19 JUNE 1841, Page 5

'be Vrobinces.

Tuesday was the anniversary of the Commemoration at Oxford. Prince Albert went over from Nuneham to be present on the occasion. He was received by the Chancellor and the Heads of Houses, arrayed in full state costume ; and then they went in procession to the Theatre. The gallery was filled by a throng of Under- Graduates, who were as uproarious as usual. The Prince sat on the Chancellor's right, and wore the gown of a Doctor of Civil Law over a black suit cut in the style of the Windsor uniform. On the dais were also, the Duke of Marlborough, the Duke of Sutherland, the Marquis of Londonderry, with several members of his family, Lord Prudhoe, Dr. Phillimore, Lord Churchill, Lord Ward, the Marquis of Blandford, the Earl of Liverpool, the Archbishop of York, Sir R. H. Inglis, M.P., Mr. Estcourt, M.P., and Mr. Maclean, M.P. As the procession moved towards the platform, " The Queen and the Prince" was given by the Under-Graduates with great applause. Then followed " The Duke," with equal warmth. "The House of Lords" was repeatedly cheered, as well as "the Con- servative Members of the Commons." " Lord Melbourne," with the Ministers" and " the Whigs" were followed a dozen times by hisses and shouts of derision. The Act of Convocation having been read, the Chancellor read a complimentary address to the Prince ; which was afterwards presented to him in a case of gold. Three cheers for Prince Albert were heartily responded to by nine rounds of applause. The reports say that the Prince acknowledged the compliment with a dig- nified and easy grace, " and manifested a bearing throughout which left nothing to desire in the consort of our gracious Queen." After a Latin address appropriate to the occasion of the Royal visit had been delivered by the Public Orator, the Chancellor conferred the honorary degree of D.C.L. on the Duke of Marlborough, the Duke of Suther- land, the Earl of Liverpool, Earl Camden, Lord Ashley, Lord Prudhoe, Sir John Johnston, Sir Edward Bowater, and Mr. John Loveley, the High Sheriff of the county of Oxford. More political sallies from the students followed. The prize-essays having been recited, the Prince and the Chancellor retired; and the Theatre was speedily cleared. The city afterwards presented an address to the Prince, at the Town- ball ; where he was received by the Mayor, the High Steward, (the Duke of Marlborough,) and the Aldermen and Councillors of the Cor- poration. A county address was then presented by Mr. Loveley, the High Sheriff. The Prince next went to St. John's College ; where a sumptuous entertainment was provided, at which all the Heads of Houses and many of the distinguished visiters were present. After luncheon, he inspected the Bodleian Library, Christ's Church, the Uni- versity Printing-press, and the Museum of Dr. Buckland. He then heard divine service in New College Chapel, the architectural master- piece of Oxford ; where the musical service was chanted by sixteen choristers. At five in the evening he returned to Nuneham to dinner. The Duke of Wellington set out at the same time on a visit to the Duke of Marlborough at Blenheim, whence he intended to return the same evening to Nuneham.

The repeal of the Corn-laws or support of the financial policy of Mi- nisters has been the object of public meetings in Swansea, Lough- borough, Cambridge, (a meeting of Liberal electors,) Gloucester, and Bristol.

The last was a very large meeting. It was held in Ryan's Amphi- theatre, on Monday, for the purpose of receiving a deputation from the Manchester Anti-Corn-law League ; consisting of Mr. John Bright, Mr. Richard Cobden, Mr. George Thompson, and Mr. Lawrence Heyworth. Mr. Cobden made an excellent speech. The meeting, which was una- nimous, agreed to a resolution to promote the return to Parliament of such men only as will vote for the repeal of the Corn-laws. At the close, three cheers each were given for the Queen, Lord John Russell, and Mr. Berkeley, the Liberal Member for the city.

The Gloucester meeting assembled on Monday, in the Tholsel ; but the building was so crowded that they were obliged to adjourn to the Shire-hall. The chief speaker was Mr. John Sturge, a brother of Joseph, and himself a corn-dealer ; who exposed the mischievous work- ing of the sliding scale of corn-duty in enabling the speculator to tamper with the averages. Mr. Phillpotts, the Member for the city, took part in the proceedings, and received the thanks of the meeting for his services in Parliament.

The Operative Anti-Corn-law Association of Manchester convened a public meeting on Wednesday, to hear a discussion between a member of the Association and Dr. Sleigh, the agent of the Central Agricultural Society. Dr. Sleigh had been invited to attend another meeting on Saturday, but he did not come. A Mr. Finnigan was the advocate of repeal. The Doctor, however, was so much interrupted, that he broke off in the midst of his reply. Up to that point his arguments had not been very cogent. He told the meeting, for instance, that the proposed change of the Corn-laws would only make a difference of 10s. in the quarter, or a farthing a pound ; which would be to the consumer a saving of only 7s. 7d. a year; while the loss to him, in reduction of wages, would be 151. 12s. a year. The Doctor's data for this calculation are not reported, if he gave them. After he was gone, the meeting passed a resolution condemning the abrupt termination of the discussion, which he had provoked by statements purposely extravagant.

A meeting of the members of the Epping Agricultural Society was held at Epping Place Inn, on Friday, for the purpose of petitioning Parliament against the Ministerial scheme for altering the Corn-laws. Mr. H. J. Conyers, the President of the Society, took the chair. Mr. George Palmer, M.P., Sir G. Cockburn, and many leading agricul- turists of the neighbourhood were present. The Chairman gave a hit at his fellow agriculturist Mr. Handley, and finished in a characteristic style— He should like to be at the meeting of the Royal Agricultural Society next year, to see what the farmers would say to Mr. Handley when in the chair. He did not approve of that Society's not touching on the Corn-laws because they were politics. He was an old foxhunter, and he said to the electors of England as he said to his hounds, " Do your duty! The Ministers are shift-

ing, trembling, doubling, and running short ; go on my lads, and I shall have the honour of crying Who-oop.'" A subscription having been proposed to pay the expenses of the day, the Chairman said he would pay them himself: and he would say another thing—he had a son-in-law learned in the law, and he had sent him to Shrewsbury to turn out the Radical. He said to him, " Go on, for every tree on my estate shall be cut down if necessary to return you the representative of Shrewsbury." A correspondent of the Morning Chronicle has furnished the following analysis of the meeting : be writes from Three Cranes Wharf, and offers to give the names of parties-

" Farmers 21, parsons 3, gentlemen 6, (some strangers,) lawyers 2, farmer's apprentice 1, steward 1, major 1, constable 1, paid secretary 1, George Palmer, (M.P.) 1; total 38."

Hampton and Moulsey Races began on Wednesday. Thursday was the " grand day." The river, the road from London, and the road from the Railway-station at Esher, were so thronged with boats and carriages that collisions were frequent ; and the concourse on the ground is said to have been " awful." Among the visiters, was Prince George of Cambridge. The principal race was that for the Queen's plate of 100 guineas, in three heats. The prize was carried off by Mr. Goodman's Belgrade, against three other horses. The winner did not attempt a victory in the first heat, but won the two others easily. The racing lasted from two o'clock till seven in the evening.

On Friday last, Dr. Pepys, on proceeding to take possession of the Palace at Worcester as the new Bishop, was refused admission by people already in charge of it on behalf of a creditor to the previous occupant. It was not till the Bishop had gone to London and paid a large sum to the creditor, that a compromise was made, and the Prelate's family allowed to enter. The people of Worcester were greatly scanda- lized by the event. Mr. Hyde, a solicitor of Worcester, has written a letter to the Standard, explaining that the Palace was not closed against the Bishop, and that it was altogether owing to a mistake that he was put to inconvenience.

Windsor is in a ferment on account of some miraculous noises which are daily and nightly heard in a house called Want's Grove, at Clewer. They resemble a rapping of the knuckles on a board, and are audible five hundred yards off. So strong is the witchcraft, that a door has once been broken in two and once forced off its hinges. All the usual excitement is felt on the occasion : people have watched at night ; and the house is visited by crowds, including the Magistrates of the place. Meauwhile, all the people in the neighbourhood are giving notices of quittance to their landlords.

On Sunday, a Mr. Brandz, master of a Copenhagen vessel lying off the quay at Berwick, hoisted the Union Jack at his mast-head, at the bottom of all his colours, and underneath the national flag of Denmark. A boat's crew rowed off from the Queen's cutter Mermaid, under the command of 'Waters the gunner, and boarded the Dane. Waters went below without ceremony, brought Brandz on deck, and compelled him to order his mate to pull down the flags, and to apologize himself for the insult he had offered. Brandz had been interfered with by the constable on the Sunday before, for amusing his crew with music and dancing on deck ; and he is supposed to have taken this method of venting his spleen.

At Milltown, in Derbyshire, on Friday last, one John Towndrow, upon a quarrel about some property, murdered his wife by breaking her skull with a hammer, and then killed himself by cutting his throat with a razor. Towndrow was a farmer, and formerly possessed con- siderable wealth ; but lately his circumstances were much reduced. He and his wife had been married forty years, and during that time had been the parents of twelve children ; but for three years past they had been estranged from each other. A short time before he killed himself, he mentioned to a friend that some property had lately been left to his wife, and he said that she would not let him have a part which he wanted, but that he was bent upon having it. On a shelf behind a staircase, a hammer was found, covered with blood, but seeming to have been wiped. A razor and sheath were on the house-table, and a bloody razor lay at the dead woman's side. The breakfast-things were set in order, and the tea was poured out. The chairs were lying upset in front of the tea- table, and the wife's spectacles were on the hearth. It is thought that a quarrel arose at breakfast ; when the husband, follow- ing his wife into the kitchen, stunned her with the hammer ; that he then replaced the hammer on the shelf and brought his razors from the house-cupboard, to make sure of his wife's death and accomplish his own. A Coroner's inquest was held on the next day, when a verdict of "Temporary Insanity" was returned with respect to the husband.