Ebe Probintes.

Addresses to Lord Melbourne, from Derby and Melbourne, were presented on Monday last, at Melbourne Hall, the Viscount's seat. They were carried up in a joint procession from the two towns, consist- ing of twenty-five carriages, a cavalcade of horsemen, several banner- bearers, and two bands.i In the deputation from Derby, were the Mayor and the late Mayor, Mr. Joseph Strutt, M. P., Mr. William Evans, M. P.; and the two deputations comprised several gentlemen of local influence, to the number of about two hundred. Two large platforms, covered with carpet, were erected in an open space near the hall, for the reception of the deputations. Between one and two thousand spectators witnessed the ceremony. The address from Derby dwelt upon the usual topics of Whig laudation,—the Reform Bill, Negro Emancipation, Corporate Reform, and so forth ; coming to a climax with the Budget Reforms ; and concluding with the hope, that "your Lordship, together with your late colleagues in office, will again, ere long, be recalled to her Majesty's councils." The Melbourne folks declared their "deeply-felt and well- considered conclusion, that the late Administration, of which your Lordship was the chief, will deserve, and eventually receive, the grati- tude and admiration of a dispassionate and remote posterity." [An odd assortment of *West) They say pathetically- " Had the late Administration been able to carry out their designs for the religious, moral, intellectual, civil, political, and physical amelioration of the people—and had not these designs been counteracted entirely, or partially deprived of their efficiency and utility, through the prevalence in Parliament of viers hostile to the public interests—there is reason to hope that, under the blessing of Divine Providence, your Lordship and colleagues would have raised tills nation to a prouder and happier station than any recorded in the pages of our national history." After alluding to his personal gratification at the expression of his neighbours' good-will, Lord Melbourne lauded their political consis- tency. He told them in 1834, on a similar occasion, that there was no hope of success without combined and unanimous exertion : they had acted up to that advice ; and he was glad to see them again declaring that "the firm and united voice of the people, when constitutionally directed to just and legitimate objects, cannot long be resisted "— " You are right, gentlemen ; union alone is irresistible, and union can only be insured by the choice of defined objects, not doubtful, speculative, and hazardous, but dictated by reason, approved by experience, and of a practicable character. • * • Whether we have done our duty or not, you have done yours. In the exercise of your rights and franchises you have given to the Government which you approved a steady, firm, unvarying support ; and I cannot refrain from observing, that if the same consistent line of conduct had been pursued by other constituencies, the result of the late political contest would have been different from that which Nes taken place." Lord Melbourne would not refuse again to take office ; and he chalked oat an unwonted share of work for himself- " More than seven years have now elapsed since that month of November 1834, to which I have already so often recurred ; and the progress of time has brought upon me, what it must bring upon all, impaired strength, less buoyant spirits, and diminished powers of exertion. The consciousness of this de- cline naturally renders me less ambitious of undertaking a post of so much labour, such heavy responsibility, and such unceasing anxiety as that which have lately held : but the deep debt of gratitude which 1 owe to my Sovereign and my country will not permit me to withdraw myself from their service, nor to refuse any task which may appear likely to conduce to their interest and welfare. The great questions relating to the commerce and revenue of the country, which were in appearance the cause of the dissolution of the late Bli- nistry, remain yet to determined. The financial difficulties of the state hare not been the work of this or of that Administration : they have been foreseen, or rather they have existed, ever since, and indeed long before, the termination of the great war with France in 1815; and they are the consequence of a long series of events, of which it is vain now to inquire, except as a lesson for the. future, whether they could have been avoided or prevented. The state of trade, foreign and domestic, and the severe distress which prevails in many of the manufacturing districts, although 1 should lament that they should be exag- gerated for political purposes, and employed as grounds and reasons for political change, yet imperiously demand the most serious and immediate attention of the Government and the Legislature. It was our opinion that the measures which we proposed, and which you have enumerated, were calculated at once to supply the pecuniary deficiency and to relieve the commercial embarrassment. We proposed them in good faith, and, for my own part, with the expectation that the greater portion of them would have received the sanction of Par- liament. They were opposed entirely. A distinct declaration of want of confidence in the Administration was carried in the House of Commons. We ads ised an appeal to the people, which was made, and has been decided against us. It will now be for her Majesty's present advisers to bring forward upon their part such plans as they may think better suited to the circumstances of the times ; and it will be for your Representatives to consider those plans with reference to and in comparison with the measures which we submitted to the last Parliament. I can only say that, for myself, they shall receive a full and fair consideration and that, as far as in me lies, I will do to others that justice which I hold to have been denied to me and my colleagues, and, in being denied to us, have also been denied to the country."

Three cheers having been given for the Queen, and three for Lord Melbourne and Reform, the deputations repaired to the hail; where they were entertained with a dejeuner a la foarchette.

A Chartist tea-party was held in the Town-hall of Birmingham, on Tuesday evening, to celebrate the first anniversary of the establishment of the new sect, called "the Chartist Christian Church." The hall was crowded ; "being principally filled," says the reporter of the Sun, "'with well-dressed ladies." Mr. Collins was appointed to the chair. Among the company were Colonel Thompson, Mr. Roberts of Bath, Mr. Joseph Sturge, and Mr. Charles Sturge. Mr. Thomas Duncombe, Mr. Sharman Crawford, and Colonel Napier were expected, but were unable to attend. The report was read by Mr. O'Neill, the Secretary. It stated that the Christian Chartist Church had first arisen in Scot- land : its principles soon extended to Birmingham ; and on the 27th December 1840, a chapel was opened in New Hall Street for public worship. The Society had formed a school and classes for study ; and essays were written and prizes competed for. They had accumulated three hundred volumes in their library, and the cash affairs left a ba- lance in the hands of the treasurer of 840/. They had purchased a printing-press, and did all their own printing. The meeting was ad- dressed by the chairman, (who mentioned the fact, that at that moment there were six similar meetings in Birmingham,) Colonel Thompson, and Mr. Joseph Sturge. A. memorial to the Queen was moved and adopted ; several prizes were distributed ; a hymn was sung ; and the meeting separated about eleven o'clock. The memorial is subjoined-

" Unto the Queen's most excellent Majesty. The respectful memorial of the members of the Birmingham Christain Chartist Church, " Showeth—That your memorialists have learned with great satisfaction that your Majesty has expressed your generous intention of liberating, at the approaching baptismal ceremony of the Prince of Wales, all the convicts who have not been transported to the Penal Colonies, who have conducted them- selves in such a manner as to evince a reformation of character.

" We hail the act of clemency as one worthy of the Sovereign of an en- lightened people; calculated as it is to throw around the throne more real glory than all the pomp and glitter of a material grandeur, only suited to a barbarous age and mindless people. " But Mille we hail this act, we cannot believe that true benevolence is limited in its aisplays of mercy to a particular locality: wide as the world in its ever-expanding path, wherever a human heart is found, is the field of its action. Believing this, we would respectfully represent to your Majesty, that in the distant Penal Colonies many convicts now suffer who are as worthy of your gracior- ,ilemency as those at home, and we trust that it shall not be said that the merciful designs of England's Queen were stopped in their course by seas and oceans. England's arms have never been restrained by these. We trust that mercy, which confers glory infinitely superior to that of arms and war' shall not be stopped, but that its brightest feature shall be its universality. "We would respectfully represent to you, that there are now suffering in the Penal Colonies six men, who, in our opinion, are eminently worthy of the dis- play of your royal clemency—men in whose behalf your people of all classes have more frequently and in greater numbers solicited your clemency, than for any other during your reign, or the three that preceded it. John Frost, Zepha- niah Williams, and William Jones were banished for high treason ; Howell, Roberts, and Jones for alleged riot. "The previous good conduct of each of these, together with their excellent demeanour since their exile—the fact that some of them have been since in- volved in ruin and misery—the fact that in the cases of the three latter an alibi was proved upon the testimony of competent, credible, and highly re- spectable witnesses—the fact that the wife and family of Roberts are now suf- fering from the severest privations, and a few weeks ago followed one of her children to the grave, carried thither by the hands of strangers—all these facts are presented to your Majesty, in the hope that you may see fit to restore the said convicts once more to the bosom of their families and the land of their birth.

"And your memorialists, &c."

The Isle of Man shares in the distress which prevails in its neigh- bourhood on the main-land : Mona's Herald describes its condition-

" We have at the present time absolutely no trade; artistica of every descrip- tion, joiners, masons, painters, and those belonging to nearly every other occu- pation, have been weeks out of employment ; the result we need not repeat. It is far from being the pauper population alone who are now in a state of misery and destitution : we have the names of scores of individuals, the heads of help- less families, who, if they could find work, could easily earn from 12s. to 20s. per week, ml absolute starvation—willing indeed to work, but 'ashamed to beg.' As an illustration, we may here record the fact, that one day last week the wife of a respectable artisan went to a brewery in this town and purchased twopenny worth of the grains usually sold for the purpose of feeding cattle and pigs, secretly creeping away without paying that trifling sum. The person in charge of the brewery desired one of the workmen to run after Mrs. —, and say she had forgot to pay for the grains. The man followed, and overtook her when she bad reached 120/12e. Having entered the house, to his astonish- ment he there beheld the poor woman, having an infant at her breast, with her husband and four children, eagerly devouring the grains—not having tasted food for four days And we are daily informed of labourers and tradesmen similarly circumstanced."

It is said that two troops of the Enniskillen Dragoons have been sent to Bilston to keep guard against some anticipated disturbance among the colliers.

A meeting of rate-payers was held at Stoke-upon-Trent, on Thurs- day week, to levy'a church-rate. The Reverend J. W. Tomlinson, the Rector, took the chair. Amid considerable disapprobation, Mr. Tom- kinson, the Churchwarden, proposed a rate of ltd. in the pound. Mr. Robinson a Chartist, observing, that although the middle class would not help the working-men the working-men would help them, moved, "That the meeting was Of opinion that church-rates were unjust in principle, and ought to be resisted; and that the meeting do adjourn for twelve months." Another Chartist seconded the amendment. The Chairman refused to put the amendment. After some altercation, the original motion was put and negatived; a forest of hands being

held up against it, and only six or seven for it. The Cba -II was then again called upon to put the amendment : he persevtred in re- fusing, and left the chair, amid the hooting of the assembl?. A new Chairman was appointed : the amendment was put, and it '.'as carried unanimously.

An inquest was held on Friday afternoon, at the Shepiterd's Bush public-house, in Sunning, on the bodies of eight persons who lost their , lives by the accident on the Great Western Railway. The evidence proved that the first accounts were not so incorrect as they commonly are. It appeared that the train consisted of an engine and tender, two passenger-trucks, a truck for passengers' luggage, and sixteen luggage- waggons heavily laden. The passenger-trucks were fixed next to the tender. The passengers consisted for the most part of stone-masons, who had been employed in the works at the new Houses of Parliament, and who were on their way to their homes in the country to spend the Christmas holydays. At Sunning, the engine ran into some loose earth which had slipped from the side of the cutting on to the rails. This threw the engine off the line ; when, owing to the sudden stoppage, the carriages came together with so violent a concussion, that the trucks were dashed in pieces, and the passengers were thrown out in all directions ; the trucks were split into fragments, with which the dead and dying got fearfully entangled. The horror of the mo- ment was increased by the darkness. Eight persons were killed on the spot ; seventeen, injured and wounded, were conveyed to the Royal Berkshire Hospital. One man, whose skull was fractured, has since died. A woman was discovered in a kneeling position entreat- ing to be extricated ; a main-beam of one of the trucks had fallen upon her legs ; an hour and a half elapsed before she could be removed, as the carriage could not be lifted up until the earth was properly shored up. The same woman, on seeing the danger, threw her child on to the bank: it is said to have escaped injury. From all that could be gathered on the evidence, the slip seems to have happened suddenly, but not without some warning. About a fortnight back a slip occurred at the same spot, but in distinct strata ; and it was repaired. About six days before the accident, a passenger observed the earth look loose; and the day 1..„iore it was seen to bulge. A man, however, who is employed to inspedt the line at the Sunning Cutting, saw nothing dangerous in the spot at half-past five on the previous evening. Mr. L K. Brunel, the engi- neer-in-chief on the line, said that passenger-trucks were not put last because the luggage-trains were inevitably less punctual than the others; and the chief danger seemed to be that they would be overtaken by other trains. It came oat, that the line is not watched from ten at night till six or seven next morning. The Jury returned a verdict of "Accidental Death" on all the eight bodies, with a deodand of 1,000/. on the engine, tender, and carriages. The Jury gave the following reasons for their verdict : "That more watchmen should have been em- ployed to watch the cutting, and the danger of placing the passengers next the engine"; and they added the recommendation "that a portion of the spoil-bank be removed from the sides of the road."

An inquest was held yesterday, on the body of Woolley, the man who died in the hospital ; and mach of the former evidence was retraced. The Jury returned a verdict describing the manner of his death ; add- ing the opinion that the accident might have been avoided had there been a night-watch in the cutting ; and imposing a deodand of 100/. on the engine and train.

Some villain placed two large stones, one on each rail, on the Great Western Railway, about three miles from Bath, on Wednesday night. When the mail-train from London passed the spot, one stone was shivered to atoms, and the other was driven off the rail by the iron guard in front of the wheel : it was forty pounds in weight.

A fearful accident happened on the Bristol and Gloucester Railway, at Wickwar, fifteen miles from Bristol, on Tuesday. Half a hundred- weight of gunpowder, somewhat damaged by damp, was placed in at blacksmith's shop, near the entrance of a tunnel. Tin-, .!..-.cksmitlia• went to his work in ignorance that the powder had been put there ; anct, a spark from his anvil fired it. It exploded, blowing away be shop an& part of the tunnel, together with the blacksmith and seven other men who were working near the spot. Three of them were killed. One man had his head blown from his body ; another was carried a distance., of seventy yards, and his clothes took fire. The others were much 4 burned and bruised. Through the surrounding country the explosion . was taken for an earthquake. It was distinctly felt at the distance of seven miles and a half; and it is said that a loosely-built out-house was blown down at a distance of five miles! An inquest has been held on the bodies; but it stands adjourned to the 6th instant, in order to pro- - cure additional information.

A fourth man has died since ; and an inquest was held on the body yesterday. The Jury returned a verdict of" Accidental Death." A destructive fire happened on Monday week, at Manchester, in a building belonging to the Union Carriers Company, which was situated on arches over the Rochdale Canal. The property consumed is said to amount to more than 30,0001. The fire is supposed to have arisen in a boat laden with cotton, which was lying under the archway. On Friday, a number of workmen were employed in pulling down the por- tions of the building which remained standing. Some of the men were

engaged in removing rubbish from underneath a wall seven stories•high, while others were erecting scaffolding in order to pull down the same wall. They had already raised the scaffolding to the fourth story, when the foundation gave way and crushed the men. Five of them were killed, lane others were so seriously injured that three out of the number are not likely to recover. A Coroner's Jury who sat on the bodies has returned a verdict of5 " Accident,al Death,'