21 MARCH 1846, Page 8

ebt Vrobinrts.

Mr. Ralph Neville was reelected for Windsor, on Saturday, without op- position or bustle of any kind. He was proposed by Captain Bulkeley, and seconded by Mr. Jennings, the brewer. In his speech Mr. Neville touched upon a variety of topics,—the prosperity of the country, the new commercial system, the battles of the Sutlej, and the Windsor and Staines Atmospheric Railway. After the election, w vote of thanks was passed to the Mayor; who awoke as from a reverie—

Acknowledging the compliment, he had to thank the honourable gentleman for the manner in which he had proposed his health. (Roars of laughter.) He was unacquainted with public speaking, and his health was so often drunk in small parties that he fancied he had been at one of them. (Renewed laughter.) Let the Mayor take courage; Mr. Neville is to give dinners to his sup- porters, at the various inns during the Easter recess; and to a certainty the Mayor will not be forgotten.

It has been finally arranged by the Free-traders of Wigan to return W. E. Gladstone, Esq., the new Secretary for the Colonies, as the repre- sentative of this borough, in the place of Captain Lindsay, who declines to defend his seat. As the Free-traders of all parties have agreed in this choice, of course Mr. Gladstone will be returned without opposition.— Liverpool .Mercstry.

The Duke of Norfolk has resigned his office of President of the Arundel and Bramber Agricultural Association.

The frame-work knitters of Leicester held a meeting last week on the subject of the Tariff. The meeting was called by the Free-traders, but the trade Protectionists outvoted them; declaring, that so far as the hosiery trade was concerned, the change proposed by Government would be inju- 41,--; states "ere to win* English goods On equal Willa.

The agriculturists are preparing for impending change. At a meeting or Malt-tas. Repealers, held at Rye' it was agreed to convene a public) meeting, to consider the best mode of effecting the abolition of the tax, "hi order that the agriculturists may be enabled to meet the great changes contemplated by the Legislature."

Nearly all the works at Birkenhead hair° beth Stepped, owing to the" strikes" of the joiners and masons, A portion of the Brighton. and Chichester Railway, extending from Worthing to Leominster, was opened op Monday. The remainder of the line to Chichester is expected to be opened in the first week of May.

The" navvies" employed on the Blackburn and Preston Railway have dis- tinguished themselves by an act of humanity. A young man who had joined the corps fell ill after working only half a day: his comrades spontaneously supported him for five weeks; defrayed his funeral expenses; and with their own spades discharged the last act of burial.

Last week, upwards of 1,000 of the railway-labourers on the Lancaster and Carlisle Railway, between Clifton and Plumpton, struck and left the works. A large American bark, thirty-nine days from New Orleans, has arrived at Falmouth, with a cargo consisting of 8,250 barrels of flour, 600 sacks of maize, and a quantity of salt beef and pork.—Falmouth Packer.

Very excellent potatoes, to all appearances perfectly sound, were selling in Don- caster market on Saturday last at 5s. 6c1. per sack of ten pecks. Our market • continues to be well supplied; and so far from there being any scarcity, there is every appearance of great abundance. The price quoted above is about 6d. higher per sack than the rates obtained at this period last year.—Doneaater Chronicle. [Why don't the holders send the potatoes to London?]

We are glad to announce that at a numerous assembly of the Oxford Circuit bar mess, on Wednesday, the resolution against reporting was re- scinded by a very large majority.—Morning Chronicle.

At York Assizes, last week, seven men were tried for night-poaching and assault, on the lands of Mr. Waterton, the celebrated naturalist, at Walton Pack near Wakefield. Mr. Waterton was the leading witness. On the night of the 7th January, he set out with a number of followers in search of poachers: they heard guns fired in the park, and presently came upon a body of poachers; the depredators threatened to shoot Mr. Waterton and his myrmidons if they ad- vanced; the men " turned soft," and their leader tried in vain to bring them to. the charge: the poachers got off. Mr. Sergeant Wilkins who appeared for the prisoners, cross-examined the prosecutor. He said all his party were armed— one with a club, the rest with guns; he himself carried an air-gnu and when he felt he was in danger he discharged it. Mr. Sergeant Wilkins asked if a spring

- gun did not go off? Mr. Waterton—" Does not the law of this country forbid the use of spring-guns ? " Mr. Sergeant Wilkins—" That, Sir, is not an answer to the question." Mr. Waterton— If the law forbids the use of spring -guns want to know whether a man is bound by the law to criminate himself ? " Sergeant Wilkins—" I are quite satisfied, Sir, to take that for your answer." Mr. Waterton—" There was, indeed, a tremendous explosion." Other witnesses de- scribed the renconnter, and identified the amused. One of the men examined, Matherer, a fisherman, had acted as spy upon the prisoners; having been paid by a constable to keep them company in order to inform against them. This man told the officer, on the 7th, what would happen that night. He deposed to all the prisoners going to Mr. Waterton's park; he saw three shoot pheasants. Mr. Sergeant Wilkins, in his address to the Jury, commented severely on the employ- ment of Matherer to entrap the prisoners; and cast a deal of ridicule on Mr. Wa. tenon. The Jury acquitted all the prisoners.

At the same Assizes, two men were tried for assaulting and robbing Robert Haigh, a farmer, on the high road. The accused and another man attacked the prosecutor at night while he was returning home from Wakefield on horseback; he made a gallant resistance, but was overpowered, beaten with bludgeons, stabbed, and robbed. While this was going on, two men came up; the thieves knocked one down, and the other ran away. The interruption, however, induced the robbers to make off; but the stoat farmer succeeded in capturing one. The men were found guilty, and sentenced to death; but the Judge intimated that the punish- meat would be commuted to transportation for life. He also directed that 51. should be paid to Mr. Haigh for the valour he had displayed when attacked.

At the Cambridge Assizes, on Tuesday, a trial occurred arising out of a" Town and Gown" riot on the 7th instant. John Freestone, a policeman, was charged with assaulting Mr. Arthur Walsh, the eldest son of Sir John Walsh, and a Fellow- Commoner of Trinity College. The evidence was very contradictory. It was clearly proved, however, that on the night of the 7th there was a very fierce con- flict between the townsmen and gownsmen, arising fromsome bickering which had. occurred at a recent exhibition of the American dwarf; "General Tom Thumb"; both parties were armed with bludgeons and other weapons and they used them freely; the police interfered to put an end to the riot, but the witnesses for the prosecution declared that they increased it by taking part with the townspeople; others deposed to the contrary, throwing all the blame on the gownsmen. A ver- dict of "Guilt " was returned; but the prosecutor recommended the prisoner to the leniency of the Court.

The Reverend Michael Augustus Gathercole, Vicar of Chatteris in the Isle of Ely, was the plaintiff in an action tried at Cambridge on Monday, before Mr. Baron Parke and a special Jury; and Mr. Miall, registered proprietor of the Nonconformist newspaper, (Sir William Molesworth's opponent at the last elec- tion for Southwark,) was the defendant. The action was to recover damages for a libel published in the Nonconformist on the 7th January. The Reverend Mr.: Gathercole had been born and educated a Dissenter, but at the age of twenty-five he embraced the doctrines of the English Church; and was fortunate enough to obtain the living of Chattels, worth about 2,0001. a year. Prior to his accession, the benefits of a clothing society, conducted by ladies, was open to all the parish; but Mr. Gathercole succeeded in dissolving it, and establishing another limited to "members of Christ's holy Church resident in Chatteris." The Nonconformist, as the organ of the Dissenters, took up the case, and abused the zealous Church- man right heartily. It spoke of him as "the notorious Gathercole," as an. apostate Dissenter' who was twice convicted, and once imprisoned for libel, and whose punishment was mitigated on the ground of his poverty; as "the apostate parvenu " a " degraded person," and so forth. Mr. Miall pleaded the general issue.. It was admitted on the part of Mr. Gathercole, that he had been convicted once, but not oftener, for libel while conducting a periodical. For the defence it was contended, that the strictures did not exceed the bounds of fair criticism on the conduct of a public man who had adopted so decided a course as to exclude Dis- senters from the benefit of a parish charity. The Jury returned a verdict for the - plaintiff ; damages 2001.

At Lewes Assizes, on Wednesday, when a trial for trespass came on, a chief witness, Miss Abden, an Unitarian, refused to take an oath; declaring that she had conscientious scruples on the point. Mr. Baron Alderson tried in vain to alter her resolution; and there seemed to be no way to avoid committing her to prison, till the parties concerned agreed to an arbitration. The Judge remarked, that as the Legislature had released persons of particular religious persuasions from taking an oath when they objected to do so conscientiously, he thought it would be a great advantage if the privilege were extended to all persons who conscientiously objeoted to take an oath, without any reference to their religious be

Denyer, a gamekeeper, was tried for the manslaughter of a poacher, whom he shet in Mr. Haslet's preserve near Petworth. It appeared, however, that a fierce struggle had taken r..1.ace between the keepers and poachers, in. the midst of. whicis the man was shot. Denyer was acquitted.

At the Dorchester Assizes, on Saturday, Joseph Way was tried for setting fies- ta a wheat-rick, at Milborn St. Andrew, on the 31st January. On that night two fires occurred in the same neighbourhood; the one in question was the second. A. number of circumstances pointed out Way as the incendiary in this case. He wart present when the people were attempting to extinguish the flames, and he mis- behaved himself: he also remarked aloud—" This is enough to open any farmer's eyes. They turn men away who have a wife and family; they had better give a man a sovereign than turn him away." The prisoner was found guilty, and sentenced to be transported for life. On Monday, Hart, a railway-labourer, was convicted of firing a stack of furze. Mr. Justice Erle, in passing sentence, said there could be no doubt that the prisoner had set fire to the stack; but it seemed dear to him that it was not done with any malicious intention against the prosecutor. He therefore sentenced Hart to be imprisoned for three months with hard labour.

At York Assizes, four young men have been indicted for forging and uttering checks on Messrs. Pease and Liddell, bankers, at Hull. The accused were clerks to Messrs. Brownlow and Company, of Hull, and had engaged in railway 8E001- lation, apparently without possessing any money of their own. Messrs. lirownlow

had an account with the bankers; and checks were cashed, purporting to be drawn by the firm, which turned out to be forgeries. Two of the accused, Edwin Adamson and Hugh Doran, were tried on distinct charges on Wednesday, and both were convict.

Charles Wain a simple-looking young fellow, was committed for trial at Man- chestei last weals, charged with obtaining 25s. from Joseph Morton on the se- curity of a pretended Bank of England five-pound note, which the accused had written in an indifferent hand upon a dirty piece of paper, and in the following terms-

" 1846.

gogeph Wilson Banker of the bank of England in Manchester and Liverpool this bill payable hear or in Chester pleas to send it in this year and pay you Can draw the sum of 5 pounds - Nn Wilson from Wilson 3005 3005 1845."

• Ralph Jokey, the parricide, was executed at Morpeth on Tuesday. He is said to have left a fall confession of his guilt.

Mr. Gardiner, a builder, has been killed at the Brinseombe station of the Great Western Railway, in attempting to cross the line while an express-train was in motion.

A large cotton and India-robber web manufactory at Leicester was bunt down on Saturday night. The fire is supposed to have originated in an escape of gas.