gibe Vrobincts.

Meetings to petition against the increased grant to Maynooth College have been held at Cheltenham, -Maidenhead, and other places about the country.

A numerous and influential meeting of landlords and tenant-farmers was held at Battle, in Sussex, on Friday; Sir C. Lamb in the chair. Mr. Curteis, the Member for Rye, attended. In seconding a resolution declaring that the agricul- tural interest must be ruined by the continuance of the present depression and distress, Mr. C. H. Frewen denied that high prices mean no more than high rents. Rent forms but a small item in the expense of cultivating land, and a difference of 5s. a quarter will equal the rent It was time for the agriculturists to be up and doing: their patience had become proverbial; how much longer were they to wait? About the middle of the last century, a certain Prime Minister bad been spoken of by a facetious poet as—

Our patriot, great Sir Robert,

it

'Whose counsels aid the sovereign power To save the nation every hour."

That Minister also dealt with tariffs and taxation: some taxes he took off, some be put on; and when asked once on what class of persons he was about to impose the next tax, answered the agricultural interest. His expression was, " Bless- :ings on them, they stand as easily to be sheared as their own sheep." Whether Sir Robert Walpole was the only Minister who might say that, he did not know;

but he trusted the agriculturists would no longer be wanting to themselves, but come forward and insist on having their fair share of protection. In moving a 'resolution for repeal of the Malt-duty, the Reverend Dr. Lamb gave a hit at Members who depart from the professions of the hustings. It might, perhaps, be lamented that so great a change of sentiment should come over gentlemen after they got into the House of Commons, and that they should be so fond of kicking down the ladder by which they attained their eminence. A Lethean forgetful= ness seemed to beset honourable Members upon passing the door-keeper of the house. Mr. S. Selmes, an extensive tenant-farmer, appealed to the meeting whe- .ther it was possible to keep up the rents that had been considered no more than 'fair for the last ten years. They had all been deceived thoroughly. The tenants 'might grumble, but unless the landlords and clergy came forward, it would be of no use. They had been grossly deceived. Sir Robert Peel had said they should have wheat at 56s. a quarter. At Rye market only two days back, the av price was 44s. Mr. Curteis put in a word for his own party. He believed e Whig Government would not have brought forward measures so prejudicial to the agricultural interest as this Government had done. Free trade was decidedly coming fast; but they ought to resist all attempts a taudden removals of pro- tection.

A meeting of tenant-farmers, convened by the Essex Agricultural Protection Society, was held at Chelmsford on Thursday week. The County and Borough Members were invited to attend; but only three did so—Sir John Tyrell, Mr. G. .C.Roand, and Mr. T. W. Bmmston. Neglect of agriculture by Ministry and Legislature formed the burden of complaint Let the agriculturists ask for little or much, exclaimed Sir John Tyrell, they received the same answer. If they called for the abolition of the duty on malt, they were told that it was too much to expect ; and when they complained of the county-rate, they were termed whiners. Mr. Brarnston took occasion to declare his belief that Ministers have no disposi- tion to make further alteration in the Corn-laws. A long discussion arose upon the effects of the Canada Corn Bill, the Tariff, &c. It led to the adoption of no substantive resolution; but the three Members were thanked for attending, and Mr. Robert Baker, of Writtle, for presiding in the chair.

A meeting of upwards of a thousand agricultural labourers was held at the

village of Ramsbury, in Wiltshire, on Tuesday evening, to consider their dis- tressed condition. Several working-men described the miserable state in which they exist, in consequence of the low wages which they receive; others advocated frestiwde in corn as a means of improving the labourer's position, and a resolution was passed to that effect. David Keele, a decent-looking labourer, gave a homely and tenth*: recital of his own experiences; concluding with an exhortation to his hewer* to avoid rioting and drunkenness, and to make known their condition to Parliament in the hope of redress.

We have much pleasure in stating, that the occupiers of farms under the Duke of Bedford, besides the pis-liege of destroying rabbits, have now permission to course down the hares. We have, further, the best possible grounds for believing that his Grace has turned his most anxious consideration to the general subject of game-preserving.—County Press.

In consequence of the great demand for iron both at home and abroad, and the still greater demand Which is expected from the formation of so many new rail- ways, the iron-masters of South Staffordshire, at a meeting at Wolverhampton, have resolved that an advance of forty shillings a ton in the price of manufac- tured iron should take place next quartering. The Birmingham Journal says, that at no former period-in the history of the iron trade were the working-classes so fully and generally employed; and thet,s1560, at good wages. The prospects, however, are not equally satisfactory to'allfplities. The demand for railways is by some expected to absorb the whole "make" of iron for the next three years: in such case the price would rise enormously; the prices of manufactured goods would rise proportionately; English exporters would be undersold by American and Continental riVals; and our export trade ill articles made-front iron would be "-amnliilated."

John Kenyon Winterbottcrm, the Stockport solicitor who was convicted in Dls- cember last of forging an endorsement on a bill of exchange for 5,000L, which belonged to clients of his, thus defrauding the Pelican Life Assurance Company-, was sentenced at Chester, on Tuesday, to be transported for life. Certain ob- jections had been raised against the conviction, but the Judges had overruled them.

A Spaniard, calling himself Joseph Sine, has been arrested at Birmingham in the very act of striking counterfeit French coins. He appears to have operated extensively.

At Bury St. Edmunds, last week, a boy nine years old was convicted of setting fire to a haulm stack. After telling a number of falsehoods, the boy had admitted that he had pulled some straw from the stack and lighted it to warm himself; and the flames then caught the stack.

At the same Assizes, Dew, a labourer, was found guilty of firing the premises of two farmers, in July and October last; and he was sentenced to be transported for life. The prisoner had inadvertently confessed his criminality to a man a few weeks since; and when in prison he was tricked into another admission of it by-as Policeman.

There have been five other convictions for similar offences. In one ease the accused were of the ages of seventeen and eleven years.

On Monday, Tibbenham, Lord Rendlesham's gamekeeper, who shot his wife dead with a pistol while be was drunk, was tried for the murder. The prisoner declared that it was an accident; he exhibited the greatest anguish at the death of his wife, with whom he had always lived on good terms; be went for assistance immediately after the woman was shot, and sorrowfully avowed that she died by his hand. As a gamekeeper he always had loaded fire-arms about the house. He was found guilty of " Manslaughter."

An alarming collision occurred on the York and North Midland Railway last week. A Hull and Selby train wasjust moving from the Burton Salmon station, when a York mail-train came up before its time, at great speed, dashing into the train about to start The last carriage of the Hull train was much damaged, the coupe being completely crashed; and a number of .persons were bruised. gentleman had removed from the coupe to another carriage a short time before, and thus escaped almost certain death.

A alight shock of earthquake was felt at Huntingdon on Wednesday week. -