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Elections have taken place at Tavistock and Worcester. At Tavistock, Mr. Trelawny voluntarily resigned his seat, by accept- ing the Chiltern Hundreds ; announcing to the electors that he did not ask them to reelect him, but would sit if they did choose him. The issue has been unfavourable: at the close of the poll, on Wednesday, the num- bers were—For Mr. Samuel Carter, 115; for Mr. Trelawny, 89; for Mr. R. G. Phillimore, 80. At Worcester, Mr. Francis Raiford, the late Protectionist Member, who retired on the ground of commercial disaster, is replaced by Mr. W. Laslett, of Free-trade and Reform principles.

Mr. Walter, Member for Nottingham, has been down to his constitu- ents, and given them explanations of his principles. In the first instance he addressed a gathering of his Conservative supporters ; in the second in-

Among those invited to dine with her Majesty this week, have been the' stance he spoke to a public meeting. Before the first, he appeared as Earl of Derby, Lord John and Lady John -Russell, Lord Claude Hamil- "still pre6minently a representative of the Conservative interests," but

ton, and Mr. and Mrs. Henley. beyond his special declarations on the particular points of policy now most under public attention, were many indications of a policy above all considerations of mere party. At the outset, he explained his own mean- ing of the word " Conservative "— In using the word "Conservative," however, he wished to guard himself against any misapprehension as to its meaning. He did not mean to con- found it with bygone ideas which had once been the symbol of the great ma- jority of that party, but which had, he believed, been generally abandoned; and he had no occasion to repeat what he had often avowed, and what was fully understood by his friends, that the doctrine of Protection in any shape was not one of the articles of his Conservative creed. He could not limit the term "Conservative" to any existing combination of politicians. He had always observed that no party was so Conservative when in office as the Whigs ; and indeed, as regarded financial questions, he thought that party had displayed more Conservative tendencies than the Conservatives them- selves. It appeared to him, therefore, that the time had arrived when it behoved moderate men of all parties to drop those petty differences of opin- ion which had hitherto separated them, and to combine for the purpose of adopting some line of pohcy which might be truly called Conservative, and which, without precluding the introduction of wholesome reforms, would keep down all revolutionary excesses.

On nearly all the questions of the day he gave his frank opinion. Oa Maynooth alone did he expressly "refrain from giving any pledge "—he would only say he thought that to repeal the endowment at this period, would be "highly inexpedient." On the second occasion, when he addressed a public meeting, Mr. Walter repeated very earnestly his advice to the Moderate Liberals and Progressive Conservatives that they should unite into one party—

Not one of the existing parties could govern by itself. Therefore, the question they would hare to decide was, whether the Moderate Conservatives and the Moderate Whigs should unite against men of extreme violent opin- ions, or whether the former, by refusing to have any connexion with Mode- rate Liberals, should drive the latter into the ranks of the Manchester School, and thus form amuch more violent party than one would like to see in the country. This advice was not relished by the Radical portion of the crowd, which seems to have been somewhat preponderant.

The Fire Fiend has been very busy of late in various parts of the country. An immense fire, ascribed to an incendiary, devastated the village of Har- well in Berkshire, on Saturday night and Sunday morning : nearly half the

village was consumed. Eight or nine farm-steadings were wholly destroyed'.; two farm dwelling-houses, four houses with:shops, and thirteen cottages, were swept away ; two dwelling-houses, three cottages' some alms-houses, and a

public-house, were damaged : altogether, thirty families were deprived of their homes. A vagrant had been refused alms on Saturday afternoon ; with an oath, he "wished the village burned down," and subsequently he begged some lucifer-matches at a cottage. Soon after this, at about evening dusk, the fire was discovered ; it seemed to commence at several points at once; there was a strong wind, and the flames soon became unconquerable by the rural engines. Mr. Whitcher, a London Detective, has gone to Harwell to make inquiries.

Cottenham in Cambridgeshire—so often ravaged by fires—suffered again on Thursday week. At three o'clock in the afternoon flames burst from a straw-stack, and rapidly spread ; thirteen houses and cottages were destroyed, with farm-buildings and agricultural produce : loss estimated at 4000/. In- cendiarism is suspected.

The extensive "mosses" in the vicinity of Manchester have been burnt for miles in extent ; the excessive drought having caused any accidental or careless burning of heath or agricultural waste to extend in all directions. A cottage was destroyed at one place, plantations at other places, and large numbers of game-birds and hares were killed: the loss is estimated at thousands of pounds.

On Friday last, some labourers employed in Holme Fen in Huntingdon- shire set fire to a quantity. of "sedge," a strong reedy grass which grows in

the fen, for the purpose of clearing some laud; but the flames rapidly spread over other parts of the fen. It was not till Monday that the fire was con- quered, after ravaging land seven miles long by half a mile to a mile wide. Growing crops of grain and potatoes, and immense piles of "turf," were de- stroyed. The loss by the destruction of the crops alone is computed as high as 20,0001.

Last week, the large silk-factory of Messrs. Hardisty, near Shepton Mel- lott, with five adjoining houses, was burnt to the ground : it was necessary to pull down several buildings to stop the fire. Many men were hurt by the falling of floors.

A spark thrown off by the friction of a shaft set fire to a heap of cotton in Mr. Speakman's spinning-mill at Salford : the building is "fire-proof," and the flames were confined to the room where the disaster originated ; but as many hundred persons were at work at the time, the greatest confusion and alarm arose. Numbers of men lowered themselves by straps and cords from the upper windows.

Hensley House, near Winchester, the residence of Sir William Heathcote, and once occupied by Richard Cromwell, had a narrow escape on Saturday. Some rafters near a chimney caught fire ; but the building was saved.