ihnnium.

The only candidate in the field for the representation of Thirsk, vacant by the death of Mr. Bell, is Sir William Payne Gallway, Baronet, son-in- law of Lady Frankland Russell He stands on Protectionist and Pro- testant .principles.

Mr. Sharman Crawford has intimated his intention to resign the repre- sentation of Rochdale, at the next dissolution of Parliament. A dinner is to be given to him by the electors, in the Easter recess. Mr. Pete, the wealthy railway contractor, who lately bought of Lord Suffield the neigh- bouring township of Middleton, is one of the most likely of the persons mentioned as the liberal successor of Mr. Crawford.

The Sussex Express states that Mr. Robert Perfect is about to bid adieu to the borough of Lewes ; in favour of Mr. Henry Brand, son of General Trevor, and for some time private secretary to Sir George Grey.

The Cambridge Chronicle states that Mr. George Frederick Young will be formally invited by "an actual majority of the electors" to stand for Cambridgeshire; and "when the requisition is presented, he will com- ply with it." Mr. Townley, "though an excellent private gentleman," is to be dismissed by the farmers ; and "Mr. Young will be elected in conjunction with Lord John Manners."

A petition against the return of Mr. Thoby Prinsep, for Harwich, has been prepared, and will, it is understood, be prosecutedwith every chance of success.—Daily Netes.

Mr. Hume, M.P., lately moved his brother Magistrates of the Norfolk bench to adopt a resolution in favour of the bill now before Parliament for establishing county financial boards : but his proposition was rejected by a large majority. The Reform Committee of Norwich turned his visit to account, and held a public meeting in the St. Andrew's Mill, under the Sheriff, at which Mr. Hume made a speech to fillip the local Radicalism. Mr. Hume's "veteran services" were duly acknowledged by the citizen speakers.

Some influential inhabitants of Windsor are striving to change the de- termination of the Royal Agricultural Society to hold its annual meeting in Bushy Park : they desire a meeting in the Home Park at Windsor. A deputation has obtained an assurance that the claim may yet be enter- tained.

At Derby. Assizes, on Monday, eleven men and a boy were tried for an offence arising out of a poaching expedition. Entering at night a wood be- longing to Earl Bathurst, they encountered a few keepers : the first one they met, Booth, the head keeper, wanted to retreat from them : but they assailed him, beating him with sticks, and cutting him on the head with a sword. Booth had a loaded gun in his hand, and while he was struggling the charge accidentally exploded, and wounded Rhodes, .a poacher, so that he died in four hours. There were three counts in the indictment, respectively charging the prisoners with an intent to murder Booth, to disable him, or to do him grievous bodily harm. The Jury found all the men guilty of the last offence, acquitting the boy. The sentences varied from transportation for life to eighteen months' imprisonment.

On Saturday, George Clarke, Ann Curtis, and William Cowell, were tried for the murder of Reuben Curtis. Reuben was the husband of Ann ; William Cowell is her brother ; Clarke, aged sixty, is her uncle, and it appeared that she was his paramour. Reuben Curtis was found hanging in a coal-pit shaft, suspended by his coat, and by a hook and a rope of some yards' length; he died as soon as he was drawn up. How came he down the shaft? William Martin, a young man, who gave his evidence with much flippancy and levity, narrated how he saw all the prisoners maltreat the deceased, and then saw Clarke and Cowell put him down the shaft ; but he has been afraid to say so till now. Martin contradicted himself somewhat; anti the Jury

thought they could not convict on his testimony, though they "looked on the prisoners in a very unfavourable light " : verclict, "Not guilty."

At York Assizes, on Monday, Samuel Firth and Joseph lIelliwell were tried for the manslaughter of Saran Ann Riddell, at Halifax. Samuel Firth and his two brothers were cotton-spinners; it was Samuel's department to superintend the engines and boiler, and to overlook Helliwell the engine- tenter. In November last, the boiler exploded, killing twelve workers and wounding seventeen. It was alleged that the disaster resulted from the neg- ligence of the prisoners. Two witnesses opined that the water was deficient in the boiler—a sufficient cause for the disaster. But Mr. Child, an engineer, believed from the appearance of the iron, that the boiler must have been half filled with water ; and he was of opinion that the real cause of the accident was the weak construction of the boiler—a defect that would not have been ap- parent to an ordinary engine-tenter. The steam-gauge was out of order, however,—the " tenter " might judge of that. The Jury gave a verdict of "Not guilty."

Five Irishmen were tried for the murder of John Welsh, at Wednesbury. This was the case where the prisoners and a man not in custody, after they had been heard to threaten to kill "the Welshes," encountered )ohn Welsh, and so maltreated him that he died a few days after. After the attack on John, the savages went in search of a nephew of his, with the avowed object of killing him ; and they made an attack upon his house : the 'Welshes and their friends collected, and a regular Irish fight ensued. The men were con- victed of the lesser offence of manslaughter.

A very fatal boiler-explosion has occurred at the Park Mills, in Stockport, belonging to Mr. Henry Marsland, the late Member. The premises are an extensive and irregular range of very lofty buildings. Nearly five hundred people were employed. On Monday afternoon, a large boiler exploded ; the enormous mass, upwards of forty feet long and proportionately high and broad, was shot like the barrel of a rocket, across the quadrangle formed by the buildings, and driven partly through the solid wall of a structure six. stories high ; the gap made by the immense missile caused the front of the mill to descend, and this in its fall brought down about half the mass of the building. There were usually a hundred people employed in this part of the establishment, but some twenty had been dismissed at the dinner-hour, as a portion of the machinery was to be removed. Every effort was immediately made to rescue the people, and ninny were got out ; but in less than ten minutes unextinguished fires in the flue of the boiler set the ruins in a blase, and the rescuers were compelled to retreat. By means of engines and fire- plugs, the flames were confined to the ruins; but this additional disaster precluded all hope of rescuing the sufferers still under the rubbish. The outer side of the building destroyed was bounded by the river Mersey ; two men, Joseph Smith and John Burgess, were working with two hays in two small rooms, over each other, at the end of the mill. By shouting to each other, the men agreed that there was but one chance of escape left to them, and they resolved each to throw his boy into the river and then jump after him. The boys were accordingly thrown into the river, and were speedily rescued by the crowd assembled on the opposite side. Burgess jumped, fell into the river, and was also rescued alive; but Smith's courage seemed to fail him at the critical moment of taking the leap—he sprang forward, but only a short distance, struck against sonic projection from the wall, and when taken out of the river he was found to be quite dead.

On Wednesday afternoon it had been ascertained that at leak nineteen persons had perished, while five were seriously hurt and many others wire bruised, it was believed that two or three bodies still remained in the ruins. Twelve of those killed were females. Fuller, the fireman, was taken out alive, but died soon after. It is said that the boiler was fitted with every apparatus that seemed likely to give warning of danger and prevent it ; but it is added that there might have been insecurity, from the fact that the bottom of the boiler had not been stayed to the fire-box. A Coroner's J

has met and heard a little evidence ; after which it adjourned till the

of April, in order that Professor liodgkinson and Mr. James Lillie, an en- gineer, may make a report on the cause of the explosion.

A fatal accident has occurred at the Kirkstall station of the Leeds and Bradford Railway, from the incautiousness or error of two ladies. Mrs. Nichols and her sister Miss Leyland entered the station by a wrong gate, one which leads to the goods warehouse, and walked along the side of the warehouse towards the platform. While still on the roadway, an express. train approached, running upon the rails laid rather close to the warehouse wall. A guard and a porter called out to the ladies to warn them ; but they considered themselves to be safe as they were outside the rail, and continued to walk forward. Miss Leyland, who was nearest to the rails, was caught by the engine, whirled round, dragged forward twenty yards, and hurled upon the platform. The unfortunate lady was not expected to recover ; her arm was shattered, her thigh and pelvis broken, and her head crushed.