Northern Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1857-11-06 00:00:00

depth to which the cable is lowered is not more than
ninety fathoms, and the water deepens immediately to
over 2,000 fathoms, or nearly two miles and a half. This
company has a paid-up capital of £300,000. Of this sum
5 per cent• is guaranteed by the French Government for
fifty years, on a sum of £lBO,OOO. France receiving by
the line certain privileges connected with the transmis-
sion of Government despatches to the island of Corsica
and its colony of Algiers. The Government of Sardinia
gives a guarantee of 5 per cent. on the remaining £120,000
of the capital, having the use and 'control of the line over
the island of Sardinia, as well as the communication with
Turin.

DEATH OF LORD CIIIRLES BUTLER.—The Kilkenny
papers announce the ',sudden demise of Lord Charles
Wandesforde Butler, which took place on Friday last, at
the residence of his mother, the Dowager Marchioness of
Ormonde. Marley, Rathfarnham• Immediately After
breakfast on Friday morning last, his lordship com -
plained of feeling faint, and retired to his bedroom; the
servant hearing him call at once went up, and found him
lying on the floor, suffering from an apopletie seizure.
Medisal aid was immediately procured, and his lordship
rallied a little, but in the course of the afternoon he had a
second seizure, which terminated life. Lord Charles
Butler was fourth son of James, Marquis ;of Ormonde,
brother of the late lamented Marquis, and uncle of the
present.llle was in his 38th year.

BRITISH GUIANA..—By resolution of the Birmingham
Ladies Negro's Friend Society, at a recent meeting, the
following considerations were directed to be laid before
Mr. Labouchere, the Secretary for the Colonies :—That
the secretary has laid before the meeting some recent
correspondence and information received from the colony
of British Guiana, showing that the poll tax, which is
maintained by the local government, is producing all
those sufferings and evils which its opponents foretold,
aggravated by the cruelties with which its penalties are
enforced. That an urrq lel and unrighteous an impost,
found so absurd and impracticable in England, in a
barbarous period of our history, should have received
the sanction of the Colonial Office is a matter of the
deepest astonishment. That such measures are calculated
to sap those feelings of loyalty which have so long
pervaded the Negroes of oar West Indian colonies can
admit of no (bah,. That among the records of this
society is preserved the copy of a despatch from Lord
John Russell, when Colonial Minister, addressed to the
Governor of British Guiana, in 1840, in which is the
following paragraph : " But in whatever degree
I might be disposed to yield to the representations
of the merchants and proprietors, whether in this
country or the colonies, I must enjoin upon you to
bear in mind that the happiness of the inhabitants of the
Colony you are appointed to govern is the; chief object.
Eucourage religious instruction ; let them partake of the
blessings of Christianity ; preserve order and eternal
peace ; induce the African race to feel that wherever the
British flag flies they have a friend and protector.
Check all oppression, and watch over the impartial
administration of the law. By such means our colonies
in the West Indies will be made to fl )urish though in a
different fora and a different tense from that in which
the term has been hitherto used. The Queen, whose
command I now convey to you, looks for her reward in
the faithful attachment of a million of her people, whom
it has been her care to render worthy of the boon which
it has been the happiness of her predecessor to be
enabled to grant by the liberal assistance of his parlia-
ment, and amid the joy of his subjects." That this
society deeply regrets that an enactment so repugnant to
these sentiments should have received the sanction of the
present Colonial Secretary, and would thereiore urge
upon his attention a careful and earnest re-consideration
of the subject, with a view to the speedy repeal of this
oppressive impost.—(Signed), MARY (SAMUEL) LLOYD,
Treasurer ; LYDIA (EDMUND) STURGE, Secretary.