29 JANUARY 1842, Page 2

Various minor events testify to the continued activity with which

the Condition-of-England question is stirred. . A meeting was held at Derby to petition against the Corn-laws ; and the Chartists with one of their amendments were "defeated," say the Whig accounts ; but it should rather seem that they waived their opposition. Bir- mingham has also had its meeting of district-deputies for the expo- sition of difficulties in the local trade ; and even Birmingham, Which has suffered less than some places, presents a continued de- cline in innumerable branches of industry. Wolverhampton has petitioned the Privy Council to be allowed to spend a charitable fund for the relief of the poor in foreign corn free of duty. Mr. CHRISTOPHER, stimulated by the censure bestowed by an Agricul- tural Association on his scheme, has again stepped forward and de- clared that it would be as easy to legalize the Slave-trade, or to give Representatives to Gatton as to make the Corn-laws more restric- tive. That there should be farmers so benighted as to need the information ! And finally, Mr. WEBB HALL, the son of the well- known agriculturist of that name, and himself an agriculturist who has refrained from party struggles, comes forward to denounce the Corn-laws ; with a scheme of his own for their amendment,—a duty, to be fixed at ten shillings for the present year, nine shillings for the next, diminishing year by year until it reach five shillings, and there resting: this, Mr. Harz thinks, would settle the dispute.