Northern Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1857-08-18 00:00:00

what value they have raceived for their money.
We shall await with some anxiety the Report of
the Committee appointed to investigate the lia-
bilities and expenditure of the Company.

THE CLIPPER SHIP LIGHTNING —This celebrated clipper
ship, the fastek in the world, left the Mersey fur the
Thames on Sunday evening. She will be towed round to
Gravesend by the powerful tug steamer Resolute, which
towed her sister ship, the James Baines, to Plymouth,
some fortnight ago, where she was visited by her Majesty
and the Court, and by them so highly eulogised. The
Lightning will arrive at Gravesend about the 20th lest.,
and will at once be thrown open to public inspection at a
charge of Is. each, the receipts being given to the wives
and families of the slliliers who sail in her. The Light-
ning is 2,093 tons register, 3,500 tons burthen, 243 feet
long, and 44 feet wide. She is the fastest ship in the
world, having made the p usage fr-rm Ile:bourne to Liver-
pool in sixty-three days, when her speed during the whole
voyage, round Clpa Horn, a distance of 15,000 miles as
the crow flies, averaged ten miles an hoar. On the 27th
of February, 1855, she ran nineteen miles an hour for
twenty-four consecutive hours; and from the 28th June
to the 4th of July, 1856, her hourly speeJ averaged fifteen
miles. We believe the rec)ds of the perforniaace of clip-
per ships show no parallel to this.

IRISH JUDGES AND THEIR H.NE,TY.—Our cotemporary
the Belfast! Mercury says:—" We know men who occupy
seats on the bench of justice to administer cur laws, yet
are greater culprits, in many ways, than the unfortunate
wretches they send for a three month' airing to Richmond
foloffences trivial to what theirs are. We have Crown
officials who live out of the jurisdiction, and discharge the
duties of their offices by deputy,—snapping their fingers at
their cr editors, and glorying in the impartiality of our laws.
We have assistant-barristers who skulk into the country
on a Sunday to open their sessions, and so manage the
business by adjournments as to skulk out of it again without
being arrested. When fairly on circuit' they are privi-
leged from arrest, and thus the administration of justice
is made the means of downright roguery. It is now full
time that all such absurd ' privileges' should be abolished
In olden times such privileges were neceessary ; they had
their origin in a due regard for the public interest. It
was then requisite to protect the weak against the over-
whelming influence of the rich and powerful : but, like al
privileges of the kind, they soon degenerated, and became
perverted from their original use. Now, their existence
is a monstrous reflection on public justice, and leads to
the most scandalous frauds. It is, therefore, a movement
in the right direction that contemplates their abolition."
THE EUPHRATES ROUTE TO the City Article
of yesterday's Times, we find the following remarks upon
this sobject :—" The hope of a communication to India by
the Euphrates is at an end, or rather is to be left to time
and accident, since no one looking at the map of the world
will believe that any combination of circumstances can
pre vent its ultimate accomplishment. As in the case of
other designs of like magnitude, those who devoted them-
selves to promote it by calm and honest means may he
disappointed and worn out, hut the tide of human energy
will not permit barriers to remain which, although
physic illy insignificant, are yet found sufficient to separate
the most important regions of the earth. The difficulty
will be solved either by good or bad agencies, and
although governments may Exercise much influence
in choosing between the two, they can no more
alter the ultimate result in this than in any other
impulse of mankind. In the disc scion on the
subject, in the II use of Commons, every 2 material
point was admitted. There can be no doubt,' said
Lord Palmerston, ' that it railway communication were
established along the route indicated a considerably
increased facility in the conduct of our commercial and
peliriell intercourse with the empire of India must be the
consequence.' Tse objecdoos against promoting it were
simply two, and inc msistent with each other—namely,
that it is inexpedient for the G rvernment to interfere in
enterprises which should be treated as of a purely com-
mercial character, and that the present question ;is so
thoroughly politicll that any aid granted, however
desirable, might lead to embarrassments with other Powers.
Ether the first or the second of these arguments must
therefore be abandoned. Doubtless thi latter, which
was adopted, by Lord Palmerston, is the true one.
The work is postponed or sacrificed to avoid disagreeable
complications, and on that point there is, :perhaps,
nothing to be said. It would be idle for those who
share the general confidence with which the country
regards the foreign policy of the Premier, and who trust
equally in his foresight whether caution or courage he the
qu.ility most needed for the moment, to set at nought his
opinion and to clamour that the matter should be carried
through at all hazards. Na one has the opportuniti, s
possessed by the government estimating the hostility with
which !he enterprise would b 3 met. Indeed, immediately
after the recent consultations at Osborne an impression
was circulated that this was one of the very points on
which we had made concessions. Whether the assertion
be tree or othervvise, it is but fair to conclude that the
course pursued on Mr. Estcourt's motion was the result
of deep consideration upon coritingeneiTs which, as far as
the preolie are coacerned, may wisely for tho tirae ba left
open for conjecture."