Vrottium.
A smart shower of Government election-addresses has fallen since our lest publication. Mr. Disraeli, in a few lines issued to his constituency on Saturday, simply promised to do his utmost " to obtain a just redress for the agricul- tural interest," and " onfalteringly to uphold our free constitution in Church and State."
Sir John Pakington was quite as wary : he would " always endeavour to carry out the great principles ou which he has always acted."
Sir John Trollope believed the present Ministry is desirous of affording to the agricultural body " all the relief they can," " under the circum- stances."
Lord Stanley stepped forward with an address to the electors of King's Lynn, which had all the rotundity of a chieftain's manifesto.
Of the past ho said—" Law has been amended ; the defence of the country provided for ; on one great and growing colony representative institutions have been conferred, and another has at last been permitted to enjoy the benefit of a constitution long promised and vexatiously delayed. These acts, not in themselves unimportant, are an earnest of what may hereafter be ex- pected from their authors when the expressed confidence of the country shall have given them a more secure position and a wide scope of action." On three questions still pending, he gave these opinions. It is unques- tionable that "inequalities and abuses" exist in the system of national representation ; "the cause of the constitution is not bound up with the maintenance of a system imperfect in its details." The Ecclesiastical Titles Bill was a protest against an aggression on the nationality of England, for which he voted ; but the manner in which that law was framed and intro- duced was calculated to excite religious animosity, and to array one portion of the empire against another ; and "for this result the framers of the act are alone responsible." " With regard to a tax on the importation of foreign corn," he said, "I cannot consider it as in principle more objectionable than any other impost falling on the public at large. But in questions of taxation especially the feeling of the people is to be considered ; and I have no hesitation in saying, that I believe that feeling to be such as to render the imposition of any protective duty impossible. It is to economy in the national expenditure, and revision of the national taxation, that the farmers of England must look for the amelioration of their present condition." Lord John Manners, in addressing the electors of Colchester, emphati- cally claimed credit to his Government for their proclamation against Ito- man Catholic Processions, and for the alteration of the Education manage- ment clauses.
Mr. Beresford simply told them in North Essex that lie will " do his duty." Mr. W. E. Duncombe observed resignedly to East Retford, that " it is for the country to decide" whether protection shall be reimposed.
The week of the festival in Commemoration of College Founders at Oxford has been an unusually gay one ; a larger company than ordinary. having been attracted to the University by the report, unfounded, it would seem, that degrees were to be conferred on Lord Derby, Mr. Dis- raeli, Sir Harry Smith, and Mr. Tennyson the Poet Laureate. On Tuesday, in the morning, the Bishop of Oxford preached a sermon at St Mary's Church ; and a full cathedral service was chanted by a chaplain of New College. The beauties of the audience seem to have been more impressed on the mind of one reporter than those of the sermon or service. " The church was, crammed to suffocation, and the under-graduates' gal- lery being appropriated to ladies alone, a combination of beauty and ele- gance was produced which could scarcely be surpassed."
In the evening, the procession of boats "went off gloriously" ; fine weather tempting to the meadow margins of the river an immense con- course of delighted resident and visitant spectators.
Wednesday was the day of festival. The gathering of Academicals and visitors in the Sheldonian Theatre was one of the greatest ever seen; and there was the feature of a prize poem of real merit. Mr. Edwin Arnold, of University College, was the crowned student ; and his poem was so good that it stood the severe test of being read with such injudicious em- phasis that the first stanzas elicited a hurricane of derisive shouts and laughter : the author's metal held him on steadily through the storm, and at last he gained the-sunshine of a full mead of enthusiastic applause. Honorary degrees were conferred on the Duke of Serradifalco, a Sicilian nobleman of literary credit ; on the Bishops of Michigan and Western New York, and their reverend Secretary ; on Mr. Justice Coleridge, formerly of Exeter College; on Sir Gardner Wilkinson—whom the stu- dents dubbed " old hieroglyphics" ; on Mr. William Pulteney Alison, one of her Majesty's Physicians in Ordinary in Scotland ; and on Professor Owen, the paleontologist The musical part of the festival, namely the concert, on Wednesday, had the usual success. The principal singers were Madame Clara No- vell% Mr. Lockey, Miss Williams, Herr Staudigl, Mr. Sims Reeves, and Miss Messent. Mademoiselle Sophie Cruvelli was to have sung, but on some difficulty as to " terms " she withheld her presence. The rest of the proceedings—the balls, the flower-show in Worcester College gardens, &o, &c., on Thursday, were equally successful and pleasant The students this year availed themselves of their privilege of unrule with laudable self-restraint and good feeling.
Fatal colliery-explosions are now a regular portion of the weekly news. At Seaham Park colliery, near Sunderland, six men have perished, and many more have been hurt.
A young woman attempted to drown herself at Bathford, near Bath ; she Was taken from the water insensible ; a surgeon, who happened to be passing, persevered for hours in the attempt to resuscitate her, and at length he suc- ceeded.
The Harwood, a schooner of Plymouth, has foundered at mid-day, off the village of Beer, South Devon ; and all hands—supposed to be six—have perished. There was a heavy sea, and the vessel suddenly heeled over. There was no life-boat in the vicinity, or the crew would probably have been saved.
Two boys, sons of Mr. Morgan of Southerndown, near Bridgend, rode their ponies into the sea to wash them. The waves made the pony of the younger boy restive, and the rider fell into theses. The elder brother leaped off' and swam to his aid ; but the ether, in terror, chine so tightly to Iris neck, that both perished. This happened in the sight of the agonized father, who could render no assistance.
On Monday last, during a thunder-storm, which passed over about mid- day, two sawyers who were at work under a shed in the parish of Cold Ashby were struck by the lightning, and instantly killed : the shed was shivered to pieces, and when the men were found the clothes of one of them were still burning.—Banbury Guardian.
Previous page
