tt be 1Probintes.

The deputation of hop-growers who waited on Sir Charles Wood on Friday, and were to receive the Government reply on Saturday, obtained their answer this week. On Monday, Sir Charles addressed a note to Mr. Hodges to this effect- " Her Majesty's Government have learned with great regret that apprehensions are entertained of the prevalence of distress daring the ensuing winter in the hop. growing districts and other parts of the country ; but we trust that the diminished price of food and other necessaries will especially contribute towards the comfort of all classes, especially of the labourers and of their families.

"With regard to the further postponement of that instalment of the hop-duty of 1848 the payment of which was due in May last, and has already been delayed till the middle of this month, it is my duty to inform you, that her Majesty's Go- vernment do not feel themselves justified in acceding to any farther poetpone- ment; and the necessary orders will be given for its collection at the appointed time. I lose no time in makin.g. this communication to you' as it is for the inte- rest of all parties that the decision on this point should be immediately known. With regard to the instalment due in November, I am not indisposed to allow further time for its payment."

Mr. Low of Gracechurch Street, London, has protested against the va- lidity of the West Surrey election. The poll was closed at the end of the first day, on Mr. Edgell's resignation; but Mr. Low presented himself to vote on the morning of the second day, and he contends that the closing of the poll was illegal.

At Norwich, on Wednesday evening, the National Reform Association commenced a series of provincial meetings, intended to further the object of improving the system of representation, and securing greater economy in the national expenditure. Mr. Joseph Hume, Sir Joshua Walmsley, Mr. George Thompson, and Mr. Feargus O'Connor, formed the band of speakers from the Metropolitan Association; and they were received on the platform at St. Andrew's Hall by many prominent citizens of Norwich. The audience was very large, and consisted of about an equal proportion of the usual middle-class attendants of Reform meetings and of frater- nizing Chartists. Resolutions were passed in favour of a reduced national expenditure, and as a means thereto, of electoral reform on the basis pro- posed by the National Association; in favour of the freehold movement; and specifically in acknowledgment of the hearty union between the mid- dle and the working classes, at last attained.

A public meeting was held at Gravesend on Wednesday, to consider the holding of a county- meeting to address the Queen against the ruinous sys- tem of Free-trade legislation. Earl Stanhope presided; and in the course of his opening speech, made the following allusions to Mr. Disraeli and his late explanations of party policy.

He felt it incumbent on him to .refer to kspeech lately delivered at Aylesbury by Mr. Disraeli ; a speech totally undeserving of attention, were it not for the celebrity which that honourable gentleman had attained as an orator in the House of Commons, and also from the fact that he was supposed to represent the agricultural party. Last session, Mr. Disraeli had proposed an equalization of local burdens, of which the agricultural population bore an undue share. Well, that motion, unobjectionable in its nature and tendency, was negatived by a great majority of an assembly calling themselves the representatives of the people, but who neither knew nor attended to the wants of the people. It was then Mr. Disraeli's duty to join those others in doing what he had omitted to do—in orga- nizing throughout the length and breadth Qf the land a pottier movement, which, When directed with energy and wisdom, could 'not fail of success. In the course of hisspeech he threw out au obscure hint that if he did not succeed he would follow up his motion with another. Lord ,Stanhope had been curious to see what that new plan would be; but this had not been developed until the late occasion at Aylesbury. Mr. Disraeli having referred to the depression from which the interests nterests were suffering, came to a _4me and impotent conclusion, that would effect but a slight benefit compared with the great loss we have sustained. In his speech he had devoted himself not to local taxation, but to the Land-tax: he wished the Land-tax to be equalized all over the country, and that thus a fund of five millions annually would be created, and might form a sinking-fund. Now, if Mr. Disraeli were really what he professed Co be—a Protectionist—he would say, "The Moment you withdraw protection from land, you ought to relieve it of all taxation." He, however, had said, "Let there be an addition to the Land-tax, and they would -have a sinking-fund of five millions." What was the use of a sinking-fund? (A voice—" W's are all sinking.") In order, as Mr. Dis- raeli said, to enable the landlord and tenant to borrow money on cheaper terms. Now, would not any landlord in these Free-trade times deserve a place in a lunatic • asylum who would borrow money for the purposes of improvement? Or would the tenant borrow money on the security of his crops, which were de- teriorating in value day by day He must Bay, that the speech he alluded to showed that a person might be a very great orator without being able to propose a reasonable or judicious remedy for the evils against which he inveighed; and it also showed how ignorant the honourable gentleman was of the real state of the country and of the dangers with which she was surrounded. He hoped the meet- ing would not consider this as a digression from the subject under consideration— (Cries of "No, no!")—for he had considered it to be his duty to warn therefrom following a project which was nothing more than a Will-o'-the-wisp, and from being deluded by the arguments and statements used in that speech. He had no personal acquaintance with the honourable gentleman, but on public grounds he had read the speech delivered, by him at Aylesbury with feelings of sorrow and surprise. It was understood that district meetings should be held throughout Kent preparatory to a great county meeting. It was formally resolved to recommend a plan proposed by Mr. T. Cayley Worsley, "for raising a fund of one penny in the pound on the rental as shown by the parish- books, to be paid respectively by landlords and tenants, for the purpose or organizing an extended and powerful opposition to free trade." It was calculated that 30,0001. might be thus raised.

At the meeting of the West Bedfordshire and East Buckingham Agri- cultural Association, yesterday week, Sir Harry Verney commented on the ignorance of landlords on agricultural subjects; a circumstance due to the fact that they seldom have their sons instructed in agriculture.

Those sons enter professions, and are sent abroad; but few noblemen have their sons instructed in that. Landlords are, however, awakening to its great imeert- &nee. He had availed himself of the opportunity of adverting in the House of Commons to the enormous amount of land unappropriated to the inarse3 of agriculture. A great quantity of waste land might be patted. with if the lams of entail were altered. It would be better for the landowner that it should be sold, and come bate the hands of those who have capital to improve their purchase; which would- be better than that large estates shonld remain improperly and hea- vily burdened: it wineld lead to the improvement of farms, cottages, and lands. A large portion a lab* is also waste: there is a waste of labour in the unions. Emigration is also a waste of labour: the land that is encumbered with debt might

be bought by persons for improvement, and the labour not sent abroad. A large portion of manure is likewise wasted: whoever goes into a farm-Yard must see the Deck horse-ponds, of the contents of which no use is made. In large cities the air is poisoned with miasma, proceeding from what would be excellent manure if sent into the country. Capital might be employed on waste land, labour, and manure, if the laws were wise and politic.

The Redemption Society of Leeds held a tea festival in the Music-Hall of that town on Monday, to commemorate the first harvest-home upon their Welsh estate. Upwards of a thousand persons were present; the num- bers were in fact so many more than the hall would accommodate at one sitting, that successive and supplementary courses of the temperate viands were served. The Reverend Edmund R. Larken, Rector of Burton-by- Lincoln, presided, and made a speech in defence of the Communistic prin- ciples on which the Redemption Society is founded. He endeavoured to show how, through the present inequitable distribution of the produce of industry, it might become a question whether an abundant harvest were a blessing to the country, or only a shifting of burdens from the shoulders of one interest to those of another; and he argued that it was only by one continuous and universal system of cooperation that a perfect identity of interest could be secured. He claimed to rest the foundation of his system on Christianity itself; the Saviour having founded a church requiring those who entered it to dispose of all they had and give to the poor. Mr. D. Green explained in detail the intended developments of the Society's opera- tions: they will build a large house on their estate, choosing a well-drained site on the side of a hill; and will warm and ventilate it from a common centre. Each person or family will have a room, neatly papered and painted, and furnished with mahogany furniture. Workshops will be erected; and the produce will be supplied to members of the Society in Leeds at a price which will be both cheap to them and remunerative to the Society. Dr. D. F. Lees gave some statistics in favour of Communism; showing the increased average duration of life in the Communistic societies of America. Other speakers followed with matter of such interest that the proceedings were prolonged far towards midnight. A vote of thanks was specially voted to Mr. Larken. Out of the 15,000 clergymen in Eng- land, the proposer said, "there were not many who would come forward as Mr. Larken had done, throwing aside the prejudices of his class, and join- ing heart and hand with the working man."

The twenty-second annual meeting for the distribution of prizes at Queen's College, Birmingham, took place on Tuesday. The Reverend Horace Gray, Prebendary of Wells, who has been appointed to the new office of Warden of the College, delivered an inaugural address.

A sub-union of Mechanics Institutions in connexion with the Yorkshire Union of Mechanics Institutions has been formed at Harrowgate, and the occasion was celebrated on Monday. Mr. George Cruikshank, the artist, presided; and was supported by Viscount Goderich, the Dean of Ripon, and several others of the local gentry. Mr. Edward Baines, of Leeds, proposed the Chairman's health; and Mr. Cruikshank replied with a cha- racteristic speech.

"Ladies and gentlemen, when I look round this room and see such an elegant assembly as this before me, and when I consider the men 4,mind and rank who support me on this occasion, I ask myself, what have I done that I should be per- mitted to place myself in such an enviable and elevated position? Well, I hardly know how to answer that question; but I presume it can only be because I hap- pen to be an individual whom it has pleased God to bless with certain talents and abilities, and all that I hive done has been not to bury them or hide them under a bushel: the natural abilities I ess must come from a higher power than myself, and to them I owe this more-t to anything I can myself do. At the time 'when

my talents were directed or rather misled by others' and before my own mind was fully formed, I Must have done many mischievous things as a caricaturist. But when my mind was formed, and I began to act for myself; I determined—as it had always been against my own private feeling to hurt the feelings of others— I determined never to. commit a personal caricature; and feeling that as a gen- tleman and an independent man, I never could work for the benefit of any politi- Cal party, I therefore naturally left personal and political caricature: since which I have done the best I could to amuse, and, where I multi, to instruct, the younger portion of the community; and the only reason why you, receive me with this marked kindness and attention is, because you have tuideretood my object, and have been satisfied with my efforts. The fact is, I have merely touched a chord in your breast, which you have all responded to—that of kindly feeling for our race, which you all possess. I have a very good opinion of the world at large; it is only with the worst and the smallest part of it that you need not to be pleased. You all know that good actions are not bruited about, good men are not generally held up to the popular gaze; but it is the impudent, the base, the arro- gant, who will make themselves known; yet they are only few. Ladies and gen- tlemen, I will not detain you many minutes with my owes affairs; but I will just offer to you one observation or two on the point on which Mr. Baines has so well and so ably addressed you—the great end and aim of these institutions, for that is the point. However desirable it might be considered to instruct the humbler classes, let us look at what the results will be. It will make the people more in- tellectual in their character, and all more good and virtuous, and, like all good people, desirous to see others happy as well as themselves. And I would say, ladies should feel particularly interested in the success of such institutions; for, my word for it, no intellectual man ever illmsed a woman. No, it is not on re- cord, nor ever will be, that a high intellectual mind was ever cruel to a woman. It is only the poor uneducated brutes, and those do not exist to any extraordinary extent at present. In conclusion I would say, the great ,aita and end of those in- stitutions is to improve the character of the humble classes, and to make their homes happy and comfortable. This should be the great end and aim of our lives; and when we come to consider that by those means the great mass of man- kind is being mended and improved in their character and condition, you will agree that the result will be the bestovrment of a greater degree of haulms amongst 'mankind; and by this means a love of the great altar of domestic happiness will

be extended all over the land." - '• ' ' At the preliminary meeting of the South Staffordshire ironmasters, held at Dudley last week, the reports generally were net of a very favourable character, and it was deemed expedient to retain the present nominal Trice. The smaller works are better supplied with orders than the larger: the former are usually the first to give way if 'stook accumulate. The strike of the colliers has partially ceased. Ndtivitlistariding the decrease of the make recently, the market still remains rather glutted than Other- wise.

• At the last Nottingham Assizes, three men—liarshall, ailey, and Maddock— Ware tried for a burglary at Daybrook toll-bar hoitsei.'eaclf attempted to prove-an alibi; hut failed to satisfy the Jury; ,they were Zoirnefeit and senteriett !'be ...transported. A few due after, at the Derby AsArtfitlizlger, NaFtiegham man, was convicted of b. burglary at BriielahtliaM, to be transported for twenty years. While in prison waiting his deportation, Finder made a statement which if true quite exculpates the three men convicted at Not- tingham: the prisoner stated that he, a man named Hall, now under sentence of transportation, and two Sneinton men, well known to the Police, were the robbers of the toll-house. Pinder described the circumstances of the burglary as they occurred: he said that when Mrs. Hallam, the wife of the toll-man, said on the night of the robbery that she knew two of the men, the robbers laughed, because they were Imre she was mistaken. Pinder's statement has been sent to the Home Secretary, and to the Judge, Baron Parke.

Henry Glover, the son of a respectable farmer of Preston, is in custody on a charge of murdering Edward Latham, a gardener. Latham was found dead under a railway arch; the body was still warm; blood was flowing from the 11088 and ears. There seems no doubt that Glover killed the man; but it is not stated in what precise manner, or under what circumstances.

Mr. Prickett, a farmer of Undefbarrow in Westmoreland, has been killed by a bull, which ran at him in a field.

While the churches and chapels of Bridport were filled with people on Friday sennight, that day having been appointed for humiliation and prayer on account of the cholera, the congregations were alarmed by cries of "Fire! " A tire had broken out in a building opposite to a chapel, and it spread to several other houses. The congregations, in their alarm, made desperate efforts to leave the churches; but it does not appear that any one was hurt. It is suspected, from more than one circumstance, that the fire was wilful.

The Boston Herald reports two deaths by threshing-machines. At Wbaplode a man who was tending the machine, while jesting about the effect of a pipe of tobacco, attempted to ride on the shaft, but fell, and was crushed to death. At New Leake, a labourer noticed that something was amiss; in leaning over to in- spect the works, his jacket was caught by the wheels, and he was drawn between them, and dreadfully lacerated by the spikes. He was taken out in a few minutes, but quite dead.

At woman at Wigan has been dangerously burnt by an explosion of gas in her cupboard: she went to the place with a lighted candle, and a violent explosion en- sued. The first medical man at hand was a gentleman from Liverpool; he was rather incredulous about gas having accumulated in the cupboard; to convince him, the woman's husband took a piece of lighted paper to the place, auother ex- plosion occurred, and his nose was burnt: the incredulous doctor kept at a safe distance. It appeam that the house is built over a coal-mine.