Northern Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1857-06-18 00:00:00

THE DAY'S NEWS.

In the House of Commons yesterday, the
Registration of Long Leases (Scotland) Bill passed
through committee On going into committee on the
Industrial Schools Bill, Lord A.Howard condemned

the power given to the police to interpret the words
" begging" and " vagrancy." Sir George Grey
said that no new power was given by the bill, and

that its object solely was, that children charged
with offences, under existing acts, should be liable,

at the discretion of the magistrates, to be sent to
an Industrial School. A long discussion here took

place, and clause 5 was struck out. Clause 6 was
amended by the insertion of words, allowing dis-
cretion to the magistrates to discharge the child
without security, and the security required to be
given by the parents of the child was also struck
out. An amendment of Mr Deasy, to limit the
time for which children should be sent to refor-

matory institutions to two years, was lost by a vote

of 197 against 63.
At the meeting of the West Derby Guardians,
yesterday, much iissatisfaction was expressed at
the conduct of the township of Toxteth-park in
not paying their arrears, amounting to £645 135.,
for the support of the poor, and had Mr. Wilson
not promised faithfully that that sum should be
forthcoming in the course of a week, the Board
}lava raactarl a roardiitinn .C>S,CI
seers to be summoned for the amount. The other
business was merely of a routine character. . .

Rogers, Mills, and Seymour, the former captain
and the latter mates of the ship Martha Jane,

recently arrived at this port from Demerara, were
again brought up before the magistrates yesterday,
charged with having caused the death of a seaman
named Rose, by a course of ill treatment during
the voyage. The particulars of the case are already
in the possession of our readers ; some additional
evidence was given, and a remand took place until
one o'clock this day.

In our impression of to-clay will be found the
particulars of a scene which occurred in the Police
Court yesterday. Mr. Mansfield, it will be
observed, has determined to crush the disreputable
system of " touting" for attornies—and not before
it was necessary.
In another column we give a report of a rather
remarkable trial which took place yesterday, in
the Court of Queen's Bench, in which a militia
captain was indicted for feloniously abducting a
young girl. The question involved in this prose
cution is one of much social importance, and we
believe the sentence of the court on this Captain
Erlam, whom the jury found guilty of the crime,
will be looked upon as totally inadequate. A
hungry urchin, who stole a loaf of bread would be
as severely punished as this gentleman, who is
sent for three months to prison for deliberately
and with falsehood ruining a child of tender years.
At the same court the case of the celebrated
Wiseman trial was brought up, and adjourned until
Friday, the 26th inst.
A very severe sentence was passed on a woman
for sending threatening letters yesterday, at the
Central Criminal Court. Rebecca Price Hamilton,
an unmarried woman of 38 years of age, was placed
on her trial for feloniously sending a letter to a
Mr. Allingham, a surgeon, threatening to accuse
him of an infamous crime. She demanded money
and threatened to whisper about that the prose-
cutor had been guilty of incest, and also an abomi-
nable crime, so that his, practice would be entirely
destroyed. She was found guilty and sentenced
to transportation for life.
It is some time; since we have heard any-
thing of the Administrative Reform Asso-
ciation. On Tuesday, however, it appeared
in the Court Queen's Bench, as the defendant
in an action brought by one of its late servants.
A Mr. Henry Wait Hall was installed as the
" legal officer" of the Association, at two guineas
per week, and sat in an apartment marked " Legal
Departmeat" on the outside. As described by
himself, Mr. Hall was entrusted with great duties.
He was to conduct Parliamentary contests, and
support or oppose election petitions, from which
source his sanguine mind saw 1,0001. a year
flowing into the pocket of Henry Wait Hall.
He was to compile " a gazetteer of constitu-
encies," and give information on registration
matters. He was to write letters to Mr. Roe-
buck " on real and imaginary grievances."
What amount of work Mr. Hall did we know not.
But one thing he did. He wrote and published a 1
pamphlet on the " degraded condition of the
House of Commons," which Mr. Roebuck did not
object to, but which the Council of the Association
did. Mr. Hall was dismissed after little more
than two months' service in the cause ; he was only
paid two guineas a week for his time ; and he
brought an action for roll, 18s Unfortunately the
account given of Mr. Hall, and the circum-
stances attending his engagement, by Mr. Revans,
the honorary secretary of the Association, an
account believed by the Jury, did not coin-
cide with that of Mr. Hall. According to this
statement the " legal officer" was appointed at a
salary of two guineas a week. As a reason for
adopting a weekly engagement Mr. Revans told
him that " the funds of the Association were
derived from subscriptions that might fail at any
moment." Mr. Hall was not told to attend to
election petitions. As to the pamphlet, which
engrossed the time of Mr. Hall, the Association
would have nothing to do with it, and even grum-
bled at the author for writing it in " office hours?'
The result was that Mr. Hall, Attorney-General

of the Association at two guineas a week, was dis-
missed because " his views and those of the
Association were not in harmony." The jury
believed this evidence of Mr. Revans, and gave a
verdict adverse to Mr. Hall.

As the Parliament has been, in a political sense,
so inanimate, political parties out of doors have
imitated its example. All that we can hear of in
the way of political gossip is, rumoured Con-
ferences of the Conservative party, no doubt to
decide upon a policy. The problem which the
Tories have to solve is how they are ever again
likely to ascend to power with, opponents in office
quite as Tory in their opinions as themselves;
and it is stated in more than one quarter that the
solution of the problem will be found in the Con-
servatives taking more liberal views of the Reform
Bill question than those who profess to be guided
by Liberal principles. In fact, this is so generally
believed to be true, that it is time to say so, and
the question will be whether her Majesty's Minis-
ters will give the Tories the opportunity of becom-
ing more popular than themselves.
Lur Continental intelligence this morning is
not of much importance.
The staple French intelligence will, for the next
week, be the elections, which now may be truly
termed an epoch in French modern history. Un-
favourable rumours are once anore current in
financial circles with regard to the affairs of the
Grand Central Railway, and its claim on Count
de Morny, It was generally thought that the
difficulty in question had been settled by means
of arbitration, but this does not appear to be the
case.

Intelligence from Teheran of the 28th April
states that the Shah has the intention of sending
one of his elder sons, Muz4ffar Eddin, on a visit
to France, England, c:,.ustria, and Russia. It was
expected that this young p;itsce, who is described
as possessing great intelligence, would leave
Teheran with his suite towards the end of July.
Telegraphic Accounts from Constantinople of
the 7th, mention that the Circassians are drawing
up a memorandum which they have the intention
of strbmitting to-Lthe congress of •Paris.
As intimated in our impression of yesterday, a
letter from Ferhard Pacha (Stein) to the Austrian
consul of Hustchoult, has b. e❑ seized, and its
contents seriously compromise the former, who
has long been supposed to entertain secret
relations with the Austrian Government. These
relations, it is said, date back as far as the Hunga-
rian war.

IT is only a few days ago since we alluded to
the aspect of political affairs in Belgium, referred
to the grasping powers of the priesthood in that
generally peaceful and happy kingdom, and
expressed approval of the mild and considerate
conduct of King LEOPOLD. Since that, his
Majesty has given fresh proof of his solicitude
for the welfare of his subjects, and a desire to
acquit himself in the eyes of the world as the
impartial sovereign of an affectionate and
attached people. lie has, in the emergency to

which we alluded to on on a former occasion,
seized the hAm of state, and with the aid of a
constitutional council, steered clear of a most
serious and disastrous conflict between two great
parties, the Church and the people. In such an
emergency, his Majesty might have sought oppor-
tunity to increase his power, and to add to his
already limited prerogative. He did not adopt
that coarse, and, while the Roman priesthood,
panting fur the exercise of ecclesiastical tyranny
over the population at large, swelling with the pride
of political victory, exacted from the conscience
of the Senate, and while the army, for the first
time during twenty-six years, was brought into
~,,..tuut with the populace, displaying those
glittering symb)ls which freedom has, by bitter
experience, been taught to despise and hate,
King LEOPOLD stood calm and collected, called
his Ministers around him, and in a few concilia-
tory words, uttered however in the full con-
sciousness of their truth, and the accuracy of the
judgment that dictated them, at once put a stop
to the riot, tumult, and bloodshed on the one
hand, and resolutely prohibited the band of
triumphant Jesuits from embittering, by their
selfish and pernicious cupidity, the best feelings
of a sensitive but enlightened people.
Every one who has perused the debate in the
Belgian Chamber, which caused the late emute,
must feel satisfied, as we do, that that clerical
campaign was an adventurous conspiracy to rob,
by an act of the legislature, the people, of
their money, land, and jewels. 'For more than
eight centuries, the Roman Church has
been accumulating riches, nevertheless it
is unsatisfied, and fresh schemes of aggran-
disement are concocted in all lands where
the system has influence or sway. The
recent trials which have taken place in regard to

the religious charities of this Country but too'
clearly prove that the Roman Church converts
the confessional into a ladder of ascent to the
treasury of the enthusiast and the penitant. It
so arranges all its plans that it may carry
captive to its will the minds and bodies of all
men, so that it may command in all cases
servile homage and obedience. The Charity
Bill introduced into the Belgian Chambers was,
no doubt, a project ventilated at Paris, to render
the people of Belgium what Jesuitry has made of
the French—a community bereft of civil and
religious freedom.

Under such circumstances, the Liberal party
rejoice in the defeat of the priestly attempt to
legalise a Charity Bill, the operation of which
we have already described, and places confidence
in the KING, whose conduct in the crisis is
justified by the admirable letter he has addressed
to the Minister of the Interior, proroguing the
Chambers, and adjourning further debate on the
hated question. The letter appeared in Tues-
day's NORTHERN TIMES. Whatever others may
think, we regard this manifesto of King
LEOPOLD as a calm and conciliatory step in the
right direction. Some may say that it was an
act of Kingly power, seeing that the Legislature
of the country was in session, and able to give
full effect to the wants and wishes of the people.

Those who argue thus seem to forget that
Belgium is peculiarly situated. On the one
hand she is bordered by the military imperialism
of France, and on the other by the Pontificia]
I tyranny of Rome. According to the laws of
Belgium, King LESPOLD is the constitutional
and legitimate bead of his own Cabinet, so that