Northern Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1857-07-06 00:00:00

no diminution of the number of judges can take
place. Indeed, at this very time, the several courts
can scarcely make up a full court, or get through
the Nisi Prins sittings in time for the circuits.
Several changes in the times and manner of hold-
ing the assizes will be recommended, as well as the
division of the larger counties, and a more equal
distribution of the circuits, with other matters of
detail of a practical nature, so as to ensure a more
speedy and uniform administration of justice, both
civil and criminal.
The liberal electors of Manchester have held
a meeting, at which resolutions, highly con-
gratulatory of the return to England of Mr.
John Bright, were adopted. Compliments, as
graceful as they are merited, were passed upon that
gentleman by the various speakers. The chair.
man made the remarkable statement that Sir John
Potter had told a friend that " it was painful to
him to be in the lobby of the House of Commons
and hear from all sides the universal expression of
regret at the absence of John Bright."
Our intelligence from the Continent is interest-
ing. A dispatch from Marseilles says that the
Algiers journals of the 30th ult. publish a dispatch
from the Governor General, announcing that
General Yusuf's division attacked and carried two
days before the village of Taouria, the last rampart
of the Beni-Yenni, who had there collected the
contingents of all the insurgent tribes
The Italian news is unquestionably serious
Mazzini appears to be personally at the bottom of
the simultaneous attempts at Leghorn and Genoa,
and of the seizure of the steamer Cagliari, and the
descent on Ponza. The plan evidently aimed at
the overthrow of the central Italian Governments.
All the accounts concur in representing these
attempts as being unsuccesful, but a good deal of
obscurity exists in the telegraghic repor .s received.
It is probable that the conspirators who seized
the Cagliari, went on board that vessel when she
left Genoa on the 25th June, ani seized it when it
was four days out of port; just at or about the
date of the simultaneous outbreaks at Genoa and
Leghorn.
From the East we have confirmation of the fact
that the Porte had protested against the occu-
pation of Perim, and an announcement of a new
quarrel between the Shah and Mr. Murray, our
troublesome envoy, who is now represented as
demanding to be al'owed to bring with him, as
escort or pageant, on his return to and entrance
into Teheran, a regiment of the Bombay army.
We earnestly hope that this may not be true.
A German paper publishes the purport of the
resolutions of the European Commission in the
Principalities, on the necessary amendments of the
electorial law as established by finnan. These
resolutions seem to be favourable in the main to
the interests of the Great Boyards.

THERE is no denying that the recent news
from India is sufficientiy grave and startling ; and
yet we are now beginning to bear that all this
might have been foreseen long ago. It was
brewing in the distance, like that tremendous
thunderstorm which last Tuesday broke over
Liverpool. It might have been prevented, if we
had had wise Governor-Generals, and capable
Military Commanders. Strange and incredible
as it may seem,. we in England have not always
the right men in the right place. No explana-
tion that we have yet seen, accounts for this
military revolt. Unexpected it can hardly be
called, as certain prelusive indications went
before. The compelling of the native soldiers
to bite greasy cartridges won't account for it.
Ready as we are to credit the Hon. East India
Company with a large amount of Indian mis-
government, yet neither do we think that this
cause can be invoked on the present occasion,
and the mutiny attributed to the general oppres-
sion and misrule of India. Qcaoro.l mica. vlo
ought to eventuate in general disaffection, but
so far as we yet know, this movement is purely
military, and has not reached the general popula-
tion. It may turn out in the end that misdirected
religious feeling is at the root of it. If this were
so it would be another illustration of the power-
ful part which religion plays in the affairs of
men. In some form or other, religion is indis-
tructible in the human soul. Banished for a
time, it will always return. "Xaturam expellas
furca tamen usque recurret." Religion has been
made the pretext for this outbreak, though we
venture to prophesy that it will ultimately be
resolved into causes and reasons more particu-
larly connected with our Indian army. True,
the cry has been set up—" The English want to
convert us to Christianity, and overthrow the
ancient and established religion of the country."
But if this were the true cause, the military
would hardly be the first persons to find it out,
and the rest of the population would have
joined in the cry. Moreover, the mutinous
soldiers are Mahomedans, and not attached to
the Hindoo religion at all. We doubt, therefore,
if religion is any thing more than a mere
popular cry, and colourable pretence to hide the
true cause.

In all cases of public disaster or suffering, it is
wise not to conceal from ourselves the true state
of the facts—the full extent of our danger. In
the present instance, the facts are sufficiently
deplorable ; there are, nevertheless, some miti-
gating circumstances, on which it is well to fix
public attention. In the first place, the mutiny
is simply military and local ; it is not shared
nor sympathised with by the people of India
generally. Portions of some eight or nine
regiments, numbering in all about eight
thousand men, were alone implicated,
according to our most recent accounts. It
was restricted to the army in Bengal, and even
concentrated near Meerut and Delhi, the
ancient capital of the Mogul. Benares, the
great seat and centre of lirahminism, is
unmoved. The revolters, we understand, are
Mahommedans ; and even some of these
revolters are said to have unwillingly joined,
and some of the revolted regiments spared their
officers; and wherever Europeans escaped the
fury of the maddened soldiery, they were
protected by the people. All the neighbouring
chiefs and Rajahs hastened to offer the aid of their
troops to the British authorities; and, without a
single exception. so far as yet appears, testified
their allegiance to British rule.
All this is reassuring. It is possible, even,
that all the atrocit?es may not have been
committed by the soldiers, but that a lawless
mob, which unfortunately may be collected in
any country, took advantage of the confusion.