
arrival of the steamer America, from Boston and
Halifax, with the usual American mails and $74,820
in specie. The news is four days later, but it
is only important as communicating the fact that
there will be no change in the tariff this year, and
that the deficiency in the revenue is to be met by an
issue of treasury notes. In allusion to the condition
of trade, the New York Herald says : " Almost
without exception, our imports of foreign merchan-
dise are paying the importer a profit ; with almost
the same uniformity, our exports are netting the
exporters a loss. It is probable that every barrel of
flour and every bale of cotton which has been shipped
to Europe during the past three or four months has
been sold at a loss."

The news of the revolt of the Neapolitan refugees,
while on their voyage to New York, is confirmed.
The crew were only 17 in number. The number of
refugees was 70, including 1 bishop and 7 priests.
Full particulars will be found in another part of our
paper this morning.
The general advices from the Continent speak
favourably of the prospect of a settlement of the
existing difficulties in Italy. The representations
from those quarters show that the firmness of
Austria, combined with the disposition of the
German States to assume a strong attitude, has in-
duced both France and Sardinia to moderate their
demands, while the preparations for hostilities have
been discountenanced, both by the banking and
mercantile interests, in Paris and the departments,
whose transactions have already been seriously
prejudiced by the untoward course of events.
The conclusion of a satisfactory arrangement
will be hailed- with delight, as there may then be
some hope of a return to commercial prosperity,
hitherto checked solely through the late complica-
tion of foreign relations. The letters from the
north of Germany allude to the indications exhibited
in the early part of the year of increased activity in
the branches of business connected with America
and the East, but since the perturbation created
through the declaration of the Ist of January, at
the Court of Napoleon, many of the adventures con-
templated have been either curtailed or withdrawn
altogether.
The decided effect produced in speculative quarters
by the French Emperor's new manifesto cannot,
however, be justly regarded as a measure of the
impression in general commercial circles. The mer-
cantile community cannot calmly address themselves
to business upon the faith of one pacific assurance,
whilst all the acts of the French government still
points to war, or, at least,
_,to the prolonged dis-
turbance of public tranquillity. Something more
tangible than mere reassuring professions is impera-
tively required ; for, sooth to say, there has long
been little faith in the truthfulness of the communi-
cations addressed by the French government to the
world ; -and the notorious falsehood of several of the
assertions contained in the latest official document has
absolutely shocked the public mind. A general hope
prevails that the recent manifestations betoken the
commencement of the Emperor Napoleon's retreat
from an aggressive position, which he finds untena-
ble in face of the condemnation of Europe, but
more especially of the expressed aversion of his own
people to war, and of the hostile attitude of Ger-
many. Confidence, however, is nowhere felt ; for,
apart from the encouragement which Austria may
derive from the hesitation of her enemy, and which
may stimulate her to maintain an unyielding attitude
—a contingency which, by leaving the crying
oppression of Italy unrelieved, would keep up a
standing menace in the midst of Europe—the fear
remains that the restless and unscrupulous policy
of France may any day inaugurate a fresh and
equally perilous dictation.
At the Police-court, yesterday, a case of con
siderable importance was • heard. The charge was
against the chief and second engineers of the ship
Bagota, for causing the death of a man named
Launder, a stoker on board the same vessel, on her
passage from Rio to Liverpool. Thera was a great
deal of evidence given in the case, from which it
appeared that deceased was unable to do his duty,
in consequence of indisposition and heat, for which
he was tied to a ladder, near the furnaces, for a
considerable time, and died almost immediately on
his being released. A full report will be found in
another part of our paper.

THE FRENCH EMPEROR AND T iIE
ENGLISH PRESS.
THE letter of the French Emperor to Sir FRANCIS
HEAD, which we published a day or two since, has a
deep significance, when taken in connection with
his Majesty's present position as the great European
war-schemer of the day. But for that position,
indeed, the world would never have been favoured
with the publication of such an Imperial missive.
Had not Louis NAPOLEON exposed himself to the
opprobium which it is so cunningly devised to
ward off, Sir FRANCIS HEAD, in the first place,
would never have had the opportunity of
calling forth such an apology for his having
been, with so much reason, to say the least of it,
suspected. No doubt Louis NAPOLEON was but too
glad of the opportunity of making such a plausible
excuse for the mischievous policy he is pursuing.
But the people of England, at any rate (however it
may be with the people of France,) are not to be
hoodwinked in that way. It is evidently' a part of
the game he is playing, to keep endeavouring to
throw dust in the eyes of the people of this country
as well as of France. But England must not be thus
blinded to the real character of himself, his acts, and
his aims.
Sir FRANCIS HEAD had been writing in defence of
the French Emperor ; and he had collected his
articles together, and despatched them to the Palace
of the Tuileries. The Imperial letter to which we
refer is the Emperor's acknowledgment of Sir
FRANCIS'S most chivalrous vindication of his
character and his conduct ; and the occasion, of
course, is taken to represent himself, not as the
threatener of England's peace, but as the upholder
of England's liberties. There might have been some
chance of his being believed, had he first shewn any
concern for the liberties of his own people, instead of
having trampled them in the dust. But see what he
presumes to say,—"l consider it very natural that the
parties whom it has been my duty to oppose and to
repress should bear me and should seek the
means to injure me; but that the English, of whom
I have always been the most devoted Lind the most
faithful ally, should attack me incessantly in the
journals, in the most unworthy and the most unjust
manner, is what I cannot comprehend ; for, in truth,
I cannot discover any interest they can have in
exciting the public mind against France." Now who
are the parties whom it has been his duty:: to oppose ?
Why, he has opposed the constitutional liberty of
his countrymen, and thereby shown himself
I inimical to the cause of true liberty ! There