Northern Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1857-08-28 00:00:00

BIRMINGHAM.

Another Mercantile Lew Conference is to be held at
Birmingham, on the 12th of October next, and the four
following days. The Conference is to be held under the
auspices of the National Association for the promotion of
Social Science, which is to hold its first annual meeting at
Birmingham on that day, under the presidency of Lord
Brougham. The leading subject of the Law Conference
will be Bankruptcy—embracing practical suggestions from
the assembled mercantile delegates, with the view of pre-
paring one general bankrupt statute, to be made applicable,
if possible, to the whole of the United King tom. The
object of the National A ssociation is, as its name implies,
to aid the development of the social sciences, and to guide
the public mind to the beat practical means of promoting
the amendment of the law, the advancement of education,
the prevention and repression of crime, the reformation of
criminals, the establishment of due sanitary regulations,
and the recognition of sound principles in all questions of
social and pcliricil economy. The proposed mole of action
is, once in every year, to bring together the Itarious socie-
ties and individuals who are engaged or interested in
furthering any of the above objects; and without trenching
upon their independent exertions, to elicit by discussion
the real elements of truth, to clear up doubts, to harmonise
discordant opinions, and to afford a common ground for
the mutual exchange of reliable information on the great
social problems of the day. The better to carry out this
plan, the committee have divided the association, for the
present, into five departments, viz. :—Jurisprudence and
Amendment of the Law—Education—Punishment and
Reformation—Public Health—and Social and Political
Economy ; but at the time of each meeting any depart-
ment will, if necessary, be subdivided into sections for
the more convenient transaction of its business. Full
particulars of the business to be transacted in each
department will be published previous to the meeting ;
but in the meantime, and in order more fully to explain
the range of topics in which papers and discussion will be
received, a short statement is subj oined under the head of

each department.
FIRST DEPARTAIENT.—IIIRISPRI:DRNCE AND AMEINDIMNI`
01 THE LAW. —ln this department, besides the leading
sulject of Bankruptcy, will be discussed the Science of
Civil Jurisprudence ; its be ring on the social ecndi!ion of
the people ; the advantages derivable from a wide diffusion
of its principles ; the practical defects in our laws ; the
evils arising from such defects ; and the fitting remedies.

SECOND DEPARTMENT. —EDUCATION —This deortment
will deal with the various questions relating to Education,
both industrial and intellectual, whether of the upper,
middle. or lower classes of society ; the foundation schools
of the country ; and the connection of art and literature
with national education.

THIRD DEPARTMENT.—PUNISHMENT AND REFORMATION
—ln this department will be discussed the various ques-
tions relative to the prevention and repression of crime ;
the reformation of the criminal ; the best mode of second-
ary punishment; prison discipline; and the management
of reformatory schools and institutions.
FOURTH DEPARTMENT.—PUBLIC HrALTIX. —This depart-
ment will consider the various questions relating to the
Public Health and the Prevention of Disease ; it will
collect statistical evidence of the relative healthiness of
different localities, of different industrial occupations, and
generally of the influence of exterior circumstances in the
production of health or disease ; it will discuss improve-
ments in house construction (more especially as to the
dwellings of the labouring classes), in drainage, warming,
'ventilation ; public bath 3 and washhonses ; hospitals,
dispensaries, the modes of rendering them most efficient
for their objects ; asylums for incurable cases ; the treat-
ment of the insane ; adulteration of food and drugs, their
effects on the public health, and the principle of legislation
against them ; the functions of Government is relation to
public health, the legislative and administrative machin-
ery expedient for its preservAtion ; sanitary police,
quarantine, &c. ; povorty in relation to disease, and the
effect of unhealthineas in the prosperity of places and
nations ; murrains of cattle, their causes, and their
influence on the health of mankind.

FIFTH DEPARTMENT.—SOCIAL EGOITOMY.—In this do-
partment will be considered the various questions relating
to Social Economics; the conditions of industrial success,
whether of nations or individuals ; savings banks and
insurances; the relation between employers and employed ;
strikes and combinations ; legislative interference with the
hours and wages of labour ; legislative regulations of pro-
fessions, trades, and employment generally, and of price
and means of supply ; emigration, its effect, and true
conditions ; exercise of public and private charity ; relief
of the poor ; industrial employment of women : industrial
and economical instruction of the labouring classes ;
social economics in relation to education.—The Mercantile
Test.

A PRINT2R IN LUCH.—The Chick isshay (Miss.)
Adtertiser says that James T. Ballance, formerly of
that place, and the publisher of the first paper ever
issued there, has re,:ently inherited a fortune of 90,000
dollars.

REPRESENTATION OF MIDDLESEX.—It is said that Viscount
Chelsea is indisposed to present himself again as a can-
didate, and that the conservative party will probably start
the Hon. Robert Bourke, a younger brother of Lord Naas,
or Mr. Henry Pownall, one of the county magistrates. On
the other side the names of Mr. Byng and Sir W. Clay are
mentioned as probable candidates.
TERRIBLE FIRE IN LONDON.—A fire of a fearful charac-
ter, and attended with the destruction of some thousand
pounds' worth of property, happened in High Holborn,
late on Tuesday night. The premises in which the disaster
commenced belonged to Mr. Granville, gun and pistol
manufacturer, situated at No. 44, in the above named
great thoroughfare. The engines having arrived, were forth-
with set to work, and copious streams of water were poured
upon the flames; but, notwithstanding, they continued to
spread so fiercely that in less than a varter of an hour
after the outbreak the building, from the base to the roof,
presented a general blase, and before midnight the roof
fell in, when the flames rose to such an altitude as to
illuminate the whole of the western and eastern portions
of the metropolis. The firemen entered the burning
premises at all points, and also mounted the roofs of the
adjoining houses on both sides in Holborn, but so fearfully
did the flames extend, that very shortly the back part of
Mr. Utlmer's premises, and those of Mr. Pryer, became
ignited, and the various houses in King's Head-court and
Bartlett's-buildings were placed in such jeopardy that
nearly the whole of the owners rushed out into the streets
with their children, and any article of furniture they could..
lay their hands upon.

SMITHSONIAN HOTEL
Baot DWAT.COrIIer Of,UOUSTON-STILNIT, Nsw YoElt.
Named in honour of the SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION,
listablished at WASHINGTON, by the U. S. Comosass,
With Funds bequearaed by JAMLS SMITHSON, of ENGLAND,
Having the Friendship of the 0 FFICSaa of the NATIONAL INSTITUTION
Is coneincted on the EUROPIUM PLAN.
CHAS. IL SMITH.