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Sir Robert Peel presided over the annual meeting of the Tamworth Bible Society, held on Wednesday, in the Town-hall. Sir Robert's speech was the great feature of the proceedings, otherwise of a somewhat formal na- ture. Sir Robert enlarged on the reasons for the necessity of greater exer- tion to disseminate the Bible; among the chief of which were the increase of population, the increased congregation of working people in manufac- tories and railway works, and the extension of colonial establishments. He insisted upon the importance of Christian and especially of Protestant unity; and asserted its moral influence, as shown in the effect of missions to China. He therefore rejoiced at the present meeting, in which, forgetful of mere differences, they were met for a common object- " We make no compromise by meeting for this purpose. I would not meet here today if I thought I was making a compromise of my religious opinions. I avow that lain most decidedly in favour of the Established Church—I am in favour of that form of Christianity established in this country; I give a decided preference to its forms, to its doctrines, and its episcopal order; and I make no sacrifice of my principles by cordially uniting with others who differ with me upon these pouns, but concur with me in that high principle that the Bible con- tains the Word of God. That principle has been so powerfully described by one of the ablest men, that I cannot do better than repeat his own words. By the re- ligion of Protestants,' says Chillingworth, I do not understand the doctrine of Luther, or Calvin, or Melancthon, nor the Confession of Augsburg or Geneva, nor the Catechism of Heidelberg, nor the Articles of the Church of England; no, nor the harmony of Protestant confessions; but that wherein they all agree, and to which they all subscribe with a greater harmony, as a perfect rule of their faith and actions—that is, the Bible: the Bible, I say, the Bible alone, is the religion of Protestants.' Retaining, then, (said Sir Robert) my opinion in favour of the Established Church of this country, but fully concurring in the principles laid down by that writer, I have great pleasure in cooperating with those who differ with me in points of church government, but I have still greater pleasure in co- operating with them in spreading the knowledge of that Word from which we all draw our common faith."

The supporters of Mr. Grantley Berkeley in the election for West Glou- cestershire gave their reelected Member a public dinner on Monday, at Dursay. In his speech of thanks, Mr. Berkeley stated some particulars respecting the means taken to oppose him— "The spontaneous energy of the people has defeated the schemes of three powerful Peers, and defeated their machinations. I say three Peers; because it 18 Of DO use 10 say the Duke of Beaufort did not direct his tenants to vote against

me; for I saw the order. ("Hear hear!" and "Shame!") Lord Ducie did the same. An elector wrote to me and said, 'When you write to me again, disguise your hand; for the postmaster here is in Grenville Berkeley's interest, and will

report your correspondence with me to Lord Dude: ("Shame! ') On hearing this, I wrote to Lord Ducie; and received a reply from Lady Ducie, stating that her lord was ill, and declined interfering in election matters. I replied to her Ladyship, telling her that if the Earl was ill, he could say, yea or nay, would he leave his tenants free to vote for Grantley Berkeley if they pleased ? The only answer I got to this straightforward question was a most insolent letter from Mr.. Morton, the Earl's steward. The Lord-Lieutenant--you all know what he has done: he brought down my brother Augustus, who had not been at his castle for fourteen years, to vote against me: he attempted to induce my brother Henry to take the same course; but he remained neutral; and Craven plumped against me, his brother. ("Shame!") You all know that the most disgusting scenes of debauchery, corruption, and bribery ever witnessed, characterized the late election. We never shall have purity of election so long as the golden sceptre of the peer can make poor men subservient to the point of its own indication. The time however, is coming when lords will be compelled to lay aside the pressure of the coronet and act for the good of the people. (Loud cheers.) Gloucestershire and Monmouthshire have taught the three Lords a lesson. Gentlemen, allow me to thank you again for our proud position. Gratitude will cause me to take a more prominent part in all that concerns your interest and the countryat large than I have hitherto done. Trust me, I will do everything that is free in prin- ciple and correct in purpose. Give me a fair trial, and you will not find me wanting." (Great cheering.) Mr. Berkeley had another triumphal celebration of his return on Wed- nesday; the scene being Coleford, in the Forest of Dean. The proceedings seem to have been of a coarse and uproarious character; Mr. Berkeley adding in his speech to the already more than sufficient number of scan- dalous disclosures— He was once, perhaps, a naughty boy in golden fetters; but the chains of the Peer had been stricken off. He now stood before them free, and free he was de- termined to continue. (Loud cheers.) Why, the nominee had actually written to the Government, a month before the election, asking for a Secretaryship, as the future Member for West Gloucestershire. (Roars of: laughter.) A pretty specimen of independence, supposing the Government had given it him! a seatless Member waiting in the lobby until the people thought proper to demand admit- tance for him! (" That we never mill.") 1 hey had put an extinguisher upon the Peers; but the last lesson seemed to have been thrown away upon Lord Fitzhardinge, who had instructed Mr. Dodd, Mrs. Barker's solicitor, to sue him (Mr. Berkeley) for 191. 13s. 10d., alleged to be due to Mrs. Latham, the housekeeper of Berkeley House, London, for the use of linen, &c., two years ago. ("Shamel") Now, although he could manage to pay 191., he did not mean to do so; for he would not be coerced by the delinquency which shielded itself beneath an unworthy petti- coat; and the world should judge of the issue. (Great cheering.) Earl Fitzhardinge' however, has addressed the following letter to the Times, rebutting the charge that he unduly interfered in the election for West Gloucestershire- " Sir—In your paper of the lath instant you charge me with 'bullying, threat- ening, and attempting to bribe Mr. Grantley Berkeley, and with insulting and. persecuting him '; and you designate me as a 'despot.' Allow me to ask you upon what grounds you utter these very grave imputations? Have you any other authority for them than that of Mr. Grantley Berkeley; who, as an interested and angry party, can hardly be admitted as a trustworthy witness in the dispute? You have, however, the means of judging of the correctness of his representations, in the very fact that he is now the Member for West Gloucestershire; the differ- ence between him and me having originally and, exclusively arisen from certain pecuniary demands he made upon me as indispensable and essential to his hold- ing his Seat for the county. Mr. Grantley Berkeley declared, that unless I gave him the assistance he required, he must resign his seat. I endeavoured to pre- vail upon him to change his resolution: but he peremptorily insisted on withdraw- ing instantly unless upon certain pecuniary conditions. I did not comply with his demands; but nevertheless he now not only retains his seat but bears the cost of an expensive contest. From this fact surely some idea may be formed of the dependence to be placed on Mr. Grantley's representations. There have been various calumnies against me published by him; to which I have not and shall not reply; leaving him in undisturbed possession of all the advantages to be de-. rived from unscrupulous assertion. I content myself with referring to facts which show the reliance to be placed on my accuser's statements. His charges against me are about as true as his representation has proved to be, that his circum- stances compelled him to resign his seat for the county. "Your obedient servant, FITZHARDINGE." "West Cowes, Isle of Wight, August 16."

Our contemporary the Chronicle circulated a statement, which was soon. placarded all over Birmingham, and must have conduced to the Liberal de- feat in North Warwickshire, that Lord Leigh had crossed over to the Tory ranks in Staffordshire, and carried at least 100 votes to Lord Brackley, Mr. Buller's opponent. We have good authority for contradicting this state- ment; which has been sent our contemporary by some heated local party, who assumed without ascertaining or sifting facts. We are assured that Lord Leigh has declared repeatedly, that he held it illegal as a Peer, un- constitutional as a landlord, to exercise influence, directly or indirectly; and that, if his tenantry have voted in the manner reported, their votes have not been carried to the Conservative side by their landlord. That they should have voted for Lord Leigh's son-in-law, is natural enough, if they were attached to him personally, and to the family with which he was con- nected.; In what proportion they split their votes with Lord Brackley or Mr. Buller, we do not know; and from what we hear, Lord Leigh did not know either. But the false report lived long enough to serve its purpose. —Globe.

There was to have been a grand demonstration on Monday on the Low- bands Chartist estate, at Redmarley, in Gloucestershire; but wet weather nearly extinguished the proceedings. The intention was to celebrate the location of allottees; forty-five cottages having been built, and tenanted by shareholders in the scheme; who are to cultivate two, three, or four acres of land, and pay interest in the shape of rent to the company at the rate of five per cent on the outlay. About fifty delegates from various quarters were present, and some thousands of visitors. There were ban- ners and bands of music; and dancing, cricket, and other amnsementa, were to have been enjoyed, while a hustings had been erected for the orators; but torrents of rain upset nearly every arrangement. A correspondent of the Manchester Examiner describes a "new wonder of the world," the Britannia Bridge across the Menai Strait-

" If we suppose ourselves stationed in a boat in the middle of the Menai Strait, a few hundred yards distant from the new bridge on the South aide, h and sup- pose it finished, we shall see a wonder of the world. First, there._ is r t pier rising out of the water, founded on the Britannia_ roce e which bridge is named. This rock can be seen at low-water.. The breadth of this pier is sixty-two feet by fifty-three feet and a quarter of an inch. The blocks of stone

are seven and eight feet long by three and four feet in breadth and deepness, and they rise stone upon stone, until the pier is 230 feet high. "At the distance of 460 feet on each side of this centre pier there rise, near the water's edge, two other piers of the same gigantic breadth and height; while on each side of these two piers, at the distance of 250 feet, there rise two walls. Con- tinuing outwards, the wall on our right hand, on the Carnarvon shore, does not extend its ponderous bulk far back; for the land is high and bold, and the railway ironies along its elevated brow and at once lays hold of the bridge. But on our left hand, which is the Anglesea shore, the wall is the forehead and end of a

mightmighty embankment, on which the railway is raised to the level of the bridge. y then, are the four spaces before us, across which, in the iron tubes, the railway is laid; namely, two spaces on each side of the centre pier of 460 feet each, (let the reader measure 460 feet on a street or on a road, and he will wonder at the vastness of this structure,) and two more spaces of 250 feet respectively at each end. The tubes are eight in number, each of them 30 feet on the exterior side, and 27 feet high in the interior. Each is 14 feet wide, and they are laid in couples parallel to each other. In the whole, with the breadth of the piers and the landward buildings, the length of the bridge is one third of a mile.

"In height the three piers are, as already said, 230 feet. Measuring from low- writer mark to the bottom of the tubes, the height is 130 feet, the tubes being 30 feet on the side, and the pier 70 feet above their upper surface. As ornaments to the two walls which rise upon each shore, are four lions, two at each end of the bridge. The lions contain about 8,000 cubic feet of stone. They lie couched, and yet the height of each is 12 feet; the greatest breadth across the body is 9 feet; the length 25 feet; the breadth of each paw two feet four inches. "The tubes are made of plates of iron of various thicknesses, riveted together. The iron impasses in thickness as we premed towards the centre. The roofs of the tubes are formed of celis, and also the floors. These cells are formed of iron plates set on edge; the cells of the roof being within a fraction of one foot nine inches square, and those of the floor being one foot nine inches wide, and two feet three inches deep. The rails on which the trains run are laid on these cells of the floor. The flat bottom, the two upright sides, and the flat roof of each tube, are fonsed, of plates, the thinnest of which is a quarter of an inch, and the thickest three quarters of an inch. The weight of each of the four long tubes will be about 1,300 tons; the weight of each of the friar abort ones about 600 tons. In the whole there will be at least 7,600 tons of iron used. The masonry was con- tracted for by B. J. Nowell and Co., at 130,0001.; but, from alterations in the plans, ir will cost 200,0001. They expect to finish the masonry by August 1848. It will contain one million and a half of cubic feet of stone."

At Liverpool Assizes, last week, John Gordon, a Manchester chimney-sweeper, was tried for the manslaughter of Thomas Price, a boy in his eighth year. The disgusting particulars of this case were briefly mentioned at the time of their oc- cureenue. The child was sent up the flue of Messrs. Tennant's chemical works, tedium it; some of the hoot, probably from the flue's not having been sufficiently cooled, caught fire at the base of the chimney; the little sweep came out, com-

p of the heat; his master forced him to enter again, and the fumes over- powered Gordon took out the deceased in an insensible state; carried him

lime to his cellar; and there beat him savagely, saying that he thought the boy was " shamming ": the sufferer was then rolling about in the agonies of death ! The prisoner in his defence accused Kerry, a man who went up the flue with Price, of having while in it struck the deceased with a rake. He stated that the bey was very fond of him: he had come by his own wish to live with him and serve him in his trade; and he had always treated the child with kindness. Se- veral witnesses were called who gave evidence to this effect, and among them the boy's mother. The verdict was "guilty"; and Gordon was sentenced to be transported for ten years.

Elizabeth Jackson was tried for wounding with intent to murder Thomas Royle, her son-in-law. The prisoner had some ill feeling towards Boyle; and one night, while he was asleep in bed, she cut his throat, and stabbed him in the chest. She was foandgailty.

On Saturday, Adolphe Schutz, a young Austrian, pleaded guilty to a charge of liming forged a warrant with a view to defraud certain persons of 2,000k The particulars of this case were given a few weeks ago: the youth obtained a letter of credit for 2,00e1. at Vienna; this begot cashed at London; he then passed a forged order for the same sum to a Manchester firm. Nearly the whore of the money has been recovered. Schatz was sentenced to be imprisoned for eighteen months, with hard labour.

Margaret King, a young woman, was tried for pouring boiling water over her husband, with intent to maim him. It appeared that the man was a very bad character; he treated his wife brutally, and insulted her by openly corresponding with other women. One night, when he was in bed, after her feelings had been outraged' by his conduct, she poured a large quantity of boiling water over him; having first attempted to tie him to the bedposts while he slept. For some time the man's life was in danger. The prisoner was found guilty.

On Tuesday, Matthew Gatenby was tried for the murder sif his wife, at Man cheater. The couple were given to drink, particularly the woman: she came home ore ii,.ght drunk, and while she was lying on the floor Gatenby stamped on her, sad beat her with a poker; inflammation of the peritoneum came on; next day. the woman miscarried-; and on the fourth day she died. Before her death she told the medical man, in the presence of the prisoner, that Gatenby had knocked her down on the Saturday before, jumped upon her, and struck her with a poker. The prisoner, who was in liquor, cursed her, and said he wished he had killed her. It appeared that the deceased had been knocked down by a horse in the street a few days before her husband assaulted her. but there was no proof that this had seriously hurt her. The Jury found Gatenby guilty of "manslaughter."

George Leach was indicted for the murder of Francis Dakin at Chorlton-cum- Hardy, by stabbing him. Leach kept a beer-shop; he, deceased, and another man, were drinking, being already very much intoxicated; Leach spoke coarsely of his wife; Dakin took the woman's part, and a quarrel ensued; the prisoner left theroom, and was heard rattling the knives in the kitchen; Dakin went out, and was met in the passage by the accused, who plunged a knife into his heart. When the deed was done, Leach expressed great sorrow. From the drunken state of the parties, it was impossible clearly to ascertain whether a scuffle took place before the man was stabbed. Leach was found guilty of an aggravated manslaughter; and was sentenced to be transported for life.

At Devizes, on Saturday, Francis Vallis was put on his trial for the wil- ful murder of Jane Miller: he was also charged with the manslaughter of the deceased. Vallis and Miller resided at Warminster• they kept company to- gether, under an engagement to marry; and the girl became pregnant. One day she asked Vallis what he meant to do for her and her child? he answered, " No- thing ! " she called him "a blackguard": whereupon he knocked her down, and kicked her. Nine months after, the woman died; and it was found that three of bar ribs were fractured; the immediate cause of death, however, was consumption. In considering the culpability, of the prisoner, therefore, the matter turned on the quettion, did the fracture of the ribs produce the consumption ? The medical testimony on the point was conflicting. The Jury found Vallis guilty of " man- slaughter " only; and he was sentenced to be imprisoned for eighteen months.

In consequence of there being no prisoners nor business of any kind to trans- act at the last Assizes for the v of Radnor, the High Sheriff, Mr. Miles, has presented the Judge, Mr. Justice Cromwell, with a pair of white kid gloves embroidered in gold. Four persons—three men and a woman—have been committed to prison by the Bath Magistrates on a charge of forging a will. One of the accused ,Stephen Ford, is in his eightieth year. In July 1845, Mr. William Slack, an inhabitant of Bathwick, died at Bath; he was a man of property, and his lawyers had pre- pared a will which had been regularly executed by dlr. Slack; but he desired that it should not be proved till six months after his death. During that inter- val, an ill-spelt document was sent to London purporting to be Mr. Slack's will; by which instrument, the four prisoners were well provided for. Of coarse this pretended will was contested, and eventually three of the accused gave up their claims; but Stephen Ford persisted. The result was, that the Judge of the Pre- rogative Court pronounced the case one of forgery in Bath and of perjury in Lon- don. Proceedings were at once instituted against the supposed criminals.

Another case of poisoning with arsenic has come to light, at Warrington. An Mather has been committed for trial on a charge of murdering her husband, a file-maker. The evidence at the inquest was very conclusive: the man died after a sudden illness; arsenic was detected in the body; the accused had bought quantities of arsenic twice, on pretence of killing bugs with it; and other suspicious circumstances were told by the witnesses. It is said that the woman's motive was to obtain the burial-fees from divers clubs to which her husband belonged; and she did receive 201.

The mob at Chepstow during the election, on Wednesday week, were very riotous; and in the evening a number of railway labourers drew a waggon surea with barrels of beer through the streets. In descending the High Street, the ve- hicle was upset, and seven persons were hart: one of them, a young surgeon who had recently settled in the town, has since died.

A disastrous squabble has occurred among a party of English and Irish reap- ers at Chepstow, near Reigate. In the course of the dispute, John MCarthy re- fused to sing; on which George Fisher cut the man over the head with a "fag- ging-hook," and also on the left arm; the wounds on the head were severe, while the two small bones of the arm were completely severed at the elbow from the larger one. The man is in Guy'sHospital, in a dangerous state; and the offender is in custody.

A strange assault took place, last week, at the Regent Road Barrack, in Man- chester. While the band of the First Royal Regiment was practising, seine one threw a sheet over Mr. Castaldini, the band-master; and then all the musicians, with three exceptions, assailed their leader, inflicting on him a sound thrashing. The offenders were immediately placed in confinement: their excuse was, that they had suffered under a long series of harsh and offensive treatment from Mr. Castaldini.

Four men and a boy were engaged, on Sunday morning, in hunting rats in a temporary building on the Huddersfield and Manchester Railway, at Ashton- under-Lyne; to drive out the vermin, they exploded powder in the holes round the bottom of the building; in the store-room was half a cask of blasting-powder; the incautious people fired some powder near this cask; and the barrel New up, with frightful violence. 'Two men have died, and the other two are not expected to recover: the boy suffered least.

Very extensive flour-mills and a brewhouse at Maidenhead, near the Railway station, were destroyed by fire early on Sunday morning. The loss will be heavy.

An appalling accident has occurred at Lord Granville's iron-furnaces in Shel- ton. While six men were standing round a cauldron of molten metal, by some mismanagement water was allowed to run into the furnace, and the metal was blown about in every direction, the roof of the place being also set on fire: the six workmen suffered dreadfully, and three have died of their hurts.