Vroulurial.

The annual dinners at Bristol in aid of the funds of the Colston Charities Were given on Monday. The Neutral Society collected 5861.; the Liberal Society, 5241.; the Tory Society, 5191.; which collectively is a handsome amount. The Liberals dined at the Anchor as is their wont. Mr. Robinson, a Town Councillor, occupied the chair. Mr. Langton was too unwell to attend; but his colleague in the representation of the city, Mr. Henry Berkeley, was present, and. full of vigour. In the opening of his speech he remarked that it is said age chills the blood, but he can only say that a cheer from his Bristol friends would nearly raise him from the dead. The bulk of his speech, however, turned on politics, and his criti- cisms on the Tories, who meet at the eolphin,. were racy and severe. "Lately the Tories have shrunk from polities at these meetings, and for the it time in 'their life begin to say, • Oh, perhaps the lees we say of politica on these Charitable occasions the better.' • (Laughter.) But when we 'remember how vividly they used to look into politics once—how the Dolphitewts the scene of a vast deal of undeniable Toryism once, we must wonder what is the reason why now they are backing out of their former conduct. I think the reason is explained by recent events. The Tories have now very strong party, but they have -very little principle.

,Toryism i itself is dead, while party s strongly alive. Toryism ! There are

many grey heads here who remember what T oryism need to be.. . I will ask- you to walk with me to the Dolphin dinner:. There is no doubt a aplendid and goodly company. There are assembled the beautiful ladies of the city, who have been desired to attend in full dress—at least, so we are informed by a supplementary advertisement from Mr. Aiken, by which both the gentlemen andladies are desired more especially to attend because Mr. Aiken has got a duke. Yes, according to this advertisement there is the arromiee that his Grace the Duke of Beaufort---a most excellent gentleman, I wish he was here—is to attend at the Dolphin dinner ; and, moreover, it aye not only have they a live Duke with a coronet on his head, but there is to- be also Sir Frederick William Slade. (Loud laughter.) 'Walk up lathes and gentlemen ; walk in '—(renewed -- laughter)—says Mr. Aiken, here; gentlemen, you shall see what you shall see—a real Duke with a coronet on his brow, and a live Lawyer stuffed with straw." (Roars of laaghter.) And so they have gone to the Dolphin to see it. hope sincerely they = will pass a pleasant evening I shall be eurlous to learn what principles they are now about to be guided by g they have cut all their old principles. They now go about talking of edireatiorr.—aye, education, which is to be extended to the hungry Dissenter. Is 'that Toryism ? That was not the' Conservatism we used to remember, Mr. Kempster. (' Hear, hear,' and laughter.) There is another gray headants next-him; do you call that Toryism, Mr. Powell ? No, it is not. Whet on earth is Toryism now that they have cut everything ? They have cut the eneouregement-of-ignoranee system they once rejoiced in. They have cut their religious opinions, for the Jews now through their means sit in-Parliament. They have cut their former Conservative principles so far that they have adopted one of the points of the Charter and let people into Parliament without a qualification. They have cut everything, I say. Why, they have even out old Niblett and the White Lion. (Loud cheers and roars of laughter.) . . . . They want a new watchword, a new war- ory. I will tell you what their watchword and their war-cry is now. It is to be found in two shortmonosyllables. The war-cry and the watchword of the Tories is Self and Pelf' and the whole of their principles are based on that,—to attain place, if possible, as Tories—if-not) as semi-Liberals ; and, rather than not have place at all, I believe they would turn Radicals. They have tasted the sweets of office lately. It is dangerous to let wild beasts taste blood, they always become mischievous and I have always observed that Tories. get vicious when they have once had a taste of the Government loaves and -fishes." (Laughter.)

Of course the ballot, the late electoral corruption, and Rifle Volunteers formed topics in Mr. Berkeley's speech, and were each treated in the same off-hand dashing style.

"There is a farce I have seen for twenty years in the House of Commons, exceeding all belief. Such a horrid state of corruption is proved in some borough,—men have been bought wholesale. Mr. So-and-So is supposed to know something about it. He comes into the House in a grave and florid manner, he looks around him, and he says—that is, he makes a declaration by which he states that we are mistaken. What is it, after all ? If any gentlemen are here who frequent the theatre they must have seen the farce of High Life below Stairs, in which there are a couple of rascally serving- men, who mistime the titles of their masters the one being my Lord Duke,' and the other 'Sir Harry.' My. Lord P ° Duke is given to telling lies, or, speaking more politely, to romancing a good deal. Sir Harry each time con- tradicts him flatly. -Whenever he does so, my Lord Duke draws himself up, lays his hand on his heart, and says, 'Upon my honour'; on which Sir Harry raises his hand to his hat, takes it off his head, and says, Oh-h-h.' Now that is what I have seen acted in the House of Commons over and over again. The candidate says, I come to declare that I have not been guilty ; I know nothing of this corruption, upon my honour.' Oh-h-h ! And there the farce ends, and we all know it to be a farce, because we cannot fancy it to ourselves that any third person would go and pay money to elect a man to Parliament for his own pleasure. That is the state of things with which we have to deal. One party sometimes falls into error, and is guilty, as at Gloucester. The Liberals there were exceedingly guilty ; they bribed in the most extensive manner, and not only did they bribe to a great degree, but they did it stupidly. 'The Tories, the moment it was found out, exclaimed, Oh, dreadful ! what a state of things in this world ! Thus it is; these Liberals, who are always talking of purity at elections, bribing away ; we must petition.' They did so; they stated that bribery by the Liberals had taken place. A commission is issued, and then it is found that the Tories have bribed ten times more than the Liberals, and that the only difference was that the Tory agents lied through thick and thin, while the Liberal agents blurted it all out. It is not the genius of Liberals to bribe ; they do it badly, and very stupidly; but it is the genius of Toryism, and they do it to perfection." (Cheers and laughter.) At the Dolphin dinner Mr. Aiken, a banker, presided ; the guests were the Lord High Steward, the Duke of Beaufort, Sir Frederick William Slade, the defeated candidate, and Mr. Edwin Way, from Bath. The speaking was not very remarkable. The Duke called his friend "the eloquent baronet." Sir Frederick plumed himself on having been in- strumental in exposing some of the enormous bribery and lying of which the Liberals have been guilty, turning his guns especially upon Mr. John Bright, not less for the sins of his brothers-in-law, than for his views of taxation and expenditure. He prophesied the triumph of the inevitable blue party in Bristol. Mr. Edwin Way also saw signs of the steady growth of Conservatism in Bristol. He sneered at the Whigs for arro- gating to themselves a monopoly of Liberalism, and hoped to see "the old true blue banner inscribed Church and State' floating over every steeple" in the ancient city of Bristol. Mr. Way regards the Govern- ment as at the mercy of the Conservatives, but he hopes that the for- bearance which they refused to show the Conservatives might be shown to them, "so that their bark maybe able to float on the summer sea, but if they become engulfed in the complicated waves of foreign politics or of Reform, their fate is certain."

The Victoria, a ship of the line of 121 guns, was launched on Saturday at Portsmouth. The Queen, the Prince Consort, the Prince and Princess Frederick William, the younger children of her Majesty, Admiral Bowles, Sir James Scarlett, Sir Baldwin Walker, the Persian Ambassa- dor, were present. The ship was "named" by the Princess Frederick William, and, when liberated, slid into the sea with ease. The launch was a great success. The Victoria, laid down in February, 1856, is the first three-decker in the Navy, built upon original designs as a screw steamer. According to the Cambridge Independent, an important decision was arrived at last week, at Clare College, but not without considerable oppo- sition. In future, the Fellows of that Society are to be allowed to marry, and the Fellowships are to be tenable for ten years.

At the request of many persons, Lord Lyttelton, Lord-Lieutenant of Worcestershire, called a county hall on Saturday, to consider the best method of improving the system of hiring agricultural servants. Among those who took part in the proceedings 'Were the chairman Lord Lyttel- ton, Sir John Pakington, and several county notables. The result of the meeting were resolutions expressing strong disapproval of "the system of hiring servants at statutes or mops" as injurious to the employer and employed ; and the further resolution to establish a Worcestershire Ser- vants' Registration Society, with Lord Lyttelton for president.

The inquiry into the cause of the loss of the Royal Charter began in.St. George's Hall on Tuesday before Mr. Mansfield, the Liverpool Stipend' Magistrate, and. Captain Harris, R.N. Mr. O'Dowd appeared for the Bo

of Trade, and Mr. Aspinall for the owners. On that day the evidence only told the story of the wreck, Strongman' the ship's quartermaster, being the witness. -He told a simple story. It seems that after eight o'clock the vessel would not steer, although sails were set to stay her. They were then in sixteen fathoms of water, and as the depth decreased, first one and then another anchor was let go. They held her for a short time, then the cable parted, and ehe went first in the sand mid then on the rocks. The wind was blowing a hurricane.

Other witnesses were examined on Wednesday—a quartermaster, the car- penter, and second steward. Their evidence was similar to that of Strong- man, except that the carpenter said the ship was "very strong," and that "nothing could stand the beating she got' upon the rocks. She was per- fectly tight during the voyage. The second steward told how he let himself down upon some floating spars; .how while he was there the Captain was washed overboard ; how he Filled him on to the spars, and how he was washed off again. When rescued the first time Captain Taylor said, "There is hope yet.' He was soon after drowned-.

Among the witnesses on Thursday was Rogers, the gallant Maltese who carried the hawser on shore. In attempting that feat he was washed three times against the ship. Hughes, master of the life-boat, said he had lived all his life on that coast, and had never seen such a storm before—never saw such a sea in his life.

The inquiry into the alleged corruption in the Town Council of Norwich, has resulted in the summoning of Mr. Collins and Mr. Croxford before the Magistrates to answer a charge of conspiring to corrupt Mr. Fox, a member of the Town Council. It is stated that Croxford met Fox and offered him 500/. if he would vote for the Tory list of candidates for the office of Alder- man. Fox appeared to acquiesce and agreed to fetch the money from Crox- ford's house. Before he did so he infomred a lawyer of what he was about to do, and then went and obtained the halves of the notes. Fox carried them to the Council Chamber, showed them publicly, explained how he had got them, and voted for the Liberals.

A very shocking murder has occurred at Coventry. One William King- ston, a young man, married a short time ago, but he was so violent in temper that his wife was compelled to obtain protection from the law, and to separate from her husband. Kingston was bound over to keep the peace for a given term. It expired on Saturday, when Kingston, meeting his wife, asked her to live with him again. She refused, and he killed her on the spot with a knife. He imputed their quarrels to her father, and de- clared that he would have killed that person had he met him. Kingston is in custody.

The Yorkshire arid Lancashire papers are full of details of inhuman out- rages perpetrated by a body of ruffians upon two respectable young women who, having missed the last train from a country station, were compelled to return on foot to Halifax. Two men were with the girls, but their aid was of no avail against the half-score of villains with whom they had to contend. Five have been arrested ; they are all identified; and the police, on the look out for three, the vilest of the gang, caught two.

The Halifax Magistrates have committed six men, four of whom have been identified by the two girls, for trial at the Yorkshire Assizes.

Several serious incendiery fires have taken place lately in Cambridge- shire. Willingham, which was so severely devastated a few weeks since by a disastrous conflagration, has been the scene of a second fire, the act, it is believed, of a vile incendiary. Several stacks of grain were consumed, and a reward of 1201. has been offered for the apprehension of the guilty party. Several fires, also supposed to have been wilfully occasioned, have taken place a Stretham, in the Isle of Ely, and a reward of 501. has been offered with the same object as in the former case.

There was a mutiny on board the Princess Royal, at Portsmouth, on the 12th, the day the Victoria was launched. It seems that the sailors had kept holiday in honour of the Queen's visit, and had their wives and friends on board. At eventide leave was given to one watch to go ashore; that there- upon the rest of the crew asked for leave, and being refused showed discon- tent. Admiral Bowles, hearing this, countermanded the leave already given, and the men were marched back on board. Captain Baillie went also to explain ; but the sailors on the lower deck made a great uproar and disobeyed their officers. They were battened down, and when an officer showed himself they flung crockery, swords, bayonets at him. The Ma- rines were stanch, and others arrived in time. Captain Bernie then told the men to surrender at once, or in a few minutes force would be used. Discretion got the better of valour, and the mutineers surrendered. They were arrested and placed in confinement.

Some rogues on Saturday broke a way through a stained glass window in the church of St. Andrew, Plymouth, and entering the church stole the money of the poor, and the velvet covering from the Communion-table. They also tore off the golden fringe from covers and cushions, but dropped much of it in their retreat.