Northern Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1857-08-10 00:00:00

the terms and conditions of the lease between
the Great Western Railway Company and the
Corporation of Liverpool.
The London and North-Western Railway
Company desired to have a finger in the pie, but
the Committee decided that the directors not
hiving petitioned against the bill, Mr. SWIFT.
who was rather quick in the affair, was told that
his clients had no locus standi. The Committee,
having considered these matters, agreed that
Mr. RENDEL'S plans should be carried out in
their integrity; that all disputes should be re-
ferred to arbitration, and not to the Board of
Trade ; a limit is to be placed to the sums to be
raised under the new bill. When the Committee
next meet, and finally determine the character of
the bill, we shall have more to say upon the
subject.

PROROGATION or PARLIAIIENT.—The Ministerial white-
bait dinner—in anticipation of the close of the session—
will take place on Saturday next, at the Trafalgar, Green-
wich. The public business has so far advanced—in 'spite
of needless obstructions—that the termination of the
session may now be confidently looked for. Every effort
will be made to bring the session to a close on Saturday,
the 22nd instant, so as to enable her Majesty to prorogue
Parliament in person, p evious to the departure of the
Court for the north, which wi►l tacks place on Monday, the
24th instant, in the event of the session being over at the
expected time.

MR. BERTOL ICCI'S PETITION.—It was not difficult to
foresee what would be the result of the labaurs of the
Committee. There is no chance of each a thing as justice
where dukes and earls are concerned or involved. There
can be no doubt that there was much truth in the petition
of Mr. Rertolacci; but that unfortunate gentleman labour-
ed under several mistakes, and has only now been put right.
He actually imagined—poor simple fellow—that these
big-wigs" real'y wanted their ace:unts of the Dutchy
audited, and was honestly determined to " fulfil his mission"
in a straightforward honest manner I Never was there
such a inis`ake. All that was wanted was his signature,
with the word Auditor attached. These great gentlemen
who had an occasional slice out of the !anis of the Dutchy,
or who wen in arrear of rent, never contemplated having
the accounts looked into. Only think of how impudent it
would be to lock into the aceoucts of a few dukes and
earls The very idea of such a thing is sufllAent to send
one to a mad-house.— -21Torth Briton.

REPRESENTATIVE GOVBRNMENT IN VANC )lIVER,'S ISLAND
—On the eve of a new Reform Bill some despatches
received by the Colonial—office on the subject of the estab
iishment of a Representative Assembly in Vancouver's
Island will be read with interest. Mr. Labouchere in
February, 1855, ordered that such an assembly should be
convoked without loss of time, and in June following
the Connell of the Island, presided over by the Governor,
unanimously agreed that the ownership of £3OO, of
freehold property or immovable estate should constitute
the qualification of a member of the Assembly, that
absentee proprietors should he permitted to vote by
proxy, and that the qualification of voters should be
the ownership of twenty acres of freehold land, or up_
wards. The settlements were to be divided into
four electoral dist'iets. The House of Assembly was
opened on the 12th of August last., and the affair passed
off very quietly. AM. llelmaker was elected " Speaker,"
and several " election pe'itions" were forthwith presented,
one or two of them, as in England, being evidently of a
very " frivolous and vexatious" character, merely got up
for party purposes. The House of Assembly consists of
seven members only, and of these three were petitioned
spinet, leaving the Speaker and three members at liberty
to act. One of the members petitioned against was un-
seated by a committee for want of a legal qualificatien. A
repert is given of the business (principal/ fieaecial)
hitherto transacted by the Assembly.

PARLIAMENTARY SUITUARY OF THE WEEK.—The greater
portion of the past week has been occupied by the House of
Commons in diecussions on the Divorce and Probate Bills.
In the case of the latter bill, the great contest was with
the right of the proctors to receive compensation. The
bill proferred by the Government did not propose to give
any compensation, but provided for the continuance of the
monopoly of the business in the new courts in the hands
of the proctors. The Attorney-General, however, con-
sented, on cindition of the new courts being thrown open
to general practitioner:, and the exclusive monopoly of the
proctors ceasing, to give compensation to the annual
amount of one half of such incomes for the remainder of
their lives. The Divorce Bill has made but little progress.
At first it was strongly opposed on the ground that marriage
ought to be considered indissolable in all cases ; driven
from this point, the same parties now complain of the
bill because it does not render divorce accessible to all
classes on terms as cheap as an or.linary suit in the county
courts. The House, however, unanimously agree I that the
county courts could not have jurisdiction in cases where
divorce might be sought, and it has been left eviila Mr.
Butt, who induced the House to negative the county courts,
to provide the description of 1)cal court which shall have
cognisance of such matters, out of London. A committee,
consisting of all the members of the long robe, and the
leading men on both sides of the house, was appointed to
take into their consideration the construction of an act
of parliament passed in the fifth year of the reign of
William the Fourth, which aut'aoriscd Corporate and other
bodies to make regulations as to the oaths required to be
taken by their members. Tne question to be decided is,
whether the words "other belies" include the House of
Commons. If so, the house will have the power to make
such alterations in the oaths required to be taken by mem
bars as may admit of Baron Rothschild taking his seat
without using the formula, " on the true faith of a Chris-
tian." The business in the House of Lords has been
principally confined to passing through their several stages
the minor bills which at this period of the session usually
crowd into the Upper Meuse. No bill, will, however, be
read a second time which may be sent up from the Com-
m ns afar the 7th ult.

TilE INDIAN PcorLE.—The tribes and people of India
have never enjoyed a peace and plenty in the remotest
degree approaching to that which they have enjoyed
under our government.. They were formerly a prey to
every wild Afahratta chief and every avaricious Moham-
medan viceroy. They never knew in any year how
muci of their rice would be sold and how much would
be robbed. They never knew what would be extorted
from them in the form of taxes, and wh,,t in the form
of Now they certainly know that a plentiful
harvest implies plentiful payment—that they will find
a ready sale for all their produce, and a ready payment
for every sale,. They can count oa the Englishman's
silver as readily as they could formerly count on the
M4hratta sword. Year after year they find an increasing
market for all the produce that they have hitherto pro-
duced, and a new market for produce they never sold
before. And year after year their silver bracelets and
armlets accumulate, and their buried treasures increase",
and houses spring up for those who never possessed a
house before—and all this they well know they owe to.
British rule, without which no roads would render their
produce accessible, and no authority protect them from
the rapacity of the Amil or Chucklidar. We do not
mean that this attachment to British rule is so strong
in the feeble character of the flindoo as to be proof
against all temporary excitement, if unfortunately the
fall of Delhi should ha delayed. But we do mean that