5 NOVEMBER 1842, Page 4

b e Irobincts.

The Municipal elections took place on Tuesday the 1st instant. The accounts are not always very distinct or precise ; but, such as they are,

they furnish materials for the following summary of the results—

Bedford. The Liberals gained in every instance.

Beverley. Six Liberal candidates were elected, without opposition ; the

Tories losing four seats.

Birmingham. Nearly all the seats were successfully contested by Complete

Suffrage candidates; the old Councillors who took the pledge being unopposed. Boston. The Tories have obtained a majority. The Liberals seem to have fallen into a lethargy from which they could not be aroused. Bridport. Four Liberals and two Tories were elected:

Cambridge. Six Conservatives and four Liberals were replaced by eight

Conservatives and two Liberals.

Canterbury. Each party elected four, besides two Liberals reelected.

Colchester. The Tories are placed in a majority. Coventry. The Tories gained one in the general result. Devonport. Eleven Tones and one Liberal were elected.

Dover. Five Tories iind one Liberal retired, and the same numbers were

returned.

Evesham. Four Liberals wer,e elected.

Exeter. All the Tory candidates were successful. Guildford. Four Tories were elected.

Harwich. Two of each party went out, and four Tories were elected;

snaking nine Tories to seven Liberals in the Council. Hastings. Four Liberals and two Conservatives retired ; three of each party

were returned.

Ipswich. Six Tories and three Liberals were returned ; making twenty-one Tories to nineteen Liberals in the Council.

Kendal. The single Tory in the Council was among the retiring members,

and another Tory has taken his place.

Lancaster. Four Tories and Two Liberals were returned.

Leeds. Including an extraordinary vacancy, according to the Tory accounts,

the Tories have returned nine, the Whigs six, and the Chartists two ; whereas the Liberal party claim a return of nine Reformers to eight of their opponents; and on their showing the Council is now composed of forty-two Reformers

and twenty-two Tones. .Leicester. Ten Liberals were elected, three Tories, and one Chartist.

Lichfield. Six Conservatives retired, and six were returned.

Liverpool. The retiring members were ten Tories and six Liberals; thirteen Tories were returned and three Liberals.

Ludlow. The election placed parties on a par.

Manchester. The Conservatives did not interfere in the election.

Nottingham. Ten Liberals and four Conservatives retired ; five Liberals and mine Conservatives were returned.

Preston. Two Liberals and ten Conservatives were returned.

Stafford. Each party returned two. Stockport. The Tories returned candidates for all the nine seats, gaining one.

Southampton. The Liberals boast a partial success in one of the two wards; still leaving a Conservative majority in the Council. Shrewsbury. Ten Conservatives were returned, the Liberals apparently

losing two.

Sunderland. Eight Liberals and Biz Tories retired ; nine Liberals and five Tories were elected.

Tewkesbury. All the successful candidates were Liberals.

Wallingford. Three Tories and one Liberal were elected without opposition.

Walsall. Four Liberals and two Conservatives retired ; two Liberals and

four Conservatives were elected.

Warwick. Four Conservatives and two Liberals retired; six Conservatives

were elected.

Wells. Three Liberals and one Tory retired; four Tories were returned.

Wipe. The Liberals took no part in the contest.

Windsor. Five out of the six candidates returned were Tories.

Wisbeach. The election makes the numbers in the Council sixteen Con- servatives and eight Liberals. Worcester. All the elected candidates were Liberal.

Yarmouth. All elected were Liberals.

York. Eight Conservatives were elected to four Liberals, being one more

Conservative than was elected last year : the numbers in the Council now are,

thirty-two Conservatives and sixteen Whigs.

The Dublin Evening Mail of Monday last contains a voluminous re- port of the annual meeting of the Protestant Association at Liverpool. The report "stated the incursions of Papacy," and "recommended that there should be no compromise with Rome but a vigorous follow- ing up of the efforts which had been commenced." A statement of the accounts was also made, from which it appeared that there was a balance owing to the treasurer of 86/ 7s. 3d. The speakers were of the usual list—the Reverend Hugh DPNeile, the Reverend Hugh Stowell, the Reverend Robert J. M.Ghee, and others. Mr. M'Ghee moved and carried a petition against the grant to Maynooth College ; for such was its drift, though in terms it was a petition for inquiry into charges against the College. To enforce the petition, he made a long speech to prove the professed infallibility of the Pope and the avowed activity of the Papal Government ; associating the accession of the present Pope in 1831, the proceedings of the Bishops in Ireland, and the publication of Dr. Dens's book on Theology, to prove the spirit and existence of encroachment.

We were only able to state in our second edition, last week, that the adjourned meeting at Birmingham, held on the previous Tuesday, to co. operate with the Manchester Anti-Corn-law League, was spoiled by the Chartists; who obtained early possession of the place of meeting, the Public Office appointed their own chairman ; and carried their own resolution, condemning the Corn-laws and similar restrictions of trade oppressive to industry, but recommending the Charter as the only effectual remedy.

Sir Charles Shaw has published a reply to Mr. Clarke of Chorlton- upon-Medlock, who accused Sir Charles of having evaded his duties at the commencement of the Manchester disturbances on the 9th of August, by abstaining from acting as a Magistrate, although the act authorizing his appointment as Chief Commissioner of Police also authorized his appointment as Magistrate for the borough and county-

" In the Town-hall, on that morning," says Sir Charles, "I explained to the Military Commandant, that I coull not act as a Magistrate, as my in- structions were, Mat I, as Chief Commissioner of Police, must neither, as a Magistrate, make a requisition for the military, nor take it upon myself to read the Riot Act; my duty being to give notice to the Mayor, and in his absence to the Stipendiary Magistrate; in short, that I was to act solely as their execn- tive. Upon these instructions I have ever acted." He once did take upon himself to act in place of a Magistrate- " Strange enough that the only occasion on which I of myself called out the military, headed them, and dispersed the mob, was in the very township from which the letter is date& When no law was in Manchester, an immense mob were attacking the mills of the Messrs. Birley. The operatives of these gentle- men were defending their masters' property, but the numbers of the mob would soon have overpowered them. Being instructed that when property is destroyed, that all concerned in that destruction are felons, I acted on this principle, but not as a Magistrate. I took it upon myself to call out a troop of dragoons, to head them, and to disperse the mob and to save the property."

He guesses at his assailant's motives-

" From the very bitter animus displayed against me in your correspondent's letter, I have been endeavouring to bring to my recollection, whether, in my duties as Chief Commissioner, I had ever been forced to interfere with the local authorities of the township of Chorlton-on-Medlock, from which the letter is dated. I do remember having made some very strong remarks on finding that the authorities had appointed, as their confidential clerk, an Inspector of Po- lice, whom they knew I had been obliged to turn out of the Police force. That ex-inspector and confidential clerk is at present undergoing imprisonment for embezzling the public funds intrusted to him by the authorities. I feel confident that your correspondent must be a leading man in the local affairs of that township."

Sir James Graham has replied to the memorial of the Jury who sate in the inquest on Beale, the Northleach prisoner, by announcing that before he had received their memorial he bad ordered a full inquiry.

The first Commission of Lunacy under the new statute was opened at Bath On Friday, to investigate the mental state of Miss Isabella Cot- trell, an aged lady ; who was pronounced to be of unsound mind. There was not the slightest interest in the case except as being the first under the new arrangement.

Cheltenham has been taken by surprise in consequence of a charge against Lady Ricketts, the widow of Admiral Sir R. T. Ricketts, and others, of having forged the Admiral's will, to the prejudice of the heirs- at-law ; one of whom, Mr. Augustus Newton, a barrister, and the son- in-law of Admiral Ricketts, conducted a preliminary prosecution of the accused before the Magistrates at the Police Court on Monday. The case was adjourned till yesterday, to enable some of the accused parties to appear.

The Bradford Observer, on the authority of a correspondent, tells a strange story and stranger conduct on the part of the Magistrates. We abridge the tale— One evening in January last, a young lady, the daughter of the Reverend Mr. Rigg, went up stairs into her mother's bed-room and dressing-room; which she found much disordered, and a room beyond had been still more disturbed- She proceeded to scan the room more closely; when she perceived a man partly crouched under the bed, but with his head protruded somewhat towards the window. At the sight of him she quietly put down the linen' which she had in one hand, on a chair, and walking to the door, took the key from the inside, and locked it on the out. She then gave the alarm ; but as there were none but women and children in the house, some minutes necessarily elapsed before assistance could be procured ; and in the mean time, the man made his escape by the window, and over the yard-wall, taking with him some of Miss Ride dresses ; nor was he afterwards taken.

One Wednesday evening about a month ago, at the hour of nine o'clock. the Reverend Mr. Rigg was absent from home on ministerial duty. Mrs. Rigg and her son were sitting in the back-parlour, which Miss Rigg had just left ; when they heard an unaccountable scuffling noise, then a stifled scream, fol- lowed by one louder. Mrs. Ri„og thinking that the noise came from up-stairs, and that one of the children, who had just retired to rest, must have set herself on fire, directed Mr. H. Rigg to run and see what was the matter, and she her- self hastened after as fast as her feelings of alarm would allow. Sbe had, how- ever, just reached the door leading down to the kitchen and cellar, which she had to pass in order toga up-stairs, and which was standing partially open, when Miss Rigg came out pale and bleeding, and exclaimed, "Mother, a man in the cellar has stabbed me l" He had assailed her with a razor as she was mounting the cellar-steps; had inflicted one cut four inches long on the shoulder, four small ones near it, and a slight wound on the breast, besides severing a portion of her long thick curls, which seem to have broken the force of his blows. He again escaped, leaving behind him some plate which he had taken from the upper rooms. A man was taken on the Friday after the attempt, on suspicion of being the guilty party ; to whose features Miss Rigg could swear as identical with Shoe of her assailant, with the exception of his whiskers—features which every one

knows can be disguised at pleasure. Yet with this testimony, and the full evidence in court of the circumstances detailed above, the Magistrates not only dismissed the man, but, though he was known to he a fellow of bad character, they did not even interrogate him as to where he had been on the evening in question!

Impunity led to a third outrage. On the evening of Sunday week, during service-time, as Miss Rigg was going into the back-parlour for a book, a man followed her, and struck her violently on the arm twice with some heavy in- strument. She fell shrieking to the ground ; and her cries brought assistance, which frightened away the ruffian who had attacked her. He left the house without taking or attempting to take any thing.

A file broke out in the middle of Thursday, at Bear Wood, the seat of Mr. John Walter, M.P., in Be: kshire. The neighbours in great numbers rendered assistance ; but, from the want of engines on the spot, the flames were not subdued for some hours, and much damage was done ; the fire, however, being confined to one wing of the mansion.

The weather in the North has been characterized by a severity of which we have had no notion in the South : the Manchester Guardian gives an instance— "In order to prove that winter in the North has 'come in like a roaring lion,' we need only mention, that on 'Wednesday morning last, the mail-cart which runs between the towns of Alston and Penrith, in Cumberland, by reason of the tempestuousness of the wind and the great depth of the snow, was completely drifted up on a bleak part of the road on Cross Fell. The postman, being unable to proceed further, with great difficulty managed to dis- engage the horse, which was nearly done up, from its trappings : he mounted it, and leaving the cart, came on with the bags. After a stormy and dangerous journey, be arrived at Penrith two hours or more behind his usual time ; thereby losing a post for the letters which were destined for London by the morning mails."

The Manchester Advertiser describes a novel exhibition of a "juve- nile prodigy "— " The anniversary sermons in behalf of the Primitive Methodist Sunday Schools, Oldham' were preached on Sunday last by boy of fourteen years of age, named Joel Hodson, of Lancaster. Such was the excitement of the public to see and bear this juvenile prodigy, that the congregation were ad- mitted by tickets sold at Is. and CA each.'

The Liverpool Mail of Wednesday announces, that nearly all the claims on the insurance-offices on account of the late Liverpool fire had been satisfactorily adjusted; 355,400/. having been paid, up to the pre- vious evening. The amount of property uninsured was small. The Mail remarks, that nothing but such combinations of wealth and capital could have combated such losses. The fire is now conjecturally attri- buted to spontaneous combustion.