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

THE DAY'S NEWS

In the House of Commons last night, Mr. Deasy
reported from the Cambridge Election Committee,
that the sitting member was duly elected ; that
persons had received bribes, but not with the con-
sent of the sitting member. How these commit-
tees are whitewashing the characters of the sus-
pected M.P's.—Mr. Wilson stated that the Oneida,
screw steamer, which had broke down on her pas-
sage from Australia, had not been accepted by the
Government as a fit boat for the contract. She
had been surveyed on the 18th, and sailed on the
19th. The day after she sailed the surveyor
reported to the Admiralty, and the Admiralty
reported to the Treasury on the 21st. It was,
therefore, not possible to detain her, but it was
intimated to the Company that she would not he
accepted for the contract. This is a singular way
of managing business. A surveyor to report upon
the capacity and seaworthiness of a vessel two days
after she had sailed. We wonder what the Under.
writers would say to this piece of folly. Respect.
ing the alledged supply of guano on Bird
Islands, Sir C. Wood said he doubted the
accuracy of the report, and he also informed the
House that government had received no informa-
tion respecting the occupation of the islands by
the United States. Some discussion took place
on Lord Palmerston moving, " that in all cases
where the seat of any member has been declared
void by an election committee, on the grounds of
bribery or treating, no motion for the issuing of a
new writ shall be made without two days previous
notice being given in the votes." Mr. Duncombe
'suggested, that it should be seven days,—
but the amendment was lost by 138
votes for, and 190 against. The House
then went into commitee on the Probate and
Letters of Administration Bill. Clauses up to 39
were agreed to. On clause 40, Mr. Westhead
moved the insertion of words with a view to abolish
the limit of personal property, under which letters
of administration might be taken out in the District
Courts. On this amendment the Government was
beaten, the numbers being 162 for, and 131 against.
The Attorney-General said that this decision was
fatal to the bill. Upon the question that the words
proposed be inserted, and stand part of the
clause, there appeared 141 for, and 139 against—
majority, 2
Another Liverpool attorney has got into disgrace.
Yesterday, Mr. Goodere, practicing at the Police
Court, was placed in the dock, charged_ with
obtaining money on false pretences. The case is
of a most singular description. From the evidence
it would appear that Goodere went to a woman,
whose husband was accused of stealing cotton, and
was at the time in gaol, and stated to her, that he,
Mr. Goodere, had been sent by a gentleman named
Byrne, that he was to defend the accused, and
the woman believing him, she gave him fifteen
shillings to defend her husband. Mr. Byrne
denied that he had sent the woman to Mr. Goodere
the latter gentleman denied that he went to
the woman, but she swearing that he did, Mr.
Goodere was placed in the dock, as previously
intimated, but was ultimately liberated on his own
recognisances of £lOO, to appear and answer the
charge on Thursday. A full report of the case
will be found in another portion of to-day's paper.
Several interesting law cases are reported in our
columns this morning. Rosa Bush, who was
charged with aiding and abetting in the abduction
of one Elizabeth Harris, she being a girl under the
age of fourteen, was yesterday placed on trial, in
the Central Criminal Court. The facts of the case
are alread in possession of our readers. The
prisoner was found guilty, and sentenced to nine
months' imprisonment. Her companion in crime,
Clarke, has absconded.
It will doubtless be in the recollection of our
readers, that some time ago an affiliation order was
obtained against Colonel D'Aguilar by one Mrs
Thatcher. Yesterday this lady brought an action
for breach of promise of marriage against the
Colonel, but she was nonsuited. She had the bad
taste to call up her daughter, aged 14, to give evi-
dence in the case.

In the Court of Exchequer yesterday the New-
port, Abergavenny and Hereford Railway Company
consented to pay the sum of 2,000 to the widow
and children of the Mr. Hands, who had died from
injuries received on that line.
Chief Justice Cockburn, yesterday delivered
judgment in an action brought by Baylis, the late
Secretary to the Unity Assurance Company.
Baylis ha 3 been engaged as accountant to the com-
pany, at a salary of £350 for the life, and £350 for
the fire department. His services had been dis-
pensed with, and he brought the action for one
year's salary, £7OO, and he obtained a verdict in
his favour; the presiding judge ordering that the
plantiff should render service, if required, in the
preparation of accounts. . . _

Thomas Mansell, after having been tortured by
the lawyers, and suspended between life and death
for a period of six months, yesterday perished on
the scaffold. We think his was not only a case in
which the royal clemeney might have been granted,
but that it was one in which its merciful interven
tion was imperatively called for. The execution
of Mansell, under thee cruel circumstances, will
induce many not hitherto opposed to capital
punishment to enrol themselves amongst those
.rho call for its. aboliiion.

The Continental mail contains more
i details re-
specting the revolutionary movement n Italy. A
telegraphic despatch from Naples announces the
tranquility of that city up to the 3rd inst. Con-
flicts, with severe loss of life, are reported on the
frontiers of the Neapolitan Kingdom.
In the meantime we have news of revolutionary
movements in Spain, too, though they likewise are
represented as having been quickly suppressed.
There is, however, in a telegrali dated Saturday,
a curious assertion—namely, that the Spanish
Government, at all events, is strong enough to
suppress any attempt at its overthrow.
A busy correspondence has sprung up between

the French Cabinet and those of Vienna and Turin,
on the subject of the present revolutionary attempt
in Italy. It is asserted in Paris in the most formal
manner that Mazzini was, and is even still, at
Genoa, that the arrangements for the outbreak
were such as to show that he must have had com-
mand of considerable means, and that as yet only
a part of the scheme has come to light, and that all
may not be over. It is specially from the island
of Sicily that more news of a serious nature is
anticipated.
The elections at Paris would terminate last
night. The cards had been drawn with great
slowness. The fact is, says Galignani, that men do
not like having to undergo twice in a fortnight the
trouble of neglecting their pleasures or their
general business, even for the public weal.
The Constitutionnel says accounts have been
received from Ajaccio of the election in Corsica.
The official numbering of the votes had not yet
taken place, hut the return of M. Abbatucci and
M. Mariam was looked on as certain.

We have four days later from America by the
Canada last evening, with upwards of 1,326,000
dols in specie. There is nothing of importance
by this arrival. Preparatory orders had been given
by the Government for the survey of a canal across
the Isthmus of Darien. The message of Governor
Robinson are furnished by telegraph. The Free
State men took little part in the contest, having
previously formed a constitution. In the legisla-
ture of Hayti, a proposition has been made to
make such a discrimination between the duties on
sugar made by slaves and that produced by free-
men, as greatly to promote the cause of emancipa-
tion. The aevices from Mexico are to the effect
that preparations were being made for the " recep-
tion" of any Spanish fleet that might visit their
waters.

PURITY of Election is a matter on which the
NORTHERN TIMES has insisted, ever since the
publication of its first number. At the same
time we should be loath, indeed, to say or do
anything which could be construed as an
evidence that we desire to prevent any man, lay
or clerical, from the free expression of his
.
opinions on the political occurrences of the day.
Our constant advocacy of the ballot is proof
that we desire to guard all classes of the
electors of the United Kingdom from bribery,
corruption, and intimidation, come from what-
ever quarter they may. Their existence tends
to enslave the people, and to render the popula-
tion political serfs, or the slaves of an ecclesias-
tical tyranny, instead of being the subjects of a
free and truly glorious Constitution. But if the
constituencies are contaminated by the influences
just stated, the Parliament which they elect must
also be contaminated, and more or less corrupt,
as far as true patriotism is concerned. Under
all these circumstances it is perfectly clear that
there must be limits to the influence and power
exercised by the upper and educated classes at
Parliamentary Elections. No agency, lay or
clerical, which deters the voter from exercising
the franchise as his conscience dictates, should
be countenanced, as it aims a deadly blow at the
very frame-work of society itself.
If any proof in confirmation of these senti-
ments were requisite, we would point to the
proceedings now going on before the Committee
appointed to try the petition against the return
of Mr. MOORE, for Mayo. Our Irish friends
are at all times phlegmatic. Their faction fights
at fairs, their love of " isms," whether it be
" Terry Alt," "Ribbon," or " Orange," has
long ere this showed that,! as far as religion
and politics are concerned, they are not only
divided among themselves, but that each party
hates with jealousy, and sometimes deadly
design, the existence of the other. It is therefore,
no wonder that on the occasion of a general
election they exhibit to its fullest extent
their national pugnaty, and that each party
should wreak upon the other retribution for all
political and religious distinctions. Even the
North of Ireland, which is famed for its love of
"peace, law, and order," and the industry and
moral character of its people, could not refrain,
at the last election, from a manifestation of the
"warring elements" which forms part of their
national constitution. Things are managed
quite differently in England, and although there
may be small skirmishes after our elections,
open intimidation would not be tolerated by
either party for the short space of ten minutes.
Scotland, too, is cool and calculating on such an
emergency. Hence it is, that of all parts of the
Queen's dominion; so far as the United Kincr-
dom is concerned, Ireland is cursed with a
system which prevents its electors from giving
a free, conscientious, and unbiassed vote for the
parties they wish to represent them in the
Commons House of Parliament.

To demonstrate this position let us glance at
the Mayo election. And here we should pre-
mise that this county is the head-quarters of
Romanism in the West of Ireland. We need not
add that wherever that " ism" exists, its priest-
hood exercises a spiritual tyranny over the people.
The scenes which took place in Belgium a few
weeks ago, to which we have already referred,
shows the lengths to which the ecclesiastical
authorities of Rome would dare to go, not only
in the spiritual, but the temporal control of al
who profess the faith of which the Holy Father,
Pius IX., is the chief. As the priesthood of
Belgium desired to crush the free will of the
people in that country, so also has the Catholic
clergy, with JOHN, `‘ Archbishop of Tuam," at its
head, sat in ecclesiastical conclave, and issued
their fiat setting forth who shall represent that
part of benighted Connaught called Mayo. As
each day's evidence is taken before the Election
Committee, fresh proofs are brought forward to
show that Mr. MOORE was elected not by the
people, but by order of the priests. Witness
after witness details, in terms which cannot be
controverted, that intimidation and violence of
the most unusual kind were resorted to for the
purpose of defeating Colonel HIGGINS. The
priests desecrated the altars, where nothing but
lessons of charity and goodwill among men
should be taught, and from these sacred spots
launched out spiritual invective; and hurled tl e