Northern Times. — 1857-08-25 (Liverpool, Merseyside, England)

FLYING STATIONERS.—It is notorious that Hardman, , who was condemned to die last Saturday (week), never spoke a word during his trial, nor evinced the slightest emotion when the sentence was pass 'd. Within two hours ' afterwards, one of the gentry above alluded to went flying through the streets of the town with the following bare' faced announcement, uttered with the ugliest screams imaginable :—" Here yon have the terrible confession of that unfortunate man, condemned to die for the awful murder of his wife—his sad lamentations, and how he begged of the judge to spare his life, and all for the low price of one halfpenny."—Lancasfer Guardian. The Saturday Review says :—" We are sorry to be invidiously particular, but surely there is something mysterious and inscrutable in the dispensation which has caused Mr. Vernon Smith to be just now at the head of the India Board. That Mr. Vernon Smith is unfit for any office we should be loth to assert. At the recent Oxford election, the unseated member, when introducing Mr. Triadic-ray to the constituency, remarked on the pretensions of a certain noble person, who was supposed to be Intending to coetest the city. This nobleman,' said Mr. Neate, ' was once a lord of the Admiralty, which is something. Now he is a lord of the Treasury, which is nothing.' We do not tax Mr. Vernon Smith with being capable only of a Treasury lordship, but we cannot conscientiously say that he is quite up to the mark of the Admiralty. His talents are, in fact, intermediate between capacity for a sinecure and fitness for an office. He is a sort of nondescript, presenting at the same moment the virile appearances of the Admiralty and the feminine accomplishments of the Treasury. That it should fall to his lot to be the hope and stay of a great empire and a great system is a circumstance which ought to be mentioned by the bishops as a good text for a sermon on the Bengal motley. No one can make any use of it, except a clergyman on a day of humiliation. The minis'erial journals appear to us universally to ignore Mr. Smith, Even the parliamentary reeorters are beaten by him. They excuse themsdves for compressing his speeches into a line or two on the novel plea that he addresses the house in so conversational a tone.' What a notion of infinite disjointedness, of half-assimilated facts pitched out pell-mell on a despairing audience, is conveyed by this ingenious formula! But the thing, as we have said, is inscrutable. Confugimus ad asylum ignorante. It is a mystery. One. corner of' the veil we can alone lift up. Mr. Vernon Smith, whatever be the other lessons he conveys, is a warning to Young India. Ater per'orming all the processes which are prescribed as panece3a for ilindoo revolt, there remains Mr. smith. The Tinos forbids us to leave even the shadow of a shade between ourselves and our Indian empire. That means, let India be governed by Mr. Smith. Mr. Disraeli suggests that the bonds are to be drawn closer between our beloved Queen and her Indian subjects. That, again, resolves itself into a Smith autocracy in Hindostan. Lord Ellenborough tells ns that the Queen's name is a tower of strength. That strong fortress, on inspection, turns out to be Mr. smith."