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The public fetes at Portsmouth, in honour of the French officers, closed with a dinner at the Queen's Rooms in Portsea, on Saturday. During the day the church-bells rang frequent peals of rejoicing ; and two French war-ships arriving, the Inflexible ship-of-the-line and Belle Pottle frigate, the salutes made to them contributed to the festive sounds. The rooms were decorated with festoons of flowers, evergreens, and banners, not forgetting the tricolour. Spacious galleries were filled with ladies. The dinner was provided by Mr. Gunter; Mr. O'Toole, the Stentor of the London dinners, was toast-master ; a military band and

glee-singers filled up the intervals of eating and speaking. The Mayor presided ; and at the principal table sat the guests—Commodore Hernoux of the Belle Poule, Baron de la Ronciere, Captain Goubin, of the Gomer, Captain Graeb, Captain Bouet, Mr. Vandenberg, the French Consul, Major-General Sir Hercules Pakenham, Rear-Admiral Sir Hyde Parker, Lord Yarborough, and several English officers. Admiral De la Busse was prevented from being present by an invitation to Windsor Castle ; and Admiral Sir Charles Rowley by indisposition. One of the reporters observes that "the scene during dinner was truly animating." The toasts were a curious intermixture of French and English loyalties and compliments. The Chairman proposed successively, "the health of the Queen"; " the health of his Majesty Louis Philippe, the first King of the French " ; " the Queen Dowager, Prince Albert, the Prince of Wales, and the rest of the Royal Family "; "Queen Amelie and the rest of the Royal Family of France." Sir Hyde Parker proposed "the Baron Mackau and the French Navy " ; Commodore Hernoux (Aide- de-camp to the Prince De Joinville, and Member of the Chamber of Deputies) proposed "Lord Haddington and the British Navy "; Sir Hercules Pakenham proposed "Marshal Soult and the French Army "; Captain Graeb, " the Duke of Wellington and the British Army " ; and so on, in an alternation of national civilities. Sir Hercules Pakenham di- lated on the advancement of civilization caused by invading armies ; taking for his examples Julius Cmsar in Britain, Napoleon in Egypt, the English in India, the French in Northern Africa. The Mayor ex- horted the people of the two countries to follow the friendly example of their Sovereigns ; and described the reception which the civic deputa- tion had met with from the King of the French— He expected to be received with great formality, and to find his Majesty surrounded with great state: but instead of that, his Majesty came running to the door to meet them, and he could hardly tell at first which was the King. Be did not appear like a foreign King at all, but like an English gentleman returning to a long-remembered home to revisit his friends.

The Recorder, proposing the last toast, supplied a passage in King Louis Philippe's reply which was omitted in the newspaper reports : it was this, " I look upon the cordial union of these two nations as the keystone of the arch which supports the peace of the world." The toast was, "May the present friendly relations between France and England long continue "—or, as the Recorder read it, " continue for ever."

On Monday, Admiral La Susse was present at an evening-party given by Lady Chamberlain. About midnight, he called at the George Hotel, upon Sir Henry Pottinger, who had arrived in Portsmouth with Colonel Malcolm on Sunday; and having remained half an hour with the Ex-Plenipotentiary, the Admiral went on board his ship the Gomer.

The squadron left the harbour for France on Wednesday morning ; the steamers and smaller vessels going at a quarter past six o'clock, the Belle Poole at half-past eight, and the Inflexible at half-past nine.

A festival was held at Bingley, in Yorkshire, on Friday, to celebrate the allotment of land by Mrs. Walker Ferrand to the purposes of field- gardens for the operatives of that manufacturing town, and the esta- blishment of a cricket-club. Bingley is situate in a beautiful dale on the banks of the river Aire, and still partakes of a rural character. Mrs. Ferrand allotted fifteen acres of ground, on condition that she should continue to receive the accustomed rent, making with the taxes 40/. The field was divided between fifty-nine labouring men. Their gross expenses amounted to about 200/. The value of the produce, potatoes and other vegetables, with the keep of pigs and the like, was estimated at 400/. The festivities began with a procession round the allotments; in which Mr. Busfeild Ferrand, Mr. Disraeli, Lord John Manners, and some gentlemen of the town, took part. Then there was a cricket-match ; in which Mr. Ferrand and Lord John played. Finally, the whole company walked in procession to the Odd Fellows Hall ; where, at four o'clock, about two hundred sat down to dinner. The room would hold no more, and some hundred applicants for the tickets were disappointed; but many persons dined in other rooms, and after dinner squeezed themselves into the hall as they best could. Mr. Ferrand was Chairman, with Mr. Disraeli and Lord John Manners on either side. At the same table were several professional gentlemen and manufacturers, some of them from Leeds and Bradford. At the lower side of the same table were the allotment-tenants. In the body of the room were many of the leading manufacturers, seated among their work people, with the tradesmen and farmers of the neighbourhood. After dinner, Mrs. Walker Ferrand, accompanied by Lady Sarah Savile, Mrs. Disraeli, and a large party of ladies, entered the room, with loud applause, and took their seats on a raised platform. The first toast, the health of the allotment-tenants, was proposed by the Honour- able and Reverend Philip Savile ; who highly praised the cultivation of the allotments ; which evidenced the industry, and, he believed, the do- mestic steadiness and comfort of the tenants. The toast was acknow- ledged by one of their number, Mr. Edward Smith, an intelligent man ; who had a brother that fought throughout the American war, and a son that was lost on the plains of Ghazni. He said that he, who had been married twenty-six years, had never had a chance of having such a thing as early vegetables on his table till now ; and he, like thousands of the working-classes, had never seen a potato cut or set before. He believed that the allotment-system would do the country a great deal of good. When trade failed they would have something to fall back upon ; not that they were raising allotments to rival trade, but they were raising them beforehand to provide for a panic when there was none. They had only just had the spade on the shoulders, and if they lived another twelvemonth they would be able to give a better account. Some other toasts were proposed by operatives. Among them was "Agriculture and Commerce "; the agricultural part of which was responded to by Lord John Manners. He dwelt upon the danger, graphically pointed out by Dr. Southey many years ago, arising from the almost entire ex- tinction of every class between that of the rich tenant-farmer and the day-labourer. He pointed to the allotment system as tending to cure that evil, and to spade-husbandry as the means of providing for an augmented population- " There is another subject which has brought us together today ; I allude to the celebration of the opening of the Bingley Cricket Club. And here I must apologize to those gentlemen who did me the favour to allow me to play on their side this morning, for the exceeding bad hand I made at bowling ; and if ever I come here again, you won't catch me trying to do a thing which I can- not do. (Laughter.) This is a subject on which I feel, with the Chairman, a great deal can be said ; for the time was when Kings of England did not think it beneath them to apply their talents and devote their time to regulate and encourage the manly sports and pastimes of their people. (Cheers.) No man, however elevated, in those days ever thought of an amusement selfish and apart from the peasants and artisans of his country. I will not mention the names of many of those pastimes ; many of them have died out; hut 1 may say that cricket, the game to which you have devoted your attention, is manly, bracing, and brings together in harmonious contact the various classes of society; and therefore I say you do right well to establish conjointly with the allotment-system a cricket-club. May the two ever flourish and go together; and may their united effects be productive of that good which in my conscience I believe will be derived from them to the parish of Biugley. The same system which had decreed the peasant should never rise out of the rank he was born in, also denied him any amusement but the ale-house—any rest but on a Sun- day : what wonder, then, that the old landmarks were beginning to disappear, and a new and strange antipathy to be seen between the employer and the em- ployed? That estrangement, then, which unfortunately has undoubtedly taken place between the various classes of society, where your good example is followed will give place to cordial sympathy, to the performance of duties and responsibilities on the part of the rich, and to contentment and loyalty on the part of their less fortunate fellow-countrymen." Mr. Ferrand, returning thanks when his health was drunk, mentioned others who were putting the allotment-system into practice- " Sitting on my right is the son of the Duke of Rutland, who has eleven hundred allotment-tenants, and who is this night meeting them as their land- lord, and collecting his rents from the hands of the operatives, instead of front large farmers. This allotment system is no party measure; the principle which the Tory Duke of Rutland, the father of Lord John Manners, is car- rying out, is adopted with the same benevolent object by the Whig Duke of Norfolk. I firmly believe that the days of faction and of party are nearly at an end ; that we have only to stand true to the ancient principles that made England the mighty empire that she was, in order to restore her once more to her ancient splendour. Whilst these Peers are performing their duty, let me tell you that some of the great manufacturers of our native county are doing the same : it is also no party question with them. We have the 'Whig Mr. Marshall, the great flax-spinner, allotting out land to his people at Leeds; and we have Mr. Gott, the great Tory cloth-manufacturer, following his ex- ample. Let us then cease to stamp our characters as Englishmen with being the slaves of party."

" The strangers who have honoured us this day" was acknowledged by Mr. Disraeli ; who hailed this as one of the most hopeful of the many meetings that he had attended--

" 1 have been present at grand meetings to encourage agriculture, to reward industry, and to promote what is called 'good feeling' among the different classes of the community. 1 have been present when those who have received rewards, those who have distinguished themselves in their particular spheres, have been after the banquet invited to enter the chamber and receive from the Chairman the mechanical expression of public approbation: and though A have thought even these demonstrations were not to be despised—though it was my opinion that any approximations of public feeling and of public sym- pathies were circumstances which were not to be regarded with lightneas—yet I must confess that I have never recognized in these associations, and in such modes of celebration, the means which could save a state, or which could introduce into a public mind which had lost its spirit any thing of that ancient character which we all respect, and the loss of which we all deplore." After alluding to the coldness, if not ridicule, which Lord John Man- ners's pamphlet in favour of manly sports had encountered on its first Appearance, be glanced at the progress since attained- " Twenty-four hours after that great meeting at Manchester, I paid a visit to a noble lord—noble not merely from his blood, but from his cultivated mind, 'his deep sympathy with his countrymen, and by the Lrge intelligence which 'well qualified him for his great position-1 mean Lord Francis Egerton : and the first thing he said to me was, 'I have founded a cricket-club for my col- liers ; you have no idea how they enjoyed their first pastime in the sunshine.' I mention that, because, though a slight incident, it shows bow the spirit is moving—how, 60 long as it is responded to by your sympathies, and accords with the feelings of the great body of the nation, it will make its way. The time has come when it is utterly impossible that the great truth upon which this movement is established can any longer be resisted. The fact is, gentle- men, that society, like man, has a heart ; and that is a truth which for the last fifty years seems to have escaped the consciousness of our rulers. All that they have proposed to themselves in their policy has been to maintain a mechanical order, and to secure to the people just so much of mere material comfort as to render it probable that discontent would not mature into turbulence. But to suppose that a nation has affections—that it has a heart which you can appeal to with success, and which if you do not appeal to that nation must be unhappy • --that you must cherish and cultivate those feelings—was a truth utterly for- gotten : so the result has happened, that the bundle of sticks, which when well :tied together nothing could break, has become loosened and has easily been split into lucifer-matches. (Laughter and cheers.) Gentlemen, what we desire is this, that England should be once more a nation, and not a mere collection of classes who seem to think they have nothing in common—no in- terest which it becomes all of them to unite together to support, and no pursuit which it is the delight of all of them at the same time to cultivate. Now, my noble friend and myself believe that there are these common interests and com- mon pursuits. We are of opinion that it is a truth founded on a real knowledge of the character of our countrymen ; and as yet we have not been deceived in the appeal which we have made to them. We are asked sometimes What do you want ? ' They give us nicknames. We don't quarrel with them : they may call us what they like. They call us Young England.' (Laughter and cheers.) Gentlemen, when the Prince of Orange Wilt anxious to vindicate the liberties of his country and free his fellow-countrymen from the yoke of the Spaniards, they called his party the Mendicants.' He said I accept the title' ; and at the head of the Mendicants' he saved his country. So it is with the taunt of Young England,' given tons in derision. (('heers.) We accept the title; and I believe there is not now a hamlet or a village, a borough or a city, in this broad realm, to which that name does not bring hopeful tidings. (Great cheering.) We are asked sometimes, gentlemen, what we want ? We want, in the first place, to impress upon society that there is such a thing as duty. We have no mystery in telling you what we want. We want to put an end to that political and social exclusiveness which we believe to be the bane of this country. Where there is exclusiveness there cannot be sympathy ; where there is no sympathy we hold that no state can be safe. This is what we want. Perhaps we want something more; but that is enough at present to commu- nicate to the public. (Cheers and laughter.) We don't come out like a pack of pedants to tell you we are prepared to remedy every grievance by the square and rule. We have our opinions on great public subjects; and whenever they are brought under discussion we mill in our places in the Senate of our country, with firmness, but I hope without presumption, express those opinions ; and if they are true they will eventually be adopted. But we are firmly impressed with this conviction, that it is not so much by laws as by manners—I mean no play on the happy name of my noble friend, but we believe that it is not so much to the action of laws as to the influence of manners, that we must look for an efficient means to ameliorate the social condition of this country."

" The ladies" having been toasted, they retired ; and shortly after- wards the company broke up, about nine o'clock.

A meeting of labourers and others, inhabitants of Highworth and the surrounding villages, was held in the Bear Barn Close near that town, on Wednesday, "for the purpose of taking into consideration the distress of the working-classes, and of discussing the benefits likely to arise from free trade in corn and other provisions." The meeting originated among the labourers, who mustered to the number of shout two thousand, with a sprinkling of farmers and tradesmen. The Etrl of Radnor presided, by request. The first speaker was Mr. Croon', a dealer in second-band clothes and furniture ; who said that in summer, when the labouring people have a few shillings extra, they come to buy things of him ; whereas at this season they come to sell, in order to buy victuals. He read the statement of a working-man, who had a wife and four children under nine years of age, and who earns eight shillings a week ; the man's case being by no means a solitary instance. "I have to pay one shilling and ninepence for house.rent; firing, ninepence; six gallons of bread at one shilling per gallon ; so that the whole amounts to eight shillings and sixpence, leaving me sixpence in debt per week, to say no- thing about the other things that we stand in need of in the house, such as tea, sugar, soap and candles, and meat and other small things too numerous to mention ; so that I have got to work in the harvest from daylight till dark like a slave, to pay what I get behind at shop, and cannot do it then, instead of having a few shillings to lay out a ith the draper, the tailor, or the shoemaker, to clothe my half-clothed wife and children. If there is not something done, what will be the end 1 know not ; as I cannot stop much longer to see my wife and children nearly half-naked and half-starved." Mr. Croom moved a series of resolutions, stating the existence of great distress in the neighbourhood ; imputing it to want of employ- ment and to inadequate wages in employment; declaring it the duty of all governments to secure an adequate and regular supply of food for -the people ; denouncing the Corn, Malt, and other provision-laws, as intercepting that supply, and as impeding trade and industry ; demand- ing the abolition of those laws ; and deprecaing all laws to raise the prices of food and commodities used by the people, above their natural level. In seconding these resolutions, Mr. John Arkell stated that hundreds of people were out of work. In two neighbouring villages, where men have been employed at two shillings a week, many of the people had turned burglars and sheep-stealers. Mr. William Spackman, a labourer, said that he had a wife and nine children : for the last fort- night he had worked three or four days, and had received about 68., • out of which he had to pay 2s. for rent. He declared that men were not fairly paid for their labour. He asked, why the poor man should not have an acre or so of land at the farmer's price, 2/. an acre, instead of 51. or 61. He believed that those who separated families in the work- house would be cursed : but he had once seen his family starving—he would not do 60 again; he would go into the workhouse in a few days, and he hoped that all who were in want would join him and fill the unions. There were several other speakers. Mr. John Edridge (who is styled "esquire ") charged the landowners with cruelly oppressing the poor by unjust taxes on corn, sugar, and other necessaries. Mr. Candy, a labouring-man from London, alluded to the abolition of the monopoly of legislation as the means of obtaining free trade and keep- ing it. The Chairman defended the farmers from the charge of not paying justly, inasmuch as they pay the market-price for labour ; de- fended the new Poor-law; objected to allotments, as only a means of eking out the labourer's wages and undermining his independence; .and urged free trade as the thing to make bread cheap and increase the de- mand for labour. The resolutions having been put, about one-fourth of those present voted for them ; a few hands were held up in opposition ; the rest of the meeting voted neither way; while many among them declared that what they wanted was allotments.

At the meeting of the Taverham Agricultural Association, in Nor- wich, on Thursday last week, prizes were awarded to labourers for long service, industry, skill in ploughing, and so forth ; and the la- bourers all dined together. The members of the Association dined on Saturday ; when several of the speakers alluded to the necessity of en- couraging the labourer and conciliating him by the exhibition of a-sin- cere interest in his welfare. The Reverend 0. Matthias was one of those who touched upon the point— He wished to say a few words in reference to the meeting of Thursday. Be could not but express his regret that there were not more persons present ex that occasion, both of the laity, and, he must add, also of his own profession. He was sure they formed a very wrong estimate of the character of the poor man who imagined that he was satisfied with only receiving the rewards given by the Association. He was delighted to see present his superiors on the occa- sion when the rewards were distributed. He was cheered and borne up in the performance of his social duties by seeing that they remembered him and looked upon him with kindly feelings. They might throws sovereign to a poor man, and it might possibly confer on him temporal benefit ; but it was only by countenancing him—by showing publicly that they took an interest in his welfare—that they could raise the moral tone of his character, and confer on him a social and lasting benefit. He was extremely gratified to hear one poor man exclaim the other day, "This is the first gentleman's dinner I was ever at, and I should like to be present at one every year."

At Banbury Petty Sessions, the other day, Coggins, a labourer of Weston-on-the-Green, was fined ten pounds, and in default of payment sent to prison for three months with hard labour, for having been found walking about a stubble-field with a gun in his hand. A gamekeeper presumed that he was in search of game ; but no game got up, and the gun was not fired, nor had the man a dog with him. Mr. Tomes, who defended the man, said that Coggins was watching a potato-ground, which had been robbed— He had worked for Mr. House ten years, and had never been before a Ma. gistrate before. Mr. Tomes wished other gentlemen would do as Mr. Pusey of Puscy had done : be had discharged his gamekeepers, allowed his tenantry to kill the game, and had provided some with certificates who were unable to provide themselves; and he was informed Sir Robert Throckmorton was about to do the same. This information was laid under the 201. penalty ; which he felt surprised at. The Game-laws were cursed ones. The poor man had-a wife and two children ; and he hoped the Bench-woald dismiss the case, and let him go home to them.

The Reverend Mr. Matthews, who delivered judgment, said, that although Coggins had never been before a Magistrate, he had formerly been detected in a similar trick ; but he was begged off by his master.

White, a labourer of St. Alban's, has been ordered to pay fourteen shillings or be imprisoned for fourteen days, for breaking "several hazel branches" while gathering nuts in a wood belonging to the Earl of Verulam. A clergyman who has sent the case to the Times says, "I have often committed such trespasses with impunity ; indeed, once, on a botanical excursion, I stole not only the flower but the root of a bee- orcbis out of a wood, besides breaking the hedge."

A little boy has been sentenced to be imprisoned and kept to hard labour for fourteen days, by the Portsmouth Magistrates, for stealing three walnuts, the property of Colonel H. D. Campbell, valued at one farthing ! Four boys were engaged in this nefarious proceeding ; one was allowed to turn Queen's evidence, and the other two have not yet been caught ; but these criminals need not expect to escape the vigi- lance of the Hampshire police, as "a sharp look-out will be had in order to bring them to justice."

ArGuffey, a man formerly employed in the Customs at Liverpool, attempted to shoot Mr. Arkle, a landing-surveyor, at the Prince's Dock, on Saturday. The pistol with which he was armed missed fire ; he was seized ; and he has been committed for trial. M`Guffey was dis- missed from the Customs for drunkenness, on the official reports of his conduct made by Arkle ; and hence the present attempt at revenge.

We mentioned in the latest edition, last week, that the Coroner's in- quest at Haswell had returned a verdict of "Accidental Death." Mr. Scutchbury, a surveying agent to the Somersetshire district of mines be- longing to the Prince of Wales, was sent by Government to examine the pit, and gave evidence before the Jury. Professor Faraday and Professor Lyell were not examined but they have inspected the col- liery. A subscription for the relatives of the sufferers has been opened: it amounts to 2,000/., of which the owners of the colliery have contri- buted 743/.

Another explosion occurred on Monday, in the Cox Lodge colliery, about two miles from Newcastle ; by which five persons were injured, two so badly that they are not expected to live. The explosion was caused by a " deputy," who used a candle where gas was coming off. It is said that this man is not an experienced miner, having been re- cently a ploughman, and taken into the mine in consequence of the strike. The explosion was not very violent ; and thus the " stoppings," or erections by which the ventilation is preserved, were not destroyed.. There were seventy workpeople in the pit ; and if these " stoppings" had been blown down, they would probably have all been killed by the choke-damp.

Bad accidents occurred while the salutes were fired in 'honour df Queen Victoria and her Royal companions on Monday. One was at the King's Bastion. As the guns at that battery are made for heayy metal, (32,) they are so seldom used that this was bat the fourth time. There are only four pieces of cannon, and therefore in a royal salute of

iwenty-one guns each has to be fired many times. Five guns had been discharged ; the sixth hung fire ; and while an Artilleryman was re- Loading it, the charge went off : the man was blown to pieces, and an- other was so much mutilated that it was impossible for him to live. It is supposed that a piece of the flannel cartridge remained in the gun after it was first discharged, and that, although the gun was sponged out, the piece of cartridge ignited the second charge on its being rammed home. A Coroner's Jury have returned a verdict of "Accidental Death."

Another accident occurred about the same time in the French fleet : a gun went off unexpectedly, and a seaman's arm was shot away. There was no doctor on board, and the man was instantly conveyed on board the Superintendent-Admiral's flag-ship, the Victory. The stump of the shattered limb was amputated, and the patient was doing very well.

On the same day, at ten o'clock, a ladder which was blown down by the wind, struck the head of an old labourer, and fractured his skull ; so that he died soon after he was carried to Hasler Hospital.

During the gale on the night of Wednesday week, a boat containing six men was run down in the Mersey, by the Iron Duke steamer ; and all the men perished. No blame attached to the steamer for this acci- dent, it being most probable that the boat ran on to the steamer's bow. A boat belonging to an American vessel sunk during the storm, and its crew of seven were all drowned. The tempest was violent in Wales.