3 AUGUST 1844, Page 8

ThebillItS.

Lord Villiers, son of the Earl of Jersey, and Sir Robert Peel's son-in- law, is a candidate for Cirencester. He avows himself a staunch Con- servative, attached to Church and State, ready to support measures which will ameliorate and uphold our institutions, and in favour of agri- cultural prosperity. Mr. Parsons, keeper of a public-house, has also issued an address to the electors.

The usual election-speeches were delivered at Eton College on Mon- day, before a numerous and fashionable assemblage. The Provost stated, that, in honour of Prince Albert's having laid the foundation- stone of the new buildings, recently, an additional week's holy day would be given to the boy s ; which was much cheered. Intelligence was re- ceived in the course of the morning, that vacancies had occurred at Cambridge, which would admit Mr. Drake, K.S., who obtained the Montem and the New castle scholarship, and Mr. Brocklebank, K.S.

A numerous meeting of the inhabitants of Birmingham was held on Tuesday, in the Town-ball, for the purpose of giving a "public wel- come" to Mr. T. S. Buncombe, on the occasion of his visiting that bo- rough in company with Mr. Feargus O'Connor. The Mayor was called to the chair ; and a resolution was carried unanimously, thanking Mr. Duncombe for his conduct in Parliament, especirlly in regard to the Masters and Servants Bill and Post-office espionage. Mr. Duncombe returned thanks in approved style. A resolution of want of confidence in the present House of Commons was then passed ; and Mr. O'Connor made a speech.

A great meeting of miners, estimated at from twenty-five to thirty thousand persons, was held on the Town Moor, Newcastle, on Monday. Mr. Mark Dent having been called to the chair, resolutions favourable to continuing the union of the miners, though betraying a greater dis- position than before to accommodate matters with their masters, were agreed to ; and the meeting dispersed.

On the same evening, 204 miners arrived at Newcastle from Wales, some being accompanied by their wives and families. They were lodged in colliery-cottages near Newcastle.

Many trials for incendiarism have taken place at Ipswich ; the ac- cused in most cases being found guilty. The most remarkable point in these trials is the extreme youth of most of the culprits. Thus, on Thursday week, three boy s were tried, one sixteen years old and an- other eleven, who were convicted, and a third, thirteen years of age, who was acquitted. On Friday, a boy aged eleven, and another thir- teen, were found guilty, whilst one of sixteen was acquitted. On the following day, two youths, of sixteen and eighteen, were convicted, and another, of seventeen, tried and acquitted. On Monday, a lad of fifteen was acquitted on a charge of arson, and another, aged eighteen, of sending a threatening letter.

On Friday, Edward Botwright was found guilty of firing a barn and out-buildings at Sotterley. A letter written by the prisoner was picked up in the farm-yard, and read in the light of the burning barn, by the son of the prosecutrix, to whom it was addressed. It threatened ven- geance against him and other farmers—" Their will be a slauter made amongst you verry soone. I shood verry well like to hang you the same as I hanged your beastes." The prisoner had in fact hung some of the beasts.

On Monday, the last day of the Assizes, judgment was passed on the convicted prisoners, seventeen in number : they were sentenced to be transported for terms varying from seven years to the duration of life. The sentences on the younger prisoners were in most cases merely nominal,—as, in return for fire-raising, they are to receive that educa- tion and attention which, bestowed on them earlier, might perhaps have made them good citizens instead of incendiaries. The majority of the prisoners tried were grossly ignorant.

The Ipswich Grand Jury, having had their attention drawn by the Judge to the state of the calendar, handed in a presentment on the sub- ject, on Friday week. Their power of classification and analysis is on a par with their style of writing. They say that they cannot trace the prevalence of incendiarism to any one particular cause-

" We can, therefore, only present the following as our analysis of the cases which have come before us; of which there appears to be 17 committed by children or young persons under the age of twenty, and 15 by persons above that age,—namely, 4 arising from inadequate employment, 13 from malicious feeling towards individuals, 11 from actual mischief and without any preme- ditated or criminal intention, 1 only by a party travelling about the country as a vagrant, and 4 for which we cannot discover any cause or motive what- erer. We have great satisfaction in presenting, that in very few cases the plea of inadequate wages has been instrumental to the commission of the offences with which the present calendar is so fearfully charged."

There have been several trials for incendiarism at other Assizes. At Exeter, last week, Jane Netherton was found guilty of setting fire to a haystack belonging to the Reverend Mr. Pearce, at Ermington ; and was sentenced to be transported for life. The woman's husband was in prison at the time of the fire, for some offence against the game-laws ; Mr. Pearce having committed him.

At the same Assizes, on Monday, Bill Williams, aged fourteen, and Charles Thompson, aged twelve, were tried for firing a stack of hay at Awliscombe : Williams was found guilty, and Thompson acquitted.

Two men were found guilty at Durham, on Friday week, of firing several stacks of wheat and oats.

At Lewes, on Monday, a boy eight years old was tried for setting fire to 8 stack of corn, and acquitted. The boy, however, by his own con- fession, did commit the offence ; for he had admitted the fact to the farmer whose stacks were fired, on promise of forgiveness if he told the truth : this was the only evidence against him, and of course the Judge refused it.

At Norwich, on Wednesday, Robert English, aged twenty, was found guilty of arson at Wretton. There appeared to be no motive for the crime, but a desire to imitate the evil deeds of others.

At Milton farm, near Gravesend, very early on Tuesday morning, a large stack of oats was burnt down. A. travelling tinker, who was found lurking near, is committed as the incendiary.

'Warner, the clerk who absconded with upwards of 1,200/, belonging to the Birmingham District Banking Company, has been arrested at Chester, in a state of intoxication, with nearly all the money about him.

At Worcester, on Thursday week, John Bowen was found guilty of defacing the parish-register of Croome d'Abitot, and was sentenced to' seven years' transportation. The prisoner had been engaged in tracing a pedigree to prove Mr. John Wood, of Brierley Hill, Staffordshire, the heir-at-law of Mr. Wood the Gloucester banker ; and he had a sinister object in tearing out a portion of the register.

At Nottingham, on Saturday,William Saville, a framework-knitter, aged, 29, was found guilty of the murder of his wife. Other indictments charged him with murdering his three children: but they were not proceeded with on his conviction for the first murder. The prisoner was courting another woman, and pretended he was unmarried ; but the girl got an inkling of the truth, and dismissed him. Next day, he took his wife and children into a plantation at Colwick, and there murdered them. He confessed his crime to a fellow-prisoner in the prison— Ile said, that on the day of the murders he and his wife and children went down to Colwick ; that they went over some bills, and then into a vale; and be sent the children to gather flowers; and whilst they were gone, he took out the razor and cut her throat. Before he had time to conceal it, the little children came up, and began screaming and crying: be thought he heard somebody coming, and was obliged to serve them with " the same sort of sauce," for fear of being caught.

The prisoner was unmoved during the trial, and on being sentenced to be executed.

Owen Leonard, a dissipated Irish journeyman-tailor, murdered hie wife at Liverpool, early on Sunday morning, with brutal ferocity. Though both were old, the man was jealous of his wife, and on Sunday morning they quarrelled on that score. Leonard sharpened a razor, knocked the old woman down, and cut her throat, first on one side then on the other; he then nearly cut off her nose; and while she was struggling to escape, inflicted wounds on one of her arms, on both her legs, and on other parts of her body. An alarm being raised by the screams of the woman and a boy, her son, the murderer threw her into the street, where she lay bleeding on the pavement. She was taken to the Infirmary, and soon died from the loss of blood. The murderer is in the hands of justice.

One Frederick Fitzhugh has been killed in a pugilistic encounter with Cumberpatch, commonly called " Dan Patch," at Merry's Close, near Northampton. A Coroner's Jury has returned a verdict of " Wil- ful Murder" against Cumberpatch and seven others, among whom is John Fitzhugh, the father of the murdered man ; who, it was declared, had said at the fight, " that he would bring his son home a corpse sooner than he should give in." The fight was for ten shillings the side, to decide which was the better man.