t4t Vruniurro.

The Liberals of Oldham, on Friday sennight, celebrated the return of Mr. W. J. Fox by a public tea-party, to which Mr. Fox was invited. On this occasion, the ladies of the borough presented him with a crimson velvet purse containing 112 sovereigns, the number of his majority over Mr. Heald ; and a signet-ring inscribed with the legend " Education the birthright of all." Mr. Fox was eloquent upon the influence of woman in public affairs, and predicted that " the time will come when woman will be something more than the adjective of man in politics." Mr. Bright and Mr. Hindley were present, and speakers. The non-electors have also presented a testimonial to Mr. Fox.

Mr. Martin and Mr. Brown, the Members for Tewkesbury, were pub- licly entertained by their constituents last week.

Sir Thomas Winnington was entertained on Monday, by his consti- tuents, the Liberals ',of Bewdley and Stourport ; he was supported by Mr. Westhea.d M.P. and the Honourable Spencer Lyttelton. He criti- cized the shortcomings of the late Government, and hoped for better things from the present.

On the same day, the electors of Pontefract celebrated the return of Mr. Oliveira; who mainly dilated on the Free-trade theme.

Viscount Elmley, son of Earl Beauchamp, is the Conservative candi- date for West Worcestershire.

There has been some stir among the hop-growers. Last Saturday, a deputation of the Sussex growers, headed by Mr. Frewen M.P., waited on Lord Aberdeen and Mr. Gladstone, to urge on them the total and un- conditional repeal of the duty. Lord Aberdeen admitted that such was the only rational mode of dealing with the duty ; and Mr. Gladstone asked questions, but gave no opinion. Beading the reports of this pro- ceeding, the West Kent growers met at Maidstone on Thursday, warmly declared themselves in opposition to the appeal of the Sussex men, and proposed a general duty of a penny a pound.

At the annual meeting of the Goudhurst Agricultural Association, on Friday last week, Mr. Bereaford Hope, who presided in Lord Bereaford's absence, stated that his Lordship had resolved to erect superior cottages on his property, each containing three sleeping-apartments; one for the parents, one for the boys, and one for the girls of the family.

Cardinal Wiseman, in his scarlet robe and cap, presided at the annual soirée of the Roman Catholic Literary Society of Leeds, on Thursday sennight. On this occasion, Dr. Wiseman delivered a speech, by invita- tion, to show "that science has nowhere flourished more, or originated more sublime or useful discoveries, than when it has been pursued under the influence of the Catholic religion."

Italy was chosen as the illustrator par excellence ; for there " the influence of the Catholic Church has been most uninterrupted and unthwarted." There, " beneath the shadows of the venerable College of Rome," said Dr. Wiseman, " I received an education which, if it had any limits as to the depth and extent of the science I learnt, those limits were in the deficiency of my own intellect, and not in the restrictions the Church put on me, or in the imperfection or want of deep and varied knowledge in those who com- municated to us science." Going through the course of Italian discovery from the earliest times, he did not scruple to defend the conduct of the In- quisition with regard to Galileo. The Church had not " persecuted " Ga- lileo ; in all he did for science he was never molested : a Cardinal, after- wards a Pope, wrote poetry in his honour. But in an evil hour he chose to make a theological subject of his theory ; and then the Church interfered and imposed silence on him. His theory was condemned, but " only because it came into collision with theology." Dr. Wiseman referred to Italy the dis- covery of the telescope, the microscope, the barometer, the thermometer, canal-locks, the correction of the calendar, the best catalogue of the stars, electricity, clocks, the compass, and " the whole of your banking and com- mercial system, of which the very name of Lombard Street leaves us yet a monument." In conclusion, he enlarged on the virtue of humility in na- tions ; and intimated that it would become England not to sneer at Italy and Spain.

The foundation-stone of a new building called the Salford Athenaeum and Temperance Hall—a kind of Mechanics Institution—was laid on Monday, at Salford. The institution will not be entirely devoted to the Temperance men, who will only have a voice in its government as mem- bers of the institution. Salford has a population of nearly 70,000; but as yet it has had no adequate Athenaeum.

Lord Londonderry is going to construct, at his own expense, a railway between Sunderland and Seaham. On Tuesday last he cut the first sod with a silver-mounted spade, threw it into a mahogany barrow, wheeled the barrow to his carriage, on the top of which the barrow, sod, and spade, were placed. After which, luncheon was served at Seabam Hall, fol- lowed by toasts and speeches.

At Sunderland, on Saturday, the shipwrights and their employers held a meeting to set on foot a Court of Equitable Arbitration, on the basis of the famous Conseils de Prudhommes in France. It was agreed that masters and men should each appoint a committee of nine to constitute the proposed court, and that its decision of disputed questions shall be final.

The South Wiltshire strike for higher wages has this week extended to Stratford-sub-Castle, near Salisbury. The labourers went in a body, begging from door to door in the city, to obtain funds for their support while on strike. They ask for an advance of two shillings. It is said the recruiting sergeant has carried off a good round number of young men. The Barford and Bishopstone labourers, whose strike we recorded last week, have carried the day, and obtained an advance of one or two shillings.

The Bristol shipwrights have also obtained an advance of 6d., which they lately demanded from their employers.

A ferocious murder was perpetrated near Ilford on Tuesday morning. Mr. Teller, a gentleman who came daily to London, left his residence at Chad- well Green, about half-past nine o'clock, and walked along the London road with the intention of taking the rail; Charles Saunders, a wretched tramp, met him, felled him with a large stick, beat him, and cut his throat with a clasp-knife. The victim's cries attracted the attention of Willis, a gardener working close by ; who looked over a fence, and saw the murderer at his bloody work. Willis shouted, and Saunders ran away. Mr. Teller was dead. The assassin was arrested about an hour afterwards : he did not know the locality, and had wandered about near the scene of the murder. He had not time to rob Mr. Teller, if that was his object. He is a middle-sized man, with a ferocious look, covered with filthy tatters : he had not a farthing of money. He said he was a gardener, and a native of Mortlake.

The inquest was held on Wednesday. A Policeman described his appre- hension of Saunders; who first denied, but afterwards confessed the murder,

and ascribed it to some unintelligible motive of revenge. A surgeon stated that death had been caused by a deep gash in the throat. The verdict was " Wilful murder against Charles Saunders."

Mr. Blaekmore, a miller at Clayhidon in Devonshire, a retired village nine miles from Honiton, has been murdered for the sake of a sum of money. Mr. Blackmore was a collector of taxes ; on Saturday last he was collecting; he never came home again. At four o'clock on Sunday morning his son and another person set out to seek him ; and they had not gone far along the road when they found his corpse—his skull fractured, and his throat cut. Gold and silver had been taken from his pockets but the robbers had left two bank-notes. Suspicion fell on three men who had left a public-house with Mr. Blackmore after midnight, and they were arrested. One, George Sparkes, confessed that he murdered the miller to obtain his money ; but he declared the other men were innocent. However, circumstances seemed to prove that James Hitchcock had been implicated in the crime; and the Co- roner's Jury gave a verdict of " Wilful murder" against him and Sparkes. The third man was set at liberty.

Lewis Perran has been committed for trial by the Bath Magistrates for the murder of a woman, supposed to be the wife of a soldier. The body was found in the Avon, at Bitten ; a surgeon detected external and internal ap- pearances that showed the woman to have been violently struck on the head during life—probably with a sharp stone. A good deal of the evidence was reluctantly given by Perran's associates, to whom he had made admissions showing that he had a hand in the woman's death. Other men were arrested with Perran, but they were discharged, the Magistrates considering that Perran alone was the murderer.

Myrescough, a carter of Manchester, has been committed on a Coroner's warrant for the manslaughter of Isaac Law, his wife's father. One night both were intoxicated ; they quarrelled as to who was the more drunk , and Myrescough threw the old man on the floor, clutching him by the throat : Law's death was at any rate accelerated by the strangulation thus inflicted. Myrescough could only plead that he was so drunk that he knew not what he was doing. In a combat between poachers and keepers on the estate of Mr. Bethell, at Rise, near Hull, one of the depredators suffered so much that death ensued. Clubs were the only weapons used by both parties. The Jury sitting to inquire into the circumstances attending the death of the burglar shot at Shoreham pronounced a verdict of " Justifiable homi- cide." The man was not then identified ; and several persons at the inquest expressed their belief that he was a Frenchman, who had recently hawked articles for sale in the neighbourhood. Several articles which he wore had been part of the plunder obtained in recent burglaries, some stolen on former

visits to the house where he was killed. It has since been discovered that the deceased was John O'Hara, an Irishman living at Brighton ; and some of his companions, men and women, are in custody for the possession of stolen property. O'Hara's death has not intimidated the burglars of the neighbourhood : two men attempted to enter Captain Bringard's house at Shoreham, on Sunday night, but failed in making an opening. Captain Bringard saw them retreat. Cheltenham is kept in alarm by the proceedings of a gang of burglars, who have recently been very active. Three burglaries are specified, in one of which they attempted to burn the house when they were disappointed in obtaining plunder. The last robbery committed was at a market-gardener's on the Tewkesbury road. They get in through a cellar. The gardener was asleep, and they tied him to the bedstead; he awoke, and they immediately covered his head with the clothes ;, and then one spoke to him in a feigned voice, demanding where he kept his money. The thieves left the old man bound to the bedstead, but he managed to free himself.

Alfred Clarke, of Saville Street, Lambeth, has been tried at the Liverpool Sessions for stealing 8000/. in notes from a banker's clerk. Clarke asked the clerk a question as he stood at the counter of the branch of the Bank of Eng- land ; the clerk pointed to a place where Clarke could get a note changed ; at that moment the clerk's pocket-book, which had been lying on the counter, was whisked away. Clarke pretended to point out a man who had taken it, who was running down the street ; but he himself seen slipped away. The Jury did not think that the accused's connexion with the robbery was SU& ciently made out; and they acquitted him.

Edward Hulme, a convict at Woolwich, attempted to escape by jumping from a hulk on Monday morning, with intent to swim to the Essex shore ; but there is little doubt that he was drowned.

Mr. Gilea Daubeny, a commoner of Magdalen College, Oxford, and relative of Dr. Daubeny, has been drowned in a back stream near Tilley, by the upset- ting of a boat which be and a companion were rowing. The two youths had not been on the river before, but knew well how to manage a boat, and could swim—Mr. Daubeny better than his friend. The boat was carried by the stream over a " lather," and upset; the young men were thrown into the rough water, and only one managed to gain the shore. Mr. Daubeny's body was not found for three-quarters of an hour.

During the prevalence of a fog on Tuesday sennight, two trains came into collision on the pier at New Holland, on the banks of the Humber. As a train was proceeding towards the end of the pier, the driver discovered that another train was eomine towards him on the same rails ; all he could do was to atop his train, and then leap from the engine. Many persons suffered from minor hurts, but no one from a fracture or dangerous wound. The situation was a frightful one for a collision : a more violent shock must bare tilted some of the carriages into the river. It would seem that gross negli- gence existed somewhere.

The Canner's Jury in the ease of the men drowned at Bhyl by the upset- ting of .a life-boat, returned this verdict—" That the deceased men were accidentally drowned by the upsetting of the Rhyl life-boat. At the same time, the Jury are of opinion that this boat is not suitable for this station ; and with respect to the life-belts, they consider that they were wholly in- efficient for the intended purpose."

A French schooner, the Zelinia, from Nantes to London, took fire near Dungeness. When the crew discovered a fire in the hold, they attempted to extinguish it ; but failing in that, they ran the vessel on shore, thus saving their own lives, and enabling the people in the neighbourhood to get part of the cargo out : the schooner was burnt to the water's edge.