Northern Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1857-07-31 00:00:00

this Greek republic should be converted
into an English colony. Search was made,
but no such party or proposition could be
traced back to anything actual. Of course
the thing is a mare's nest. No British
party ever imagined such a thing, but Russian
agency and Greek restlessness conveniently avail
themselves of this pretence in order to give us a
little embarrassment at this moment, when we are
embroiled farther east. The notion of making
these self-important little men of a tiny republic
into a British colony is absurd enough, because,
if they only knew it, this would be conferring
far too much honour upon them to be incor-
porated with an empire, on whose standard the
sun never sets, and—what is yet more—which
is among the foremost of the nations in the
march of civilisation. Mtich as we disapprove
and contemn the spirit which lately showed
itself in the Greek. Parliameni, we by no means
disapprove of their wish to retain their nationality,
or even, if they prefer it, to their joining them-
selves to that remarkably well-governed state,
called the Kingdom of Greece, under King
Onto. Whether this could be safely permitted
in the existing relations of Europe, we do not
decide. It is for statesmen to determine, who
understand the interdepe'ndence of nation', and
what may be required, by what is called the
balance of power. Still we have no wish to
overbear, oppress, or ignore any nationality,
however tiny, and however feeble, if they them-
selves are anxious to preserve it. Oftentimes,
probably, the severest punishment that Heaven
could send us would be to grant us our prayers ;
and, if other reasons permitted it, probably the
best retribution of this Greek insolence would be
to grant the prayer. We engage to defend them
from foreign aggression, and prevent their being
swallowed up by any of the great powers. But
there is no accounting for tastes, and if they
prefer a tyranny to some small measure
of freedom, in Heaven's name, let them
have it ; we shall be well rid of them—
and they will glorify themselves by exchanging
dependence on a first-rate power for incorporation
into a tenth-rate state. There is no use in
forcipg institutions to which the people are not
fitted—of which they are not capable. Like
spoiled children, let them be gratified a little.
The forms and institutions of England are too
advanced for them, too good for them. Why
should we cast our pearls before them ? As they
cannot rend us, they will, with Russian help, try
the safer work of undermining us. In the
language of the venerable book, we say, " Let
them follow their own ways, and be filled with
their own devices." But there is one thing that
England will not tamely permit. She will not
tamely permit that either by supple Greek or
wily Russian the lonian Islands should be
turned into a focus of conspiracy or a source of
annoyance against herself. She will extinguish
it on the same principle that she extinguishes
Greek piracy, as a nuisance in the midst of the

This storm in a tea-pot is hardly worthy of
the attention of Britain. We notice it now, in
order to urge our rulers to be just to all, and
fear nothing. If England assume to tyrannise,
and imitate Continental despotism, then she can
expect nothing but disturbance, annoyance, and
rebellion. There is a thirst for freedom and
progress, which is of God and not of Govern-
ments, and which cannot be put down and
finally quelled. Let our readers be just to
Canada, just to Australia, just to India, and just
to those insolent little Greeklings, and they will
be sustained by Providence and the people of
England. To the Greeks, also, we would tender
this safe counsel—" Gentlemen, you are deceived
as to the weakness of England. You are within
sweep of the lion's tail. You may venture too
far. Beware !"

THE Civil Service Superannuation Bill was
the subject of a renewed debate in the House of
Commons on Wednesday. Despite the deter-
mined opposition of the Government and of
most of ex-Cabinet ministers, who now hold
seats in Parliament, the measure passed a second
reading by a majority. of sixty. This is a very
proper decision for the House to arrive at, and
should teach those in power that the continuance
of a system of injustice and oppression towards
the public servants of the country will not be
tolerated by the people's •epresentatives.
The debate of Wednesday called forth speeches
from Mr. GLADSTONE, Mr. DISRAELI, and the
Chancellor of the Exchequer, and they each
argued the question in its threefold aspect—
feeling, justice, and expediency. The case put
forward by the civil servants amounted to this
" Leave us alone ; let us take care of ourselves.
If you believe—if you can get the country to
act on the belief, that our nominal salaries are
more than we deserve, move Parliament to
reduce them, but do not compel us to pay a
heavy per-ccntage on salaries which we believe
to be insufficient, and which no one considers
excessive, in order to provide a fund from which
not one seventh of those compelled to contribute
to it can ever, by any possibiliiy, derive any
benefit."

As the law now stands, the salary paid to the
civil servants is nominal in amount ; and great
as this grievance is, it is rendered much more
galling from the fact that it is partial in its
operation, and that high paid officials of the state
are exempted from the imposition of the tax. Now,
whenever the case has been investigated, the claims
of the civil servants have been considered, as was
nothing more than j ustice. Committees and com-
missioners, with the strongest desire to support the

present system, and uphold the Government
views of the subject, have been forced to come
to the conclusion that all schemes of deductions
should be swept away. The common sense view
of the matter repudiates the idea of enforcing
provident habits by Act of Parliament. It is to
repeal this very questionable piece of legislation
that Lord NAAS brought forward his Bill. It
consists of one clause only, and is directed to the
single object of repealing the superannuation
clause in the Bill of 1834. The opponents of the
Bill object that it leaves the old scale of super-
annuation allowances untouched, and, as a matter
of course, fails to carry out the intentions and re-
commendations of the Royal Commissioners, to
whom the question was referred. This is true
to a certain extent; but on whom does the blame
rest ? If -the Government had been thoroughly
impressed with the importance of the subject,
and made up their mind to carry out in an
honest and candid spirit, the recommendations
of the Commissioners, by introducing a Bill
abolishing reductions, and improving and altering
the scale of superannuation, no one can doubt
that not only the House of Commons but the
Civil Servants themselves, would have approved
and supported such a measure. They took a
position exactly the reverse ; they fell back, as
vuc of our metropolitan eutemporaries says,
" upon red tape," entrenched themselves in the
precedents of Downing-street, and marshalled in
front of their position an imposing array of
Heads of Departments. But the promoters of
the Bill introduced by Lord NAAS understood
their tactics too well. They made an attack on
only one poiut, namely, the deduction system,
and exerted all their power to carry outs in its
entiriety and integrity, the chief .-ecommendation
of the Royal Commissioners of 1856, namely,
that the full amount of their present
nominal salaries be paid to the Civil
servants without deduction and without
re-vision. Mr. GLADSTONE delivered a short
but pithy speech against the measure, and
stated what we can hardly believe to be founded
in fact—viz., that the civil servants of England
were over, rather than under, paid. Will any
man be rash enough to aver that the Post-office
clerks and the lower grades of the Custom-house
and Excise officials are paid anything like a sum
commensurate with the importance and useful-
ness of the duties they have to discharge ? A
Post-office clerk, after years of service, is con-
sidered well paid if he gets 30s. per week. True
it is that the heads of departments get more;
but these are exceptional cases, which can only
be obtained by the few, while the many have to
toil day and night for a pittance which no mer-
chant would think of offering to his common
clerk. The Chancellor of the Exchequer argued
against the expediency of the Bill, but the House
was not disposed to follow his advice, and man-
fully carried the second reading by the majority
already stated. We hope, therefore, that the
Government will Liot oppose the measure any
further, but promuie Iw ravbawJ, accLug mat
they are not in a position to resist its aims and
objects with effect any longer. Let us hope, too,
that, having this grievance remedied, it will add
to the value of the civil service, by introducing
greater mental ability and moral worth. Not that
there is much cause for general complaint
thereon. We may further add that it is somewhat
singular that the government should take a view
of such a matter in complete antagonism to their
general -supporters in the House of Commons,
and that they should insist upon providing for
the families of those public officials against their
wish or desire, and that, too, as a measure which
has conferred little or no advantage for the cost
it has incurred.

GRAND TRUNK RAILWAY or CANADA.—The Lancashire
Shareholders intend to call a Meeting of the Proprietors
to propose the following' resolutions :—lnasmuch as the
Government and Legislature of Canada have unanimously
decided byl the late 'Act:'of the Provicnial Parliament,
that the political element should be-eradicated from the
Board of Directors, it is resolved.—That in the appoint—
ment of Directors to serve on the Canadian Board, it is
essential solely to select gentlemen of commercial ex-
perience, connected with the general trade of the province
and of the Western States. That the names of five
gentlemen be submitted to the London Board for election,
as representatives of the English Shareholders, such
nominees to be residents of Quebec, Montreal, Prescott,
Kingston, and London, C. W.—That 'all extensions be
deferred, excepting the level between St. Mary's and
London, until the Victoria Bridge is opened, and proper
terminal' accommodation provided at Quebec in connexion
with shipping and goods.

THE MAYO ELECTION WRIT.—A: lively debate was got
up in the House of Commons, on Tuesday night, over the
question of issuing a writ for the county of Mayo, to
supply the vacancy caused by:the:unseating of Mr. G. H.
Moore. Colonel French moved that such a writ do issue,
upon which Mr. Scholefield, the chairman of the com-
mittee which had unseated Mr. Moore, moved a counter
resolution to the effect that the Irish Attorney-General
be directed to prosecute the Revs. P. Conway and Luke
Ryan, Catholic priests, for undue influence and intimida-
tion exercised upon the electors at:',the last election, and
that, in the meantime, the writ be suspended. In support
of this motion, Mr. Scholefield referred to the fact that
two witnesses who had given evidence before the com-
mittee had, on their return, been hunted through the
streets like wild, busts, which showed that the priests
had almost put an end to freedom of election. This
accusation brought up Mr. Maguire, who defended Mr.
Moore and the priests, and described the evidence on
which the latter had been charged with "cursing " certain
electors as utterly contemptible. Mr. Baillie urged the
issue of the writ, on the:ground that the electors shouhl,
not be punished for the sins of the accused priests, viho
were non-electors. To this view Lord Palmerston r'.,plied,
urging that the non issue of the writ would be a positive
protection to the electors, who would knovi, from the
manner in which the judges; dealt with the offending
priests, if they might exercise the suffrage unmolested.
Lord Claude Hamilton insinuated th'e.t the [rish Attorney -
General (who is a Roman Catholi,.s) could not be trusted
to conduct such a prosecution. The Attorney• General
replied to this taunt with berznming temper, and assured
the house that the case Wight be safely entrusted to his
hands. The debate wa.`:, wound up by Mr. Bowyer, who
characteristically de'aled [the " cursing" imputed to the
priests, but asked 'if, even were it true, it was an offence ?
Would the hov.'4e on doubtful testimony, " rouse the feel-
ings of the people 9f Ireland" by proleeuting two priests?

The answer of the house was in the affirmative, the reso-
lution to prosecute being carried by 153 to 24 votes. On
a subsequent vote, the suspension:of the writ was agreed
to by a majority of 128 to 21. The prosecution of these
parties is a bold step, and we have little doubt that Mr.
Boviler's anticipation, that it will rouse public feeling
across the water, will be fully
,realised.—Manchester
Examiner.

THE TRANSATLANTIC TELEGR ‘l9l. —The wonders
already accomplished by the electric telegraph, j which,
like all other implements of every day use has long been
familiar to the public, has given rise to expectations not
easily satisfied and not likely to subside. It is regarded as
an easy affair by those who sea the telegraph in hourly
operation in oar own country, and who find it communica-
ting readily with the nations of the continent, to extend
the same means of communication indefinitely. If we can
bridge the British channel and the Irish sea, why not the
Atlantic and Pacific, and thus put a girdle round the
world ? Electricians have already had considerable, we
might almost say, disheartening, experience of the first
difficulty—that of sinking the cable. We all remember
how, while the Crimean war was waging, the electric tele-
graph hung fire, and how, in despite of modern science, we
were obliged to wait for information by the old fashione 3
modes of conveyance. The reason was that the telegraph
failed in consequence of the impossibility of laying the
cable so as to complete the communication. What were
the immediate causes of failure can be only guessed, as we
cannot survey the bottom of the sea and seek them out. A
rocky bottom may chafe and tear the cable se as to destroy
its efficiency without severing it ; and the injury may
remain undiscovered, because, once sank, it is often
impossible to fish it up again. Thus, two Mediterranean
cables of enormous length have been lost and abandoned.
To insure an efficient line of carnum lication, the cable
must be laid down uninjured. As cables of this sort have
been hitherto made, there must have been a fortunate °or:-
currence of events to secure that result. Ia the first place,
there must have been temperate weather for the laying
down ; then, there must have been no accident causing a
destructive strain on the wire ; and there must have been
no " kinking" of the coil in paying it off the drum to
settle it in the bed of the sea. All these things might
happen in a sea comparatively shallow, where the weight
of the sinking portion of the cable was but a few hundred
weights, but where the sea is a mile or more in depth, and
the weight of the sinking cable is many tons, the tendene3
of the whole is to sink in a mass, and every precaution
taken to secure its gradual and safe deposition on the
bottom is far more likely to be defeated than to prove suc-
cessful ; and in effect these endeavours have been defeated
so often as to throw considerable doubts in the minds of
some on the final success of any grand undertaking of the
kind. Of the other great diffimity, that of sending the
electric current along the thousands of miles of submerged
cable, experience has taught us less. We have not yet had
the chance of trying more than a few hundred miles. It
may be that even with a complete and uninjured cable
between this and the American shore, the electricity will
not travel in sufficient power to deflect a needle, and some
further discoveries in science will have to be made before
communication is established. To propel a message a
great distance, it is found that prodigious electric force is
indispensible, and it is said that some of the batteries in
use now in the London offices a-e already of a power far
exceeding anything that was contemplated to be necessary ;
further, it is found that electricity thus intensified, so to
speak, charges the conducting wire, thereby defeating or
retarding its own purpose—a phenomenon which the most
skilful electricians are at a loss to deal with. Some
objectors even go so far as to assert that this retarding
influence, whatever may be its cause, will prove a fatal
o`)staele to any submarine bond between this and America'
Be it understood, however, that we entertain no such
opinion ourselves, having too much faith in human energy
and enterprise, and in the resources of science against
seeming impossibilities. Everything will depend upon the
success of both vessels in laying down the cable uninjured
in the bed of the ocean. In order to facilitate this diffi-
cult operation, various plans have been proposed. Among
the rest, Messrs. Winkins and Wetherly, of Wapping
suggest the use of a hollow tube, or trail, of sufficient
length to reach nearly to the bottom, and buoyed up by
floats in au reeneee puoiti..- ouch' a tube we
Lute might be paid out at a rate of swiftness or slowness
determinable by the inclination of the tube in the water,
and accidents from the rapid uncoiling of the cable would
be avoided ; and it is further evident that the friction of
the line with the tube would, by preventing a strain on a
particular part, much lessen the liability to breakage. On
approaching the shore, it is sugested that the tube or trail
be loosed from its floats, and allowed to sink with the cable,
for which it will act as a protective covering, where such a
thing is most needed. We do not know whether this plan
will be adopted; if not, it will be because someting
deemed equally good, if not better, has already been de-
termined upon. Oae thing is certain—neither labour,
expense, nor caution will be spared in the laving dawn of
the cable, the success :of which operation is vital to the
great undertaking.—The Leisure Hour.

REVOLT IN MADAGASCAR.—" The news which we
receive from Madagascar," says the Cerneen of the
Mauritius, "is most important. A revolt had burst out
in the province of Emirne, and upwards of 4,000 insurgents
had made their appearance at Tananarivo before the
Queen, claiming protection against the acts of brutality of
her delegates in the provinces. But not only their com-
plaints were unattended to, but 1,800 were arrested and
thrown into confinement, to be put to death on the Ist of
June, at the fete of the Bath,' the greatest of ,the Hova
people." The accounts received proceed to say :—" It
appears, however, that Prince Rakoute, on learning this
decision of the Queen, formally protested against so
sanguinary an order, and affirmed that the execution
should not take place. He added that already too much
blood had been shed by his mother's government, and that
it was his fires intention for the future to see that a more
humane and more equitable system of administration should
be acted on with respect to the Hova people. This
declaration, made publicly, in presence of the Queen, of
her ministers, and of the whole court, had produced an
immense sensation, and grave events were expected, in case
the government ventured to proceed to the execution of
the prisoners. M. Lambert (the French agent) had
quitted Tamatava on the 17th May to proceed to Erairne,
followed by the precious objects which:he was:charged to
convey to the Queen and to Prince Rakoute. This latter
had sent five of his aides-le-camp to meet him, and the
Queen had placed at his orders a numerous escort. It was
supposed that he might reach Tanan.arivo in about a dozen
lays, in time to be present at the gcaat fetes of 'the Bath.' "
The presence in the waters of St. Louis of eight vessels of
war of the French division In the Chinese seas had produced
at Tamatava a great sensation.

THE VALUE Or "KNOWING WHERE TO STOP."—The
following myst-drious advertisement was, until very re-
cently, exhi;ited in the sh')w-frame of a photographic
artist, in a leading street in Dublin. We print it
verbatbdt:-4, Photograph of the hammer and razor found
in th.e Broadstone Canal and now proved to be the weapons
w..tth which the late Mr. Little was murdered by order of
his Excellency the Lord Lieutenant !" The author of the
sentence certainly brings his Excellency into dangerous
complicity with that fearful tragedy. What shall we say
of the hasty clergyman, who announced, in one breath,
when asking the prayers of the congregation, that " a
sailor going to sea his wife desires the prayers of the con-
gregation !" Eu verite, the interview with the honest
mariner's better-haf must surely have beer, a service of
considerable danger. We may as wel), while discussing
the oddities of punctuation, add anP;ther instance of " the
obscure," as shown in the ;advritisement, by an eccentric
horse-dealer and auctioneer ;,11 Dublin, of " a handsome
phaeton the property of an dicer with a moveable head
ordered abroad 1" But, to come nearer home, we observe
that the " celebr?',ed Spanish minstrels" announced the
perfortimoe; at their concert, of various " native melodies