tot Vrouiurto.
On the supposition that Mr. Brisco, Member for Hastings, is about to resign his seat, candidates are in the field ; Mr. North in the Liberal, and Mr. Crake in the Conservative interest.
At a recent meeting of the Manchester Town-Council, the report of a committee was adopted recommending free trade in cabs.
During the stay of the French fleet at Deal, the Mayor and Magistrates presented an address to Admiral Parseval Desehenes; to which on the Tuesday they received a reply, thanking the Mayor for the hearty greeting given to the French fleet, rejoicing in the happy union of the two nations in a just cause, and expressing a hope that by God's aid their efforts will be crowned with a solid and lasting peace.
The Reverend John Ernest Bode, formerly student of Christ Church, and now Rector of Weatwell, Oxon, has been selected to deliver the en- suing course of Bampton Lectures at Oxford.
James Montgomery, the poet and journalist of Sheffield, died on Sun- day morning, at the age of eighty-two. He was a native of Irvine in Ayrshire. Early in life be came up to London with poems to sell; a bookseller refused the poems, but made the boy his shopman. He was next employed at Sheffield, in 1792, upon the Sheekl Register, and he subsequently edited the Sheffield Iris. In this capacity he was prosecuted and imprisoned twice by Mr. Pitt's Government. Mr. Montgomery in his latter days enjoyed a pension of 1501. a year.
The Preston contest is virtually at an end. For some time the sources whence the operatives drew supplies have been drying up ; and last week only 4001. instead of 20001. or 30001. was forthcoming. On Monday there was a great open-air meeting. The operatives received their leaders with the usual cordiality, and their applause continued although the Chairman and Cowell had to tell unpleasant news. They told the meet- ing, that the strikes at Stockport, and the impending turn-outs at Darwen and Blackburn, had.cut off their supplies. The Preston strike, Cowell said, had prevented the lowering of wages in the manufacturing districts ; but they had failed to obtain what they wanted, and must return to work. The people cheered for "the ten per cent," and separated. The delegates had issued an address in the morning, which contained the fol- lowing passages-
" The successful termination of the late strike at Stockport, which was immediately followed by an advance of wages in Blackburn and other places, led us and the factory-workers of Preston to believe that the employers were in a position to give a similar advance ; which was conceded by thirty- two of the employers, but was afterwards taken off through the refusal of four employers to follow the praiseworthy example of the great majority of the trade. After thirty-six weeks' struggle, we are obliged to bring the contest to a temporary close. " We have been compelled to adopt this alternative by the universal com- bination of the employers ; whose paid agents have swept the three kingdoms for the means of destruction to the Preston operatives. These hirelings have been assisted in the circulation of their nefarious misrepresentations by a powerful but unscrupulous press, and by the miscalled guardians of the poor, who have emptied their workhouses of all that could crawl from the gates. "The employers have been further assisted in their unholy crusade by the recent proceedings of a portion of the overlookers, who have lent. or sold themselves to the employers to circulate through the country false statements respecting the position of Preston, which have had the effect of curtailing the amount of subscriptions in those towns where their misrepresentations have been made. Coupled with those obstacles, the Eastern war, and the unprecedented high price of provisions, have operated as insurmountable difficulties to the continuation of the power-loom weavers' struggle. The operatives have therefore been advised to resume work until a more favour- able opportunity ; as the time will come when that 10 per cent will be granted to the operatives which is now unjustly and by might withheld from them."
The spinners and minders, three thousand in number, threatened to hold out a little longer. Their terms are—the same prices they received previously to the lock-out, or an average of the trade.
The strike at Stockport has soon been abandoned, though not by all the turn-outs. Most of the mule-spinners were obstinate in standing out, but at the beginning of the week the other hands were rapidly re- turning to work. In two large mills there were only 160 mule-spinners and piecers absent. If the mule-spinners were unanimous in remaining on strike, they would cause much inconvenience ; though comparatively few in numbers they are important to the general operations of the mills : however, some of them have already resumed their labour.
There is a bad spirit abroad in Manchester : within a few weeks no fewer than twenty attempts have been made to set fire to warehouses. On Sunday afternoon there were three offences of the kind. Fortunately, the Police discovered the fires before they had got any head. The incendiaries threw bundles of burning combustibles through windows on to piles of cotton- twist. It is now suspected that the great fires which occurred some time since were wilfully caused.
There was a thunderstorm at Leeds on the afternoon of Tuesday. At Richmond Hill, two of the workmen employed in building a Roman Catholic chapel there sought refuge from the rain under an arch, and were killed by lightning : several others were struck. Hard by, workmen were sinking a well : one man was on the surface ; his thigh was broken, and the light- ning as it passed down the well covered a man at the bottom with stones and rubbish ; but he was got out alive. A number of labourers at some new houses in the vicinity were also struck down, and were senseless for a time.
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