felt pouturn.

The Rye election has terminated in favour of Mr. Mackinnon, the father of the unseated Member. For Mackinnon, 281; Pomfret, 187.

The representation of Plymouth will be contested by Mr. Brain°, a I ibural, and Mr. Roundel]. Palmer, formerly a member of Sir Robert Peel's party, and one who followed the Minister when he moved the re- peal of the Corn-laws. Mr. Palmer was defeated in 1852 by Mr. Mare ; and his appearance as a candidate is owing entirely to the solicitations which he has received from some of the electors of the borough—Liberal and Conservative. Last week he met his supporters, and delivered an address to them, expressing his views on the present state of political matters and his intentions with respect to the election. He distinctly pointed out, that he was there because he had been solicited to stand ; that he would not have come down to create divisions if the Liberal party could have agreed on a candidate; that he had no hostility to Mr. Braine ; and that he would not canvass for a single vote. But if they chose to elect him he would be happy to serve them. The general tone of his speech was in favour of the men and measures of the existing Govern- ment. He thus described the principle at the bottom of "the Coalition."

" I look on the present as an important cora in the political history of our country—an era of a general breaking-up and fusion or union of parties. I have desired it should take place Irons the time when the Corn-laws were repealed by that great man Sir Robert Peel. From the time when I was Met connected with this town, I think I have lost no opportunity of urging my conviction that the period was past at which this country could be governed by factions or coteries. That union which I formerly so much de- sired is now become the ruling principle of the present time. I have urged my view, that it was possible to he Conservative in principle and Liberal in principle too. Those names of Conservative and Liberal are worthless as representing faction ; but if we look at them as representing principles, it is only by the union of both of them that good government can be secured. I have felt in my own mind, that the extension and consolidation of the principles of civil and religious liberty, and the abolition of class privileges in this country, was to destroy the power of mere aristocratic factions and parties and cliques, which formerly existed. I have felt also, that in proportion as the civilization and the increasing preponderance of the commercial interests in this country made their way, it would be impossible that the government of the people could depend on any ground other than this—a consideration of practical principles, and the honesty, integrity, and intelligence of the statesmen who undertake the office of governing the country. That, I think, will be found in the action of the change that took place some time since in the condition of political parties." . . . . " I will add, that tendency is represented in the constitution of the present Government ; for I believe that commerce is eminently conservative and liberal. It is conservative, for the wholeness of our credit, the fabric of commerce depends upon the security of our institutions, and public credit would be instantly destroyed if the stability of our system of government were at all imperilled. It is on our having laws, and on the security of those laws, and on our being secured from the risk of convulsions like those that have shaken the Centinent, that the public credit depends; and the whole of the arrangements of commerce will be paralyzed at once if the sta- bility of our institutions should not be maintained. On the other hand, commerce is essentially liberal, and every impediment that is created by an artificial and cramping legislation, it is the tendency of commerce to throw off, and to set itself free ; and again, the interests of commerce are opposed to the abuses of administration, for those abuses involve a large and waste- ful expenditure of the public money, and heavy taxes, to which commerce is repugnant. Measures of retrenchment and economy, as well as efficient go- vernment, are essential to commerce: therefore it is strongly on the side of practical reform; while, on the other baud, the way to insure the extension of commerce will be to retain the stability and forms of our representative government " Mr. Palmer is not daunted by the epithet "coalition." "This Ministry has been called a coalition ; and if a coalition means a coining together, so it is ; but if a coalition means a union of persons not agreed on principles and objects, for the one purpose of party attack and defeating an opponent, I deny it is a coalition in that sense, and the country knows it is not so. (Cheers.) How could the Government have been carried on if each man had said I will have my own way ? ' What Ministry could have been formed on such terms? Unless they agreed to merge personal and party differences,

they could not obtain the public confidence I cannot see how the difficulty could be solved. If all men were to have their own way the world would not be governed at all. After a aeries of weak Governments, it was indispensable for the stability of our institutions, and for the purposes of good government, that a Government should be formed possessing the confi- dence of the Parliament and the country."

Speaking of the future, he professed his readiness to support law re- form, and also to support a Government which deals with the revision of the franchise "in a spirit at once conservative and liberal." He is of settled opinion that the knife must be applied to the heart of corruption. Mr. Palmer was most cordially received. On the same evening a sec- tion of the Liberals met and passed a resolution in his favour.

The Royal Commission issued to inquire into corrupt practices at elec- tions at Hull cornmenced its sittings on Monday. The Commissioners are Mr. Solly Flood, Mr. Baliol Brett, and Mr. Deedes. The evidence pre- sents no new points ; and only confirms the statements made by the man Walker before the Election Committee, that bribery is carried on at Hull by a plan of " setting down " the names of voters, on the pretence of engaging their services, and paying 30s. a man for votes. They did nothing for the money. This plan was carried out to a great extent on both sides. It appears that the Hull constituency of 4678 persons in- cludes 1854 freemen.

The Canterbury Commission adjourned pro forma to Westminster, on fiaturday, to give an opportunity for printing and digesting the volu- minous evidence already taken. They anticipate that in a few days after they reassemble they will complete the inquiry. The cry for postponing legislation with respect to the Government of India and the demand for reform has extended to Bristol. The Mayor, Mr. Barrow, presided over a composite gathering of politicians of all classes, held in the Victoria Rooms, on Tuesday. Mr. Bright addressed to the meeting much the same kind of speech which he recently delivered at Manchester. Resolutions were proposed and supported by Mr. Tothill, Mr. Alderman Vining, Mr. C. T. Thomas, Mr. R. Leonard, Mr. H. J. Mills, and Mr. Hayman, stating the expediency of receiving the reports from the Committees now sitting before attempting permanent legislation, and imputing the existing grievances of India to her system of govern- ment : they were agreed to all but unanimously. A petition to the House of Commons, founded on the resolutions, was also adopted.

" Strikes " are the order of the day at South Shields. The workpeoplc there seem to be very luckily placed—if South Shields masters won't make an advance, the men can get it at Sunderland. The shipwrights demanded 30s. a week instead of 27s. ; the masters refused : some fifty of the men had got the 308. at Sunderland last week, and more expected to be invited to that town. The tailors have got what they asked. The joiners have not come to an arrangement : several have obtained employ- ment at Sunderland. The ladies are in alarm—the working milliners are expected to "turn out."

On Monday afternoon, a Jew pedlar was found lying in a copse about two miles from Exeter, insensible, with many wounds on his head and face. He was conveyed to Exeter, where he has still remained in an unconscious state, with little prospect of surviving. It would seem that robbers had fallen upou him, and when they had nearly killed him, rifled his pockets and searched the box he had on his back : disappointed in the contents of the box, they had left them intact, as well as a carpet-bag. The poor Jew is evidently a foreigner. The assassins had attacked him with a piece of timber gel a stone, which were found lying near.

Flatt, a young labourer, is in custody for the murder of Mrs. Steggall, the Reverend Mr. Barker's housekeeper, at Becton. Flatt lived hard by the house; he is a notoriously bad character, though he has been received as a Militiaman. A number of circumstances have come to light of a very sus- picious character, butt as yet there is no very direct evidence that he was the murderer. He has been examined by the Magistrates, and remanded.

Three or four burglars who attacked a small farm-house near Coleshill have been gallantly repulsed. The house was occupied by Mr. Perkins, an elderly man, and his wife : they were roused at night by a noise in the yard, and saw the gang ; who announced that they meant to enter, and tried to force in a door: Mrs. Perkins so barricaded it, while her husband was pre- paring his gun, that the robbers were foiled in that direction ; but they beat in a window and its shutter, and thus got into the house. The farmer stood on the stairs, and threatened to fire : the burglars began to ascend the stairs, Mr. Perkins fired, and one of the robbers fell back wounded. In a few minutes he was borne away by his comrades. This happened on Saturday night ; on Sunday a man was admitted to the General Hospital at Birming- ham with a gunshot wound in the arm. Mrs. Perkins recognizes thiaman's voice as that of one of the robbers: it was dark during the conflict, and they cannot be identified by their features. There is another circumstance against the wounded man : he had on a smock-frock at the time he went to the hos- pital ; the sleeve of the arm through which the'shot passed had been cut off, but the texture of the material of the other part of the garment exactly cor- responds with a piece found on the staircase at the farm-house.

Another verdict of " manslaughter " against railway officials ! The in- quest on Charles Canning, the porter killed at Farnham station, was resumed on Tuesday. The evidence extended to a great length. Beyond the plat- form at Farnham there is a low brick wall close to the rails ; on this wall a wooden fence has been recently erected—it was only completed the very day of the disaster ; this fence was flush with the wall, but since the acci- dent it has been removed some distance back. Canning was in the ware- house; he heard the whistle of a train, and ran along the line to get to the platform ; unfortunately, he went by the side of the wall; before he could reach the platform the train was upon him ; he tried to get on to the wall by clutching the fence, but could not quite remove his body out of danger- s carriage struck him, and he was dragged down and along the rails. Had the train been a passenger-train, it should have stopped before itot to this dangerous wall ; but it was a "survey-train," conveying the Honourable Francis Scott, Chairman of the Company, and Mr. Beattie, locomotive su- perintendent ; and as the signals denoted "all right," it continued its course through the station at eight or nine miles an hour. On former occasions survey-trains had gone down the line without previous notice ; and no no- tice had been given that this one would arrive on the Saturday afternoon. Can- ning undoubtedly thought that it was the stopping passenger-train, and he ran along by the wall deeming that passage to the platform safe : but he should have been on the platform before that time, as the passenger-train was over- due ; and he was incautious in the route he had chosen. A good though "slow" servant, he had been previously reprimanded by the stationmaster for placing himself in danger—once by this very wall, where a coal-train had actually grazed against his breast.

Canning was in error ; but under what circumstances had this survey- train run past the station ? In the first place, it left Guildford only two or three minutes before the passenger-train, which was already behind its time; no notice was sent forward to Farnham ; of course the people there were expecting the stopping train, and took the survey-train for it. The line from Guildford to Alton is only single: before the Government officers per- mitted the railway to be opened, the Company had to promise that only one engine should be on the line between Guildford and Alton at the same mo- ment—that would render collision impossible. Captain Galton and Captain Simmons, Government Inspectors, testified positively to this. So that the survey-train was on the line in direct violation of the "understanding" upon which the railway was permitted to be opened. In summing up, the Coroner pointed out that if blame attached to any one connected with the railway it would be to Mr. Scott and Mr. Beattie : he was of opinion that the unfortunate porter had shown great carelessness. The Jury consulted for two hours; and then twelve out of seventeen jurors returned a verdict of "Manslaughter" against the Honourable Francis Scott and Mr. Beattie. It was midnight before this verdict was given, and the two gentlemen implicated had left Farnham some hours before; but Mr. Crombie, the secretary, undertook that they should be forthcoming when re- quired. Though the Coroner issued his warrant for their apprehension, he said he would do all he could to give them as little inconvenience as possible.

The Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway has inaugurated a new kind of railway " aeoident." A passenger-train had stopped at Lea Gate station ; it seems that persons wishing to leave the carriages there have to cross an- other line of rail to get to the platform. Some people were about to descend —an express-train was in sight—aguard cried out, " Don't get out!" or Th " Don't get out on that side !" The exclamation was not understood, or understood in an opposite sense, and the express-train whistle being heard, the passengers thought a collision was imminent—they rushed out of the carriages and tried to get across the rails; some succeeded, but two were struck down by_the express and literally cut to pieces. The victims were Mr. William Holden, a cotton-spinner of Cherley, and a woman-servant. Mr. Holden's son was in the train.

Near Sydney station, on the South Wales Railway, a night mail-train came into collision with a locomotive which was standing on the line, appa- rently quite unattended. The driver of the mail-train was dashed among the coke in the tender, and very badly hurt. The passengers were bruised and shaken. The stationary engine was one that had conveyed a coal-train to Swindon and was on its return to Chepstow.

There has been a very alarming collision on the Newport river between the Severn steamer and a brigantine. The steamer was coming down the stream against wind and tide ; the brigantine, proceeding up the river, by some means ran with great violence into the Severn amidships ; the shock was tremendous, and presently the funnel fell over the side. The Severn is a strong iron ship, and no leak ensued. There were about a hundred passen- gers on board, and though one was placed in peril by getting entangled in the bowsprit of the brigantine, he was saved, and no other passenger was hurt. The mate sustained a bad wound on the head ; the supercargo was forced into the river, but he caught hold of some wreck, and was got out safe. Mr. Edward Compton Dyson, scholar of Corpus Christi College, Oxford, was drowned in the Cherwell last week. He was rowing a "canoe" ; his boat was accidentally struck by another ; putting out his hand towards a third boat, he fell into the stream. Mr. Arnold, the rower of the third boat, plunged in after Mr. Dyson, got hold of him, and gained the bank : but the bank was steep and slippery; the two young men fell back again into deep water, and Mr. Arnold appears to have been in danger of perishing in the grasp of his drowning friend; but at length Mr. Dyson released his hold, and Mr. Arnold was dragged out by a bystander. Mr. Dyson's body sank in a deep place, and twenty minutes had elapsed before it could be re- covered. The demsed was the son of the Reverend F. Dyson, Prebendary of Sarum.

On the arrival of "Cooke's Hippodrome" at Congleton, the ostler at the stable of a public-house where the elephant "put up" began to tease the animal. The keeper warned him to desist, but in vain : during the keeper's temporary absence the ostler continued his tricks ; the enraged elephant rushed at him, and mangled him with its tusks, to a degree that makes it doubtful whether he can survive.

During a recent snow-storm in North Wales, two young men, brothers, attempted to cross the Berwen mountain, Merionethshire. They were over- powered by the cold and snow, and "lay down to die." But their cries had been heard by a shepherd, who rescued one alive, and conveyed him to a cottage. The corpse of the other was not found till next day : a dead sheep was lying across the poor fellow's face.