re enuntrn.

THE SPECIAL COMM/SSIONS.—On Wednesday, directions were issued from the Secretary of State's Office to the Commissioners of the New Police, to send down to Bristol proper and competent persons to make effective arrangements with the local authorities of that city for the preservation of the public peace on the approaching Special Commis- sion. One of the Superintendents of Police and two In,pectors left town yesterday morning for that purpose, and also to establish a police force in that city similar to the Metropolitan Police. On Wednesday morning, Mr. Adamson, one of the Inspectors of the A. division, was sent to Nottingham, to make similar arrangements in that city for pre- serving the public peace, and protecting the public from violence.— Morning Herald, Dec. 30.

COLONEL BEERETON.—The Court-martial on Colonel Brereton, we are informed, will be opened pro formii on Saturday the 7th of January, at Merchants' Hall, Br:stol ; and the proceedings will com- mence on the following Monday. General Dalbiac is the prosecutor. The commission will include General Sir H. Fane (President), Gene- ral Lord Burghersh, six Major-Generals, and other officers. NAVAL YARDS.—The Portsmouth Herald says, it is the intention of Government to substitute, for the Commissioners by whom the naval yards have been hitherto superintended, captains of the Navy, with the pay and allowances of commissioners and under the name of Superin- tendents; and that the captains of the Royal Yachts, which are about to be paid oft; will in the first instance be appointed. Lord Adolphus Fitzclarence will, it is added, be superintendent at Falmouth. We confess we do not see the advantage of the proposed substitution, unless it be in the augmented patronage of Sir James Graham. It seems a change whose only recommendation is, that in the long-run it will be no change at all. At present it will of course be attended with very considerable increase of expense ; all the displaced Commissioners must be pensioned off.

THE LEOMINSTER ELECTION.—A correspondent of the Times enters into a long history to prove that the result of the recent election at Leominster, winch restores its former influence to the Hotham family, of which it was deprived by Mr. Bray-en junior, has been brought about by a series of trickery and bribery on the part of Lord Hotham's agents. He alleges, that the electors were first deluded into a promise to support Lord Hotham, when the Reform question was settled, and, under this promise they were told they could not support Mr. Frazer before it was settled ; that those who voted for Lord Ho- tham were kept drunk for eight or ten days, and all access to them de- nied to Mr. Frazer and his friends; that the poll was closed while a so- licitor was pleading the cause of himself and certain voters, whom the returning officer had refused; and finally, he tells us that a Protestant clergyman of Leominster had threatened to discharge his workmen if they voted for Mr. Frazer; and that one of them said to Mr. Frazer, with tears in his eyes---" Sir, I am convinced that it is my duty as an Englishman to vote for a candidate coming forward on your principles ; but, Sir, Mr. — is my principal employer, and if I lose his custom, what is to become of my family?" From Which last bit of Leominster logic, doubtless taught by Mr. we may learn, that a man should never do what he thinks just, if there is any chance of his being the worse for it. From all these particulars, the Times correspondent concludes that a committee of the House of Commons will rectify the return, and that Lord Hotham will be ejected. We should be sorry if he were. It is evident from the statement of their advocate, that these same electors of Leominster are a set of sorry scoundrels. It is no more than a meet punishment (if it be a punishment) that they should have an Anti-Reform representative. Mr. Hume has forwarded to Lord Melbourne, to be presented to his Majesty, a petition, numerously signed by the inhabitants of Notting- ham city,city, praying his Majesty to dismiss from office all persons 'mai() have opposed the Reform Bill brought in by the Ministers with the sanction of the King; and in particular praying that the Duke of New- castle, the Lord Lieutenant of the county, may be forthwith removed from an office in which he exercises the authority derived from the Crown to oppose the Bill.

The artisans of Derby are about forming. a Political Union for that town and its vicinity.

For the last two or three weeks, there has been a marked im- provement in the demand for yarns for shipping, with an advance of M. to V. per lb. in the prices of the most cutrent numbers. There is a general belief, that if the alarm of cholera subsides, and the Re- form question is satisfactorily disposed of without any great delay, we shall in the new year experience an additional briskness of demand, ac- companied by such a further advance of price as will restore the spin- ning trade to a healthy state.—Manchester Guardian. The silk trade is in a most depressed state,—a circumstance which is chiefly to be attributed to the competition of French manufacturers, sup- ported by London wholesale smugglers.—Manchester Herald.

TRADE.—The glovers of this city, in common with those in the business at Worcester, Yeovil, and various oiler places, though able and desirous to work., have the desponding prospect of shortly being desti- tute of employment, and consequently reduced to poverty and want.— Rerefbrd Journal.

Trade here is unusually brisk, with a demand exceeding the supply (for flannels) ; the wages of the poor weavers, however, have not been increased, but they are generally employed.—Manchester Herald.

A respectable person, named Agard, who had been reduced by losses in trade to accept a situation in the establishment of Alessrs. Crowley of Birmingham, and in whose accounts some serious defideations had been recently discovered, put a period to his existence on Sunday last week, by swallowing a quantity of oil of almonds. The unhappy man had been confined in consequence of the discoveries alluded to.

The pitmen in the employment of the owners of Waldridse Colliery have turned out in consequence of a dispute with their masters relative to the prices of working some fresh scams. The owners have engaged several lead miners, who are now working the colliery ; but it has been found necessary to call in a party of military to protect them from the violence of the pitmen.—Darhasz Chronicle.

STATE or TILE POOR.—The Ccrlisic Journal gives a most afficting account of the state of the poor in that city. It says—." Here we have within a fraction of 2,000 persons—nearly one ninth-part of the entire population of the city—the greater portion of Whom, be it remembered, are in employment—dragging on a miserable exietence upon a sum amounting in the armee to less then one shiNnfi each per week—that is to say, on less than 2d. a day. This sum includes not only the earn- ings of the poor people themselves, but the amount of parish relief given to them. In one district, there are living 624 individuals whose average weekly income amounts to less than tenpenee each ! Cut of this pittance they have to pay for house-rent, for coals, candles, and cloth- ing. But what do we say?—how can such things be bought with such sums?—when some slight deduction is made for such things, how. in the name of God, is life to be preserved by the remainder'? To 'de- scribe the condition in which their dwellings were found, far surpasses the powers of our pen. Want of health prevented us from personally visiting; these abodes of misery; but persons engaged in the heert-rend- ing task assure us—and we can fully rely upon their statements—that the appearance and condition of the people were beyond all conceptions which they had formed of the degree of suffering to which humanity may be reduced, in a civilized country, by poverty. Their vretched dwellings were, in many instances, almost entirely destitute of furniture of any kind; others were without tires; and several had not a bed, nor the semblance of a bed, to lie down upon." This is a tine picture of the Christian poor in a country where a Christian Bishop is the lord of twenty thousand a year. REDUCTION or TITIIES.—The Reverend H. Elsley, of Burniston, North Riding of York, last week returned to his parishioners 10 per cent. The Archbishop of York has reduced the rents of his tenants at Cawood and Sherbuni about 20 per cent. Dr. Bethune, at Worth, in Sussex, has returned 20 per cent. The Reverend Mr. Crawley, of Steeple Ashton, Wilts, has reduced his tithes 10 per cent. The Re- verend W. Kearey, Nunnington, Yorkshire, has returned his tenants 10 per cent. of their Michaelmas rent. The Reverend S. Lowe, Rec- tor of Darlaston, at his late tithe audit, on the 19th instant, returned 10 per cent. [We always hear, at such times as the present, of the reduc- tions of tithes ; but no one tells of their occasional increase. If we were acquainted with the latter, we could better estimate the value of the former process. There is another element of correct judgment never supplied—how far was necessity the prompter of these reductions ? It is small praise to give up what we cannot get. No journalizer sits down to tell us how Mr. Timkins, on the 16th, gave up 12s. 6d. in the pound to his debtor Mr. Tomkins ; or how generous Mr. Snip, on the 20th, was content at last Basingball audit to receive Is. 6d. for twenty shillings from Captain Front-of-Brass. Yet why the upgivings of a tradesman, whose claim has been purchased by the delivery of effects, should not be chronicled as well as those of a clergyman, who in many cases has not given even the word of his mouth for it, we really cannot say.] Sir G. Henry Smyth, of Berechurch Hall, Essex, on Thursday, last week, granted ten acres of cultivated land to the overseers of the parish of Laver-de-la-Haye, rent-free, for the use of the unoccupied poor of the neighbourhood ; and that none of the advantages derivable frmsm such an act of munificence might be counteracted, Mr. John Pearson, of that parish, relinquished, at the same time, all his claim of tithes on the land so granted. The Commissioners wider the act passed in the last session of Par- liament for ascertaining the boundaries of Dean Forest are—Robert Gordon, Esq., M. P., Mr. Sergeant Ludlow ' • Charles Bathurst, Esq. of Lydney Park ; Edward Machen, Esq. of Whitemead Park ; and Henry Clifford, Esq. of Perrystone. They intend to hold their first meeting in the Forest about the 12th of February.—Gloucester Journal. On Sunday sennight, one of Lord Middleton's stewards sent for one of the tenants from Little Carton, to meet him at Newark. The wife of the tenant came, aml being ushered into the presence of this great man, he said, " I understand you receive the Methodists into your house, and have preaehings in it ; his Lordship will not suffer it ! therefore, if you persist in it, you will be discharged from your cottage." —Boston Gazette. [We suppose the Methodists are looked on by his Lordship as religious reformers.]

Lord Churchill's agent in Wiltshire has given notice that, should any more incendiary fires take place on his Lordship's property, the lands which have been divided among the labourers will be broken up, and re- added to the farms from which they have been taken. The typhus fever is at present raging with great malignity in several parts of the county of Gloucester. TILE NEW GAME Acr.—On Monday, last week, a Mr. Simpson was fined 20s. and costs, by the Magistrates at Wentbridge, for a tres- pass under the New Game Act, for searching for game upon land at Walton Wood, the property of Mr. Becket. The conviction took place on the application of a common informer. It WaS proved by Cooper, the tenant of the land in question, that there was no written lease or agreement between him and Mr. Becket for the farm, neither was there any agreement made between them, written or verbal, re- specting the game ; that in the course of last summer Mr. Becket gave him leave to shoot over his land, and had not countermanded that per- mission, and that Mr. Simpson gave him a hare and a rabbit, which he had shot on the day complained of. The Magistrate, however, decided, that under the 7th section of the Act, the game belonged to the land- lord ; that, in fact, the game in all cases of tenancies by parole or leases, not exceeding twenty-one years, and without fine, belongs to the lane lord, except where he may haVe expressly granted it to the tenant or some other person. Mr. Simpson's game certificate was produced, and Mr. Cooper's permission for him to shoot over the land was proved; but these were deemed insufficient.—[ These are the Lords' amend- ments of the bill : from their char:eter we may judge of the value of their intended amendments in other bills.] POACLIERS.—The contests betweou time poachers amid the keepers do not cease, notwithstanding the amteehnents of the Game-laws. On Christmas-day, a desperate tight tool: place at Haggwood, in the parish of Hemsworth, ever Wakefield, between Sir F. J. Wood's keepers and a gang of poaellers, in whieb the yoaehers were victorious. One of the keepers' assist:els had 1mi ::(111 end arm fractured. Ile was picked

up three-quarters a all 110Ur \N.:di his leg, tv isted find fixed in brush-wood, or What ere termed " binders ;" his clot': s, which were of fustian, on firm, end his left side ve s dreadfully beret: It would seem that the desperiee marauders, to voreinamate his stiff r!, es, laid set Ere to him in his helidess stete. :rid left lee: to perish by th, joint operation of their combustibl.e: :tie: mis womide. Four tnen heve heen taken up, eharged with this (1.:ezperato and brie asseult, and c;:ii:!.7tted to Wake- field gaol, until the keepers are sufficiently recovered t, eive evidence. Suturdav, two men who 11:1(1 querrell,el at a cocking at Wreekington, agreed to light out their differences. In the course of the conflict, some missiles were thrown hie) the ring; and a person of the name of Nicholson, a specteit.e. of the affray, but a stranger in the place, was charged with the perpeelitimi of this :nit of aggression. Nicholson repelled the charge ; but his denial only eeesperated the friends of the contruding parties. Oee of them, Stephe:• on, a quarry- man, a resident at Ayton Banks, sprung forward in Cie heat of his irritation, and struck Nicholson on rho left breast with such violence, as to lay him prostrate at his feet ; he then commenced kicking hint while in this defenceless position, mind was assisted in the barbarous work by another man. Baying exile:Jet:A their fury upon the unfor- tunate object of their resentment, they left him in a state of insensi- bility. A surgeon was sent for, but all attempts to restore animation proved unavailing. 'rhe deceased was a pitman, and had a wife and eight children. A coroner's inquest returned a verdict of " Man- slaughter ;" a gentle way of describing the affidr. Had any of the parties, under whatsoever provocation, us( d his knife, the Jury would have termed it " Murder ;" but employing- only feet, and thus adding severe suffering to a violent death, they had a natural sympathy for the genuine English form of slaying.

MYSTERIOUS DISAPPEARANCE.—A Dissenting clergyman, named Griffiths, disappeared, rather strangely, in the neighb,surhood of Devon- port on Tuesday night last week. lie bad been at Kingsand, a village close to Cawsand, about a mile and a half on time further side of the Tamar ; and was returning, when last seen, towards Cremil Passage, where a boat had been appointed to wait for him at nine o'clock. A woman, living not far from Maker Heights, heard, about ten o'clock, a cry of "murder ;" which it is supposed must have proceeded from the missing gentleman. No trace but this—if the cry alladed to can be called a trace of him—has been discovered. A reward has been offered by the local authorities, and also by Government, for the discovery of the murderers, if Mr. Griffiths be murdered. A ROWLER Suor.—A day or two ago a young commercial traveller belonging to Aberdeen sleeping at a village inn, and baying two pistols by him, warned the inn-keeper to be cautious of tem.-lung them, as they were loaded. The traveller went to bed, and fore day-light was preparing to start in his gig, when he noticed that his horse had cast a shoe ; lie procured a blacksmith, who put on the shoe ; and having accidentally observed that a screw of his pistols was loose, he desired the blacksmith to fix it. The man put the pistol to his mouth, and blew down the barrel ; which led to the discovery, that both shots had been drawn during the night. The young gentleman having re- loaded both pistols before he set out, bad not proceeded above three miles on his road when two men came out of a wood and dsmanded his purse. The traveller fired one of his pistols over their heads to frighten them ; when one of them presented a bludgeon to strike him ; upon

which the traveller instantly shot him through the heart. :Returning to the inn, which he did immediately, he called for the landlord, but he could nowhere be found.--Aberdeen Journal. [The Aberdeen Paper says, "the inference is pretty obvious " the fact might have been made equally obvious by an inspection of the body. If the landlord drew the charges of both pistols, with a view to disarm the object of his attack, we should have thought that the tiring of one of them would have convinced him that the trick had been discovered and remedied. All ingenious villain would have been content with drawing the balls. The stoty is very Mrs. Radcliffe-like. It is pleasant to see the good old times coining back again. Robbers, for many years past, have been as;dull and unimaginative as tradesmen.]

lik.A shoemaker of Portsmouth, who lied ham) more or less intoxicated for three din's before, on Tuesday stubbed his wife behind the ear with his knife so dreadfully that the poor woman died in about twenty mi- nutes.

GREAT FIRE AT JAVERPOOL.—The most extensive and destructive fire that has occurred in Liverpool for /mow yens past took place jim Fenwick Street on Friday night last VC:71:. The tire appears to have begun between nine tind ten o'clock, in a paper warehouse in Fenwick Street, and somit afterwards was communicated to the pre- mi,es occupied by _1 rest:rs. Bateman anel Co. general brokers, which latent !filed with a large and valuable of goods of every description. Several engineslxtere on the spot befoie ten o'clock, but, as usual, it \vas long before any sufficient surpIy of \voter could be °Weed ; and, in the mean time, the raei.,ly ahead. The books %vent fortunately preserved, and ated- goods as could be come at were removed eed pleced in Rumford Street and the Bridewell. .At twelve ooloek the three Avarchowvs next to Water Street were in a complete blitze from top to bottom. " The reileetion of the flames," ways the Meniary, "was ,:een for miles around, end every object in the neighbourhood wi brilliantly illuminated. The iigure of Britannia on the Town 1 lall,—even the features of the thee might be distinctly seen; St. tleorga's Spire V.",:ti so rOli5'it:t1,■!Z:4 60: the hour mialit be distingtOsbed. end holf woy dowe 1:ide Oor, et it .,ves light enoueli to see to re;:d. l tie i'arish ( )mujt, vhujtjm is situate immediately opposite the place NOWA the lire broke out, was saved with the greatest difficulty; and for seve: d house the walls and roof apiwared to be enveloped in the Mance, tile wind being at thet criod t-.. the we:sty:tad." Provi-

dent:idly. there was hardly a breath of air or mahing could have prevented the flames from extending to the i'arish (Mice, the Bank of :1iessrs. Sunned !lope and Co., and thence int,/ Castle Sreet.

progress of tile could not, howver, be pre ' eeted from spreiulieg to the edioinime premises on tile west side ef Fen eiek Strict; litiii,bee after beihline es, eeht, ;eel five or six how N1iireht•!ts“S, extend- lug meta tt i half vaiy freel 1.`,"iiterliStreet to Pete:swill; Street, have been red wed to asilies. It is he possible to state the allieeat of' damage ;

s- t estimete is from fitteen to twenty the waned pounds. By

.,•!:muSat morithig the time had (wen got wider, and there was 110 (Lager to be a; !a FATAL GeN Aecientatir.--(i)a Tuesday, last week, Earl Talbot, with three of his sons, and sonic visitors, went out to shoot in his Lordship's domain, attended by severel beetore; tied an old gamekeeper, pained Parker, accompanied them to load hi Lurdshitt's gun. When the party were in the Lion Lodge Plentetion, a rabbit sprulig up, which was tired et by Lord Clement, the tionouroble Gustavus T;:lhot, and the Earl, bet it is stated that four reeerts wen. heard in siLeressiun. The un flat 11: Nat.' IZCI:per WaS at that dine ol:eet four yards to the riela of Eorl Talbot; mei the rabbit was run:lino to the loft, whore his Lord- ship had turned to shoot at it. The shuts fired by Lord Clement and 111e. t;e. inissed the rabbit, and it appeared to have been killed by Eerl Talbot's shot. Parker Noes carrying a loaded gun tin the Earl; and in a second or two after his Lordship had fired, his Lordship, ob- serving him slip down to the grouad, stepped fotwatd to raise him up, not having tilt' .L.aq idea that lw was woueded, until the blood was per- ceived runaieg down his check frum his heed. Upon examining the hat and the wound, it appeared that tile cen.tents of the gen had entered on the right side of the back part or his head. The poor man died on Wednesday eight ; and the Coronei"s Inquest saW tit to decide that he perished in consequeeee of the accidental disebar.ge of the gun which he was carrying. [It is strange that no coaaideratum will iialtice peo- ple to use the safety-gun. A (1°x-eminent which had the perfect con- fidence of the people, and which did its duty, would order all others to be destroyed.] " On Friday night," says the Wel:fiTil Independent, " a fine brig, perfectly new, drifted in on the coast of Bannow, not a soul on board; the mainsheet had been carried away, and was lying over her side in the water. It appears by her papers, she was named La I3onne Julie, of 'Bordeaux, bound to Dunkirk. She had not drawn any \eater, and was perfectly sound until she struck. She had a valuable cargo of oil, fish, and about 100 French and Spanish dolh;rs in a hag; her Captain's name was J. Bartel'. The oil is now (Hoc: •-ging, and is to be bonded, on account of the Crown and the lord of the soil, to give time to the owners to claim : if none should appear, it belongs to the latter, sub- ject to the duties and salvage. To prevent any risk from contagion, Messrs. Boyse and Osborne, with the consent of the officers of Cus- toms and Water-guard, saw every article of clothing, bedding, &c., on board, brought on shore and burned, notwithstanding the entreaties of • the many poor who came from all parts to get vhat they could."_[ The fears of Messrs. Boyse and Osborne are stronger than their charity. 'What danger of contagion was there in a vessel from Bordeaux, bound to Dunkirk? The small functionaries, imitating their betters, are all . gone mad on the subject of contagion. Here was Providence offering a gift of great value to a dozen of poor families; a couple of blockheads destroy it, without the slightest occasion, and the Customs and Water-guard look on to see the fire legally. lighted. Who are the Customhouse-officers that consented to this ridiculous scheme ? They ought to be sent about their business. On Friday, a small yawl, with five men, proceeded from the quay of Skerries, at six o'clock in the morning, to fish for haddock. About eleven o'clock a storm, accompanied with heavy showers of rain, set in, and an immense sea struck the boat, which instantly sunk, and the five Ind-batman individuals met a watery grave.—Dablin Times. On Wednesday night, about six o'clock, Captain Turner, of the Bel- fast steamer, while stepping on board his vessel from a lighter, in which he had been superintending the shipping of grain from his own vessel, slipped and fail ore; board. A lantern which he carried was picked up yesterday, but the body has not yet been found.—Greenock _Advertiser.

An explesien of inflammable gas °mimed last week in the colliery of :kjetieais. Woodcock and Halliburton, at Kit Green, near Wigan. The depth of the mine was 1,213 feet, and the explosion was so loud that it was heard at a distance of eight miles. The loss of life has beea twenty men tau' boys, and eight women and girls !

In the course of the last three weeks, eighty-three children have dieti of the sma!lpex in Sheepshead.—Leicester a/we/de.