Northern Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1857-06-16 00:00:00

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Ely hatheiri

TUESDAY, JUNE 16, 1857.

THE DAY'S NEWS

In the House of Commons, last night, the Jew
Bill was under discussion—or rather debate. Mr. 1
Deasy proposed to leave out the words " ecclesias-
tical and spiritual," and to insert the words " tem-
poral. and civil."Fle at some length advocated this
change, and said that his object was to put an end
to the anomaly of Protestants and Roman
Catholics taking different oaths. Mr. Drummond
supported the amendment, as did also Mr. Roebuck,
who contended that any man who swore to the
proper clause swore to that which he believed to
be a lie, it being unquestionable that the Pope
had power. Lord Palmerston, Mr. Moore, and
Sir F. Thesiger having spoken against the amend-
ment, a division took place, when there appeared
—For, 83 ; against, 373: majority, 290. Mr.
Roebuck then proposed after the word spiritual
to insert "by law," but a division showed only 68
for Mr. Roebuck, while there were 243 against.
Sir F. Thesiger then moved that the words " on
the true faith- of a Christian " should not be ex-
punged. The hon. gentleman proceeded to show
that they could not alter the oath without stul-
tifying themselves. They had, for the last 250
years, sworn by it—they at present opened
the house by prayer in the name of the Author of
Christianity, and they were compelled to observe
certain festival and fast days of the Christian
church. A long discussion took place, in which
Lord John Russell and Lord Palmerston joined,
but the amendment was lost, the votes being 201
for, and 311 against, showing a majority of
140 in favour of Government. Lord Palmerston,
in answer to a question, said that it was not the
intention of the ministry to alter the bill so as to
exclude Jews from offices which Roman Catholics
could not hold. Mr. Drummond wished to know
whether Jews should have a voice in the distribu-
tion of bishoprics, whereupon Lord Cecil moved
that the chairman report progress. Lord Palmer-
ston opposed, and after a division—there being
142 for reporting prbgress, and 274 against some
discussion took place, and the various clauses were

agreed to.
Just as the Committee on the Mersey Conser'
vancy Bill were about rising yesterday, the
Chairman stated that the Committee would require
a return of the income of the Corporation for the
past two years, exclusive of the town dues. We
are inclined to think that the Committee will get
so deep into the mire that they will never be able
to extricate themselves.
We have interesting news by the arrival of the
West India mail steamer La Plata, at Southamp-
ton. We are sorry to say that disease prevailed to
a very serious extent in the island of St. Thomas
and Jamaica. ThetWilliam Hammond, troop ship,
had been visited with the small pox, but the sick
had been landed and placed in an hospital.
Grenada and Barbadoes were, however, exempt
from the scourges alluded to above. From
Demerara we have rather melancholy accounts.
The mortality on board the Merchantman emigrant
ship, from Calcutta, has exceeded anything that
has ever occured in the records of emigration to
the colony ; 113 died on the voyage, sixty were
conveyed to the hospital on their arrival, and of
these five died while they were being landed, and
several others have expired since in the hospital.
Many died of cholera during the passage down the
Hooghly, and many more of dysentery and
diarrhoea before they reached the Cape. Ship
fever then broke out -with fearful virulence, and
the whole ship became a sort of general
hospital, in which the sick and the healthy were
indiscriminately huddled up together. Does any
one—can any one—advocate the coolie system? Is
it not in reality carrying out the slave trade ? and
yet men of probity, honour, rectitude, and standing
second to none in the mercantile community of
Liverpool, can see no harm in the system. We dare
not trust ourselves to say more. From the South
Pacific we have intelligence to the effect that
yellow fever was prevalent in Bolivia. The revo-
lution in Peru may be considered as concluded.
From the Chinchi Islands 'we have the rather im-
portant intelligence—at least if we are to believe
the Lima correspondent of a Panama paper—that
the aforesaid islands had been placed under the
protection of England and France, We are afraid
that the news is too good to be true.
The domestic news today, though not very mis-
cellaneous, is of an interesting description:
Yesterday everybody who had music in his soul,
and a couple of guineas in his pocket, went to the
Crystal Palace to hear Handel's " Messiah" per-
formed as it never was performed before.
An assemblage of a different kind, and of as deep
although not so extended interest, might at the
same time be seen not far from that Temple of
Music,—we mean in Norwood Cemetery. There
the body of Douglas Jerrold was consigned to the
grave, in the presence of many mourners, dis-
tinguished by their intellectual rank in England.
At the Court of Exchequer yesterday, Thomas