Northern Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1857-10-13 00:00:00

details of the resources, cap Abilities, climate, &e.,
of Africa.

Joseph Pollock, Esq., has taken leave of the
public of Liverpool in his official capacity of Judge
of the County Court. He will be succeeded by
Mr. J. K. Blair, well known in Liverpool for his
legal attainments.
Mr. Blanchard Jerrold replies- to Mr. Dickens'
last letter; and re-affirms that the " in-remem-
brance" performances were gently forced upon his
sanction, and had no reference -whatever to the
"need" of his falter's family.
Io consequence of the denunciation of the
Orange Society by the Irish Government, the.
Belfast Roman Catholic Gun Club has laid down
its arms and dissolved, relying on the Executive
for protection.
There is not much continental news this morn
ing. The latest news from the royal sick bed at'
Potsdam is discouraging. All the physicians
except one, are represented as having given up
hope. The sympathy felt with :King Frederick
William among the crowned heads of the con-
tinent, shows itself to be deep and general. Not
merely in his own country, but as far as the
news of the danger he is in has reached, nothing
but sincere expressicin of sympathy is to be met
with in the public press. An intended interview
between the Emperors of _France and Austria is
talked of e.t Paris.; hut thoseNbest informed see a
great difficulty in it, arising out of the difference
of opinion existing betweera the two Govern-
ments on the question of the Danubian Prin-
cipalities. The Ministerial crisis at Madrid,
as yet unfinished, -seems at least to have
had the good effect of putting a stop to the
military preparations with which Spain menaced
Mexico.

The Bank of England, whieh, on Thursday last,
raised its rate of discount from bi- to 6 per cent.,
has raised it to 7 per cent. The large demand for
gold for export to the United States has led to
thii step.
The steamer Jura has arrived at Queenstown
from New oundland with the 76:h Regiment on
board.

IT is a painful thing
.for the Christian, the
moralist, and the philanthropist to reflect upon
the alarming increase which has taken place in
the crime of murder. Not only is their frequency
vastly augmented, but the ferocity and fiendish
character of the deeds themselves are such as to
alarm every good and well-disposed member of
society, and also to create astonishment in the
minds of those even who are well posted up in
annals of criminal proceedings and the tragic
pages of the Newgate Calendar. Just now, the
brutalities and barbarous deeds of the Bengal
.-SEpoys is in the mouth of every one, and loud
and universal is the opinion that no- other
country and clime possesses such a race of dia-
bolical fiends. Alas, that Great Britain should
furnish us with evidences of brutalities of nearly
—we might say-equally—as great as any which
has lately disgraced the plains of India ! Hardly
a day passes- that we are not called upon to
recount
-deeds of the most horrible and detestible
description, notwithstanding the fact • that we
pride ourselves upon being subject to the
influences of civilisation, morality, and religion,
and that our day and Sunday schools are well
attended by intelligent and -well-educated
children, and our churches and chapels coin-
pletely fi:led with attentive and devout worship-
pers. Besides repressing agencies of crimes, we
have our gaols, our hulks, and our gibbets to
overawe the vicious, and compel respect for the
laws, and the preservation and protection of life
and property.
Homicide; although. a most serious offence
against the peace and safety of, society, cannot
be ranked with that of open and deliberate
murder. Infanticide, too, is bad ; bat in
these cases there are extenuating circumstances.
Can any plea of mitigation be put forw„ard for
the heinous crime of fratracide or parricide ?.
Certainly not. They are planned with all due
deliberation—malice aforethought—and carried
<,
out with the most unrelenting cruelty.- During
the last week or two ,our columns contained
accounts of the diabolical murder of a father,
when sound aeleep in-bed. The assassin was no
leas than the old man's• son. Even nearer home
alnan stabbed his brother to death for volun-
teering the defence of his mother; and at Birk-
enhead we have another fatal case from the use
of the knife. Sach cases as these- may well
cause'us to think iu the most gloomy manner,
and to deplore the ,fact that they have been
committed by any subject of the British crown.
Certainly, the number and atrocious character
of the murders committed within 4,e, past two
'months has not a parallel; It is hardly -so long
since the judges finished their circuit. At Lan-
caster, Liverpool, and Chester, recruits were
furnished t.o-the gallows. The unfortunate cul-
prits have since been executed. Already, how-
ever,. Chester furnishes two „eases of horrid
order, and Liverpool nearly so.
But these are not all. In the prisons of the
United Kingdom we find. the following cases of
murder awaiting trial :--ANTONI D S.ix.vf, who
stabbed Mr. ROBERTSON in the. Queen's Bench
Prison; CORNELIUS DENNY, who killed 'GALL°
BENzaretser in the Hampstead Road ; B ALE
the Clifton murderer; the case o 1 parricide
at Stockport, fratricide
,at Liverpool, the.
Birkenhead murder, and the dreadful murder
dommitted by DAVIS, upon his wife, at Ball's-
pond, London, on Wednesday last; Besides
these, there are others not only in England, but
Ireland, and one . man, we believe, awaits the
operation of the hangman in Scotland. What
renders the eases just-cited more frightful is the
bloody character of all the tragedies.
We seem to have passed over the period of
poisoning, and to have taicen up the use of. the
most deadly instrumente7 There was a time
when people would not have recourse to knives
. .
and le z3l'S to inflict the crimes of murder or felo,
nious assault. It was left to. the brutal Italian,-
and the bloodthirsty Spaniard, to use the sti-
letto and the poignard, and he who did so .was
looked upon as a coward in the extreme. We
seem to be -imitating the ferocity of .the Italian
and the ,Spaniard, inls:nuch as two-thirds of the
recent murders committed in this country have