Northern Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1857-09-01 00:00:00

chief might have been prevented. However,
better late than never. We have always con-
tended that truth " lay at the bottom of the
well," and that, sooner or later, it would rise
triumphant to the surface. We will not, in the
plenitude of our strength, imitate the vulgar
scurrility of the insensate thick and thin sup-
porters of the most abominable job ever inflicted
on this or any other community ; and although
the temptation is strong to recriminate bitterly
on our ignorant and impertinent defamers, we
shall not indulge it; but one simple-question
we put to all such : let them answer it to-
morrow—WHo is RIGHT NOW r

With regard to Mr. DUNCAN'S proposal to lay
a second line of pipes, at a furth,:r cost of up-
wards of 200,0001., we shall have much to say
by and bye. We believe it to be quite unne-
cessary, and cannot but think that the Council
have had enough of big water jots for some time
to come, and that in the present state of matters
they will commit themselves to no mare gigantic
undertakings until those now condemned have
been thoroughly ventilated, and the necessity of
further outlay clearly demonstrated. At present
the Council are not in a position to decide on
more than one point ; ant is, the immediate
restoration of the entire well supply to the in-
habitants, and with that the withdrawal at once
of the filthy Itivington wash. We have over and
over again shown that the wells are, or can be,
promptly made amply adequate to the abundant
supply of pure water to the whole o f the inha-
bitants ; that the cry of scarcity was a cry
raised to delude the Council and the town by
interested jobbers ; that the large supply said to
be used in watering the streets during the past
summer is, after all, only a mere bagatelle to the
gross yield of the wells ; that the published
return of the Borough Engineer proves that we
were perfectly correct when we said that one
hour's pumping at Green-lane was ample for
that purpose, thus showing that only one twenty-
fourth of the yield of that single spring is all
that is used even now. What advocate of the
home supply would boggle at such a driblet
as that ?

It is a well known fact that all practical men
are agreed that the existing springs, without
any new sinkings whatever, are capable of
yielding fifty per cent. more water than they do
at present, at a mere nominal cost, and without
any unnecessary delay. It cannot be forgotten
that the late Mr. H OUSELY offered, many years
ago,to procure a supply of eight million gallons,
daily from the sandstone for less than 40,0001.—
and Mr. HOUSELY knew very well what he was
about. With the experience of the past to guide
them, the Council can now have no difficulty in
arriving at a satisfactory solution of the prime
difficulties. The Pike is condemned in toto
and must be at once abandoned. Its future
application is a matter which may be determined
on at leisure. The cost—the awful cost--las
been incurred. About that there need be no
more idle regrets. The mischief has been accom-
plished in its entirety ; but let one and all
now unite in their endeavours to mitigate the
evil as far as possible. No more presumptuous
arrogance or dogged obstinacy and vituperation.
On this point we shall say nothing further at
present. We conclude by 'repeating our ques-
tion—Wao Is RIGIIT Now ? and we cannot
but rejoice that our protracted labours have not
been in vain.

IT has always been the policy of theNORTHERN
TIMES to regard the infliction of capital punish-
ment for the crime of murder as unsuited to the
age in which we live, insufficient to stop the
bloody deeds of the assassin, and only a legal
retribution which has totally failed in effecting
the objects for which it was intended. Inde-
pendent of our objection to the principle of the
law taking away that which it cannot restore,
the mode of procuring a capital conviction by
means of circumstantial evidence is a still
stronger inducement to give our sanction for the
abolition of death punishments. There are
many instances on record where culprits have
been found guilty, condemned, and executed for
murder on circumstantial evidence alone, and
who, before expiating their offence upon the
scaffold, confessed their crime and admitted the
justness of their sentence. So far this was satis-
factory to the judge who tried, the jury that
convicted, and the country which • punished ;
and as long as the law stands as it now is, no
fault can be found with CALCRAFT or any other
hangman performing the degrading duties of the
horrible office of public executioner. But what
shall we say of convictions obtained by circum-
stantial evidence, and executions following,
where the culprits do not acknowledge their
crime, and are led on to the scaffold without
uttering one word which would ease the minds
of the jury who found them guilty, and the
judge that ordered death by violence to follow ?
Furthermore, where a culprit has been convicted
entirely upon circumstantial evidence, and yet
protests his innocence upon the very scaffold at
the moment he is about to meet his Maker,
The laws relating to the trial, conviction, and
punishment of persons for murder, become more
than questionable, and every one who has taken
any part in the trial, and .its denouement, must
feel for the remainder of their days a sort of
mental uneasiness lest an innocent man has been
hurried into eternity. A murderer may be
morally guilty, but, at the same time, legally
innocent, and it is because that this is so that
the doctrine of circumstances, on the trial of
persons for capital offences, becomes dangerous,
not only to the individual inunedigely concerned,

but to the public at large. PALMER, the
poisoner, was convicted at the Old Bailey last
year, not so much from the force of the testimony
against _ him, as from the daninatory
character of the charge of the Lord
Chief Justice. The facts which bore against
him were dwelt upon with duration and
emphasis, whilst the extenuating rebutting
arguments, and evidence for the defence, had
less notice, and, in some instances, were scarcely
alluded to. PALMER was executed ; 4t if we
were to ballot the people of the United Kingdom,
we are much deceived if the result of the vote
would not show that, although esteemed morally
guilty, he was considered legally innocent. Far
stronger, and far more direct was the testimony
against the notorious SPOLLEN, yet he was
acquitted in defiance of what seemed to all
reflecting minds a very clear* case of guilt.
It would be easy to multiply cases of these
kinds to any extent. Enough, however, has
been said to show that it is a most serious thing
to consign to a premature and ignominious end a
fellow being, upon evidence purely circumstan-
tial.

We have made these remarks in consequence
of the execution of JOHN BLAGG, which took
pace at Chester on Friday. In this case the
evidence was purely circumstantial, the two
principal points being that BLAGG had been
heard to threaten the life of the murdered man,
BEBBINGTOINT, and that his shoes corresponded
with the footmarks which were found at the spot
where the murder was committed. BLAGG
stoutly denied his innocence to the last ; and
although firm and composed from the time of
conviction until the fatal moment that ushered
him into another world, he strongly asseverated
his innocence, Almost his last words to his wife,
before she took her sorrowful farewell, were:—
"My dear, I am as innocent as you are, and
some day it will come out." To the reverend
gentlemen who remained with him the whole
of the night previous to his execution, he
repeatedly remarked that he was innocent, and
that " some day the murderer will be found out."
Now, if ever there was a case which aimed a
deadly blow against capital punishment on
circumstantial evidence, it is that of the unfor-
tunate BLAGG. From all that we have read of
the case, and the conduct and demeanour of the
culprit from the day of the trial until CALCR4FT
put an end to his earthly existence, we believe
him to be innocent of the actual murder, and that
although he may have been an accessory before
the fact, the execution was a stern and unmerciful
vindication of the requirements of the law.
But what makes this case the more painful is
the fact that the murder was committed in conse-
quence of the enforcement and maintenance of
those barbarous relics of the feudal times—the
Game Laws. The injustice oC these laws,
their indefensible character, and the feeling
of discontent and dissatisfaction which they
engender in the minds of the lower orders should
long ere this have caused their complete abroga-
tion. The fate of BEBBINGTON, and the execution
of BLAGG, should teach the Government of the
day that such enactments should not disgrace the
Statute Book of England. To maintain, by Act
of Parliament, that that portion of the feathered
and piscatorial tribes; as well as all the four-
footed anicnals called " game," and which are
produced and supported without cost to those
who arrogantly claim them as their property, is
what GOD and nature never intended. The
ennobled Peer or the wealthy 'Squire has no
more right to claim the pheasant, the partridge,
or the hare than the humblest agriculturist in
the land. The farmer's fields, and the cottager's
garden, for which each pays rent, supports this
species of game. Had there been no Game
Laws, BEBBINGTON would not have been mur-
derel, nor BLAGG executed; and it may be, had
there been less desire on the part of Judge and
jury to uphold this nefarious enactment, the
people of Chester, and the public at large, would
have been spared the painful reflection that
another legal murder was committed, and, to all
appearance, an innocent man hurried into eter-
nity, so that as example might be made of any
who question the wisdom or the equity of the
Game Law enactments.

On Wednesday next the Water Com-
mittee stand pledged to the Council and
the town at large to give a definite
reply to the Memorial presented by the rate-
payers mouths ago, pray lug that their old supply
of Pure Water might be restored to them,
until such time as arrangements could be made
for supplying the Pike bog wash for such purposes,
and such only, as it is adapted for. So far the
Committee have had recourse to every artifice
by which they could succeed in staving off the
question, in the expectation, doubtless, that some
improvement might possibly take place in the
quality of the Water ; or, that the inhabitants
wearied with what has hitherto proved to be
an unsuccessful agitation, would become quies-
cent, and, ultimately yielding to the force of
circumstances, submit to the use of the obnoxious
compound, seeing that further remonstrance
was hopeless.
Procrastination has been the order of the
day with the Water Committee, or rather
with their masters—the engineers, geologists,
and chemists, who have succeeded in mes-
merising the Committee, although they have
hitherto ?ailed in purifying the bog-wash at
Rivington by their galvanism or magnetism.
But the Water Conimittee and their profes-
sional 4 may rest assured that their game is at