Northern Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1857-06-29 00:00:00

Railways, for example, accorded certain
powers and privileges, so as to facilitate the
raising :of money, by 'private investment, to
construct the Dock accol_nmodation of Liverpool,
but that does net render the Dock Estate public
property, nor justify the Dock Ratepayers to.
come forward and claim to have power to control
and regulate all expenditure connected there-
with. It -should be borne in mind that all who
pay Dock-rates at Liverpool do so for the
accommodation to their ships,—the . said
accommodation being provided by private
investment, and not by means of Parliamentary
grants. The forensic oration of Mr. CALVERT,
in stigmatising the Liverpool Corporation and
the Dock Committee, had far greater effect upon
Sir JAMES GRAHAM, and, through him, the
Committee, than the unanswerable case made
out on behalf of the opponents of the Bill by the
.temperate, clean, and lucid evidence of Mr.
SHUTTLEWORTH.
What is the result of the decision of the
Committee, supposing Parliament endorses the
same ? In the first place, Liverpool is deprived
of all control over the Decks both here and at
Birken ;Ad. Their management is to be
transferred to a new Trust, and it may be that
ambitious strangers from Manchester or Leeds,
from Bradford or Glasgow, aye, and London,
too, will seek admission to the new Dock Board,
and endeavour to carry out his peculiar Dock
nostrums, without one single iota of qualification.
This, of itself, is bad enough, but there are
other features of a more unjust and monstrous
character than the foregoing. The Corporation
are to be deprived of the Town Dnes, and all
such imposts are to be applied for Dock
purposes. Now, this we regard as the most
iniquitous part of the whole affair. The fact of
the Committee proposing to allow a sum of above
750,0001. as a compensation, is an indirect
admission of the legality of the title of the
Corporation to the Town Dues. We hope that
the battle on this part of the question will not be
easily given up. We have no right to surrender
up an annual income, which was purchased and
paid for, and is held by legal instruments as
unassailable as that which protects any species
of landed property in the Kingdom, merely to
satisfy the sordid and jealous propensities of the
people of Manchester, and the Directors of
:certain Railways.

Throughout the protracted inquiry which has
taken place, the conduct of Sir JAMES .GRAHAM
has been of the most biassed character. His
sole aim has been to tread in the footsteps of
Mr. LOWE, whose conduct last year was
so partial with regard to the Liverpool
Town Dues, that every person enter-
ing the committee-room of the House
of Commons was at once struck with the
impression that he was acting more as a Counsel
for the originators of the Mersey Conservancy
Bill, than the Chairman of a Committee
appointed to conduct a fair and impartial
inquiry. The entire scheme is fraught with
serious consequences, and as such the inhabitants
of the borough should lose no time in making a

unanimous and solemn protest against its
spoliation principle. What is the admission of a
Jew into Parliament compared with a robbery
of 100,0001. a-year from our Municipal revenue ?
We will not be true to ourselves, or to the
generation which may follow us, if we remain
apathetic in such an important matter. We
shall have something more to say when the
suggested compromise has been made known.
Meantime, every ratepayer, nay, every inhabitant
of the borough should remember, aye, and be
influenced by the poet's exclamation—

"Where is the slave so lowly,
Condemned to chains unholy,
Who, could he burst
His chains at first,
Would pine beneath them slowly ?"

Let them but consider that the promoters of
the Mersey Censervancy Bill seek to usurp the
management of our Docks, and to regulate some
of the more important thoroughfares of Liver-
pool, and the words just quoted must rouse
them to manly, determined, and independent
opposition to this nefarious project ; for, as the
late DANIEL O'CONNELL so often said—
" Hereditary bondsmen, know ye not,

Who would be free himself must strike the blow ?"

We must not trust to chance in this important
matter. It is one that appeals to the pockets of
every householder, and through him or her to
every resident in Liverpool ; and shame to
the party who will not lend heart and hand to
continue the struggle until we defeat the bill,
and Whig and Tory, Protestant and Catholic, be
compelled with one voice to exclaim, in token
of unreserved gratitude—THANK GOD WE SAVE
A HOUSE or LORDS.

BY a law of the human mind, which is called
association, when any number of idea; have been
pres.mted together, the recurrence of any one
of them afterwards tends to suggest the rest.
When one link appears we think of the whole.
chain. When we visit the scenes of our youth
the thoughts and feelings of the early time live
in us again. When we see a soldier or a sailor
walking our streets we think of Sebastopol and
the trenches, and brigades of marines, and all
that we have read about their doings on shore,
and the more that they would have done by sea
had they been allowed. When we see the noblest
steam-ship that ever has floated on the waters of
the Mersey, the Niagara, we naturally think of •
America. This vessel, as our readers are aware,
has been sent by the American Government to
be the bearer of a portion of the telegraph cable
which is soon to link London with New York,

the old world with the new, to bridge the Atlan -
tic with lightning. With her full armament of
guns and men she woald be the most formidable
war-ship in the world ; but she will now grandly
and gracefully perform the office of a messenger
of peace. Propitious be her voyage, and may
she safely land that magic cable which shall
usite England and America in bonds of ever-
lasting amity and brotherhood !
The presence of this noble ship in our waters
ought to produce an effect on our Admiralty and
on all our shipbuilders. She is a very model and
triumph of human art, and nothing surely can
exceed the strength and grandeur, combined,
with elegance, which she displays. But we do
not mean to expatiate on this theme ; rather by
that law of association to which we referred, we
pass from the Niagara to America, and to one or
two recent occurrences in the great Republic.
There has been a riot, it seems, at Washington,
on the occasion of a local election. Certain par-
ties, bearing the euphonious name of the " Plug
Uglies," created a disturbance in order to overawe
the election. They went so far as to bring a
cannon with them. The marines were called out,
the riot act read, but still those gentlemen with
the queer sounding name would not disperse.
They fired, according to cannon law, when one
marine fell. Upon this the fire was returned, when
it is said six persons were killed, who had taken
no part in the disturbance, but were present
merely as spectators. So it is often. People
who are very curious and very silly put them-
selves in the way of harm. These accidents are
deplorable, but the people who suffer can
scarcely be called innocent. Unless you mean
to help in putting down the tumult it is best
to get out of the way and let the proper parties
do it.

But the cases of Kansas and the Mormonites
present a far more serious difficulty to American
institutions than this trumpery affair of the
" Plug Uglies." According to the latest accounts,
matters were becoming quieter in Kansas, and
the Gov'ernrnent had appointed a man of great
energy and judgment to be Governor in the
disturbed territory. Mr. JAMES WALKER is
the person selected for the office ; and already, it
is said, the opposing parties are settling down in
reliance upon his justice and decision. We
believe that freedom will triumph in Kansas,
however it may have been violently overborne for
a time. The tide of public indignation in
America is rising higher and higher every day
against the accursed system of slavery and the
slave trade, and by this tide they will be borne
away to the Dead Sea of broken and exploded
things, to be found no more for ever.

The affair of the Mormonites, we confess,
appears to us the most serious and embarrassing
difficulty that now threatens and tests the
stability of American institutions. We are
of those who believe that the good ship of
the constitution will weather the storm.
Oftentimes have croakers prophecied that now
full surely the constitution of the far-famed
States was about to tumble about their ears.
Paradventure the wish was father to the thought.
"When the sky falls we shall catch larks." But
the stars and stripes of the Republic have not
yet fallen, and they won't fall in order to gratify
certain grumblers and reactionaries in Europe.
Oar best wishes are for our brother JONATHAN,
and that his bow may long abide in its strength,
and his stars undimmed ; that he may teach the
nations how to rule and how to live. We
cannot help having fears of an early collision on
the territory of the Mormonites. Events seem
to indicate that, as an early possibility. General
lIARNEY has been appointed by the President at
Washington to proceed to Utah. He will be
supported by a sufficient number of troops,
infantry, and artillery. He is said to be an
admirable officer, cool, determined, humane, and
of great resources. He is tall and commanding
in figure ; a Washington in port. He was
engaged in the war against Mexico where he
acquired distinction.

This officer will offer refuge and protection to
all who are desirous of peacefully leaving the
Mormon country, and putting themselves under
the protection of the Government of the United
States. We should anticipate that this will
prove a welcome message to thousands, and
especially of women, who must—if they still
retain the feelings and instincts of womanhood
—be glad to escape from such a human and
earthly pandemonium. But if it be true, as
reported, that the Mormonites, numbering nearly
200,000 members, have some 60,000 fiahting
men, well armed, and eager for the encounter,
there may be some very hot work before all is
over. We trust humanity will be combined
with decision ; and that some, at least, of the
virtues of the man will be allowed to temper the
sterner work of the soldier. We, in England,
watch with interest this dread controversy ; and
while deploring the blood which may be shed,
we grieve not less over the causes that may
lead to it.

THE Committee which has been appointed by
the House of Commons to inquire into the
Charter of the Hudson's Bay Company, and
the administration of that important territory,.
adjourned, sine die, on Tuesday. We have, on a
previous occasion, referred to this question, and
showed that, as matters now exist, there is
every discouragement thrown in the way of
British trade and ,lommerce, and that it behoved
the parent Goverm-nent to step forward and
abolish a monopoly which does no good either
at home or in the territory itself. Ali a means

to enable the Government to decide upon the
steps which they shall propose for the develop.
ment of the Industrial resources of Hudson's Bay,
and devising a scheme for the better regulation of
its civil Government, the Committee in question
has been appointed, and proceeded to examine
witnesses. But from what some of these
gentlemen have been pleased to declare, not only
as regards the territory, but the Government of
the same, we fear that a band of interested
parties have been called, and that their object
is to maintain the monopoly, so long and so
stringently carried on by the Hudson's Bay
Company. Sir GEORGE SIMPSON, the Governor
of the Hudson's Bay Company, tells us that
his former glowing accounts of the fertility and
beauty of the North West territory was greatly
exaggerated, and that the country was not so
well fitted for settlement as he had described.
According to the testimony of the Right Hon.
EDWARD ELLICE, M.P., who was examined by
the Committee on Tuesday, there is nothing
wrong in the matter. He has highly eulogised
the Company's rule, and maintained that in no
part of the Colonial Empire bad fewer complaints
against the ruling power been made. In vindi-
cation of the continuance of this ruling mono-
poly, he states that an " opposite system would
he to supply the Indians with an unlimited supply
of spirituous liquors, and to cause them to make
war upon one another." This may appear
conclusive evidence against any reformation in
the government of the territory to the Right
Honourable the Member for Coventry, and those
who have an interest in the present system of
things in the " Far 'West." He may believe
the Company's rights of the Charter to be
incontestible, but that is only an individual
opinion, without any proof. If a public
company is incorporated by Royal Charter, to
discharge certain duties, but fails in the perform-
ance of those duties, and the territory entrusted
to its care and management retrogrades
instead of prospers, it is then the duty of
Parliament to investigate the matter, and to
legislate for the benefit of all the parties
concerned, regardless of Royal Grants and
Charters, unless there has been an actual
purchase, in which case there must be compen-
sation given should a change or transfer of
authority take place.
It has been the creed of all Free Traders that
any thing in the shape of' monopoly should be
abolished, as it tends to injure the social and
commercial portion of all countries which adopt
it. This was the grand '‘ Confession of Faith"
adopted by the Anti-Corn-Law League ; and so
well were the principles of that " Confession"
taught and instilled into the public mind, that
" Protection" doctrines became exploded, and the
Corn Laws were repealed. The sliding scale of
the Corn Laws was a monopoly enjoyed by the
agricultural interests, at the expense of the manu-
facturing portion of the population. Experience
proved that this monopoly was injurious in the
manner described, and Parliament abolished it.
Mr. ELLICE was an early advocate of Free Trade,
and a strong opponent of Protection, alias
'Monopoly. He gave his vote in favour of Free
Trade, but now he appears before the House of
Commons Committee to advocate a conti-
nuance of a monopoly in the territory
of Hudson's Bay, which time has proved to be
most injurious to the best interests of the native
population, and to throw into the hands of
foreigners, a trade which is of consequence to the
mother country, So much for consistency, and
the effect of self-interest in the advocacy of any
•
particular project.

But the same right hon. gentleman goes
further, and contends that Canada cannot govern
the Hudson's Bay territory, and that a simple trial
would prove that the people of that colony would
in a brief space of time ask the Company to resume
the Government of the country. This, however,
was but an ex parte statement, the mere opinion
of one who has testified in favour of the con-
tinuance of the monopoly. Let us see if the
opening up of the trade of the territory would
not benefit not only the people of the Canadian
provinces, but also the commerce of the mother
country. Mr. A. K. IBESTER tells us, in his
examination before the committee that there are
valuable whale fisheries in Mackenzie's River,
and also a valuable salmon fishery ; that hides,
hemp, flax, tallow, and other articles, now
obtained from Russia, might be procured from the
Hudson's Bay territories ; and that there are im-
mense quantities of salt on the Mackenzie River.
Up to the present time, all that we have received
by way of trade from the colony, has been
principally confined to furs; and even these,
instead of being procured from or through
Canada, find their way to us via the United
States. Mr. ELLICE tells us the Canadians are not
at all anxious to get into the Fur trade. This we
deny, and that, too, on the authority of the
Canadians themselves; and shall on an early day
take occasion to substantiate the position, as well
as demonstrate the capabilities of the country,
and the advantages which will arise front a
judicious and well-devised change o f its governing
authorities.

THE NEWS FROM INDIA.-It was but the other day we
recorded the centenary anniversary of the Battle of
1 Plassy, from which we date the commencement of British
power in India. About a month before that fall period of
one hundred years had elapsed, although on this side of
the globe we knew it not, the son of the late Mogul
Emperor had been proclaimed King at Delhi by certain
regiments of the Bengal Army, which had broken out into
open mutiny. This mutiny has assumed a very serious
character. We do not write for the pUrpose of inspiring
alarm or suggesting timid counsels. The moment has
arrived for action—sharp, stern, and decisive. An
Imperial latere§t iti at stake.—nothing Wee Mau our demi-

nion in British India. It would be easy enough to poia
out the errors of omission and commission which have
been mainly instrumental in bringing about the present
crisis. The course of policy to be adopted for the future
is also matter for swift, though serious discussion, but
just now it would be idle to waste time, either in recrimi-
nation or upon questions of general policy. In the first
place, the mutiny must be repressed, and in such a man-
ner as shall impress the minds
.of,:the natives with the
nature of the power they have defied, when its full
strength is put forth. If it be true that we are still very
much in the dark as to the true feelings and opinions of
the natives of India, it is no less true that they know far
less of us than we do of them. The disadvantages arising
from ignorance may tell upon both sides, but they tell
more in our favour than to our prejudice. The crisis is a
most serious one. We do not wish to conceal its true
nature from the country, but it is not so serious that it
should inspire one moment of hesitation. The vigour dis-
played by the victors of Plassy and Assaye should be the
model for our imitation at the present moment—if, indeed,
a powerful and resolute people ever need any inspiration
from the past. But first let us speak of the facts, as far
as they are yet known to us. ;s The mutinous spirit, which
had to a certain extent been checked, if not extinguished,
in the more southern portioneof Bengal, had spread to
Meerut. At this post two regiments of Native Infa'ntry—
the llth end 20th—had united with the 3rd Light Cavalry,
and had broken out into open revolt. This revolt, as far
as it showed itself at Meerut, had been put down. There
had been a collision between the revolted and the Euro_
peen troops, the result of which was that the mutineers
were dispersed, and fled. To the southward, and at no
gteat distance, lies the important city of Delhi, the capita 1
of the old Mogul Empire; and this town appears to have
been the centre of the revolt. When the fugitives from
Meerut arrived here they were instantly joined by three
other regiments of Native Infantry—the 38th, the 54th,
and '74th ; and the united forces instantly took possession
of the town. Any one who has had experience of the
tiger-like ferocity of the Indian in a moment of what
appears to him success will be prepared for the result.
An indiscriminate massacre of the Europeans was the firs t
act on which the mutineers decided, and this they are said
to have carried out in a manner the most remorseless an d
the most complete. No tenderness was shown to sex, n o
reverence to age ; Delhi was turned into shambles ; an d
so the first act of the tragedy was played out. It might
have been expected. The next step, however, may be
considered as of a more ominous kind, if it is evidence of
any preconceived design. The son of the late Mogul
Emperor was proclaimed King, and thus the shadow
Sovereign, whom we have so long maintained in empty
state, has been raised into momentary importance
bristly, we trust, to disappear for ever from human
account. Nor is this all; there has been disquiet on our
old Sikh battle-ground. We are informed, under date
from Calcutta of the 18th of May, that at Ferozepore also
there had been disturbances, but that these disturbances
had been suppressed. So far for the blacker side of the
picture ; and next for what has been done to mitigate or
meet the evil. " The Government was taking active
measures to suppress the revolt, and was concentrating
troops around Delhi." The italics are our own, and may,
we trust, be justified by the event. It is of the last im
portance that the rebellion should be extinguished where
it has arisen, and that armed fugitives should not be
allowed to escape in numbers from the principal seat of
the disturbances. When to this intelligence we add that
the Rajah of Gwalior—the Mahratta State abutting on
the south-western limit of Delhi—had placed the troops
of which he could dispose at the service of the British
Government, we have exhausted the brief, but momentous,
advices which the electric telegraph has brought to us.
The open revolt in the Bengal Presidency of five regiments
of Native Infantry and of one regiment of Light Cavalry,
independently of what may have taken place at Feroze-
pore, is undoubtedly intelligence as important as any we
have published since the fall of Sebastopol. It must als o
be remembered that these are not the only regiments
affected with the taint of mutiny; indeed, the very tele-
graph which brings this news adds that the 34th Regimen t
of Native Infantry, which had been before suspected, had
been disbanded at Barrackpore. So far from feeling any
serious apprehension for the stability of British power in
India in censequence of these occurrences, we should be
inclined to foretell th it they may tend to confirm it, and
to give us a fresh lease of empire. We have for a long
time been pursuing half-measures in India. There can be
no doubt that the reign of the mock King at Delhi will be
but a brief one, and that a terrible retribution will be in-
flicted on the mutineers, not merely in that character, but
as the bloody and pitiless murderers of the Europeans in
Delhi. If it was to come, this revolt could not have
occurred at a better time. When the Russian war was
waging it might have proved a more considerable incon-
venience; indeed, a less matter, such as the hostilities
with Persia, now happily terminated, might have been a
serious obstacle in the way of a satisfactory settlement.
What we require is the presence in British India of the
most competent officer who can be found, and an entire
revision of our Indian military system. It is not here the
time or place to enter upon wider questions of policy, such
as the system of double government, which has gone for
so much in producing the present state of affairs. We
cannot, however, conclude without urging again upon our
rulers, as soon as this revolt is suppressed, the absolute
necessity of carrying on the Indian railway system with
greater vigour. The time has arrived when the power of
transporting compact and highly trained bodies of Euro-
pean troops from one point of India to another may be all-
important. In India we are constructing railroads on the
expensive English system. Single lines through the
jungle and the wilderness, after the cheap American
model, could be laid down in a tenth of the time, and at
less than a tenth of the expense, and these would enable
us to hold possesion of the country with an army compa-
ratively small in numerical force.—Times.

In the New York regattas the time of yachts is governed
by the area of &di, and not by tonnage, as ha this country.
Abont 100,000 dole. worth of sponges were exported
from Key West last year; and the exports of this year,
stimulated by the advanced price, will probably reach
300,000 dole., or about 150,0001b5. of sponges. About
forty boats and two hundred men are engaged in the basic
ness, who catch the sponges in the &hallow waters of South
Florida, as far west as Ced4r Keys.
LIE SILK Cum, IN LOMBARDY.—The Opinione of
Turin states from Milan that the silk crop in Lomba,dy
has turned out a complete failure t'iis year, sudden c:.4d,
wind, and rain having been extremely detrimental to the
worms, independently of the disease, which has this year
spread to localities hitherto free from it. The price of
cocoons is extremely high at Milan.
The DANUBE NAVIGATION —A letter from Vienna, in
the _New Prussian Gazette, sayas : —The blasting operations
executed near the iron gates of Orsova, with the view of
clearing the bed of the Danube, not having proved
successful, a project has been formed for constructing a
lateral canal at that spot on the Servran bank of the ricer
OUTRAGE.—On Saturday last a valuable horse. belonging
to a fa-mer at Castlewarren, died from the efr,cts of an
injury received so far hick as the 14th instant. It appears
that some miscreant drove a long sharp instrument into the
animal's body, which entered the spine, and caused death.
The perpetrator has not been discovered.—Kilkenny
Moderator.

LONGEVITY OF MEDICAL MEN.—There arenow living
(and with three exceptions still residing. in one of the
Ewhasotscernuenoiutendtieasg)etsenammoeumnbtert.os 081'10theyemaersd:caalveprofession
1
years. And within the last sixteen months four have died,
wheso united ages amounted to 3.39 years, or au average
of 84 years and 9 months.—Medical Times.
How THEY DO IN AmEnrcA!—The coffin containing the:
body of Theodore Banks,
was
made of
latePresirtnetwooti lined with
fot,heCorn Ex-
change, es'Nie,w York,and the screws, handles, and name-plate were
solidocwfhaintegsatin,
silver. The face of the body was exposed until
the procession reached the cemetery, wh2re the coffin was
i
closed and put nto a walnut case. The body was con-
veyed in a glass hearse, so as to show off the splendid
rosawood coffin and trimmings along the line of procession.
The Greeks. of Constantinople have obstinately taken it
into their beads that the end of the world is at hand.
Several ridiculous stories at their expense are going the
niands here, but the clergy, both Greek and Catholic, are
making a good thing of it, and can afford to be laughed at.
They raise the price of their masses every day, there is a
tspecn]ation going on for a rise, and whenever the fall sets
In, it will complete thq resemblance that religion bears here
to the stook Exchange.