'rbe firobinces.

A deputation from the Society of Arts, to expound the plan for a cosmo- politan exhibition of industry in 1851, was received in the Manchester Town-hall on Tuesday, by the Mayor and a numerous party of manufac- turers and other gentlemen, who unanimously supported resolutions in fur- therance of the plan. Mr. Bright, however, threw out some points for con- sideration.

He did not support the scheme on the ground that it would very much promote reciprocal improvements in the arts and manufactures of different countries, but on the ground that it would promote peace between countries by increasing their respect for each other, and their respect for the arts of industry rather than war. He should support this scheme, for he believed that it would have a most beneficial effect, in this way: every Frenchman who came to this country, not having been here before, found the English not so bad as he had been before taught to believe them; and every Englishman who was thrown into company with a Frenchman for a short time, unless be was a man who had not outlived the prejudices of former days, would come to the conclusion that they are not men with whom it is necessary that this country should be in a state of constant sus- picion or open warfare. There had been at all times a disposition to think that industry was, not the most honourable thing on earth; though he was not quite me that there was anything more honourable. From the times when all labour was performed by serfs or slaves, there had been persons in every country who had thought that industry was something which it was beneath them to enter into; and, unfortunately, with this there had been a feeling amongst those who were engaged in the pursuits of industry, that they were a class, in character and worth, somewhat below those who were not accustomed to industry. Now, he be- haved, that when this vast exhibition came together, it would be a show such as there had not been since the foundation of the world; and that all persons who went to see it would ask themselves how it was and why it was, that all these varied productions, of infinite beauty, skill, value, and utility, were there congre- gated; where they came from, and who were the parties that had made them; and they would come to the conclusion, as every intelligent man must do, that the industry by which all these things were provided was the foundation of every- thing in this and every other country which is permanent and valuable; and the man who, after seeing an exhibition like this, would despise the arts and manufac- turing industry of his country, must be one whose opinion was not of much value about any question whatever, and whose influence in this or any other country must be exceedingly small.

He suggested some checks on partiality. It was a very difficult matter to settle all the points that would arise; they would require a great deal of discussion and disinterested consideratiou; and he thought that if a large sum were to be raised by private subscription throughout the country, it would not be a bad plan that from every local committee some person should be invited to attend at souse meet- ing when en executive committee should be uppoiutcd, who would have to deter- mine many of those points which iu his opiniun were so important, that if they were not judiciously settled it would risk the failure of the whole scheme. As they were inviting cooperation from other countries, be was not sure that it would not be advisable to add some gentlemen to the consulting body who might be felt

practically to represent some other country than England, and whose voice, beingheard in that executive body, would give confidence to those in other eouutries.

Mr. Cole welcomed Mr. Brishes suggestions; but observed, that Prince Albert's present nuns had been rather to invite consideration for the broad character of the exhibition than to produce a premature plan cut and dry in all its details.

The annual festival of the Leeds Mechanics Institution and Literary So- ciety was held on the 2d current : Lord Mallon presided; the Dean of Ripon, Mr. Roebuck, and Mr. Monckton Milues, were among the guests.

Lord Mahon delivered a speech on the pleasures and the ennobling in- fluence of science; illustrating the theme by anecdotes gathered in his own historical studies. He especially enjoined a reverent spirit; observing that none but real worshipers were found within the sacred fane—the scoffers at science were ever found idling at its mere portals; and as a practical advice, he repeated, with new and interesting application the old counsels against a discursive pursuit of all studies, instead of a persevering mastery of some one or two. Counselling a choice of a pursuit according to personal bent rather than a selection upon abstract grounds, lie quoted the personal opinion of a famous man in modern times upon the text that there is no such thing as labour lost-

" I am persuaded, that there was great truth in the remark I once heard from that accomplished and experienced man Prince Talleyrand, when Ambassador in London—' Depend upon it, there is no such thing as labour lest. Depend upon it, whatever branch of study you pursue, and however recondite or remote its utility may seem, a time may come, and when you least expect it, that you will derive practical advantage from it, and see the good effects of having turned your minds to it.'"

Mr. Roebuck excused himself fur turning the attention of his audience in another direction, by pleading his inability to succeed its displays of ar- tistic lore or rhetorical power. Exclaiming, " I sin a plain working man," he proceeded to deal with things of practical application in meetings like this.

Remarking in complimentary phrase on the particular idea which each speaker had addressed himself to—my Lord to the historic, the reverend Dean to the ele- vated and religious—lie inquired what is it that is so " distinctive of the present generation," " which makes us all hare tonight so different from our aeceators." " What calls me here ? what has called the reverend Dean here to address you? and what induces the Member for Pontefract and all of us to congregate to;;. Cher here tonight? It is this, that there is a new element in social and political life, which has reared itself; unaided, into a formidable position, which excites atten- tion, and in some minds creates alarm. And then those minds, which, like yours, my Lord, look into futurity and see what may come, watch, and see, and feel, that there is a power which it may be well if they can direct ; there is an influence which it may be well should not be malevolent. They watch the signs of the times ; and so do I. I glory in that tone which is thus manifested tonight. It is the popular influence that is at work; and my honourable friend the Member for Pontefract is right when he says that he has not to defend the education of the people. No, no; the people have done that for themselves. The people will educate them- selves ; and here is my honourable friend Mr. Baines behind us, who has nst spo- ken because he found that he was triumphant tonight—that the people do edu- cate themselves, and will educate themselves; and that an institution like the pre- sent is one of the strongest arguments against me when he is in favour of the vo- luntary education of the people. It is a great thing ; and I say it distinguishes the present time from all others. It is altogether a circumstance which marks you out and takes you from bygone centuries." Following out this idea, Mr. Roebuck reverted to the advice given by Lord Mahon in respect to the choice and mode of prosecuting studies. " I was a good deal struck by his observations ; for I found, from what lie said, that he did not altogether appreciate the present state of things among the labouring population of this country. Now, in acquiring knowledge, depend on it that the large mass of knowledge is acquired by every individual by himself—it is not taught him ; it is learned, it is acquired. And with respect to the class of which my honour- able friend has spoken, which has leisure, I do not believe that the leisure which they have prepares them so well for the acquirement of knowledge, as that in- dustry which is of necessity the portion of the labouring man, and which he brings, in the hours which he can spare, to the acquisition of knowledge. And I prove it in this way. Ali the great advances of knowledge, all the great works which have been done for mankind, have not been done by the leisure class, but have been dune by the labouring classes, those classes who have had to work for their livelihood ; and who, after acquiring those habits of industry, bring those habits to the acquirement of knowledge; and using those stern habits in the race with the dilettanti, press upon and outstrip them, because the latter is as dilatory in his modes of pursuing knowledge as in his habits of literature. We are all alike; and as, in social life, the peculiar advantages of scientific knowledge are placed within the reach of all, so far as knowledge is concerned each is placed upon an equality with every other man: and that to my mind appears the true equality and the true fraternity which philosophers desire, and which do not mean those fanciful notions which are elsewhere -held. True equality is that of a man standing by himself alone, his knowledge acquired by Ins own means, and baying that supremacy above the lower animals to which man was destined—that supremacy of knowledge which leads to virtue, without which we cannot be happy. It is for this, then, that I look so favourably on an institution like this: it makes us all, my Lord, entertain right notions of true equality ; it teaches us to have those sympathies which nature intended, and which you have always felt vehemently; it makes us all understand each other as true men ; it is the bond of knowledge which is the tie which shall unite us to each other."

Mr. Roebuck concluded with counsels to prosecute all knowledge—whether that of simple dynamics, which can be reduced to formula, or that of the higher and less exact analogies found in discussing politics or investigating religion—in the same calm philosophic spirit. " Every man to his trade. I wish to introduce habits of research into assemblies like this—I speak not of this assembly but of the institution—and you should go one step further, and look into metaphysical and political knowledge, instruc- ting yourselves, not only with regard to the civil and mercantile relations of life, but look also into the moral influences by which our whole lives are governed. . . . . The Dean has spoken of washed-up artisans; and, as this is a mechanics' insti- tution, I hope that it will be the means of doing what it does not at present—of bringing the artisan amongst us, and introducing a close alliance between all classes of society, without which there is no safety ; and that we shall be with them in the brotherhood of knowledge and of feeling, and make this what it now calls itself, but which, I fear, it has not been—a mechanics' institute."

At the opening of the Sheffield Athenaeum and Mechanics' Institute, on Tuesday, the Earl of Carlisle and Mr. Roebuck, with a numerous com- pany, including many ladies, attended.

Lord Carlisle addressed the meeting with his customary unction. He seized the occasion to exhort the Sheffield people not to rely too much on the supposed exemption of iron-manufactories from pestilential visitations like cholera, but to extend their sewers and drains, &c.

Apologizing if what he had said might seem in his position to smell too much of the shop, he reminded them that " the undrained alley, the unventilated room, and the impure atmosphere, will but serve to irritate the tempers for which we trust here to provide serene enjoyment, and to clog and debase the energies for which we shall endeavour here to furnish fit opportunity and congenial nurture." He wound up with an eulogium on literary studies, and their social effects; for "he who makes himself most acquainted with the ornaments, the elegancies, the soft humanities, which throw a spell even on this rude and jarring world of ours, will be least inclined to disturb its social order."

Mr. Roebuck enlarged on his current topic, the importation of a new element into the political and social system—" the people."

He took the magnificent ball in which they assembled, provided as it was by the contributions of the richer classes, for testimony of the sympathy which is drawing classes nearer together; and he found a still more signal instance of de- ference to the popular influence in the presence not only of Morpeth who had re- presented the county, not only of Carlisle who had always been among the men of Yorkshire, but of the Cabinet Minister. " lf, in the reign of Charles the First, Hampden and Pym had met together, they would have had their retainers behind them. But in the reign of Victoria it is a totally different thing. We have not the Pyms, and we have not the Hampdens ; but I am proud to say that we have Lord Carlisle." (Cheers.) He wound up with a suggestion—" Physical know- ledge is of very great importance, and, what is more, it is comparatively easy. You can take a lump of earth, you can place it under a glass, and you can analyze it, and you can tell every particle that is in it; and you can reduce it to its ele- ments and put it into a tabular form. No man has yet got the human mind under a glass; but the human mind is the instrument which in reality makes your happiness or your misery. We go on from age to age slowly acquiring knowledge respecting that great instrument upon which all happiness depends. On every side interest and passion encumber and delay and annoy us in the investigation. But I will entreat you to be above it all, and to say that we now, having vindi- cated to ourselves the government of ourselves—we, being in reality the go- vernors of ourselves, and a really Democratic government, (though we be a Monarchy,) we ought to be well instructed in those great truths upon which the happiness of mankind depends. And then, Sir, depend upon it that no ignorant demagogue would mislead us, and that no powerful noble would frighten us; but that we should go on hand in hand with the beneficent and in- structed superior, while we contemned him who should endeavour to sow the seeds of dissension by misleading us, when the great truths which morality and law pointed out are the requisites of government of our country. I will close my address by saying, that as the Representative of Sheffield, I shall be at all times ready to aid what I have pointed out in this shadowy form, and that I shall be on no occasion frightened from the course which I see straight and clear before me. I see it coming: the people must govern; and I will endeavour to instruct the people." (Much cheering.) Among the other speakers, were the Reverend Edmund Larken, of Bur- ton-by-Lincoln, and Mr. Heywood, the Member for North Lancashire.

The extension-line of railway from Ipswich to Norwich was opened for public traffic on Wednesday. It is thirty-one miles in length; and it will reduce the distance between London and Norwich, as compared with the Cambridge route, by several miles.

The iron trade of South Staffordshire is reported to be improving. The differences between the masters and pitmen have been so far adjusted that the men have generally returned to their labour.

At Messrs. Ransome and May's establishment in Ipswich, the site of a workman's hall has been determined upon, and the money is now ready to build it. It will cost about 1,0001. There will be forty dormitories for single men and lads, which will be let at about Is. 6d. a week, including at- tendance. There will be a large room for evening resort, a workman's drawingroom, a library, and reading-rooms. The building will be fitted up with baths. There will be a resident matron and mistress, a kitchen and a cook. The privileges of the ball will be available to every workman upon Messrs. Ransome and May's establishment, upon paying a subscrip- tion of Is. a quarter; each member will thus not only have a cheerful room to spend his evenings in, but the opportunity of obtaining his early break- fast, his dinner, and his cup of tea, at a cheap rate.

The Standard makes this gloomy announcement- " We have been assured, upon authority which we cannot question, that the wages of agricultural labourers, in one of the most fertile counties of the island, and in a district of that county within forty miles of the Metropolis, have been re. duced to six shillings the week, in the course of the last month; while the num- ber of individuals receiving even this wretched pittance has been greatly reduced by the diminution of employment. The consequence of this shocking state of things is, that multitudes of unhappy men are flying from their families, in order

to avoid accompanying them to the workhouse, or witnessing their death by famine; and that the most serious apprehensions of fires and other outrages in the course of the winter are entertained by the gentry and yeomanry Wind to the neighbourhood."

A trade-union among the colliers of Cowpen, in Northumberland, to restrict the amount of labour to be performed by its members, appears to have resulted in a murder. George Hunter, a miner, while returning home at night, was waylaid by two men, who knocked him down, and savagely beat him on the head with bludgeons. He died next night. Hunter was a " blackleg "—that is, he had left the union, and did not obey its injunctions; when picked up on the night of the assault, he said he believed he had been attacked on that account, but he could not say by whom; and he added—"I should not like to know them: may God forgive them, as I do." Three men were arrested on suspicion; but were subsequently liberated, as, though the Coroner's Jury returned a verdict of"Wii. fill murder, they could not fix upon the escessins.

The sentences on seven soldiers of the Third Dragoons, tried by Court-martial at Nottingham for breaking out of barracks, have: been confirmed by the Com- mander-in-chief. All were young men. Some were sentenced to eighty-four and others to fifty-six days' imprisonment with hard labour. An attempt has been made to break into gaol at Monmouth. The Governor, on his return from Usk Sessions, inspected the gaol, and discovered that a large hole bad been made in the outer lodge-door, and filled with masticated bread.