22 DECEMBER 1849, Page 3

ebt Vrobincts.

Mr. Cobden paid a " long anticipated visit " to his Yorkshire constituents in Leeds and its neighbourhood on Tuesday, and addressed " perhaps the most numerous and enthusiastic gathering ever held in the Town-hall " of that borough, on the political topics interesting to his supporters. Mr. Good- man, Mayor of Leeds, Mr. James Garth Marshall, Mr. Hamer Stansfeld, Mr. Edward Baines, Mr. Forbes, Mayor of Bradford, and Mr. Thomas Flint, of Leeds, took part in the proceedings, and made speeches on the subjects of the programme announced by the Chairman—the questions of public expenditure, extension of the suffrage, forty-shilling freeholds, and peace. Mr. Cobden craved indulgence on account of a cold and hoarseness; but spoke for an hour and a half, with characteristic vigour and unbated confidence of language. In the commencement, he observed that a question seemed lately to have been launched anew, which he had fondly hoped he should never have occasion to refer to again—the old worn-out, the old disgusting question of Protection. A question on which nearly two thousand public meetings were held, and hundreds of tons' weight of tracts had been printed and distributed—on which Parliament debated, almost exclusively, for months—which had been agitated through the country continually for eleven years—was now brought up for rediscussion, on the ground, among others, that Protection had been abandoned suddenly I So for as he was concerned, it was from supreme contempt that certain people had lately been al- lowed, without the condescension of an answer, to go about talking and talking. Every man of intellect had abandoned them; and although, as in the case of some unfortunate criminals you read of, the agricultural body writhed after it had lost its head and brains, still it was never again to be treated as a sentient, intelligent hraly, worth holding any discussion with. However, gentlemen in whose judg- ment he had confidence thought that this talk had been allowed too long for the interests of a large portion of the farming class in the country—was preventing the farmers from having an adjustment and arrangement with their landlords; and that there should at once be an end put to the delusion that Protection is regain- ing ground or the country preparing to go back. Such Protectionist noodles he now told, they shall never again have one farthing's worth of protection. They talk of distress and dissatisfaction throughout the whole country. This was the old cry of the uneasy landlords—the same which has never failed to resound through the country ever since the time of the war, whenever the manu- facturing interest has been for two years together in a state of decent prosperity; the same to which in 1822 Lord Castlereagh himself was obliged to reply by re- minding the landlords of that day, that though they were suffering some incon- venience from the price of corn, the manufacturing interest was eminently pros- perous. " You get," said Mr. Cobden, "a couple of stones of decent flour now for three shillings ; two or three years ago you paid four shillings for a single stone. Well, those landlords were satisfied when you were paying four shillings a stone for floor, and now they are dissatisfied when you get two stones for three shil- lings, and they want to go back again to the four shillings for the one stone. Will you let them? (Shouts of "No, no! ") I say, the West Riding of York- shire has been growing more prosperous, and suffering less and less distress, in proportion as the price of corn, of which those landlords complain, has become more moderate; and if they can ever succeed in returning again to the price I have mentioned, four shillings for the stone of flour, you will have your town swarming with paupers, your mills stopping work, and every class and party in this community suffering distress, as they were in 1842 and 1843.°

Scouting the idea of inferring a reaction in the sentiments of the country from the decisions of such places as Reading, Kidderminster, and Cork, he asked for the evidence of change in any large and important community, free and beyond corruption or coercion. Indeed, "I declare, if they will allow me to offer a test which may be called a national test, and if they will promise to abide by it, I will promise to accept the Chiltern Hundreds at the opening of Parliament, and come down for reelection—(Loud cheers)--and if they can return a Member for the West Riding of Yorkshire, pledged to restore one shilliug of corn-law in any shape whatever, then 1 will give up the whole question." (Continued cheering.) The reference to these petty boroughs, and to a system of representation tho- mughly rotten, brought to his mind a political cloud menacing Free-trade from the direction of Ireland. "I see these men's reliance; I have seen it long, and here seen symptoms of this unholy alliance between the Protectionist part of the House of Commons and the landlord class of Ireland, the very name of which stinks in the nostrils of the whole civilized world. Yes, I see that the landlords of Ireland are putting out their force, and inviting, as they say, all their forces to restore protection; and I am told, upon very good authority, that let a dissolution take place the next year, and 90 at least out of the 105 Irish Members would come op pledged to restore the Corn-law. Well, I say if the whole of them came up to restore the Corn-law, they could not do it. . . . . If England subscribes her 8,000,000/. to fill up the void of starvation in that country, then, indeed, you may buy the Indian corn from America to feed the people. But in ordinary times Ire- land must be an exporter of corn; and the object of the landlords of Ireland is to prevent you, the people of England, from getting your corn from America and Russia, in order that you may be forced to go for corn from Ireland; and they may go to work afresh, and put on a new corn-screw, and extort increased rents from their beggared tenantry. Do they think that Englishmen and Yorkshire- men are going to submit to a transaction like this ?" Having warned them that Yorkshire is awake on this point, he could also tell them something else "we don't intend they shall have. They will try to get it out of us in some other shape; and so this new dodge is, that they shall put their taxes off their shoulders on to yours. Their plan is this—that the taxes hitherto put upon the land of the country shall henceforth be paid out of the taxes wrung from the agricultural labourer upon his ounce of tea, and the half-starved needle- woman of London upon her half-pound of sugar. I tell them, I have had my eye upon them from the first, and always expected it. And, mind you, I am afraid we shall have some people joining in this front whom I expected better things. Allusion has been made tonight to my friend Mr. Gisborne; and no one has a higher opinion of his sterling character and racy talent than I have, but I think he has got a twist upon this subject of the burdens of real property. He in the speech to which my friend has referred, By what right or justice should the whole of these local taxes be laid upon the real property of the country ? '" Mr. Cobden's first answer was, that these burdens have been borne by the land from two to three centuries at the least; the land has changed hands a dozen times under them; and the present owners having bought them subject to these burdens, and paid less in consequence, have no right to exemption from them. Another answer is, that the poor have the best right to subsistence from the land; and there is no other security but in the land itself. Other kinds of pro- perty may take wings and fly away; capital may be lost; wages sometimes dis- appear altogether: the real and true security to which people of the country should look is the soil itself. Another reason is, that the land is the only pro- perty which goes on improving. He would admit that the burdens on land have Increased; but the land itself has increased in value far more. Daring the last hundred years the burdens have increased seven millions of money, at an outside view: but the real property upon which those rates are levied—the lands and houses of this country—have increased in value four times as much; and therefore the landlords stand in an infinitely better situation now, paying twelve millions of local rates, than ever they did at any former period in the history of this country. Considering these things, he uttered a warning to the landlord class. "Let them bear in mind what $ir Charles Wood, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, told us in the last session of Parliament, that even including those local rates, and including what they pay of the general taxation of the country, the landed proprietors of this country pay a less amount of taxation in proportion to the local rates of this country than any other people of Europe. Well, I tell them that if they renew the struggle with the whole population of this country, whether for the resumption of the bread- tax, or to transfer the burdens which in justice belong to them to the shoulders of the rest of the community, they will have this question reagitated in a very different spirit from what it was before. (Applause.) Let them take my word for it, they will never have another League agitation carried on with that sub- serviency to strict laical argument which was observed in the last agitation. It cost me some argument, as my friends know, to keep the League from going into some other topic: let but another agitation arise—a serious one, such as these individuals worad try to persuade their followers—let it be seen that they bring the Parliament into such a state of confusion that Government is compelled to dissolve—let it be seen that some man like Lord Stanley is prepared to get into the saddle, and to spur over the country with his heavy paces—and they will hear this question argued in a very different manner from what it was before. (Applause.) They will have the whole aristocratic system under which the country has been governed for the last hundred and fifty years at once torn to pieces; they will have the law of primogeniture and the whole feudal system which remains in this country, and remains on sufferance only after it has been abolished everywhere else—they will have this question brought up in a way which they, weak and foolish men, little expect: and let them once enter the list again, either for another corn-law or for the transference of this taxation upon your shoulders, and I give them my word of promise that they will eome out of the conflict right happy to give up not only the corn-law and any taxation which they are going to try to avoid, but they will be glad to escape by a compo- sition of much heavier terms than that."

"There shall not be a farmer, however dull he may be, but shall understand right well they are humbugs who tell them that in questions of rent and the re- vision of protection or taxation, landlords and farmers, forsooth, row in the same boat. . . . . Being myself a landlord, and possessing land-right in the midst of the greatest landed proprietors of the kingdom and the moat ferocious Protectionists, [the Duke of Richmond and Lord Egremont, in Western Sussex,] I have had an opportunity of testing how far it is practicable by reasonable arrangements with tenants,—I have two of them; they are very small, but they are sufficient to test the principle,—I have had the oppor- tunity of seeing how far it is practicable, by agreeing with tenants, upon land not of first-rate quality even, to secure them in future as good prospects as in times past, and under free trade as well as protection. I am not going to tell you how I did it; but I promise, before the meeting of Parliament I will go into Buckinghamshire—I will have a public meeting at Buckingham or at Ayles- bury, and will explain the whole case, and give every particular, how the land- lord, instead of bawling out for protection, can, by the commonest exercise of judgment, justice, and policy, enable the whole of his land to be cultivated just as it was before, and every farmer and labourer to be in better spirits in future than in times past. I am going into Buckinghamshire to tell the farmers the whole case; and I will tell the whole case, and a little more; but I am not going to trouble you with it now."

With reference to the present transition state, Mr. Cobden declared that he had both expected it and endeavoured to provide for it. "I have always contemplated a transition state in this country, when there would be pinching and suffering in the agricultural class in passing from a vicious system to a sound one: for you cannot be restored from bad health to good without going through a process of languor and suffering. I have always looked forward to that time; and my great aim has been, from, the moment I returned from the Continent, to try to ease that transition by reducing the expenditure of the country. It was with that view that I preferred my budget, and advocated the reduction of your armaments; it is with that view that I have set up arbitration-treaties, to render unnecessary the vast amount of armaments which are kept up between civilized countries. It is with that view, the view of largely reducing the expenditure of the State, and giving relief, amongst others—ay, and especially giving relief to the agricultural classes, that I have made myself the object of the sarcasms of those very people, by going to Paris to attend Peace meetings. It is with that view that I have dwelt upon the Colonies, in showing how you might be carrying out the principle of free trade in giving to the Colonies self-government, and charging them at the same time with the expense of their own government. Tbere is not one of these subjects that I have taken in hand in which I have not had the para- mount motive of serving the agricultural class in this transition state from

protection to free trade How, hitherto, have I been requited by these men? Have I had a single aid from any man ? No; at the close of last session, I was taunted by their leader on account of my want of success. Have you heard them say oae word about the redaction of the expenditure of the country? Has their leader—if I may call him so, for they have a plurality— has he ever said one word to indicate the slightest wish that they desire to re- duce the expenditure? No. I am convinced that it would be distasteful to the landlord party to have a general reduction of the expenditure, particularly in that great preserve of the landlord class for their younger sons, the Army and Navy. I believe they are averse to the reduction of the expenditure—at least they have done nothing to aid those who wished to accomplish it; and now, I tell them again, as I told them before, from this centre, this great metropolis of industry, that to a farthing of protection to agriculture they shall not go. (Cheers.) And if they will make us pay high taxes to keep up useless establish- ments and unnecessary sinecures, and wasteful proceedings in every department of the State, why, they shall pay their share of that taxation—they shall pay their share of that taxation with wheat at forty shillings the quarter." (Renewed cheers, and a voice "Long may you live, my goodfellow r) Mr. Cobden pursued this question of financial economy into its bearings on our system of military government in the Colonies; especially dwelling on the marked prominence given by Sir Robert Peel to the vast expenditure necessary under this head. He had often said that Sir Robert saw the mischief, was endeavouring to direct public opinion to the subject, and as soon as opinion would enable bins to effect a change would be ready to effect it. At the Cape of Good Hope, what is taking place at this very moment? "Why, these very men, whom you have treated as children, incapable of defending themselves against a few untaught savages—they have proclaimed your own Governor in a state of siege—invested your own troops—refused to allow them even provisions—and sent away the Queen's troops and a ship under the colours of the Queen, and won't receive them; and in their speeches and letters the leaders of the Anti-Convict movement don't hesitate to declare that they are ready to defend their country, if necessary, against the whole force of the English empire. (Cheers.) Don't you think there is sufficient English pluck about them to defend themselves against a few untutored savages? The same thing is going on in Australia. They quote the example of America; and some of these people are holding their great meetings on the 4th of July, the anniversary of American independence. I do not respect them the less—I respect them the more. I think they would be unworthy of the name of Englishmen if they did not stand up against their country being made the cesspool for our convict population. (Cheers.) But what I want to show is this, that there is not the shadow of pretence for requiring our armies to defend them."

Mr. Cobden then dealt briefly with the Peace topic; enforcing his views on the subject by reference to the peaceable attitude of the people in the three most werfal nations in the world, the French, the American, and the British. They been taught that Louis Philippe bad kept the French nation at peace; but

Louis Philippe has been driven from his throne, and yet at this moment the masses of the French people are only anxious to remain at home and diminish the pressure of taxation. If anywhere over Europe the black cloud of war is rising, whence did they see it rise? Why., from the black despotism of the North, where one man wields the destinies of twenty million serfs.

In conclusion, he touched upon the question of the change in our representative system which he was so anxious to see made—both an extension and a redievi. billion of the franchise. He repeated his approval and recommendation of the Freehold-qualification movement, originating with Mr. Richard Taylor of Bir- mingham; which, he said, is not difficult to work, and, where organized, 4 rapidly performing its task of putting upon the county-lists a number of new voters at least as great as the whole numbers now on those lists.

The meeting was delighted at Mr. Cobden's oratory; and showed him by exuberant manifestations that his personal and political ascendancy is st noontide among his constituents of the West Riding.

The distressed agriculturists, who attribute their misfortunes to the ac- tion of the legislation in the direction of free trade, persevere in their re_ newed attempts to recover protection. Meetings have been held with this object at Melton, Lincoln, and Cranbrook; not uniformly, however, with the expected result: the meeting at Lincoln is claimed by each party as its own triumph. It was attended by Colonel Sibthorp, Sir Montague Cholmeley, Mr. Christopher, and other Protectionist Members and magnates; and was ostensibly a farmers' gathering of pure Protectionist character. Yet Mr. John Norton, a wealthy, and it seems a "notorious" Free-trade draper of Lincoln, and Mr. Seeley, a wealthy Free-trade miller of the city, found partisans enough to support them in a coarse of plain-speaking which ag. gravatisd the farmers to breaches of the peace, resulting in a general inter- change of fisticuffs and destruction of tables and chairs. The Police was called in to quell the tumult. On the restoration of order, the opposition secured audience to other speakers on their own side, and allowed resole. tions to pass only by the balance of majorities " considerable " or "large." Mr. Norton gave some local statistics, which certainly deprived Mr. Chris. topher's statements of prevailing and severe distress among the labouring classes of some of their force.

He had taken the trouble to go to their union workhouse to make inquiries; and he found that in December last year there were 258 inmates, of whom eight were able-bodied; whereas in the present month there were only 257, of when ten were able-bodied. From a letter he had received from Mr. White,a relieving- officer in the North of the county, he found that at the present time there were not so great a number of labourers out of employ as last year; and that in many parishes the same amount of wages was given as hitherto. The relieving-officer of a Southern district had also informed him that he had now no more applicants for relief than in former years. He admitted that there was some depression felt among some of the tradesmen of the city ; but was himself, though chiefly rely- ing on the custom of the tenant-farmers of the surrounding districts, in no de- spair either of their prospects or his own. He attributed the depression to the operation of past protection in impoverishing the farmers, and to the ellbets of the railway speculations of 1845 and 1846.

After some frank counsels to the tenant-farmers themselves, urging them to look for help in reductions of expenditure, personal and national, he thus ad- dressed thelandlords standing round him on the platform—" Gentlemen, you have your acres; long may you enjoy them I they are a rich heritage to you and to your children. But I am here_, as a working man, to protest against your in- creasing their value by acts of Parliament. Why should you be made richer at the expense of others? Every branch of industry is seeking to make its products cheap. and accessible to all. Why should you have that from which you derive your Incomes bolstered up by selfish legislation? Act in future more generously, and let your incomes be derived from that only which rightfully belongs to yon. It is a melancholy, a miserable spectacle, to see men of wealth uniting to make themselves richer at the expense of others. You have evidence here today, by the presence of your tenantry, to demonstrate that the system which has enriched you has not benefited them. They are here complaining of their condition, after only a short period of cheapness; thus proving that the past system had not filled their pockets. They say that ruin is before them: are you prepared to help them ? For the last ten years, at your public meetings you have been telling them that landlord, tenant, and labourer, must row in the same boat; you beguiled them with this cry: the time has come that will put your sincerity to the test. ("Must they do the tremendous sacrifice ' dodger " Laughter.) There is now no retreat for you but to act justly to your tenantry. The time for deliberation has gone by: there are absolute acts of justice for you to perform—to deliberate is to commit a wrong. Take twenty or thirty per cent off their rents—(" That has been done already")—yon will then be in command of a larger amount of the luxuries and necessaries of life than you were fifteen or twenty years ago; and give greater scope for their skill and capital, and free them from the political bondage in which you hold them. (" What are impudent dog!" Loud laughter) Now a few words for the labourer, for whom we have so much sympathy: how is their condition? Are they housed, fed, clothed, and educated, as the sons of toil ought to be? (" Yes!" and cheers.) Why, sirs, we have swarms of families driven Into our city from the land. Men have to walk miles before they com- mence their daily labour. Is this just either to them or their employers? The landlords were told some years ago by that good man Mr. Drummond, that pro- perty had its duties as well as its rights: let those duties be fulfilled, and seek no longer to increase your splendid incomes by making food scarcer and dearer to your industrious countrymen."

These remarks did not call forth any comment from the subsequent speakers on the Protectionist side. Colonel Sibthorp was received with applause from all his hearers, on account of his personal popularity. He pleaded the remaining effects of his long indisposition, and spoke but a few words. Sir Montague Cholmeley defended himself from charges, on the one side of sitting with the Whigs, and on the other of voting on the " un- popular " or Protectionist side. Mr. Christopher's speech was a continued assertion that protection must be recovered; or if Government won't con- sent to that, it must relieve the farmers of six millions of unjust local bur- dens, and give fair free trade in all things alike. The resolutions which were passed affirmed that "free trade without reciprocity" is the cause of the present distresses; demanded Mr. Christopher's alternatives, and the calling of a formal county meeting on the subject.

The Bishop of St. David's has heightened the esteem in which he is held throughout Wales. On Thursday last week, at the Town-ball of Car- marthen, he delivered a lecture on the subject—chosen by himself—of the Carmarthen Literary and Scientific Institution; advocating the claims of that institution to support.

The Bishop contended, along with the advocates of such institutions, that their object is not to present to the members the acquisition of knowledge as an absolute and supreme end, but to secure benefits available to the members in all their re- lations, not only as such relations affect the individual's usefulness in this world, but also his happiness in the next. Enlarging on this theme, he made some in- teresting comments upon the distorted use to which a celebrated line of Pope has often been put by careless and inaccurate opponents of education- ...A little learning is a dangerous thing :

Drink deep, or taste not the Pierian spring";

This couplet had been attended by a singular fortune, and had obtained a wider fame than probably any other of the poet's lines. It had frequently passed through lips whose owners did not know where to find the lines, nor their true meaning; and did not occur, as was most frequently imagined, in the Essay on Man, but in the equally celebrated Essay on Criticism. The poet was describing the qualifi- cations necessary to enable a person to become a good critic, and he starts by say- 'Of all all the vices which conspire to blind

Man's erring judgment, and misguide the mind, 'What the weak head with strongest bias rules, Is pride, the never-failing vice of fools."

Baying thus first shown that pride—' the never-failing vice of fools'—is a com- mon fault which precludes the possibility of an individual being an adept at cri- ticism, he next proceeds to show that presumptuous ignorance is another fault, and that there are persons who having obtained only a partial glimpse of a sub- ject think at once that they have surveyed the whole. He therefore says— 'Drink deep, or taste not the Pierian spring.

There shallow draughts intoide.ate:the brain, And drinking largely sobers us again.'

This idea is brought out more distictly in the succeeding lines; and as the pas- sage was not long, and ended with a simile which Dr. Johnson said was the best in the English language, he would quote it fully— Fired at first sight with what the muse Imparts, In fearless youth we tempt the heights of arts, While, from the bounded level of our mind, Short views we take, nor see the lengths behind ; But more advanced, behold with strange surprise New distant scenes of endless science rise I So pleased at first the towering Alps we try, Mount o'er the vales and seem to tread the sky ! The eternal snows appear already pass'd, And the first clouds and mountains seem the last. But, those attain'd, we tremble to survey The growing labours of the lengthen'd way ; The increasing prospect tires our wandering eyes, Hills peep o'er hills, and Alps on Alps arise.'

If they extracted the precept from the author's poetry, they would find it to be a plain rule of common sense—so plain that they would inevitably smile when they contrasted its natural simplicity with the glowing beauty of the poet's language. In humbler prose it meant—' Don't undertake to deliver your judgment on any subject which you do not understand, nor till you have thoroughly mastered it; as otherwise you will be in the situation of a traveller who supposes he has ob- tained a fall view of the Alps from the lake of Geneva or the plains of Lombardy."

The Bishop gave his unqualified approbation to the selection of books which had been made ,for the institution, chiefly embracing works of instruction and practical reference; but at the same time expressed his opinion of the good effect of novels containing truthful delineations of character and vivid depictions of scenery. "Millions had been enchanted by the romantic pages of Sir Walter Scott; and many a toiled.out, weary man, owed some enlivened hours of quiet amusement and some balmier sleep to the magic of his pen." A practical peroration, of the following import, wound up the interesting lec- ture, amidst rapturous and prolonged applause. It had been said by a talented and eminent author, that "books are the true level, giving to all who faithfully use them the society-of the best and greatest of their race." But the term "level," as used by Dr. Chaneing to snit the ears of an American audience, was not quite rightly applied, when it is remembered that it is sometimes used as relating to the elevation of one class without depressing another. Books should be rather said to be the true peacemakers and the best preservatives of social order against those which-would seek to elevate none but to depress all. Their presence hum- bles the arrogant and haughty, stills the restlessness of selfish passions, allays the violence of party-spirit, opens the mind to higher views, dilates the heart with noble wishes, and combines the energies of all in an enlightened pursuit of the public _good. He exhorted those whose means enable them to take advantage ef the circumstance, not to throw away the golden opportunity thus presented to them of steering rightly by their influence the onward progress of the vessel. He conjured them, if they would read -the signs of the times aright and were truly anxious for the welfare of their country, not to stand aloof from this movement, -or be content to be deemed cold lookers-on upon the efforts of the people to obtain _knowledge, but to second by their personal and pecuniary example the endea- voursnow being made to improve the condition of the working eleeees, by helping them to husband their precious fragments of time aright., on their employment of which depends mainly the means by which we shall be enabled to solve the great problem of the day—how to combine Liberty with Order, Stability with Progress; that order without which there can be no progress, that progress without which there can be no peace.

This lecture was delivered to the largest and most select audience ever assembled in Carmarthen Town-hall: all the Dissenting ministers of the borough were present, and some from surrounding neighbourhoods distant sixteen miles of" Welsh roads." The Bishop was accompanied by the Re- verend Chancellor Melville, the Venerable Archdeacon Bevan, and Reve- rend D. A. Williams. His condescension was acknowledged by repeated plaudits and by a vote of gratitude.

In the course of the autumn we have recorded numerous festivities of employers and workpeople, but they have all been the compliment of the masters to their hands: we have now to notice an entertainment given by the hands to their employers. On the evening of Wednesday week, the workmen of Messrs. Smith and Booth entertained their masters to a dinner at the Odd Fellows' Hall, in return for the kindness manifested to- wards them at the same house on a former occasion. Upwards of a hun- dred sat down to dinner, amono' whom were Messrs. Smith and Booth. After dinner, the chair was taken by Mr. Joseph Richards, one of the wool- combers, and the vice-chair by Mr. S. Hewett. The wives and sweethearts Of the workmen were admitted, and the evening was spent in danoing, sing- ing, &c.—Halifax Guardian.

The principal houses in Bristol have acceded to the requisition to close their establishments the day before Christmas Day. To the memorial pre- sented to the Mayor he wrote this gracious reply—" I approve of the fore- going, and hope and trust my fellow citizens collectively will accede to the request."— Western Luminary.

The drapers of Trowbridge, Frome, and some other towns in the South- west, have followed the same example.

There has been some serious rioting at Goginan Mines, near Aberystwith, be- tween the native miners and a number of Cornishmen. For a long time the Welshmen have exhibited much jealousy towards the other men and they seem now more violent in their antipathy than ever. Some of the Welshmen have been fined for breaking the windows of a Cornish miner, and for assaults.

At Liverpool Assizes, last week, Bernard Sheridan was tried for the murder of John Hayes. The prisoner was a bricklayer at Manchester; the deceased a weaver. Sheridan was abusing his wife in the street; several persons were en- deavouring to put an end to his violence; Hayes was in the crowd, and as the prisoner was about to strike one Grinellay, Hayes interposed, mid Sheridan stabbed nine in the chest. Several knives, a chisel, and an umbrella-top with blood on it were found on the prisoner; but it was not clear which was the fatal weapon. Sheridan was found guilty of manslaughter only ; and was sentenced to be trans- ported for life. At York Assizes, last week, Richard Scott, a farmer, was tried for attempting to discharge a loaded gun at George Pullen, with intent to murder him. Pullen, a young man, married Scott's daughter against the father's wish; on the even- ing of the wedding-day, Scott went to the house where Pallon and his wife were, carrying a gun with him, and threatening aloud that he would shoot Pillion first and then kill himself; after other violent conduct, the prisoner presented his gun at his son-in-law, and snapped it, but it did not go off. The gun was found to be charged with powder and shot. The verdict was "Guilty," with a recom mendation to mercy on account of the exciting circumstance.

Richard Cluderay, a young man, was found guilty of administering cocculus indices berries and copperas to his infant illegitimate child, with intent to murder it. But a point in the culprit's favour was reserved: the berries were surrounded by a husk, and in the whole state would pass through the body without evil effects: could the giving of berries in that state be an administering of" a poison- ous or destructive thing ? "

On Tuesday, Emma Craven and Edward Craven were tried for concealing the birth of a child. This was the case which has caused so much excitement at Wakefield, from a belief that the father of Emma was also the father of her child.

The young woman was delivered by herself and her father of a dead child; the- father deg a grave in the garden, and buried the body. The first witness ex-

amined, a female servant, said that Miss Craven had a sweetheart—a young man

who went to Australia about two months before the child appeared. Baby-linen had been provided; Miss Craven's door was not locked, and the servant (then en-

tered; Mr. Craven attended to his daughter when ill; he dug the grave where the servant could see him. The Judge here said that this was no concealment of birth, though there was a concealment of the body ; and he directed the Jury to give a verdict of" Not guilty." The defalcations of Haworth, the late actuary of the Rochdale savings-banks are far more extensive than was at first supposed: about 100,0001. is the sum due to depositors; while the money in hand or invested in the Funds is less than

30,0001. A subscription has been commenced to make up the deficiency; and thirteen gentlemen have pat down each a thousand pounds. Some 10,0001. was deposited in the bank by divers benefit societies, which were not enrolled; and it is said that they will, in consequence of non-enrolment, have no legal power to claim repayment if other depositors object. Report says that Haworth recently sent away several boxes of property—one of plate—to America. He has died m debt to numbers of persons, irrespectively of the savings-bank matter. Fires on farms are reported in the vicinity of %Vantage, Buckingham, Walling ford, Hungerford, Cardiff, and at Drayton in Oxfordshire. All are ascribed to in- cendiarism.

Subscriptions have been opened for the widows and children of the twenty men who perished in the Smith Shields life-boat. The Qaeen, the Brethren of the Trinity House, and the Corporation of Newcastle, severally give 1001. The life- boat, since 1841, had gone out to sixty-six vessels, and brought 466 mariners to land: "men of all nations have been necued from death by its instrumentality, and men of all nations should subscribe for the relief of the widows and orphans of the pilots who have perished." The continued rains a fortnight ago caused a destructive flood in the river Otter in East Devon. One bridge was swept away, and another damaged: to replace the one destroyed will cost from 1,4001. to 2,000/. Other damage was done.

The town of Belper has suffered a very serious calamity. On Sunday night, a fire was discovered on the premises of Messrs. Ward, manufacturing hosiers; and, despite every exertion, the extensive premises were in a few hours utterly ruined. The amount of damage is very large. Belper has a population of 10,000; Messrs. Ward employed upwards of 2,000 hands; these will all be thrown out of work, and the disastrous consequence to the whole town is evident.