t rrothartz.

Spurred by the Speaker's gazetted notice of a new writ, the general body of Conservatives in Cambridge University have agreed upon a can- didate in preference to Mr. Cowling, the candidate of the johnian party. At a meeting of Ccoaservative members of the Senate, held in Jesus Col- lege Lodge on the 13th, it was resolved that the putting forward of Mr. Cowling would tend practically to exclude a large number of the mem- bers of the Senate from -all share in the approaching election ; and "that ieftsts Wigram, Esq., [formerly of Trinity College,] QC., is admirably qualified to represent and to advocate the great interests of the University in Parliament" A committee was formed to carry out the resolutions. Mr. Wigram, it is -understood, will secure much of the immense influence of his College : he was eighth wrangler in1825, surd is now a distin- guished and successful member of the Chancery bar. The 'candidates for Poole arc reduced to four, by the retirement of Mr. James Adam Gordon, from a fear of dividing the Liberal interest : in his farewell address he declares his hope that 44 whoever wins the day, whether Free-trader or Protectionist, will keep his eye on the African Squadron and the vagaries of the Colonial Office?'

At the dinner after the yearly meeting of the Westmoreland and Cum- berland Agricultural Society, in Carlisle, on Thursday, there was company of mark. The Earl of Carlisle presided, as Lord Brougham had in the preceding year; the Bishop of Carlisle, Sir James Graham, Colonel Low- ther, M.P., the Honourable C. Howard, M.P., and Mr. P. Howard, M.P., were guests. The Earl of Carlisle proposed the toast of the evening- " Success to the Cumberland and Westmoreland Agricultural Society"; and acknowledged that in succeeding Lord Brougham, "who brought qualities so varied and so high to every matter that he touched and which he adorned, he himself might, must appear comparatively flat, tame, and languid."

But an allusion to that "grey old Border castle," Naworth Castle, of- fered him a topic which he pleasantly and characteristically handled. The time was not so many hundred years back when the gates of Na- worth Castle, as of many other similar strong-holds lathe country, were only opened for men clad in mailer doublets of proof, who perhaps not wholly abstained from plunder, and who went abroad with a resolution to share what they could take in addition to the produce of the soil. It was not so much that they were intent on careful husbandry or the best manuring, but their thoughts were rather turned to those fat beeves which he would not presume to say they "robbed," but which they "recovered" from their neighbours across the Border. Well, they had changed their system since then. There were some who fancied that they still admired those days of yore. He certainly loved their pictorial associations, but he thought upon the whole that we had a much better time of it in the present clay. We tilled our lands in safety ; we had no "warder on the wall," or "beacon on the hill," to give us assurance that our flocks were not to be carried off whole- sale, and that our shepherds might go to sleep in safety. Nay more, we could cross the Scottish Border, and make our reoognizances across the Sol- way ; we might stretch our vidottes as far as Eskdale and Liddeadale, not to burn the beeves or to harry the stockyards, but to examine—it might be sometimes to imitate—those processes of agriculture for which our Scottish brethren had obtained such just celebrity. This seemed to him to be the especial advantage of societies and meetings like the present—that our know- ledge might not be confined to what this man might earn in our own parish, or what took place in the next parish or the next ward or the next county, but what occurred in the kingdom at large ; what invention had been tried and tasted elsewhere, what improvements had been put to the actual test of successful operation ; what implements had obtained the prise in other districts ; what are the best modes of rearing and fattening stock • what pedigrees had been most successful in introducing .symmetry of limb and plenty of meat ; to show you, in short, how far you ought threat contented with your present practice, and what you ought to strain at imitating else- where.

Sir James Graham swelled the feeling of personal geniality by historic praises of the Howards.

In its various branches, in many generations, the family of the noble Pre- sident had been distinguished for spotless honour, for social virtue for pub- lic honesty, and for firm attachment to the cause of liberty runi popular rights. Neither the favours nor the frowns of the Court had been able to seduce or overawe that family. Now those were great claims. The father of the noble lord who presided was for a long period the representative of that county in Parliament It was Sir James's good fortune to have been associated with him in the councils of his Sovereign, and he had enjoyed for a long period his cordial friendship. At the close of the evening of his life, looking back to the great transactions iii which he took a part with the no- ble lord, he might freely say on all the occasions—and they were many—in which he agreed with him, were subject matter for gratifying reflection to him ; and that the few occasions on which he had differed from the noble lord were now, even at that late hour, subjeots of painful regret to him. All were disposed to look with kindness upon the eon of such a parent, and he was happy to think that the chairman was worthy of his descent..

Turning to topics more closely connected with the business of the meeting, he there found opportunity to praise the objects of his toast, "the tenantry of the county.' Both the large and small proprietors of the county had shown confidence in agriculture. For every shilling they had expended in improving their property, he believed that during the last thirty years the tenantry had spent at least an equal sum : their industry, skill, and constancy amidst difficulties, could not be too highly praised. On the part of the yeomanry he had seen an outlay so judicious, extensive, and productive as to put to shame the great proprietors themselves. Nor was it confined to them : the great

winners at that day's show had been neither landed proprietors nor yeomen, but tenant-farmeni. He thought, however, the fault of their agriculture was that they ploughed too much. His advice would be to plough lees and to graze more. (Cheers and I:turista:re of disapprobation.) Why, if high farming and good grazing did not pay, scourge crops and bad farming never could pay. It might be said that dairy produce did not answer ; and that butter and cheese also, against the introduction of which from abroad there was a considerable protective duty, had fallen in mice- If that were so, another article was steadily advancing in price, which was. closely connected with good farming. He referred to sheep and the value of wool, in the last seven months there had been no less than 41,000,0W 4,ounds imported from foreign countries, as compared with 34000,000 pounds in the same period of the preceding year. At the same time, the decleured_ value of exports from this country of woollen manufactures had be 8,000,000L worth in the last seven months, as compared with only 4,000,000/. worth in the seven months of the previous year; showing that. there was for wool and woollen manufactures an increase of demand and price. He rejoiced to find, therefore, that there had been established within. the last three months a factory for the produce of woollen goods iu. Carlisle.,

The Freehold Land Societies quietly push their operations. On Mc.. day, the Uxbridge branch took possession, with public celebrations, of eleven acres of fine meadow-land near that town; which will give sixty-four or sixty-six votes for the county of Mielesea to the share- holders. On the same day, the Westminster Sooiety took possession of thirty acres of land at East Moulsey ; for which they have given 47001, and by which they will gain about two hundred and sixty votes for West Surrey.

A stone which, it is said, was employed as a seat in the coronation of nine Anglo-Saxon Kings at Kingston, has been removed from the North side of the old church to an-open apace near the Savings-Bank, opposite the High Street It is placed on a pedestal, surrounded by iron railings. It was inaugurated on Thursday, by the Mayor, Corporation, Freemasons, and townsfolk ; a dejenner, aquatic sports, singing by school-ohildren, and fireworks on the river, giving eclat to the ceremony.

The great explosion to throw down the cliffat Seaford was managed 'with perfect success on Thursday. Seaford is one of the ancient Cinque Ports; it was once a great resort of ships, and extended so far as to have seven parish-churches : down to the time of the Reform Bill it returned two Members to Parliament ; Pitt and Canning were bah on the roll of its representatives. But where the borough once stood, with its busy streets and quays, there is now a rolling sea; a harrier of shingle is the only remaining protection of what stands. Close to Seafood, on its Eastern side, rises a noble line of cliff, in some places 300 feet high, and. averaging above 200. It was determined to project a huge slice of the' cliff to the beach, with a view thereby to constitute a groin for the pur- pose of retaining the shingle and preventing its leaving the bay. The operations have been conducted by the Board of Ordnance, but the owners of land about Seaford contribute towards the expense. The worics were begun about seven weeks ago, and fifty-five men of the Royal Sappers and Miners have been engaged upon them. The Work was supervised by Sir John Burgoyne, Inspector-General of Fortifications; but the immediate' direction was taken by Captain Fromo.

The spot selected is not much above half a mile to the East of Seaford. At a height of about fifty feet above 'high-water mark there was driven into the cliff, or excavated, a tunnel or gallery seventy feet long, six feet high, five feet broad, ascending with a slope of one in three. At the inland extremity it turned right and left in the heart of the cliff, above fifty feet one way and above sixty the other, with a more gentle Recent, the two lonelier gullerioi being four feet six inches high and three feet six inches broad, and the three being in the form of a capital T. At the utmost end of each of the side or cross galleries was a chamber, seven feet cube, lined with wood, and in each chamber a charge of no less than twelve thousand pounds of gun. powder was deposited ; making the distance of the centre of the charge seventy feet from the face of the cliff towards the sea, and about seventy het above high-water mark. The galleries were "tamped," that is, stopped up, with bags of sand, and chalk in bags and loose, to within fifty feet of the mouth ; both branches being tamped up, and twenty feet down the large gallery. Above this charge of powder, and on the top of the cliff, three shafts or pits were sunk to the depth of forty-one feet, and six hundred pounds of gunpowder deposited at the bottom of each; these pits were tamped with chalk. Very near these pits--perilouslynear, it almost seemed— about 180 feet from the edge of the cliff, a small wooden shed was erected, in which were placed three voltaic batteries, two of Groves's and one of Since' cs, for firing the charges : the wires to convey the electric -fluid to each charge were covered with tape and varnished or tarred over; the wires to

two lower charges in the chambers were carried over the top of the cliff.. Just before three-o'clock, apparently upon a signal or instruction from the' top of the cliff, *e men who kept the ground upon the beach moved their boundary-flags some fifty yards further away from the spot which was "the observed of all observers," and required the spectators to remove to a dis- tance which must have been above three hundred yards, if not a quarter of a mile, from the cliff to be blasted. This proceeding seemed to create some timidity here and there, probably from its being taken to indicate that the best judges did not feel quite confident as to the direction or effect of the ex- plosion. With the mass, however, curiosity overcame every other feeling,, and there was not a little reluctance to retire further back. Some ladies were among the last to be induced to keep at a greater 'distance and give the. gunpowder a wider berth. A period of suspense followed : the galvanic spark traversed the wires at twelve minutes past three. At that instant the earth shook with a low moaning throe, and the cliff bent towards the sea • the chalk crooked along a frontage of more than a hundred feet ; and then the whole mass of the' precipice seemed to crumble into pieces and to fall into the sea, but with a motion so stately and slow that you might have thought you oould sit upon. it and ride safely to the beach ou its crest. The dislodged mass formed a. bank about three hundred feet broad and nearly three hundred long towards the sea, and about a hundred feet high. The whole multitude seemed for a few moments paralysed and awe- struck by the strange movement and the slightly trembling ground ; every. one sought to know with aglance that the mass had not force enough to come near him, and that the cliff under which he stood was wife. In a few mo- ments after the cliff had fallen, the crowd upon the beach rushed forward to it. A second fall of chalk, when they had got about half-way, checked thena for an instant, and but for an instant. They. rushed up the mound which the exploded chalk had formed. Although it is a mass of large rough etones for the most part, difficult in many places to climb except by using one's hands as well as feet, yet ladies eagerly clambered up it, and ono gentleman managed to get his horse up. It will probably, like the cliff still standing be rather unsafe for a time, as there is reason to believe that further falls

will follow, considerable masses which have not yet fallen being evidently loosened.

There was no very loud report ; the rumbling noise was probably not heard a mile oft; and was perhaps caused by the splitting of the cliff and fall of the fragments. There seemed to be no smoke, but there was a tremend- ous shower of dust. Those who were in boats a little way out state that they felt a slight shock. It was much stronger on the top of the cliff. Per- sons standing there felt staggered by the shaking of the ground, and one of the batteries was thrown down by it. In Seaford, too, three quarters of a mile oft; glasses upon the table were shaken, and one chimney fell. At New- haven, a distance of three miles, the shock was sensibly felt.

Lord Brougham has been involved in a Border fray. It would seem that there is some difference between his Lordship and the Eamont and Eden Angling Association, as to the right of fishing in the river Eamont, or the right of fishing there at particular seasons. Lord Brougham has lately asserted his right through his keepers, and has furthermore taken parties of visiters to see the sport. He did so last Monday afternoon ; the party, in two carriages, comprising Lord Brougham with his lady, the Marquis of Douro Lady 'Malet, and Master Wil- liam Brougham with his wife and children. The gamekeepers threw -their nets ; on which a party of ten men in ambush rushed forth, sprang into the water, and began a fierce conflict for the nets, attended with ludicrous features from the unsteady footing in the stream. "John de Penrith," a local constable, formally seized the nets -under the Solway Act, which confiscates nets of a certain littleness of -mesh. Lord Brougham shouted to his men with energy, and it is said that Lord Douro could hardly be held by the ladies from joining in the melee. At length the Society's men managed to cut off about eight yards of the net, and made off; eventually to lay the case before the law courts.

We understand that in several parts of Oxfordshire many of the farmers have resolved not to pay the Income-tax, and will submit to a seizure rather

called onto a demand which they consider to be unjust and oppressive, being pre to show that their losses amount to double the SUM which they are

• on to pay in the shape of Income-tax.—Oxford Journal.

. The Preston Chronicle says there are about half a dozen mills in that - town working beyond ten and a half hours daily, adults alone being em- ployed after the completion of that time. The Preston Short Time Com- mittee have memorialized the employers against the practice. The fac- tory operatives of Preston have established a permanent committee to watch the operation of the new act.

Three hundred of the hewers at Monkwearmouth Colliery are "on strike," to resist a change in the method of payment, which, the men allege, will seriously diminish their wages.

During the last two years—that is, from March 1848 to March 1850—the reductions in the parochial assessments on warehouse property in Liverpool have amounted to 19,5891. per annum. This is mainly attributable to the erection of warehouses on the dock-quays.

Mr. Blackhurst, the attorney at Preston, who was recently committed for trial on a charge of having forged a codicil to his late wife's will, has been admitted to bail by Lord Chief Justice Jervis.

Inspector Child, with Constables Bell and Gregson, of the Leeds Police force, attempted, on Sunday week, to arrest an Irishman charged with felony, who lived in North Street, Leeds. As the prisoner was brought out from his house, his Irish neighbours set upon the Policemen and endeavoured to rescue their countryman : after a terrible fight, they succeeded, and carried him off with the handcuffs on his hands; and he has not since been heard of. In the struggle, Anthony Devine, a ringleader, was struck down by a constable, and he died of the blow. At the inquest, on Thursday week, Policeman Gregson stated that he struck the blow which caused Devine's death, after first re- ceiving several blows himself; and that Devine rose after the blow and struck him again. The other Policemen confirmed these statements. But a crowd of Irish witnesses swore that there was no attempt at rescue, and that the Policemen were not molested ; that Policeman Child went up to Devine and "struck him dead as he was quietly standing" ; and that Policeman Gregson never touched him at all. The return of the Jury ran thus— "That the deceased appears to have come to his death by a blow or blows in a riotous affray and an attempt to rescue a prisoner ; that it appears from the evidence adduced that the police.officers used no more force than was necessary for the deten- tion of the prisoner and the preservation of their own lives. Verdict, Justifiable homicide."

The Coroner supposed that the Jury meant justifiable homicide against Samuel Gregson ? The Foreman of the Jury explained,. that they did not fix a fatal blow upon Gregson, Kell, or Child ; but their opinion was that whoever struck the blow was, under the circumstances, perfectly justified in 4. BO doing. One juryman observed, that the statements of the Irish were so ,

discrepant as to be wholly untrustworthy " ; and another declared that the conduct of the Police was " above all praise."

Cambridgeshire is again ravaged by fires, supposed to be wilfully raised. Farming stock and produce worth 15001. have been burnt at Mr. Bonnetes in Comberton. Next night more stacks were discovered to be on fire in the same village ; but the flames were soon got under. The homestead of the Reverend Thomas Brereton, at Steeple Morden, has been destroyed, except the dwelling-house : damage, 30001. A loss as great has occurred at Wrest- lingworth, by the destruction of the farm-premises of Mr. Bird.

Nine men were killed by an accident at the Eastern Counties Railway, on Thursday morning. Upwards of twenty men were engaged near Brentwood station in ballasting the line ; about eight o'clock, they had just emptied a ballast-train ; the morning was very foggy; while some of the men were on the up-line, an up-train dashed into the midst of them : eight were killed on the instant, and another died a minute after. At the inquest, begun the same night, the evidence was rather contradictory. It seems that the ballast- engine was blowing off the steam, and this may help to account for the varia- tion of the testimony on one point : some said the up-train driver blew his whistle, others that he did not. The workmen knew that the train was due about that time ; when a warning was given of its approach, some of the men removed to the space between the lines; those who were killed did not hear the warning, or got confused on seeing the train approach. The up- train was not going very fast ; when the danger of the men was seen, an at- tempt was made to stop the engine, but too late. Some witnesses could not say if all the drivers knew of the ballasting : one stated that they all knew ; a guard declared they never knew where the men were ballasting : a road superintendent, however, stated that the place of ballasting had been altered since the drivers started. There was no fog-signal on the Colchester side of the accident. The driver of the train was Snowdon, who had been on the line about a month ; a steady driver, who had been employed on the Maryport and Carlisle Railway for nine years. Inquiry adjourned till Mon- day. A deaf man has been killed on the East Lancashire Railway, by a train running over him as he crossed the rails near Rawtenstall.

Five men perished in Staffordshire coal-mines last week, by accidents. A collier descended a shaft while the gear was out of order ; the skip ran down with great velocity, and two hundred yards of chain fell upon him. Two men were killed in different pits by falls from the roof. A lad caught hold of a shaft-rope, and amused himself by swinging on it ; suddenly it began to ascend ; he either could not disengage himself from the rope, or had not presence of mind to let go his hold ; he was carried up fifty or sixty yards, and then fell. A miner persisted in penetrating into a working not thoroughly ventilated, and the gas overpowered him ; other men who tried to rescue him nearly shared his fate.