Zbe Vrobintrs.

A public meeting in favour of the Ten-hours Bill was held at Leeds Music Hall, on Monday evening ; the first of a series of such meetings in the manufacturing districts of Yorkshire and Lancashire. The Reverend Dr. Hook, Vicar of Leeds, was appointed Chairman ; several clergymen were on the platform ; and the attendance was numerous. The Chairman put forward arguments in reply to those who say that a Ten-hours Bill would ruin tile manufacturers and injure the work- people. Several mills and much capital, he said, are now lying idle ; and a curtailment of time would bring those mills and that capital into operation. There might be loss to some of the larger mill-owners, but where would be the loss to the manufacturing capital of the country ? It is alleged that the loss will fall on the manufacturer, the buyer, and the workman ; but he contended that if it fell on either the others must be exempt, and that in point of fact none would suffer. A resolution was moved by Mr. Harney, in favour of a Ten-hours Bill, rejoicing at the progress recently made towards it-

" And more especially at the fact that, on the 18th March, in the present year, two divisions were taken in the Commons' House of Parliament, both virtually in favour of making the factory day commence at six o'clock in the morning, and terminate at six o'clock in the evening—a decision at once in accordance with the requirements of justice, policy, humanity, and religion, and one which calls for unbounded gratitude to that Being who has the hearts of all in His rule and governance."

It was seconded in a long speech by Mr. Ferrand ; who mingled arguments in favour of the measure with violent attacks on its oppo- nents— " Our opponents tell us that a Ten-hours Bill will reduce wages, and that the labourers is factories will soon be brought to a state of penury and want. The very men who uttered this language in the House of Commons within the last few days, in 1841 made statements within the walls of that House, in my hearing, which were appalling, and disgraceful to the manufacturers : they asserted that the operatives in the manufacturing districts of Lancashire were living at the rate of lid. per day. That state of things arose under a system of unregulated machinery, produced by these manufacturers themselves; who, working their mills twelve, fourteen, sixteen, and eighteen hours aday, soon glutted the market by overworking their hands ; and when they had glutted the market they turned them adrift, and left them to starve. Had there been a Ten-hours Bill in those days, the labourers in Lancashire never would have been living on lid. per day. The manufacturers themselves know that; and that is the reason why they oppose the Ten-hours Bill. They know th .t the Ten-hours Bill will raise your wages. They know it will create a demand in the market, which will give you a command over wages. They know it will restore your wives to your homes and your children to the schools— that it will make you once more the props of your families, and restore you to that condition which God Almighty has ordained that you should live in' but it would at the same time curtail their enormous profits. I am astonished that a manufacturer in this country should be so blind to the best interests of his native land, as to feel happy in growing rich whilst he sees his working people growing every day poorer. In the good old days of our forefathers little un- happiness and discontent were known. The master lived among his men, happy in their prosperity and they rejoicing in his. The Ten-hours Bill is a stepping-stone in the way of restoring you once more to that state of things."

He mentioned one reason for the opposition of the manufacturers-

" A manufacturer told me a short time ago, 'The reason we employ women in the mills is this—they wont strike for wages like the men. When a woman has two or three children crying at home fur bread, she will work her finger. ends raw to prowide them with food.' Therefore the women ate employed, and therefore a struggle is made to prevent your obtaining a Ten-hours Bill."

He pointed out the Poor-law as an auxiliary of the manufacturers' oppression- " There is a mill in my part of the country which bas been working from six in the morning till twelve at night for six days in the week. Suppose the labourers in that mill had struck against their masters—and you have a right to refuse to work if a master says to you, My mill shall run from six A. Si. till midnight '—if these workpeople had refused to be such degraded slaves, what would be the result? Toey must apply to their parish for relief. Under the old Poor-law the ratepayers would have backed them in resisting such tyranny, such horrible slavery as this ; but under the new Pour-law, they go to the board of guardians : and who sits there, in many cases to stare them in the face? their master. In Lancashire thls is constantly the case."

This prepared the way for an assault on Sir James Graham-

" Who is it that is sanctioning such a system of tyranny and oppression throughout the country ? Sir James Graham—the man who now declares that you shall not have the Ten-hours Bill. • • • With our worthy chairman I am prepared to say, ' Away with party to the winde—away with any Government which shall be so debased, so lost to the principles of hates- nity and religion, as to say that they will oppress the millions, that the few may grow rich on their oppression.' My firm conviction is this, that if it had not been for the cold-blooded dogged stupidity of Sir James Graham. we should have the Government at this moment sanctioning the Ten-hours Bill: but he is too dead to the finer feelings of humanity to think of any thing but self. I know a little about Sir James Graham ; I have had to battle against him when fighting the cause of the working-classes in this county ; and a man who took steps to procure a report which was false, merely for the purpose of crash- ing a member of the House of Commons who raised his voice in defence of the suffering poor, would not hesitate to keep the working-classes in the

mane- factoring districts in a state of degrading slavery. What was his conduct in my own case ? I stuck to the nian like a leech. I told him the report of Mr. Mott, his Assistant Poor-law Commissioner, was false. I was determined to bring it before the House until justice was done; but he feared to meet me, and dismissed the poor tool who had been his degraded and ignominious instru- ment in fabricating the injurious report."

A. charge was hinted, that Sir James Graham had maneuvered to get Mr. Walter turned out of the House of Commons, when elected for Nottingham- " No man has resisted the new Poor-law more rigorously or at a greater sacrifice of time and money than Mr. Walter. It was' therefore, felt necessary by Sir James Graham to get him out of the House of Commons, for Sir James was a man who could not bear to bear the truth spoken, especially on that subject. A petition was presented against Mr. Walter's return. * * • The Committee was divided—there were three Whigs for throwing him out, and three Tories for keeping Mr. Walter in. Mr. Hogg, the Member for Beverley, one of the most pure boroughs in the kingdom, forsooth—whether he got his seat for 40/. I do not know—hat this Tory Chairman aided Sir James Graham and the Government in unseating Mr. Walter. Mr. Hogg tried to explain away his conduct on that occasion the whole of the Government side of the House, on which I sat, listened witla feelings of disgust while he higgled and haggled through his explanation; but there was one man who vociferously cheered, and that one man was Sir James Graham! So you see this Home Secretary of the Government, ever since the Ministry came into power, has, by a continued series of acts, done every thing in his power to oppress and grind the po tr."

The Ministry at large were next attacked: finding that they were in minority, they made the time-clause a party question ; and having done so, he maintained they were bound to resign. This he followed up with an attack on Sir Robert Peel : the people could find other Ministers, he said, though there might not be among the honest Tories the "cunning expediency of Sir Robert Peel," or "the cool effrontery of Sir James Graham "—

" Don't you despair. Recollect, though the British Army lost a Wolfe at Quebec, an Abercrombie in Egypt, a Moore at Corunna, it had a Wellington to lead them on at Waterloo; and if Sir Robert Peel were to resign tomorrow, I for one should not shed a tear. I say he has failed to perform his pledges to the country. He asserted that he would walk in the light of the constitution— he has trampled on the constitution. He gave us to understand that he would repeal the obnoxious clauses of the New Poor-law—he has stood by them. He has lost my confidence. I place no faith in him. And I tell you this—that after he had made the factory question an open question, and had a majority against him, if he shall, by the Treasury whip and by Treasury influence, destroy that vote of the House of Commons by underhand and unconstitu- tional means, I, for one, will place myself in opposition to him. I tell Sir Robert Peel that he is not going to play the same game in 1844 that he did in 1829. There is a body of independent men sitting on the same side of the House that can throw him out of office, who are determined to stand true to the solemn pledge they have given in the face of the country. That party now appeals to you."

He believed, that if Lord Ashley stood firm, he would yet conquer ; that Sir James Graham would retire into his fastnesses in Cumberland, Lord Ashley would take his place, and Sir Robert Peel would continue to govern the country, but only on constitutional principles.

A second resolution awarded thanks to Lord Ashley's supporters in the House of Commons, mentioning the speakers by name. The Reverend T. Nunns wished that the battle were fought within the Par- liament as it was fought without—

There were found opponents to the Ten-hours Bill, many and formidable ; here there were absolutely none. Some, indeed, must exist somewhere or other—for Members of Parliament were said to be "representatives of the people"; but who they were, what the names and what the numbers, what the characters and what the influence, that the opposers of the ten-hours clause, these powerful advocates of over-work, represented, he for one did not know. They did not honour a meeting like this with their presence.

He moved—

"That this meeting would fain hope, that her Majesty the Queen will be made cognizant of the fact that a large majority of those who work in factories are females, the number often amounting to two-thirds, and in some instances to three-fmirths of those employed ; and that this meeting confidently believes that her Majesty herself', if the facts of the case are but duly laid before her by her confideutial advisers, will not fail to sympathize with her oppressed sub- jects, and be anxious to redress their wrongs. Whatever coarse, however, her Mai sty's Ministers may think proper to take, warned as they have been by the detection of ninety-three of their ordinary supporters, this meeting feels that the interests involved in this question are of far too sacred a character to permit them to be waived fkr any party or temporary considerations whatever; and it therefore hereby calls upon Lord Ashley and hie Parliamentary supporters to persevere resolutely in the course to which they, in the sight of God and their country, stana pledged, until the ten-hours question is brought to a glorious and triumphant issue."

Supporting this resolution, Mr. S. Smith, a surgeon, used an argu- mentum ad fan:intim-

He knew that twelve hours work in a standing position in factories was posi- tively injurious to any young persons, and more particularly to females. One thing more he would state, as the resolution he seconded alluded to the Queen. He would say, as a medical man, if her Majesty, in her present interesting situation, could have her attention directed to one or two paragraphs of the printed evidence given by him before the Committee oh the House of Commons, she would stamp her foot to the ground, and insist that such a system should at once be put an end to.

Mr. Oestler made a long speech. After some introductory remarks, and announcing his intended route of agitation in Yforkshire, he ren- dered an acknowledgment due- " There is one point I find I malt advert to before I proceed further—it is a circumstance that almost overpowers me when my mind suddenly turns to it. It was but the other day I was in prison. I am here tonight in my native town, among this assembled people, and there sits my deliverer. (Three cheers were given for Mr. Ferrand.) It is impossible that I can in language express to you what I feel; but I hope !may be permitted, inyour presence anti in the preeenee of that God who moved his heart to feel for me, to thank you, Mr. Ferrand, for that liberty which under God is your gift." Be proceeded with the general factory question ' • following Mr. Ferrand in his assailing style of argument. He brought a very heavy charge against Sir James Graham— "1 am one of those who believe that God, who made the mind of man, intended that that mind should be the recipient of his truth, and should have time to contemplate his will, his law, and his works. I am one of those who believe that God, who has given an immortal soul to man, intended that some time at least should be occupied during man's sojourn on earth with the affairs of that immortal soul ; for I believe that as the tree falleth so it must lie.' 'Who, then, is that impious man—who that impious Government—that will dare, from some state-neeessity or other, to shut out a whole laborious po- pulation from the means of improving their minds or of saving their souls? And yet that is the question which Sir James Graham has decided, and he has affirmed that he will stand by that principle, which has been proved over and over again, to prevent the possibility of the people improving their minds or worshiping their God. The question, then, is a serious one—whether we, as a Christian People, will support any man, or any Government, who thus set up their principles in defiance of the will and the law of God."

Lord Brougham, alluding to the argument that factory-women are unable to suckle their children, remarked that ladies of the aristocracy sometimes voluntarily exempt themselves from that first law of nature, without any serious consequences resulting : this drew Mr. Oastler upon him- " But there is another individual who has dared—impiously dared—in an- other House, to charge Almighty God directly with the imposition of all this factory-torture. In speaking of it, he says it grows out of those dispensations of Providence with which man must be content ; and then he goes on ridiculing and treating with sarcastic jeers all who think it possible that by working shorter hours in factories the poor working. people would be benefited. There is one point he touches which is almost too sacred to mention in this assembly, in excusing the most horrible cruelty which is practised under this system upon mothers who give suck to children, and who are dragged from the cradles of their babes to spend the day in the factory, with their breasts boiling over with milk, and their babes crying at home for that nutriment. This noble Lord of whom I speak, ridiculing the idea of there being any pain in all this, absolutely declared to their Lordships that their own wives were sometimes so much en- gaged in other matters, that they avoided those maternal duties ; as if there was any comparison between the hearings of the breasts of their Ladyships, which had been prepared beforehand to be dry, and those boiling bosoms of the poor working mothers, whose sweat trickled down the factory-floors, as I have seen it, mingling with the milk their children ought to have sucked. When I found it was possible for the human mind to ridicule such misery as that— when I found that there was a man that could get up and almost boast that the mothers of the aristocracy excused themselves from nature's duties, I was more shocked at human nature than I ever was at any thing I ever heard before."

He rejoiced that Sir Robert Peel had definitively declared against an eleven-hours bill. From Sir James Graham's calling Lord Ashley "Jack Cade," he prophesied that the Home Secretary would not re- main six months in office ; and he told something about the Queen.

• "I will tell you a secret—her Majesty knows all about it, and her Majesty . has given an opinion about it : I wont tell you what it is : but I was de- lighted to hear it." A petition to the House of Commons, drawn up by Mr. Oastler, was adopted unanimously ; and the meeting separated with the usual com- pliment to the Chairman.

, On Tuesday, Mr. Oastler and Mr. Ferrand attended a meeting in the open air at Bradford, in front of the New Inn. About a mile from the town they were met by a crowd, and escorted to the place of meeting : "Thousands of factory-children," says the Times, "arm in arm, marched in front, and the sides of the streets were occupied by their fathers and mothers. The scene altogether was unique and very im- pressive. Mr. Oastler seemed to be much affected with this spontaneous display of the attachment of his humble admirers." Arrived on the ground, Mr. Oastler, "evidently overpowered by the presence of his infantile congregation," delivered an address to the children ; at the close of which the discriminating reporter puts "(Many tears among the children, and loud cheers from the adults.)' In general, the speeches do not differ materially from those at Leeds, except that they seem to be less elaborately reported. Mr. Ferrand kept up his strain of elo- quence— it was true that the extension of commerce had caused a few to wallow in wealth, but its extension had produced the decrease of the comforts of the labouring classes. Away with tlw extension of commerce, which spread its blessings on people of whom they had never heard or read, and left the operatives themselves in misery and want. He would have every labourer in England well-fed, contented, and happy; the masters prosperous, and the labourers rejoicing to ace them so. ' Mr. Gamier hailed the accession of Lord John Russell, Lord Howick, Mr. Charles Buller, and a host of others, as friends of "the measure": "thus was he ushered into the harbour of friendship, even in the midst of his political antagonists." He called upon the meeting, "from the inmost recesses of his heart, to give three cheers for Lord Joh a Russell " ; and he was duly obeyed. He renewed his assault on the Home Secre- tary; as thus— Ile would tell them why Sir James Graham made himself so very ridiculous before a rational world. Sir James Graham knew that the Queen of England bad an opinion upon this question. He knew that her maternal heart was yearning towards the emancipation of her sex and of the youth of her domi- nions from their excessive toil. He knew that she was not an adept in com- mercial calculations. He therefore was determined to mystify and bewilder the Royal mind, to raise up hobgoblins to frighten her Majesty from her bene- ficent resolution. He knew also that his own tenure of office depended upon his success, and it was for that—that only, that Sir James Graham continued to ring in the House of Commons that the stability of our institutions depends won the excessive labour of women and children in factories.

The proposed resolutions were carried by acclamation.

Huddersfield was the scene of the third meeting, on Wednesday ; the Reverend Josiah Bateman, the Vicar of Huddersfield, filling the chair. The chairman addressed himself to the economical part of the question, admitting that one of three results must occur from a Ten-hours Bill— either the wages of the operatives must be slightly lowered, the prices of manufactured goods must slightly rise, or mill-property must be slightly depreciated ; and he asked his hearers whether they would make a sacrifice for the two hours ? He was answered by cheers, and cries of " Our wages are low enough already : it wont come to that." Mr. Hobson, Secretary of the Short-time Committee, read two letters. Lord John Russell had been invited to attend the Leeds meeting of the 8th ; and in a note dated " Chesham Place, April 9," he replied- " I did not receive your letter till this morning. I could not, however, have attended the meeting at Leeds, being detained in the neighbourhood of London by my private affairs. I may likewise add, that I should prefer visiting the mills at Leeds and Manchester quietly to the excitement of a public meeting. The more facts you can bring in support of Lord Ashley's motion the more powerful will be the impression produced on impartial men."

In another note, Lord Howick declined to discuss the factory-ques- tion anywhere but in the House of Commons. Great part of Mr. Oastler's speech was quieter and more argumentative in manner than those delivered before. He endeavoured to show that no loss would in the long run occur from working short time. He made a candid ad- mission— He appeared there as much the friend of the master as of the operative. Formerly, on this point he bad made very great mi.takes. Be was wont to think that every master who worked his men too heavily was cruel, covetous, avaricious; and because he thought so, be said so. But when he came to look closely into this matter, he found that the master was compelled by the system to be cruel. It was a system that, somehow or other, we had got into as a nation, of which the master was himself the slave, being driven by the compe- tition of his fellows into ruin. Thus hundreds of masters had been, without knowing the cause, reduced to the class of operatives.

He quoted a good answer to a silly saying- " We have unhappily in these days got an idea into our heads, that whatever our position may be, whether manufacturers, woolstaplers, millowners, or land- lords, we have a right to do what we like with our own.' He once men- tioned this to the late Earl of Harewood, who gave him at once the best answer he ever heard to such a principle : his Lordship said, ' I do not believe that any man has a right to do what he will with his own : no man can have a right to do wrong with his own.'"

The Anti-Corn-law League had a great free-trade demonstration at Wolverhampton, on Monday. As there was no suitable building in the place, a pavilion, capable of containing two or three thousand per- sons, was erected in Howley Field, Mr. Barker, a Magistrate and manu- facturer, was called to the chair. The principal speakers were Mr. Vii- Hers and Mr. Thornely, the borough Members ; Mr. Cobden, Mr. R. R. R. Moore, and Colonel Thompson. A. subscription was collected of nearly 8001., including 150/. from the two Members.

The Tyne Mercury of Tuesday reports, that in compliance with reso- lutions passed at the Miners' Conference in Glasgow, a general strike has taken place in Northumberland and Durham. A meeting was held on Monday last, at which 20,000 persons were present, and the follow- ing resolutions were passed- " 1st. That as it is the inherent and lawful right of every Englishman to get the best possible price for his labour, we, the miners of Northumberland and Durham, hereby agree and determine to have a better price for our labour than has hitherto been paid. "2d. That the bends or monthly agreements offered by the coalowners, after due consideration, are of such a nature, that we hereby pledge ourselves, indi- vidually and collectively, not to agree to the same whilst in their present form. "3d. That the bonds drawn out by Mr. Roberts, and approved of by the delegates, are reasonable and just, and we hereby avow our determination to stand by the same. "4th. That as the deputation which waited on the colliery-viewers, with an intention of settling all differences, were not received, this meeting, in order to prevent any lengthened cessation from labour, still declares its willingness that the deputation be at liberty to negotiate with the colliery-owners, should they avow an intention to that effect.

"5th. That as the recent export-duty on coal has bad the effect of injuring the interests of the miners, this meeting resolves to present a memorial to her Majesty's Government, praying for the removal of the same."

The Mercury remarks, that as there was on the 31st March last fully a month's supply of coals on hand in London, and as there is plenty ready to be sent from Scotland, the men are likely to be the greatest sufferers from the strike.

Windsor Steeple-chases began on Tuesday, and were continued on 'Wednesday, with much eclat ; this being the second season since their establishment. The attendance was very numerous. The starting point was a field at the back of Thompson's ; the winning-post was on the high lammas ground called Spittal Hills. The ground was difficult, and victory was often attained at heavy cost. On Monday, the Handicap Steeple-chase of 10 sovereigns each was won by Mr. J. Elmore's Lottery, ridden by Mason : four other horses ran, and one, The Stranger, fell, broke his shoulder-bone, and was shot. Seven horses started for the Military stakes, of 5 sovereigns each with 20 added : Captain Shirley's Orphan fell, and threw his rider, Ricardo ; who re- mounted, and brought the horse in first. Captain Sutton's Jessie fell in a brook, and broke her back. The Hack Steeple-chase was won by Mr. Falkner's Yorkshire Lass, ridden by Sutton. Mr. Newton's Napoleon fell, and was mortally injured.

On Tuesday, the King of the Belgians came upon the ground, in one of the Royal carriages. He was attended by Count Mercy d'Argenteu, the Honourable Charles Murray, and Major Hanins de Moerkerke. In the Hack Steeple-chase of 1 sovereign each with 5 added, ten horses ran ; Mr. Tenant's Cheroot winning, ridden by Mr. Mason. A match for 50 sovereigns between Mr. H. Langley's Cardinal and Captain Thompson's Mermaid, was won by the Cardinal, ridden by the owner. Cardinal went over the course for the Heavy-weight Military stakes, ridden by the owner ; who fell in crossing the ditch in the Lammas, but scrambled out on the opposite side.

At Liverpool Assizes, on Saturday, Beeston, a landing-waiter, with Brocklehurst and Williams, two other persons employed in the Custom- house, were tried on a charge of conspiring to defraud the revenue, and particularly in procuring a certain parcel of coffee to be admitted with- out paying duty, in June last. The principal witness against them was Booth, a locker, whom they had tried to persuade to join them in fraudulently admitting goods : he consented ; but be told Mr. Bulteel, the Acting Surveyor, and Mr. Browns, the Superintending Locker. Accord- ing to the witness, Beeston made the first overtures ; but Williams and Brocklehurst were concerned in the same general temptations, and also in the actual admission of the coffee. Williams said, that if Booth was on a station for goods that paid a heavy duty, such as tea, coffee, or sugar, they could make 1,000/. each month. Mr. Bulteel was cone cealed, witnessed the removal of the coffee in a cart, and was present at its seizure while Williams was engaged in assisting to get it out of the cart. The Jury returned a verdict of guilty against Williams and Brocklehurst ; acquitting Beeston. Sentence was deferred.

At Taunton Assizes, on Monday, Mary and Faith Sealey, two country girls, were arraigned under an indictment for poisoning their father, on the 20th April 1843. Both pleaded " Not guilty " ; and the trial of

Faith proceeded separately. She had confessed that she bought the poison, arsenic ; and she accused Mary Sealey of having administered

it to her father strewed over some fish, and also in lien of physic. This was corroborated by a good deal of circumstantial evidence. The only motive that appeared was, that the girls had refused to come home from a dance at a public-house, and Sealey had gone to the place with a stick, to make them go home. Faith had been heard to say that they could do better without their father than with him, and Mary acquiesced. After a long consultation, the Jury returned a verdict of "Not guilty." On Tuesday, Mary Anne was placed in the dock ; but the evidence being the same, the prosecution was abandoned.

Mary Anne Seale), was then tried for murdering, on the 8th December last, her old aunt, Betty Sealey, who lived in a small kind of closet at- tached to Sealey's cottage. The girl had been heard to threaten the murder ; a gin-bottle belonging to her aunt was found in her box ; a board opening a communication between the cottage and closet was dis- covered; and some girls of bad character, who had been in gaol with the prisoner, said that she had confessed to strangling her aunt. The evidence however was not quite coherent ; and the girl was acquitted.

At Whitwell, in Norfolk, on Monday, William Frost, a respectable "journeyman-farmer," killed three of his children by beating them on the back of the head with a large hammer, and the fourth by holding its head in a pot of water. He seems to have laboured under a fit of religious mania ; for he said that he wished them to go to heaven. He was formerly a preacher among the Ranters, and lately he had joined a sect called "Revivalists." A Coroner's Jury have returned a verdict of "Wilful Murder" against the man, who has been committed for trial.

John Lawrence was executed at Horsham, on Saturday, for the mur- der of Mr. Solomons, the chief Police-constable of Brighton. Before his death, he had become very penitent. He was the son of respectable parents, but very early in life he fell into bad company and vicious courses. Having been entrusted with a cheque for 251., he left his home and spent the money at Brighton, in company with a young woman who had lived with him. When that was gone, and they were reduced to distress, he stole the carpet which led to his arrest. He bad at that time been intoxicated for three days, and scarcely knew what he was about. On the morning of his death, be parted from his uncle and brother ; exhorting his brother, who seems to have resembled him in his mode of life, to take warning by his fate. The brother was much affected ; and the uncle promised to provide for him, at the request of the depart- ing man. Lawrence's sufferings were brief. Very few persons wit- nessed the execution; said to be the first that has taken place in the county for nine years.

At Oxford County Gaol, on Saturday, Richard Elliott, a cigar-dealer of Bell Street, Paddington, was examined on u charge of being concerned with two others, not yet in custody, in robbing the Defiance Oxford coach, of 1,500 sovereigns, on the 18th March. The mcney was de- livered in a bag, by Mr. Robert Hair, clerk to Messrs. Coutts and Co., the great bankers, to Robert Quint, a porter ; who delivered it enclosed in a box and bag to Joseph Hobson, the driver of the Defiance coach, at the Gloucester Coffeehouse ; and the coachman put it into the off-side of the front seat of the coach. Afterwards, he took up a man ; who sat on the box, and saw him put it into the boot. Before reaching Knights- bridge, this box-passenger, who was entered as a " gent " on the way- bill, said that another person wanted to go with bins; and Elliott came out of a gin-shop, and mounted the dicky. A lady got down at Salt Hill; an- other passenger at EarlyBottom; another at Henley Bottom; and at Benson alighted Mr. Shrub, a gentleman who had got up at Cranford Bridge, and Elliott. Nothing was taken from the boot before they arrived at this place ; and the first thing was the carpet-bag of the geatleinan, which was given to his boy. The coachman went into the Crown Inn, to be paid by Elliott, who had pressed him to take a glass of ale. He had seen the bag safe when he was at Cranford Bridge ; hut when he got to the Old Bank at Oxford he could not find it, nor when he searched for it more thoroughly on arriving at the Vine Inn. He asked the bus- passenger and others sitting on the front seat if they saw any person take it ; and they said not. Hobson, however, had left the coach-box at several places before he reached Benson, and was away for five minutes at a time. William Chapman, Mr. Shrub's servant, saw Elliott stand on the splinter-bar of the coach at Benson, and lift up the front-boot ; and Richard Carr, the horse-keeper, also saw "a man" do so, but did not know who he was. Elliott stopped at the Crown that night, and was arrested next morning on suspicion. After his examina- tion on Saturday, the prisoner was remanded, in order to the production of further evidence.