Northern Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1857-09-01 00:00:00

THE DAY'S NEWS.

The Right Honourable the Earl of Elgin and
Kincardine, Minister Extrordinary to China,
arrived at Hong Kong on the 2nd of July, He
was received with all honours, and presented with
an address by the inhabitants of that city. Both
the address and his reply thereto, will be found in
another column, also a glimpse of his intended
proceedings, in regard to the late brush with
China.

The news from India is looked upon by our
Metropolitan cotemporaries as more satisfactory
than that previously received. The Times, although
it cannot say that the intelligence is cheering, for it
details deeds of infamy which will set the blood of
every Englishman boiling in his veins ; thinks
the alseendancy of arms before Delhi has
been decisively maintained, and one of the
two episodes which communicated so painful
au interest to the contents of this mail acquires
a much less afflicting complexion now that
the truth is known. What, too, is above all
things satisfactory—we can still announce the
unshaken loyalty of the Madras and Bombay
Armies. There is nothing which need inspire the
slightest alarm in the rumours of a disturbance at
Hyderabad or of suspected plots at Poonah. The
former of these cities is one of the strongholds of
the Mussalman population, and the seat of a
Mahomedan Court bearing a marked resemblance
to that recently ejected from Lucknow. That a
" rising," therefoie, should be attempted at Hyder-
abad, was as probable as that there should be an
insurrection at Oudo, but here the analogy between
the two cases happily terminates; for, whereas in
the Bengal Province the army mutinied and de-
prived the Government of support, in the Madras
territory it acted promptly and faithfully in the
restoration of order. The incident, in fact, is en•
couraging, as showing that, even where Mahomedan
intrigues may be at work to foment rebellion, the
troops of the Presidency can be relied upon to crush
the revolt in the bud. The Daily News believes that
dark es the aspect of affairs in India is, there is
no cause for despondency as to the ultimate result.
It is to be hoped that Sir Colin Campbell has been
armed with full powers to act as he may think fit,
but the paper alluded to regrets that the letters of
the Governor-General, published in the Bombay
journals, do. not hold out that hope, but would
seem to interfere, and very materially to,
with such a supposition. The Sun, of
last night, says, that on the whole, although
the crisis is formidable, there is no reason to be
discouraged. We have already heard the worst,
and we may easily believe that, according to our
cotemp )rary Punch, wa may shortly see the Brit-
ish Lion inflicting complete vengeance on the
cowardly Bengal Tiger, that preys upon helpless
women and innocent children, and has not the
courage to face an enemy armed with equal
strength and power. Eventually the good work
of retribution will be accomplished, but unless
the miscreants, as would appear likely by the news
from Saugor, fall out among themselves, we must
be content to,. hold the ground our• tents cover, and
which we can sweep with our rifles and our
cannon.

We are soon to have two or three elections for
seats in parliament. From Oldham the advices
are in favour of the late rejected of that borough,
Mr. W. J. Fox, who, it is hinted, will be returned in
the room of the deceased member. But he may
refuse to sit, and in that state of affairs it is said
that the choice will fall upon Mr. Milner Gibson.
Mr. Cobden is now, according to all accounts,
entirely out of the question. It matters but little
whether Messrs. Gibson or Cobden represent the
borough, but it would, without doubt, reflect the
greatest credit upon the constituency should it
return either of them. We may mention that
some excitement has been occasioned in the
borough of Greenwich in consequence of the pros-
pect of an immediate vocancy in the representation,
arising out of the proceedings in bankruptcy against
Mr. Townsend. It is supposed that Mr. M. Cham-
bers will again seek the suffrages of the electors,
and his friends are already making active exertions
on his behalf.

There have been some very outrageous proceed-
ings in con nection wi h the Great Northern Railway.
At their meeting on Saturday the proceedings were
of the most outrageously interruptive character,
and personal interruptions of the grossest kind
were freely indulged in by bath parties. The
question turned upon whether the decision of
Vice-Chancellor Wood, given in favour of the claims
of the preference shareholders, should be accepted
by the shareholders generally, or whether the
directors should be permitted to appeal against that
decision to a higher tribunal. The Chairman
moved the adjournment of the meeting until after
the appeal shall be heard, and having an enormous
majority of proxies he succeeded in carrying the
motion.
We learn from a London cotemporary that it is
pretty generally believed th it Mr. Vernon Smith
has received permission to subside into private life.
Mr. Sydney Herbert and Sir James Graham are
talked of as his successors.
Lord John Russell does not go to the House of
Lords with the bateh of new Peers, consisting of
the Earl of Fife, Lord Harry Vane, M.P. for South
Durham, Lord R. Grosvenor, M.P. for Middlesex,

and Mr. Cavendish, M.P. for Bucks Notwith-
standing all the efforts of the leading journal to
show the Right Hon. Member for the City of
London that he ought to quit the scene of •his
Parliamentary labours for a higher sphere of action,
he does not appear willing to avail himself of a seat
upon the Government shelf.
Of local matters this morning there is nothing
calling for the least attention. We give a full
report of the proceedings before the magistrates
who sat upon the bench to consider the applica-
tions sent in for new licenses for twenty. five public-
houses. Out of some sixty applications disposed
of, about one-sixth obtained what they desired. A
full report of the half-yearly meeting of the
Chamber of Commerce will also be found else-
where.

The Queen has safely arrived at Balmoral, where
great improvements have taken place since her
last sojourn there.
The East India Company have accepted the
terms demanded by the company which has been
formed to establish a telegraphic communication
with India by the Red Sea route.
The Continental papers to hand have devoted,
like our own press, the largest part of their
space to the reproduction of the detailed
news from India, received from Trieste, and
contain, in fact, nothing else of importance.
The Emperor of the French has now left
Paris for the Camp of Chalons. It has been
officially 'announced at Berlin that the intended
journey of the emperor of Russia to the West will
be delayed. It is, however, certain that the jour-
ney will take place at the end of September.
It eeems that Darmstadt has been fixed upon
as the meeting place of Alexander and Louis
Napoleon. The Germans look with some suspi-
cion at this interview on their soil, which reminds
them of that of Tilsit, although every body ac-
knowledges that the time is a very different one,
and that the States of the Confederation would not
have mush to fear even from the joint power
.of
France and Russia.

The details of the news per the West India
mail, will be found in our columns of to-day. They
are not of any special importance.

THE Water Committee held their usual weekly
meeting on Saturday last; and for the first time
we may congratulate the town on the result of
their proceedings. The matters brought under
the consideration of the committee were of the
most important character, and the discussion of
these occupied upwards of three hours. In the
first place, the anticipated report from the
alchemists at Rivington was not forthcoming.
In its stead, however, was a communication from
that celebrated transmutator, Mr. SPENCER,
intimating that more time—i. e., more of the
Corporation "tin''—was necessary before the
magnetic protoxide of iron would act on the
organisms, animal and vegetable, with which
the bog wash teems. But the Committee were
neither to be magnetised nor mesmerised any
longer by Mr. SPENCER'S philosophy. The
trick was too apparent. Our telling exposures
of the vulgar arrogance and presumption of the
whole horde of charlatans, who have so long
fattened on the credulity of the Water Com-
mittee, has at last produced the desired results.
It was' decided on Saturday that the supplies
should be stopped ; that the strong affinity
existing between the cash in the Corporation
coffers and the pockets of the would-be chemist
at Rivington did not benefit the former body ;
and hence it was determined that no more
empirical experiments should be undertaken, or
vain attempts made to purify (?) the rotten
wash at the cost of the people of Liverpool.
We hail this as the harbinger of a new era in
the conduct of our water authorities. The
committee, by boldly rejecting this last attempt
at imposition by that first of charlatans, have
shown that their eyes are partially opened to
the wicked system of plunder to which they have
for the last ten years been the victims. This is
well; and, as we have already observed, it is the
first time we have been in a position to congra-
tulate the Committee on their proceedings. But
what follows is of even far greater importance.

We, yesterday, informed our readers that the
obnoxious Pike, with all its follies, frauds, and
foul abomination, moral and physical, is con-
demned at once and for ever. Its final fate will
be sealed on Wednesday next. This happy
denouement is the result of a Report prepared
and presented to. the Committee by their Engi-
neer, Mr. THONIAS DUNCAN. That gentleman
declares that he can go on no longer on the
present system of mixed supply—that the
complaints of the consumers are innumerable—
that these are well founded, for the water is alive
with animal and vegetable organisms of the most
disgusting kind—that every attempt to filter
this abominable wash at Rivington, or elsewhere,
has proved abortive—that filtration, to be at
all effective, must be carried out at home, and
not at Rivington—that the mixed waters never
will amalgamate, so as to make good palatable or
drinking water—that it is absolutely necessary
that arrangements be at once made for supplying
the two waters separately, as that from Riving-
ton, instead of improving, as its friends and
advocates so confidently pre licted, has been
daily getting worse, and is now in such a state as
totally to forbid its continued use as a beverage,
ur for any other dietetic purpose. Mr. DUNCAN
concludes his able Report by recommending the
immediate carrying out of his plan for a seperate
and distinct line of pipes for the supply of the
Well water, reserving the present lines of mains
and service pipes for the use of the Pike bog-
wash, so that all the water consumers may have
their choice of the two waters, or both, by
paying for the same. We should be curious to
know (should this scheme ever be carried out)
how many of the Ratepayers will apply and pay
for the use of the Pike water ? Will there be
twenty such ? We verily believe not. As we
understand it, Mr. DUNCAN'S Report is an honest
and sweeping condemnation.of the villainous
Pike job ; and, as such, it cannot fail to exercise
an important influence on the decision of the
Council on Wednesday.
It is only much to be regretted that Mr.
DUNCAN did not earlier determine on making a
clean breast of it. Had he done so, much mis-