t4t putiiturs.
The election of a Member for Lichfield, in the room of Lord Anson, elevated to the Peerage by the death of his father, took place on Tuesday. There was no opposition ; and Lord Waterpark, who describes himself as a "thorough Reformer," was returned.
In the same way, on Wednesday, Mr. Frederick North, Liberal, was returned for Hastings, in the room of Mr. Brisco.
The seat at Devonport, vacated by Mr. Tufnell, led to a contest. The two candidates were Sir Erskine Perry, Liberal, and Sir John Heron Maxwell, Tory. At the nomination, on Wednesday, the show of hands was in favour of the former ; but a poll was demanded on behalf of his opponent. This took place on Thursday, and ended in the return of Sir Erskine Perry by a large majority-1091 to 689.
Mr. William Beresford dined with some of his constituents at Saffron Walden last Saturday, and there made an explanation of his conduct in the Derby bribery case. He described himself as the victim of party malice, and of the Free-trade, the Papist, and Puseyite journals, because he was a firm supporter of Protection, Protestantism, and the Christianity of the land. He did not take upon himself his own defence when charged with promoting bribery at Derby, because he had been advised to leave it to others. He yielded, against his own habits. " Everybody knows," he said, "that I am a little bit of a hot Irishman, and I would rather have gone into the matter and have fought the battle myself." He as- serted that he did not compromise the case ; that he received many offers to compromise it, and appeals to withdraw his record ; but he scorned to compromise, knowing he was innocent, and his persecutors were forced to go into the Court of Queen's Bench and withdraw the case. In Par- liament he was in a peculiar position. He was bound to stand by his party, and they were compelled to adopt a Free-trade resolution ; he could neither retire, therefore, nor vote against it, although he hated Free-trade as much as ever. And he believed there was not one of the 63, denomi- nated by their opponents " thickheaded cannon-balls," who was a firmer friend to the agricultural interest than he was when he gave that vote, "which I did not in my own mind approve."
The funeral of James Montgomery, the respected poet and journalist of Sheffield, took place on Thursday. It was a public funeral : shops were closed, business was suspended, and a vast crowd lined the streets through which the long procession passed.
The anniversary of " St. John's Middle School" at Hurstpierpoint was celebrated on Saturday, "as being a day on which the Prayer-book of the Church of England commemorates St. John." The school has been in- stalled in the present building one year ; the number of boys it can and does accommodate is 150 ; and it is said "the institution gives to boys of the middle class an efficient public-school education at the very low rate of 181. per annum." It was founded and is superintended by the Reverend Mr. Woodard. The proceedings of the day began with "early com- munion," followed by a sermon preached in the forenoon, and afterwards by a luncheon in the College hall ; and speeches from Mr. Woodard, Mr. Beresford Hope, the Reverend M. Maberley, and the Reverend E. C. Lowe. "Evensong" in the College chapel terminated the day's pro- ceedings.
Strikes still continue here and there. At Liverpool, a number of dock- labourers struck in the early part of the week in the general docks, and returned to work on obtaining the extra sixpence a day they demanded. 4. thousand labourers employed in the Albert Dock also struck, but the Company decline to make the advance required. There has been a strike of porters in the Salford goods-station of the East Lancashire and Lanca- shire and Yorkshire Railways, causing a stoppage of traffic. The Stock- port strike is now nearly or quite at an end.
The people of Cheltenham have set up a miniature Crystal Palace for themselves in the Montpelier gardens, just opposite the Concert-rooms. It is about eighty yards long and twenty-five feet high.
A woman named Thompson, living at Coventry, married one Poole, in 1850. Poole deserted her, and went to America. In 1852 she married Webb, a young bricklayer ; but refused to live with him. Recently, she had kept a public-house. Last Saturday, Webb charged her with bigamy ; the Magistrates liberated her on bail, and she went home. Webb, who had purchased two pistols the day. before, drank a good deal after the examina- tion before the Magistrates ; m the evening he went to his wife's house, and called for a glass of ale. She refused to serve him ; he seized hold of her, fired a pistol under her ear, and shot her dead; then with the other pistol be killed himself.
Thomas Barnett, a farmer of Glenstone, near Ross, and deacon of a Bap- tist chapel, has been fined by the Magistrates for cruelty to five of his horses. He nearly starved them, they were covered with sores, and in this state he compelled his men to make them work on the farm.
A labourer has been cut to pieces in a tunnel at Halshaw Moor, on the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway. The tunnel is a very dangerous place ; the only way for workmen to escape destruction, if two trains pass at the same time, is by their lying down on the ground between the two lines or close to the walls of the tunnel—then the foot-boards of the carriages will not strike them. Two men were at work in this perilous place; a train ap- proached on either line ; one man lay down between the lines, and shouted to his companion to do the same ; but the unfortunate fellow seems to have attempted to run out of the tunnel—the train struck him down. A Coro- ner's Jury pronounced the death "Accidental," but called on the Railway Company to provide recesses in the tunnel as places of refuge when trains are passing.
The spire of Chatham church, near Clitheroe, has been destroyed by lightning ; the same stroke doing some other damage to the building.
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