(At Vrtuuutto.
The reelection of Sir Alexander Cockburn for Southampton took place on Wednesday. The proceedings were entirely formal. In returning thank. Sir Alexander entered into an elaborate review and defence of the policy of the Aberdeen Administration, including the postponement of the Reform Bill.
An inquiry by Government Commissioners was held at Liverpool on Wednesday and Thursday, into the town-dues levied by the Corpora- tion and the dock-dues levied by the Dock Trustees. Among the wit- nesses who denounced the town-dues, were Mr. Heron, Town-Clerk of Manchester' Mr. James Aspinal Turner, Chairman of the Manchester I Commercial Association, and Mr. Marsh, Mayor of Warrington. The right to levy the dues was purchased by the Corporation in 1672, from Lord Molyneux, who held it of the Crown.
At a special meeting of the Bristol Town-Council, on Thursday sen- night, it was resolved that the salary of the Recorder should be reduced from 7001. a year to 3001. a year.
The turn-outs at Preston are threatened with a diminution of their means ; the bad state of trade inducing manufacturers at Blackburn to put their people on short time or to reduce the rate of wages. Blackburn has hitherto supplied a large portion of the subscriptions for the Preston operatives. New hands are obtained very slowly by the Preston masters. The hand-mule spinners and self-actor minders have published an address to the masters of Lancashire, proposing to resume work at a rate of pay equal to the average paid in the district.
A strike is imminent at Stockport. The employers have notified their intention to withdraw the advance of 10 per cent granted to their hands last summer ; the operatives have held meetings, and a majority appear to bo preparing for a turn-out.
.There is great activity in the steam-coal district of the Tyne, from the demand for coal for the Baltic and the East. Freights at one time rose from 451. to 734 a keel to Constantinople. Fourteen or fifteen screw- colliers now steam between the Tyne and the Thames; and an extension of -steam-navigation in this respect would much modify the trade in London.
Atthe Gloucester Assizes, the impostor calling himself "Richard Hsieh Smyth," pretending to be a son of Ilse !eta Sir Hugh Smyth of Ashton.Bealr, Somerset, but believed to be "Tom Previa" of Warminster, was triedtor forging-and-uttering a' will. It will be recollected that this man laid ebdrn to the estates of the Smyth family, -and brought an action of ejectment against the present owners, which he supported by a forged will, a forged family-seal, and a romantic story ; and that he was committed for trial by Mr. Justice Coleridge. Nearly the same evidence wasaddueed on the present as on the former occasion. The prisoner still -persisted that.he was the son of Sir Hugh Smyth ; but of course the Jury did not believe him. He was found guilty of forging and uttering, and sentenced to transportation for twangy years.
There were two executions of capital sentence last week. On Tuesday, Holman, the man who was convicted of murdering his wife at Crowan, suffered at Bodmin. To the last he continued to declare that he merely, in consequence of a quarrel and scuffle, pushed his wife, and that she was fa- tally hurt by the consequent fall : the belief is, that he clove her skull with a hatchet. Some 18,000 persons witnessed his death. Thompson, the as- sassin of Lorenz Bella was hanged at Norwich on Saturday. It has been already mentioned that Thompson confessed his guilt, lie walked to the scaffold with a firm step, and exhibited a callous indifference in his last-mo- menta. The country-people flocked into the city to see the execution, and the crowd nearly equalled that assembled to witness Rush's punishment.
Abraham Robinson, farmer of Blaxton, near Doncaster, has been committed on a charge of having starved and beaten his own mother, thereby accele- rating her death. He kept her at drudgery work ; confined her in a back kitchen without food, 'fire, or bed ; and horsewhipped her when she com- plained.
A tunnel accident has occurred on the Manchester, Sheffield, and Lincoln- shire Railway, showing inadequate precaution. A heavy coal-train entered the Clarborough tunnel ; followed by a light goods-train. The steam of the first, it is said, prevented the driver of the second from seeing what was be- fore him. The goods-train ran into the coal-train ; the driver of the former was killed, and his stoker was dreadfully lacerated. The guard's van of the coal-train was smashed. It seems the guard had left it to make signal to the second train.
The Stoker has since died : he was very badly scalded. A Coroner's 'Jury pronounced a verdict of "Accidental death" ; but added—" It appears to the Jury, from the evidence of the servants employed on the line, that it is the duty of the Directors to have proper signalmen at each end of the Clar- borough tunnel for the safety of persons travelling on the line "—at present there are no signalmen at the tunnel.
An Austrian 40-gun screw steam-frigate, the Radetsky, was launched on Thursday, at Northam, on the Itchin, near Southampton. She is nearly 2000 tons burden5 and will carry heavy metal.
Previous page
