The Vrobintts.

Sir Robert Peel's friends in Tamworth held a meeting on Monday, and adopted an address expressing unbounded confidence, and'the gra- tification which its promoters would derive in returning him again without subjecting him to the inconvenience of a personal canvass, or attendance at the hustings. Mie.Jamea Arland, m lecturer employed by the Anti-Corn-law League, has issued an address offering himself to the electors, and calling upon them to reject Sir Robert Peel, as the representative, not of their interests, but of the landed aristocracy, and subject to the dictation of the great agriculturists.

Sir James Graham has issued an address to the electors of Dorchester, soliciting a renewal of their suffrages. The Dorset Chronicle calls for a list of the " most respectable " requisitionists, whom the Globe de- clares to have called upon Sergeant Talfourd to come forward.

Sir William Follett is in Exeter ; where there is as yet no ap- pearance of opposition.

The Earl of Lincoln has issued an address to the electors of South Nottingham, calling upon them to restore the trust which they had reposed in him when out of office.

Mr. William Gladstone is actively canvassing the borough of Newark; where, it is said, Mr. Thomas Gisborne means to oppose him.

Lord Lowther's elevation to the Peerage, which is to take place immediately, will occasion a vacancy in the representation of West- moreland. Alderman Thompson is put forward by the Tories to simply his place.

It is said that Mr. Wolverley Attwood will stand for Sunderland, should Alderman Thompson, the present Member, be a candidate for Westmoreland.

The Advertiser of this morning says that the Tory Lord Dungannon is in the field, as well as Mr. Attwood ; and that Colonel Thompson, who has gone down to canvass the borough, is likely to profit by the i division in the opposite ranks.

Sir George Anson, who has held a seat for Lichfield during thirty- five years, has retired. Lord Leveson, the son of Earl Granville the late Ambassador at Paris, is the Whig candidate. No Tory has yet appeared.

The Morning Post announces Mr. Baillie Cochrane as the Conserva- tive candidate for the seat for Bridport, vacated by the unexplained retirement of Mr. Warburton.

The Leeds Mercury publishes an analysis of the votes at the last election for West Yorkshire, to show that the Tory candidates were re- turned by the fifty-pound occupiers : of the freeholders and copyholders there voted for Wortley, 9,538 ; for Denison, 9,224 ; for Milton, 10,216 ; for Morpeth, 10,160: A meeting was held at Leeds, on Tuesday, to consider the present distressed state of the working-classes in the borough. It was called by circular, and was composed of delegates from the different factories, mills, and workshops in the town and neighbourhood. The original object of the meeting was considerably extended: an address to the workmen of the United Kingdom was agreed to, calling upon them to adopt measures to ascertain the number of operatives who are out of employment, in order that the result may be laid before the Legislature of the country.

The prospect of the working-classes of Stockport is of the most gloomy description. At this moment there cannot be less than two thousand factory-operatives out of employ; and this number will be considerably increased before the end of another week, in consequence of the stoppage of machinery at different mills. A large portion of those who are so fortunate as to be in work are only employed between three and four days a week. Scarcely a day passes but some indivi- duals are disposing of their furniture, preparatory to their emigration to America or elsewhere. These individuals are not idle, dissolute characters, whose loss might be considered a gain to society ; but, generally speaking, they are honest, industrious artisans, who, by the distress which stares them in the face, are compelled to leave the land of their birth to obtain permission to toil for their daily bread, which they are unable to earn in their native country. What may be the state of this once flourishing town unless a speedy improvement in the cotton-trade takes place, it is no easy matter to predict ; but already nearly one-fifth of the dwellings in the borough are unoccupied, and the owners of the property which is tenanted are in many cases unable to obtain any rent.—Manchester Guardian.

A meeting of the people of Hull was held on Wednesday week, to peti- tion the House of Commons to take into consideration the present dis- tressed situation of the population, and to abstain from the imposition of new taxes till the expedients suggested by their own Committee on the Import-duties had been fully and fairly tried. The Mayor was in- vited to preside. The first resolution—which was proposed by Sir William Lowthrop, and seconded by Mr. Pryme, late M.P. for Cam- bridge—declared that the existing depression was owing- to the restric- tions on trade and the consequent abridgment of the capitalist's ability to employ labour, and called to the Legislature for the remedy of Free Trade. To this an amendment was moved, that Universal Suffrage should be recommended as the great and only remedy for the evil. The amendment was supported by many speakers, but it was lost on a division. Among those who spoke against it was Mr. Wade, a mer- chant of forty years' standing in Hull; who thought, however, that that meeting would have been better deferred till the plans of the new Peel Cabinet were before the country. Ultimately, a petition to the Com- mon; embodying the declarations and suggestions of the first resolu- tion, was unanimously agreed to.

On Tuesday week, a public meeting was convened in the Boys' British School-room at Kettering, in Northamptonshire, to discuss the in- jurious effects of the Corn-laws, and the benefit which would result from their repeal. The room was crowded to excess, and great num- bers were unable to gain admission. At no time throughout the pro- ceedings were there less than a thousand persons present. Two ministers who had attended the Manchester Conference were the chief speakers. A petition was adopted, praying for the removal of all pro- hibitory duties on corn and other provisions, and for " entire freedom of trade in all its branches." Mr. Robert Wallace, an extensive farmer

in the neighbourhood, seconded and supported the petition, and de- clared himself a total and immediate Repealer.

A public meeting was held at Lynn, on Monday week, to petition for repeal of the Bread-tax. A resolution was passed, " approving of the acts and resolutions of the Conference of Christian ministers recently held in Manchester on the subject of the laws which restrict the supply of food to the people." A commercial gentleman in the body of the meeting stated that he came from Leeds, and he was able fully to con- Sin the statements which had been made as to the distress so univer- sally existing, not only among the labouring classes, but among the wholesale and retail dealers as welt. He had lately been at Hull, Lincoln, Boston, and other large towns, and the universal cry is, " We have no trade." The petition proposed was adopted unanimously ; and was sent for presentation in the House of Commons, Mr. Hume being absent, to Mr. Cobden.

Aceounts or the proceedings at the Manchester Conference have been rendered by ministers to their congregations in Salisbury, Chichester, Worcester, Devizes, Trowbridge, and Westbury.

A correspondent of the Morning Chronicle, who signs himself Red- ward Jones, infers from recent appearances that the Chartists of South Wales are again in a state of activity- " During the last month there have been rumours throughout the counties or Monmouth and Glamorgan, that the Chartists were holding frequent meet- ings, and that a system of organization had commenced and was in active pro- gress. Under the semblance of corresponding heads of Sick-clubs, Ivorites, &c., much communication has recently taken place between the men employed in the works round Pontypool, Blackwood, Aberdare, Dowlais, and Merthyr. Several strange faces have of late been observed at these various places, staying at the lowest pot-houses, without any evident ostensible object. Cheap Chartist publications are, by unknown agents, brought to and distributed in these several places; and this, coupled with the remarkable sobriety and quietness of the men, whilst their wages are reduced nearly one-half, with the reports of secret meetings taking place, has within the last month impressed the trades- men and inhabitants generally of the above places with the conviction that mischief was afoot. This impression has been materially strengthened by the discovery of a piece of paper (on which is inscribed evident calculations of numbers, written in a bold and clear style) at a place mid under circumstances which- can leave no doubt as to its true meaning." Here is the cabalistic paper, picked, up by a man at a public-house near Pontypool, on Wednesday week— COPY OP TUE PAPER, NO. 5. three fixed B in No. 1, add 17 one fixed H in No. 2, add 13 all fixed all fixed not fixed

697

0 and N to join, should P in No. 6 fill for one.

A collision took place on Tuesday on the North Union Railway, at Euxton station, about six miles from Preston, between a coal-train and the stage-coach running from Chorley to Southport. The accident is described by a correspondent of the Times— "At this part of the line the railway passes over the turnpike-road leading from Bolton, Chorley, and other parts, to Sorithport. There is a gate on both sides; and a man named Nixon resides at the station-house, whose duty it is to see that the gates are regularly. closed against any thing passing along the turnpike-road every time a train is observed coming along the line. The coach arrived at the station at twenty minutes to one o'clock. It rained heavily at the time, and Nixon was in the house taking his dinner when he heard the coach coming; awl, looking through the window, he saw a train of empty coal-waggons coming down the line at such a speed as to lead him to conclude that the coach could not get across the line before the train reached the station. Unfortunately, he had omitted tn close the gates prior to taking his dinner. Seeing the danger likely to accrue, he ran out of the stationbouse, and calling to the coachman to pull up, made a rush at the leading horse, (it was a unicorn team,) hut, missing it, he caught hold of one of the wheelers; and had scarcely stopped the coach, when the train, which was driving a tender before the engine, came in contact with the wheel-horses, and dragging them on the line, it then caught the coach and splintered it nearly to atoms, there not being two whole parts left together. The fore-horse broke away, but the two wheelers were killed on the spot. The passengers were found for the most part in a state of insensibility, lying among the broken portions of the coach. The Reverend Robert Ivy was picked up dead, at a distance of forty yards from the station : he had evidently fallen among the waggons, and had been carried along the line that distance. The railway was strewed with the broken particles of the coach for a distance of full one hundred and seventy yards, and one of the horses was dragged a greater distance."

Mr. Ivy's wife suffered a concussion of the spine ; and seven other passengers were more or less seriously hurt. Nixon's leg was so severely injured that he was obliged to have it amputated.

An inquest was held on the body of Mr. Ivy on Thursday. From the evidence of the engineer who conducted the train, it appears that it is not the custom on the line to relax the speed of trains on crossing the high-road ; the gate-keeper is trusted to for shutting the gates. The Jury returned a verdict of "Accidental Death."

On the same evening, another collision took place on the same railway, at the Farrington station. The five o'clock train from Man- chester and Liverpool to Preston, which was rather later than usual, stopped at the station to put down passengers, and to attach the red signal-lamp to the hind-carriage. At this time the London mail-train came up, and running into the train on the rails, smashed a horse-box loaded with sporting-dogs, to atoms. Mr. Threlfall, a maltster of Preston, had a thigh broken ; and all the other passengers were more or less injured. The engineer of the first train, seeing the danger, put his steam on and then jumped off the engine. The suddenness of? the start caused the engine to break away from the carriages composing the train, and it ran at a tremendous pace through Preston station on to the Lancaster line ; but it was at last stopped without doing any injury.

An accident of rather a serious nature occurred on the Great Western Pipilway, between Chippenhara and Wootton Bassett, on Wednesday. An extensive slip had occurred in the embankment of the line at about four miles from Wootton Bassett ; and upon the arrival of the up morn- ing mail-train at the spot, the engine was cast off the rails, and all the carriages thrown over each other. The engine was deeply imbedded in

253 5 L 83 2

187 4 N 120 3 0 54 1

the embankment, and the engineers were jerked out ahead of the line; but, by a marvellous chance, they escaped with whole limbs. One gen- tleman passenger had his ankle broken, and some others have been bruised and have had their faces cut by the broken glass of the car- riages ; but no greater harm seems to have befallen any person. Mr. S. Clarke, the Chief Superintendent of the line, posted off from London as soon as the news of the accident arrived there, in order to find out who was to blame for the accident.

At Newcastle-under-Lyne, the owners of the Union Mill were fined. ten pounds, with costs, for having on their premises ten sacks, weighing twenty-three hundredweight, of a composition resembling flour in ap- pearance, but proving, on examination by a chemist, to be sulphate of lime, with a slight mixture of vegetable matter. One of the owners of the mill said that he had bought the stuff of one Copeland, for pig's- meat, believing it to be a preparation of potatoes. A man at the mill told the Police that the sacks contained pig's-meat ; another said that they contained " the best seconds." There was also a charge against another flour-dealer, named Beardsmore, whose cart had been often seen by the officer at Copeland's door by four o'clock iu the morning. This person acknowledged having made pretty extensive use of Cope- land's composition; but stated, that, on finding its deleterious effects, he had buried what he had not sold in the soil, and endeavoured to get hack from his customers what was not consumed. The Magistrates, taking into consideration this acknowledgment, fined Mr. Beardsmore in the mitigated penalty of 31. Cs. W. When the defendants left the court, they were assailed by the crowd outside with loud threats, and even by showers of stones, and had to be escorted out of the town by the Police.

The Bristol Standard narrates a miserable case of murder at Chep- stow. Sarah Fleming, a young girl, left her home about a year back, to attach herself to a dissolute young man named Benjamin James ; whom she supported by ill-gotten earnings. On Sunday week, Fleming and another girl were left by some men in a lonely lane, with James. He had been made jealous, and in his rage he struck his wretched com- panion a violent blow on the right side, and felled her ; and then threw himself on the ground. Fleming crawled towards him, and kissed hint twice, saying " Don't do it any more, Ben." He threatened to murder her ; but he did not strike her again. That night the three spent in a shed, and next night under a hay-rick. All this time Fleming suffered violent pain, and towards the Wednesday night James left her, saying he was afraid lest she should die. The other girl then supported her through the streets of Chepstow in search of a lodging ; but at length, quite exhausted, the sufferer sank on the steps of a door. Here, being attacked by some boys, a ho threw dirt at them, Fleming cried out, " It is hard I cannot be left alone—I am so ill !" and burst into tears. Her companion got her away and obtained a lodging, where she passed the night in extreme agony ; and the next morning her father was sent for, and she was taken to the poor-house. James was appre- hended on Thursday week ; and the girl's deposition was taken by a Magistrate, in his presence ; but she was evideutly alarmed at the pre- sence of her murderer, exclaiming, " Take him away, he will kill me! " She died on Friday. On Saturday, James was committed to Monmouth Gaol, on a charge of murder. On Thursday about one o'clock in the afternoon, a dreallital fire hap- pened at Fordington, a small village situate a few miles from Dorchester; when• no fewer than twenty-five houses, with property to the amount of some thousands, were destroyed. The fire originated on the premises of a baker, in the centre of the village. The village engines were almost useless, in consequence of the scarcity of water. The conflagra- tion raged with great violence for many hours ; and it was impossible to check its progress until three houses were pulled down, which cut off the communication. Forty-five families are said to have been burnt out ; but most of them are insured. The amount of property insured is very considerable. No lives were lost.

On Friday evening, one of the most fearful storms, for the short time of its duration, we ever witnessed occurred. The day had been fine, but the atmosphere rather heavy, with occasional showers, in large drops. At six o'clock in the evening, a heavy mist hung over the Southampton water, and the smoke from the steamers as they passed seemed to lie upon the surface. At half-past six a heavy fall of rain came on, and what had been just before a slight breeze, increased in violence with extraordinary rapidity. The New Forest seemed in fearful agitation ; and in a few minutes a most awful tornado ensued, sweeping every thing before it, and by its swiftness producing the most appalling sounds ' • it seemed as if the air was occupied with a legion of spirits uttering the most terrific shrieks ; in another minute the heavens seemed all one mass of flame, and of all colours—as blue, green, yellow, red ; the thunder crashed like fields of artillery fired at once, while every thing bent beneath the blast. The sails of vessels were shivered to ribands, boats swamped, houses partially unroofed, trees torn up by their roots, and land and water exhibiting in a few minutes only an extensive scene of desolation. We have witnessed several heavy storms here, but they all fall into insignificance when compared with this. It lasted just one hour. To detail a twentieth part of the damage done would occupy a column. The great tree at the Deanery, and one in Three Field Lane, were torn out of the ground; the streets are sprinkled with tiles and the water with wrecks. The Ariadne yacht, while her sails were being furled, had two men washed overboard ; but with enormous exertion they were saved : the gig was upset. A brig brought up, but before the sails could be got in they were shivered to ribands. A vessel is sunk off Chapel Wharf; and we have just received the distressing intel- ligence of a fisherman's boat having swamped off Calshot, and four lives lost. The whole district is one scene of frightful devastation ; not a house has escaped ; and all accomplished in less than an hour. We are glad to know that the harvest is nearly got in, so that but little damage will have been sustained by outstanding crops.—Hampshire Advertiser.

A lighthouse, to bear the name " Light of All Nations," will soon be erected on the North-east end of the Goodwin Sands, which will mark and render accessible a channel hitherto closed, leading from the North Sea into a large bay within the Sands, where ships may anchor quite sheltered in all weathers, is thirty or forty feet depth of water. The

Light of All Nations, though it will rest primarily on a quicksand, will really have its foundation on a rock. The Goodwin Sands have only a depth of about thirty feet in the spot selected ; and it is intended to sink a cast-iron casson, which will be fastened immoveably to the chalk-rock lying below ; and upon that base will be built the column of masonry on which the lantern is to be fixed. The casson will be floated out to sea, and sunk into its place on the 16th instant, in the presence of a large party who intend to be spectators. The Duke of Wellington will probably be a visiter. Government steamers are ordered to be in readiness.