Zbe Vrobinces.

Lord Grosvenor, whose seat was vacated for Chester on succeeding to the office of Treasurer of the Queen's Household, was reiilscted on Satur- day, without opposition.

The Earl of Listowel, one of the new Lords in Waiting in Ordinary to her Majesty, has been rejected by the constituency of St. Alban's; who have transferred the trust to Mr. Benjamin Bond Cabbell. The nomina- tion took place on Monday; Lord Listowel professing Free-trade principles, and Mr. Cabbell taking his stand on the profession of "loyalty to the Crown, devotion to the Church, and zeal on behalf of the poor." The contest appears to have turned mainly on local considerations. Mr. Cabbell had contested the borough on previous occasions, in compliance with requisitions; had displayed liberality to the charities of the place, and had otherwise acquired a good name with the electors. As to Lord Listowel, the feeling seemed to be that he regarded his connexion with St. .Alban's as a mere personal convenience. Mr. Cabbell does not profess to be a politician. His feelings are favourable to protection; but he is to give the Free-trade measures a fair trial. The following is a specimen of Mr. Cabbell's logic. At the nomination, he was descanting with such fervour on his loyalty to the Throne, that the Lord-in-Waiting seemed to think that disloyalty was attributed to himself; and, with the view of stopping the career of his antagonist, he demanded, "How can you say I am disloyal?" Mr. Cabbell's proof was at hand—" I will read your address in which you say you oppose my principles; and they are loyalty to the Throne, devotion to the Church, and zeal for the poor.'" "A very warm altercation," we are told, "then took place; the partisans of the respective candidates taking a prominent part. It ended, however, in an amicable shaking of hands and mutual apologies." At the close of the poll, on Tuesday, the numbers were—For Mr. Cab- bell, 264; for Lord Listowel, 149. [Lord Listowel has petitioned against the return.] The Agricultural Society of Waltham gave a dinner to the Marquis of Granby, on the 7th, in testimony of their approval of his Parliamentary exertions to uphold the Corn-laws. Mr. W. Fletcher Norton, of Elton Hall, was in the chair; and among the guests were Lord George Bentinek, the Duke of Richmond, Mr. Disraeli, and some other prominent Members of the Protectionist party. We select a few of the "points" brought out in the speeches. The Marquis of Granby on the Protectionist Cabinet—" Yes, we must have a paternal Government for this country. Lord Stanley is the man; and the noble Lmd opposite, with his brilliant talents in the House of Lords, will act with my noble friend in the House of Commons. Then we shall have a Government that mill protect the rights of labour against capital—of the poor man against the eapitalist, and of the Englishman against the foreigner." Mr. Disraeli on the patriots of the soil—" It is further said by them [the mill- owners] that we are indebted for civilization to the great towns; that it dwells there; and that therefore they ought to govern the country. Magna Charts was not procured by Manchester. Manchester was not known then. What were our patriots in past days? Was Mr. Hampden, for instance, a manufacturer? No, he was a rural gentleman, and dwelt in the county in which I reside. He who founded the modern political constitution under which we live, when he rode into London, was surrounded by the yeomanry of his native county. And there was Mr. Pym also, who ranks amongst our noblest patriots; and he came from Bed- fordshire, which to this day does not possess a city. I want to see what founda- tion there is for the doctrine that we must be governed by the towns: I believe that the liberties and rights of Englishmen spring from the land; and so soon as the lend is removed front its place, our hberties as Englishmen will be en- slangered."

Lord John Manners's illustration of the buying-in-the-cheapest market principle —"Joined to this marvel of statecraft, this golden rule of buying in the cheapest market, which has been notably of late acted upon by Moses and Son of the /*fi- neries, is the sacred principle of noninterference with labour, and the equally noble absolute freedom of capital; and thus is cemented together a system, the most flattering to human avarice, human indifference, and human pride, that the world ever saw; a system which justifies in an earl the extraction of the last farthing from the miserable peasant in Wiltshire for his bit of land—which bids Moses and Son pay down to a fraction the enfeebled sempstress of London—which encourages the Irish landlord to squander atNaples or Berlin the exorbitant rents of an exhausted treasury."

The Earl of Winchilsea's plan of exclusive dealing—" To regain the_protection they had lost, the farmers must exert themselves at the next election. They must use their influence with the shopkeepers. The ladies must also use theirs and tell the shopkeepers, that without protection their husbands would only be able to

we them one gown where they now had three; and that the shopkeepers must therefore vote for Protectionist members only; and they should also tell them, that they would only for the future deal with those who would vote for Protec- tionist candidates. He was sorry to say, that in Maidstone and other towns in that locality, there was no difference made in this respect; and that the advocate of free trade was treated in the same way as its bitterest opponent. This was nei- ther sound policy nor sound justice."

Mr. Hall, an Assistant Poor-law Commissioner, has been sent to Lewis- ham to conduct an inquiry into the charges alleged against Mr. John Tho- mas Burroughs, the Master of the Workhouse, of improper conduct with some of the female paupers. The inquiry commenced on Thursday.

The cotton-spinners and manufacturers of Blackburn resolved on Wed- nesday to serve their hands with a fortnight's notice, that they shall com- mence working short time, four days per week, from yesterday, the notice being given on that day. It was also resolved to use exertions to secure uniformity in the other towns throughout the manufacturing districts.= Manchester Courier, Aug. 8. The iron-trade in South Staffordshire is now in a more flourishing con- dition than it has been for some time. Orders have been pouring in from all quarters for railway-irot.—Derby Mercury.

Three public parks are to be opened at Manchester next Saturday. They are to be named respectively the Queen's Park, the Peel Park, and the Philips Park.

At Warwick Assizes, on Friday and Saturday last week, an action was tried, for the third time, to recover from the Imperial Life Assurance Company the amount of a policy for 2,0001. The plaintiffs are the assignees under the bank- rurcy of a person named Scott, who carried on the business of a factor and manufacturer at Birmingham. At the two former trials,—the one presided over by Lord Denman, and the other by Lord Chief Justice Tindal,—verdicts went for the plaintiffs, but were set aside on the greund of misdirection. It appears that, in 1840, Scott applied to the Norwich Union Life Office, at Birmingham, with a view to insure his life; and he underwent a rigid examination by Dr. Ingleby, the medical referee of the Office, who passed him. It so happened, however, that one of the clerks in the office where Scott banked was agent for the Imperial Life Office, and he persuaded Scott to insure in that instead of the Norwich Office. This Scott did; having undergone another examination by another medical man for that purpose. The policy was granted by the Imperial Life Office for 2,0001.; Scott paying to the agent ot the Union a sum of five or six pounds as a compen- sation for the troub!e he had been at. The date of the policy was May 1840; The premiums were regularly paid by Mr. Scott up to 1842, when he became bankrupt; and the policy was then sold for 138/. at a public auction, for the benefit of the estate. Mr. Beale, a solicitor, residing at Birmingham, was the purchaser, and the real plaintiff in the case; Mr. Geaeh, the nominal one, being the assignee under the hat. Mr. Scott died in the December of 1843; and the payment was refused, on the allegation that Scott had answered untruly when, in reply to the question whether he had or bad had spitting of blood, asthma, cough, or other affection of the lungs," he answered " No." At the present trial, a number of gentlemen who had associated with the de- ceased much in business matters, and the man-servant who had slept with him for weeks, swore that they had never seen the deceased spit blood. It was fat, ther contended, that the fact of the Company's own medical agent having passed Scott was in itself additional proof that no disease existed at the time the in- surance was effected. All the witnesses for the plaintiff admitted that Scott was a very strong man—one of them described him to be "a strong, wiry man." The witnesses for the defence were members of Scott's own family. His widow swore that he spat blood long before his death; and some others asserted that he was afflicted with the disease so long back as 1838. In summing up, Mr. Justice Pat- tison mentioned as something remarkable, that at the time the policy was sold, when Scott became a bankrupt in 1842, it only fetched 1381. The death occurred the year after; and if it was so plainly to be seen, as some of the witnesses had represented, that Scott was far gone in consumption, the reasonable supposition was that the policy would have fetched a great deal more money. The Jury re- turned a verdict for the plaintiffs for 2,0001. The new trial for damages raised by Mr. Cooke against the Reverend Mr. We- therell, his father-in-law, for criminal conversation with his wife, which came on at Guildford on Thursday week, passed off without result; the Jury, after con- sulting for a whole day, being unable to agree on a verdict. At the Gloucestershire Assizes, on Wednesday, the Reverend Disney Robinson, a clergyman of the Church of England, was charged with a libel on the character of Mrs. Barker, the wife of a singing-master. In 1844 both parties were living in Cheltenham; Mr. Robinson for the benefitof his health, and Mrs. Barker with her husband. A dispute had occurred between the husband and wife; and Mrs. Barker went to reside by herself at Acton Hall, near Dursley, intending to return to Cheltenham. While at Acton Hall, she received two anowimous letters warn- ing her against returning to Cheltenham; the writer insinuating that Mrs. Barker had been guilty of unseemly conduct in that town. No attention was paid to the letters. Mrs. Barker returned to Cheltenham in November 1845, and took up her residence at No. 2, Pittville; Parade, where she had formerly lived. Soon after her arrival, she received a letter addressed, "Mrs. Barker, under the pro- tection of Lord Fitzhardinye," the words in Italics being underscored. The en- velope contained nothing but religious tracts. On the 11th November she re- ceived another letter, directed to "Mrs. Barker, Sabbath-breaker and adultress." This letter was not prepaid; the object being, according to the plaintiff's counsel, to attract the attention of all through whose hands the letter passed to the super- scription. These two letters constituted the libel: the two earliest were signed W. P., but all four were discovered to be in the defendant's handwriting. Daring the trial it was proved that Mrs. Barker lived in great style at Cheltenham, and that Lord Fitzhardinge was in the habit of visiting her in the absence of her hus- band. The Jury found the defendant guilty. Sentence will be passed in the Court of Queen's Bench, next term.

At the Appleby Assizes, on Monday, a most atrocious case, which excited great sensation in the neighbourhood at the time of its occurrence, came on for trial. The accused were four young men, the eldest being only twenty-one, rail- way "navvies." The victims of the outrage were two young ladies, Miss Jane Dover and Miss Elizabeth Dover, the sisters of a gentleman who occupies a farm at Searside near Shap: they reside there with their widowed mother. On the 19th Aprielast, the ladies had been to visit a married sister, and were returning in the evening, while it was yet light, along a bridle-path leading from the Shap road to their home. At about a quarter of a mile from the house they were ac- costed and assaulted by the prisoners, and detained for hours the victims of re- peated violences. The charge was fully established; the Jury immediately re- turned a verdict of" guilty"; and the criminals were sentenced to be transported for life.

At Wells Assizes, on Saturday, Robert Williams was tried for the murder of Thomas Wiggins, at Whatney. The two men quarrelled at a fair respecting the sale of a horse; from words they went to blows; while they were struggling toge- ther, the prisoner stabbed his opponent in the neck with a knife, and he expressed no contrition when told he had killed Wiggins. A verdict of " guilty" was re- turned, and the man was sentenced to be hanged.

Rodda, the man who was convicted of poisoning his infant child, was executed at York on Saturday.

Dennis Flinn, John Hennessey, and Ellen Rankin, are in custody on suspicion of having been concerned in the murder of Policeman Clarke at Dagenham. They have been examined by the Ilford Magistrates, but remanded for further evidence.

Cave, a farmer living at Hannon in Warwickshire, has killed a woman whom he had abandoned. It appears that the deceased frequently applied to the man for money; she followed him the other day out of doom; a quarrel ensued, and the man shot her dead with a gun which he bad in his hand. Care has told contradictory stories,—that the shot was accidental, the gun going off during a struggle; and that he deliberately fired it while he was excited.

The mansion of Mr. Waite, at Sibbey, in Lincolnshire, was utterly destroyed by fire on Sunday week. The family had just left the house in the morning to go. to church, when the flames burst forth from an upper room.

An accident of a serious nature has occurred at the docks in Bristol. A coffer- dam had been formed, in order that wider lock-gates might be placed, to admit vessels of a very large size: on Saturday night, the pressure of a high spring- tide broke down the coffer-dam, and the water rushed in with great violence. A man who was at the bottom of the lock had a narrow escape; the breaking of a pile giving him warning just in time to avoid the danger. Some timbers placed to support houses on shore were washed down; and one falling on a girl, fractured her collar-bone. From seeing the tide suddenly advance many feet, and as sud- denly recede, some people thought an earthquake was about to happen.

The skeletons of three persons, pronounced by surgeons to be those of a woman and two men, have been found under suspicious circumstances near Woodstock. Three gipsies, Biddle, Sheriff, and Skerry, were conveyed after trial to Oxford Castle: the first two had been convicted of murder, but their sentences were commu- ted; and the third had been convicted of sheep-stealing. On the way Biddle pointed to the side of the road near the Stardy's Castle public-house, and said to the po- lice-officers, "There lays dead men's bones." The ground has since been dug up at the spot pointed out; and in a hollow place formerly used as a saw-pit, three skeletons were found, about eighteen inches under the earth. It is supposed that the bones are those of persons murdered some years since by a gang of gipsies, to whom the men mentioned belonged. A Coroner's inquest is to be held.