Sbe iprobinces.
- Within the last few years crime has been progressively decreasing in Cambridgeshire; and at present, judging from the number of prisoners in custody charged with offences, it is less frequent than ever.
The strike in the building trades at Manchester and Liverpool is draw- ing to a close. Many men will be left without employment in consequence of the masters having engaged fresh hands during the strike. The em- ployers can now, of course, pick the best workmen from those applying, and thus the least skilful and worst conducted will be left unemployed. The men appear to be returning to work with essentially the same wages and hours as formerly, except the Liverpool masons, who have obtained some concessions.
The Middlesborough and Redcar Railway was opened on the 4th instant ; and mot the least interesting part of the proceedings was incidental to rather than directly arising from the occasion. Mr. flews, so favourably known in connexion with the North of England Railways, and Mr. Hopkins, (two of the directors,) piloted the way with the Number 1 engine of the Stockton and Darlington Rail- way Company. This is the first locomotive engine to which a passenger-carriage was ever attached. The engine was, of course, made under the direction of Mr. George Stephenson ; and the passenger-carriage (built omnibus fashion, with a table running down the middle) was called the Experiment. This carriage is, we believe, still preserved at Shildon. The" No. 1" ran a race in September 1835 with the mail, a distance of four miles—steam beating horse-flesh by only a hundred yards ! On the opening of the Redcar line, the distance of eight miles occupied with "No. 1" about thirty-five minutes, although only one passenger-carriage and two tracks were attached. At the dinner to celebrate the opening, Mr. Plews noticed the " remarkable coincidence," that the first locomotive and the last (and best) should be in the possession of the two companies connected with the Redcar line, namely, the" No. 1" above referred to, the property of the Stockton and Dar- lington Company ; and the engine A, which ran against the broad-gauge engines la the experiments of the Gauge Commissioners, and which belongs to the Great North of England Company.—Railway Record.
A boat-race for 1001. a side, which excited an intense interest at Newcastle, took place on the Tyne last Monday. The competitors were two boatmen— Clasper of Newcastle, and Newell of London ; the distance was five miles. The assemblage of spectators was enormous ; and there was a novelty in one method adopted to view the contest—five long trains moved slowly along the line of the Newcastle and Carlisle Railway as the boats advanced. At first, Clasper had some advantage ; but Newell soon took the lead, and steadily maintained it, eventually beating his opponent by about fifty yards. Newell maintained his course with undeviating accuracy ; while Clasper was continually swerving, by his uneven pulling. The Newcastle folks were greatly disappointed at the result of the race, and by no means pleased—there was not a cheer for the London winner.
Two young women who were in service at Hull have been playing a strange freak. They had taken a fancy to the sea; and, attiring themselves as sailors, they went to Liverpool. There they attempted to get a ship; and at length were about to be admitted into a man-of-war as apprentices, when they divulged their sex to the examining surgeon. They were removed to the workhouse, reclothed in female attire, and sent back to Hull. They are described as fine young women, and not ill-educated: when they applied to be admitted as apprentices, the officer willingly assented, as they were " strapping lads."
Dnring the service at Folkstone Church on Sunday evening, the congregation were thrown into a state of consternation, by a young woman suddenly leaving
her seat, and, rushing to the communion-table, making an attack upon the tablets. She then approached the baptismal font ; and before any one could prevent her took off the marble cover, and threw it with violence to the ground, shivering it to atoms. Her violence was so great as to leave no doubt of her insanity. Several persons, with great difficulty, succeeded in ejecting her from the sacred edifice. The service, which had been stopped, was then resumed. The alarm among the female portion of the congregation was very great, some of them fainting. The young woman was conveyed home to her friends ; who stated that she was subject to fits —Sentish Observer.
The Marquise d'Harcourt, the venerable head of the Harcourt family has been poisened by the contents of a wrong physic-bottle. The lady has been fur some time at St .Leonard's Hill near Windsor ; and on Monde) she swallowed lauda- num, in mistake for a draught: medical assistance was at once obtained, but the patient died on Thursday.
At Llanstephan, in Wales, a man died in the fields last week, while mowing, from the sultriness of the weather.
Many fish have died in a pool at Askern, and in the Knottingley and Goole Canal, it is supposed from the excessive heat of the weather.
On Wednesday last, two pair of soles were cooked by the heat of the sun alone, on the stalls at the back of the Boston fish-market, and were afterwards partaken of by the bystanders. Many persons attended to witness the experiment, which oc- cupied about half an hour.—Boston Berald.
The provincial papers mention numerous cases of persons having been drowned whilst bathing. It is said that the journals of Saturday announce at least thirty deaths of the kind. - The works on the Lancaster and Carlisle Railway have been in their progress productive of many accidents to the workpeople. During the last week, two men were killed, and many others more or less hurt, by accidents of various kinds. It is said that these disasters are generally the result of the carelessness of the men.
A fire broke out on Saturday night at the new military barracks now erecting at Horfield, near Bristol; and before the flames could be got under much property wets destroyed. The barracks were hardly touched; but an extensive steam-mill, workshops, tools, and piles of timber contiguous to it, were consumed. The da- mage is estimated at 3,0001.
Three houses have been completely engulfed in the soil at West Bromwich. They were built over a coal-mine; and the superincumbent mass having given way, the buildings were buried. Fortunately, the inmates had sufficient notice to escape with their lives; but they lost all their property.
A lad of seventeen and another of fourteen have been committed for trial at Manchester, on a charge of murdering a boy only thirteen years old. They ap- pear to have struck him a deadly blow on the forehead, and then to have put this body into a shallow brook. They had previously robbed the deceased ot a few shillings, a handkerchief, mid other articles.
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