10 MAY 1834, Page 8

trbt Country.

On Monday, Mr. Nicholas William Ridley. Colborne, of Hailing Hall, Norfolk was elected member for Wells, without opposition.

The meeting of operatives in Manchester on Monday passed off quietly. The proceedings presented nothing remarkable. There were not more than from 601X/ to 70(M persons present. They agreed upon the following petition to Parliament.

That as this nation has derived all its present greatness and power from its manu- factures and compere e, and that its prosperity and peace depend On the comfort and happiness of the produce' s of all the wealth of these realms, your honourable House will be pleased to take into your most serious consideration the absolute necessit y of immediately removing all laws which are found to be oppressive to trade, and a hick give an preference to capital over labour. 'that the poor man may be elevated to his proper sit tlationin moiety, and made to feel his own worth, by the ronscionsaess of being the object of the tigilance and protection of a wise and gmst Gov crunivot."

An explosion took place on Friday sennight, on the premises of a tavernkeeper and fireworks-manufacturer in Little Charles Street, Birmingham. Mr. Astley, the master of the house, was absent at Worcester ; and his wife, with five other persons, was sitting at dinner within the bar, when they heard first a whizzing noise, then a loud explosion, and the crash of falling timber ; some of which jammed up the door, and they had some difficulty in making their way into the street. One of the party returned to rescue a child who had fallen under a door ; and just had time to drag it away, before the whole of the house and one adjoining it fell to the ground. One woman at work up stairs was blown through the window into the street, but escaped unhurt. A child was also thrown out of the room, and caught by some persons below. Two men were dreadfully hurt, and were not expected to live ; and two women were also much burnt. The windows of the opposite houses were driven in by the bricks and tiles which flew in all direc- tions. The fire is said to have originated in the explosion of some detonating powder.

On Saturday, when the Kent steam-boat, which left Gravesend at four o'clock, had arrived between Purtt!et and the half-way house, it drunken sailor, who was sitting on the side of the vessel, fell head foremost into the water, and was only seen to rise once. Ile had been at sea three years, and was discharged at Chatham on Friday. lie was coming to London to receive 43/.

A Kentish paper gives an account of a remarkable suicide and mur- der at Sittingbourne. A man named Brett hanged his gitimate infant child, and then himself one day last week. He was in love with the mother of the child, though be would not marry her ; but determined to hang both himself and his child when he found that she was going to marry some one else.

The widow of Cook, executed at York on Saturday week for the robbery and outrage near 'fhb sk, favoured Mr. John Ketch with her company to tea the same afternoon.— York Ontrant.