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The election of a Chancellor for the University of Cambridge terminated at noon on Saturday; and Prince Albert had then a majority of 116 votes. The customary reckonings having been made, the names on the cards were read over by the Senior Proctor, and the due election of Prince Albert was declared by this functionary, in Latin. A " caput" was then called by the Vice-Chancellor; a "grace " was submitted by the Senior Esquire Bedell, and read twice in both houses; and it was declared by the Vice- Chancellor to be passed. The proceedings terminated quietly at three o'clock.
A Congregation was held on Tuesday, in St. Catharine's Hall Lodge; and the Public Orator read a letter which he had written to Prince Albert, in Latin, announcing, in the name of the Senate, his Royal Highness's election. Immediately after the Congregation, the Vice-Chancellor and the Senior Esquire Bedell proceeded to London, to communicate with the Prince. '..They arrived at Buckingham Palace at half-past five, and received from the Prince's lips the announcement that he accepted the honour.
Prince Albert's reply was read at a Congregation held on Wednesday, as follows—
"Mr. Vice-Chancellor and Gentlemen of the Senate, I thank you for the kind terms in which you have apprized me of the result of the recent election for the Chancellorship of the University of Cambridge. "I need scarcely observe, after so recent and public a declaration of my sen- timents and feelings with regard to my nomination as a candidate for that office, that the proceedings which have subsequently taken place have been entirely without my sanction and privity.
" The intention to propose Inc as a candidate was not known to me until a pe- riod when the time for the election was at hand; and when the arrangements fur ascertaining the sense of the University were already completed, I could only have suspended their progress by a peremptory declaration that under no circumstances would I consent, if elected, to accept the efliee of Chancellor; and such a declaration I did not deem it respectful to the University to make. The- election has now terminated, and a majority of the University, including a very great number of its members most eminent for their services to the Church, to the University, and to the cause of literary science, declared in favour of my.ap- pointment to the vacant office. It is incumbent therefore on me to notify, with- out delay, the coarse which, under these circumstances, I shall pursue: I have resolved to accept the treat which the University is willing to confide in me. In forming this decision, I have been influenced by a respectful deference to the wishes of a majority of its members; by a great unwillingness to involve the University in the probable necessity of another contest; but, above all, by an earnest hope, that through a zealous and impartial discharge of the trust which I undertake, I shall succeed in establishing a claim on the confidence and good-will of the whole academical body. (Signed) ALBERT?' " Buckingham Palace, March 2."
The Manchester Courier states, as the result of careful inquiry, that out of 179 mills at Manchester, 99 are working full time, 68 short time, and 17 have stopped; while out of a total of 41,000 hands, 22,000 are working full' time, 13,500 short time, and 5,500 have stopped. It adds, that the average number of working-hours in the day at Manchester is under seven; the average at Oldham, Ashton, and the surrounding district, about eight.
The influx of starving Irish into Liverpool has been followed by an ex- tensive fever in the parts of the town inhabited by those people. Three officers employed in distributing relief have died of the disease, and others are dangerously ilL The Fever Hospital is filled.
A portion of the Newcastle and Berwick Railway, sixteen miles in length, extending from Newcastle to Morpeth, was opened for traffic on Monday. The whole line is expected to be opened before June.
At Reading Assizes, on Wednesday and Thursday, the extraordinary cases of malt robbery at Abingdon were quickly disposed of. The preliminary investiga- tion had occupied two months, and the accused persons were more than twenty in number; but at the trial the evidence broke down in nearly every instance, and the Judge directed an acquittal. In fact, the only convictions were those of two persons whose confessions condemned them. It is said that the indictments against the accused extended to a length of 145 yards!
At the Newcastle Assizes, last week, James Welch was tried for the murder of Thomas Proud. It was proved that Welch had annoyed some women who had been attending the christening of Proud's child; Proud seized the accused, strag- gled, and fell down with him, probably also kicking his antagonist: Welch then ran home, returned quickly, hit Proud on the bead with a stick, and plunged a knife into his neck. Welch has been found guilty, and sentenced to death.
At the same Assizes, Matthews and Hughes, two Irish navigators, were charged with the murder of Daniel Hides, a fellow workman on the Newcastle and Ber- wick Railway. The prisoners had quarrelled with Hides: and the kilter chal- lenging them to fight, Matthews stabbed him with a knife. Hughes is acquitted; Matthews found guilty, and ordered to be hanged. Mrs. Leadbetter, the wife of a share-broker at Manchester, who had recently been living with her children at her father's house in Walton-le-Dale, Preston, attempted, last week, to poison her children, and then destroyed herself. At eight o'clock on Friday evening, she administered to each of her five children what she said was medicine, put them to bed. and then left the house. The children became ill; medical aid was obtained, and four were saved; but the fifth, a girl, died on Saturday afternoon. The body of the mother was found in the river Ribble.
It appeared at the Coroner's inquest, that the poison administered to the chil- dren was laudanum. Mrs. Leadbetter had suffered from decided insanity: six years ago, whilst walking attended by a keeper, she had attempted to drown her- self in a canal. The verdict is, that the child was poisoned by the mother in an insane state of mind.
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