Vrouiuriat.

The seat for Cambridge University, vacated by the death of Mr. GouI- burn, will, it seems, he stoutly contested. The rival candidates have issued their addresses, and their friends have formed committees in Lon- don and Cambridge for carrying on the battle. Mr. Walpole was adopted as a candidate, at a meeting of his friends in Cambridge on Saturday, without the formality of a requisition, and a committee was instantly formed. MT. Walpole, in his address, refers to his "votes and his con- duct" as the test of his political opinions and principles. Mr. Denman is more explicit. Starling with a distinct proviso that he must go to Parliament, if elected, "unfettered by pledges," he announces that he is a sincere member of the Church of England; and that he "considers it as the most important function of the 'University to educate the clergy and gentry, and through them all classes, in the principles of true reli- gion. Entirely free from party views and party ties, his " opinions generally are Liberal, but Conservative." The ability and judgment with which the affairs of the country have been administered by the present Government in most trying times would render him desirous to give them his support. On the question of peace or war, he expresses a hope that no effdrts will be spared to prosecute the war with vigour until a solid and well-secured peace be obtained; and when that peace is obtained, he hopes that our naval and military establishments will never be allowed to fall to the low ebb to which they had sunk at the com- mencement of the present war." "I should gladly support such measures as would best enable the Univer- sity to carry out its own progressive improvement, and aid its efficiency as a greatinstrument of liberal education. lam, however, sincerely attached to the system of a body of independent Colleges, free from all unnecessary ex- ternal control or interference. I should be disposed to consider favourably any sound and well-considered ,plan for giving to the University a real and complete representative system. ' A letter from Mr. Arthur Helps to Mr. E. H. Bunbury, Chairman of Mr. Denman's London Committee, which appears among our advertise- ments, informs us that Mr. Helps had been solicited to become a candi- date; that he had agreed to stand if a requisition were addressed to him, but that, as his friends were too late in the field, he felt absolved from moving any further in the matter ; and he tenders his vote for Mr_ George Denman. Mr. Helps's reasons for accepting the proposal of his friends will interest our readers- . " You will probably be surprised that I should have consented, even con- ditionally, to come forward ; for I have more work to do than I know how to get through ; and there is no one, I imagine, to whom personally a Par- liamentary, life would be less attractive. But there are social questions to which, and to the legislation about which, I have of late years given much attention ; and it seems to me (perhaps with the captiousness of a bystander) that these questions are not adequately discussed in Parliament, and that even the voice of one additional person who cares about them might be valu- able. I felt it, therefore, to be a duty not to reject such an opportunity of becoming a candidate, whatever presumption there might be in seeking to represent a constituency who may justly demand to have the first men in the country as their representatives."

Mr. Samuel Warren, the Recorder of Hull, is mentioned as the pro- bable successor of Mr. Walpole in the representation of Midhurst.

Three candidates officially announced their intention of contending for the vacant seat at Hereford. One was a Conservative—Mr. Evans of Suftou Court; the other two were Liberals—Mr. Clive, the London Police Magistrate, and Mr. Bicldulph, of Ledbury. But, feeling their chances of carrying their man endangered by the rivalry of two candi- dates, the Liberals met in friendly consultation, and it was decided that Mr. Biddulph should give way. The " independent " electors are not quite satisfied with the issue. Mr. Clive is in favour of the ballot ; both candidates are advocates of vigorous war, as the only mode of obtaining an honourable peace.

Mr. John Blackett, Member for Newcastle, who continues to suffer from ill health, and who is now on the Continent, will resign his seat on the meeting of Parliament. Mr. George Ridley, son of the late Sir Matthew ]lidley, many years Member for Newcastle, is spoken of as a candidate in the Liberal interest.

A meeting was held in the Birmingham Town-hall last week, at the suggestion of the local Income-tax Reform Association, to consider that old grievance, "the unjust operation of the tax upon income, with a view to its more equitable adjustment and imposition." Mr. Arthur Ryland, in the unavoidable absence of the Mayor, presided; and Mr. Mintz and Mr. Scholefield, the Borough Members, Mr. T. A. Attwood, Mr. G. Turner, and Mr. F. Wines, were the speakers. Mr. Muntz took some pains to disclaim the imputation that he and those with whom he was acting, wanted to get rid of the war. The war is a war of justice and necessity : the only peace he would submit to is one that will give security to the world, and not one which will only give a little breathing- time to our enemies, and oblige us ere long to begin everything de novo. But the longer the war lasts, the more impossible will it be to repeal the Income-tax ; and that is an additional reason why it should be made just in its operation. Mr. Scholefield took a similar view, and adduced facts to show the injustice inflicted by the operation of the tax. The meeting unanimously resolved, that "the present system of levying a tax on industrial incomes is unjust ; that an equitable adjustment is es- sentially necessary ; and that the iniquitous powers under which the tax is now assessed ought to be abolished." They also adopted a memorial to the Chancellor of the Exchequer, setting forth the evils that attend the collection of the tax ; praying that a remedy may be found and ap- plied, and suggesting one themselves—" the capitalization of all in- comes, and the conversion of the tax into a property-tax upon such capi- talization, according to the plan suggested by the Income-tax Reform Association established in Birmingham in May 1865."

The University and City of Oxford recorded, on Wednesday, their sanction of the movement set on foot in London to raise a Nightingale Fund. The meeting was convened by the Mayor, and held in the Town- hall. The Bishop of Oxford presided ; the Vice-Chancellor, the Provost of Queen's College, and the Principal of Magdalen Hall, represented the University ; the Mayor, Alderman Saddler and Alderman Spiers' repre- sented the city; and Mr. Sidney Herbert appeared and spoke as a deputa- tion from the London Committee to expound the objects for which the fund is to be raised. The most cordial approval of the project was ex- pressed by all the speakers and the resolutions adopted only embodied that approval in official language.

Some gentlemen of Sunderland have formed a Naval Patriotic Asso- ciation, for the laudable "purpose of raising a sum of money, with the object of manning, with seamen of that port, one or more of the gun-boats now building there for the service of the country." They applied to the Lords of the Admiralty for their sanction, and for information regarding the number of a gun-boat's crew, the terms of service' and the wages of the men. Mr. Phinn' on the part of the Admiralty, conveys the best thanks of the Board to the founders of this project, accepts their offer of service, and sends all the needful information. On Monday the Asso- ciation met and at once subscribed 300/.

At the annual meeting of the Manchester Commercial Association, on Monday, the Chairman, Mr. Aspinall Turner, made some interesting remarks on the effect of the war upon commerce— The state of mercantile affiiirs during the past year has not been so disas- trous as might naturally have been expected. Although the exports from this country during the past year had not been generally remunerative this was in some degree mitigated by the generally favourable results of returns; and he believed the merchants, at all events, had not had a very unprofit- able year, although in some quarters there might have been difficulties and loss. To our manufacturers he thought the result might have been different, but to the operative classes he believed it had been a comparatively pros- perous year ; for although provisions had been high in price, exployment

been pretty constant. He hoped that peace would not deprive us of the great advantages that have been gained by the opening of the Black Sea to commerce.

Another section of his speech referred to "excessive charges" in the Manchester Bankruptcy Court ; and he illustrated the present state of things by an anecdote—

He had, he said, the authority of Mr. Commissioner Skirrow for saying that the messenger of his own court had received, between January 1st and Decembef 18th 1855, above 20001.; out of which there actually went into the messenger's own pocket at least 14001. The duties of such an office certainly did not require a collegiate education, but the talented individual who now filled it was receiving a larger income than many full beneficed clergymen in this country.

The annual distribution of prizes at the Chatham Street School of Medicine, Manchester, took place on Tuesday afternoon. The dis- tributor was Sir James Kay Shuttleworth ; who delivered the prefatory address which usually precedes the distribution. The greater part of his discourse was intended to show how much the art of medicine has been affected by the progress of the exact sciences, and even the form of meta- physical philosophy ; and to inculcate the necessity of exact research, especially chemical research, for the purpose of raising medicine from empiricism into science.

He reminded his hearers, many of whom were medical men, that our own treatment of scurvy by a vegetable diet and citric acid—the more recent ap_ plication of lemon-juice to the cure of rheumatism—the use of iodine in cretinism, goitre, and strnmous disease—and the treatment of a large class of maladies by the use of fatty matters, such as cod-liver oil, are rather facts evolved by empirical observation than logical, industrious, pure scientific, research. He pointed out how much remains to be accomplished in organic chemistry and histological anatomy and other directions.

Medical science, he said tower& the close of his discourse, rises to the dignity of a science, in proportion as it employs every power for the obser- vation of nature which general science yields. The art can never be gene- rally raised into a science, unless the schools of medicine are regarded as parts of the great university of learning. The Ministry of Education which will soon exist in England must apply itself to combine them into one har- monious college, presiding over medical education and public health, and forming one department of the great university of learning. We have a right to demand uniformity of qualification throughout the United_ King- dom in each of the three ranks of the profession ; a perfect freedom of prac- tice untrammelled by medireval privileges ; and a representative system which should provide for the incorporation of the profession into one great self-governing body, in relation to which the Ministry of Education might represent the central power of the State.

Mr. John Bright has been entertaining the good folks of Rochdale with a discourse in their Town-hall on capital punishment. He was not the appointed lecturer. Mr. Dymond, Secretary- to the Association for the Abolition of Capital Punishment, stood up in Oast capacity. Mr. Bright's lecture was the contribution expected from him' by the audience, over whom he exercised the functions of chairman. There was little if any novelty in the discourse. Mr. Bright brought forward the well-worn arguments on the subject; dwelling much on the sanguinary criminal code of thirty years ago, in -contrast to that founded by Penn and his colleagues in Pennsylvania in the reign of Charles the Second, where capital punishment was retained for murders only ; discrediting the tes- timony of judges as to its efficiency ; bringing forward the testimony of a policeman as to its absolute character as a provocative of murder; and laying it down very broadly that capital punishment "is as great a blun- der as it is abhorrent to everything that is humane and everything that is Christian." If Mr. Bright could imagine himself to be all the people, subject to all the danger peeple would run from the abolition of capital punishment, he would abolish it at once and feel life and property and everything more secure thereby. He ventured to express his belief that, before long, and in the lifetime of many then present in the Rochdale Town-hall, the gallows will ho cut down never again to be reerected, and the law assimilated to the humane principles which Christianity should enforce in legislation as well as in the practices of social life.

There is at Gorton, near. Manchester, a library, reading-room, and schools, in connexion with the extensive locomotive works of the Man- chester and Sheffield Railway Company. The library contains 900 vo- lumes, the newsroom is supplied with seventeen daily and twenty-three weekly papers and seven monthly magazines. The payment is a tariff arranged according to income. Working men receiving under twenty shillings pay one penny, those receiving upwards of twenty shil- lings three halfpence a week, towards the funds of the institution. Mr. Edward Watkin, manager of the Railway Company, presided, on Satur- day, at an entertainment given to celebrate the opening of this useful institutiOn.

A third verdict, embodying a charge of murder, has been returned against William Paliner of RugeleY. TheCoroner's Jury empannelled to inquire into the death of Walter Palmer held its last sitting on Wednesday; and the whole of the day was occupied in receiving evidence. The chief wit- nesses examined Were Mr. Samuel Henry Campbell, physician and surgeon, of Stoke-upon-Trent; Professor Taylor; Dr. Oweir Rees; and George Whyman chemist's assistant at Wolverhampton. Mr. Campbell attended 'Walter ialmer from June 1853 to June 1854. During that period, in con- sequence of intemperate habits, Walter Palmer was more than onoe se- riously ill. He suffered from chronic inflammation of the liver, an attack of congestion of the brain, dropsy in his lower limbs, and inflammation of the right kidney. Mr. Campbell had told hint, in reply to a question respect- ing his life-insurance, that no medical man ought to pass hint, he was so organically diseased. In the evidence describing his death there was no- thing inconsistent with death from prosaic acid ; but he thought it more probable that Walter Palmer died from apoplexy than by poison.- "Con- sidering his habits and his tendency to disease, there was nothing incon- sistent in the idea of the deceased dying front apoplexy in fifteen to twenty minutes."

Dr. Taylor put in the strongest light the evidence in favour of death by poison or apoplexy, and remained undecided. He said that the heart was not diseased; that disease of the liver or kidneys would not cause apoplexy, because there is no special connexion between them and the brain. A. rapid death like Walter Palmer's is very rare unless, combined with apoplexy-, there be also disesso of the heart. There was no evidence that he took prussic acid ; there was evidence that he drank largely of alcoholic liquids; and also that no poison was found in the body. But the non-discovery of traces of prussic acid is not adverse to the belief that he died by prussic acid, because that poison rapidly disappear?. "Resting upon medical data, it IS impossible to say, from the account given, whether the deceased died from prussic acid or from apoplexy as a result of excessive drinking. I am giving my opinion now on medical grounds alone In my opinion, if the deceased died from apoplexy caused by narcotic poison, he did not die from morphia; but my opinion is, that if he died fromprussie acid, -it must have been given him within half an hour of his death.',

Dr. Rees made a similar statement. George Whyman, the.sisemist's as- sistant, now swore to the day on which Palmer purchased prussia acid of him in the shop of his employers, Mender, Weaver, and Co., of Wolverhampton. "It was the 14th August last." Mr. Smith, Palmer's solicitor, declared that this story was a base and wicked fabrication."

At six o'clock the Jury retired ; at eight they returned the following verdict—" We find that Walter Palmer died from the effects of prussic acid; and that such prussic acid was wilfully administered by William Palmer." „,The Police authorities are engaged in collecting evidence at Stafford with reference to the circumstances under which one Mr. Leonard Bladou died at the house of William Palmer in May 1850: and it is understood that the Government, in the event of discovering sufficient grounds, will institute an

inquiry into the matter, and conduct it in a manner to elicit the whole truth, whichever way it may lie. There is to be an inquiry into the conduct of the Coroner, Mr. William Webb Ward.

A case of suspected poisoning, for the sake of the proceeds of an insurance —involving, Kr. Helfand, a surgeon, James Monaghan, son of the deceased, Edward Dunn, agent to an insurance-company, and George Barry, a sales- man—is under inquiry before the Manchester Magistrates. It appears that John Monaghan insured his life for 300/. in June last, and died on the 11th August following, it was supposed of dysentery: He was a great drinker of whisky. '

Jame; the son, claimed the 3001. the company demurred, and on inquiry found that false statements had been made in the declaration of the deceased to the company. Further inquiry led to the suspicion that Monaghan was poisoned by sugar-of-lead administered in a glass of whisky. Holland was at first arrested, but was afterwards liberated and appeared as a witness. The prisoners have been remanded ; bail refused.

The Newcastle Magistrates have fully committed Thomas Robson for at- temptingto poison his wife with sugar of lead. A motive for the crime has been found : he was courting a young woman, and had represented himself to be a single man.

Two brutal murders are reported this week. John Williams, a Liverpool burglar, suspecting that he had been betrayed by a woman who lived with him, cut her throat. He was leading her to the 'hospital when she died in the street. Williams endeavoured to kill himself. James Howell, a Bath costermonger, kicked his wife in a way to make her bleed to death. Both were drunk. The wretched woman was near her confinement.

It seems that the clerk Lawton, who misappropriated 7300/. belonging to the Lichfield Bank, lent the money to a female, who had " expectations " of property which were not realized.

Miss Caioline Luttrell, second daughter of Colonel Luttrell, of Mire Court, Somerset, has lost her life by a very sad accident. At a family meet- ing the young people were to be amused by a Christmas tree.; Miss Luttrell went alone to hght the tapers on it; unfortunately, she lighted the lower candles first, and in endeavouring to light those above her dress caught fire : she rang a bell, and when the company hastened towards the room they were horrified to meet the young lady in flames. The flames were soon extin- guished, but Miss Luttrell died.

A remarkable illustration of Madame Grirardin's play " La Joie fait Pour" occurred this week at Lowestoft. John Burgess, a shoemaker, was anxiously expecting the return of his son from the Crimea. He went to meet, but passed lum in the street without recognizing him. But the son, recognizing his father, called out, "Hold _hard, father ! don't be in a hurry !' The father exclaimed, "Good God ! is that you, John ? " After taking a glass of beer, he went home to break the news to his Wife. As he opened the door,

he uttered the words "Good God ! Maria, John and fell dead.

The total deaths from the boiler-explosion at Messrs. Hickman'ti Tipton, now amount to five. At the inquest, on Monday, it appeared the boiler which burst had cracks in it ; that there was no mercurial gauge ; that the flues were foul ; that the top had been red-hot ; that a great pres- sure of steam had been allowed ; that the " clack " had not been opened be- fore getting up steam ; and that very ignorant people had charge of the boilers—it is quite the ouitom in that part of the country for labourers who cannot read to be engine-men. Mr. Brough, a Government Inspector of Mines, said it was a wonder that all the boilers of the district were not blown up if they were treated as this was. Verdict—" Accidental death, in consequence of the ignorance of the engineer."