A public banquet was given last week at Stafford to

the Colonels and "Officers of the three regiments of Staffordshire Militia. The Earl of Harrowby presided. In proposing the principal toast of the evening, he observed that the Militia had been the means of infusing a martial spirit among the people of the country, and he should like to see it used more as a means of recruiting the regular Army. He bore testimony to the patriotic spirit displayed not only by the officers but also by many pri- vates of the three regiments ; " for he had the opportunity of knowing that many men from the mining districts had given up high rates of wages to receive the paltry pay of a militiaman, in order that they might serve their country." Sir Robert Peel was specially invited to tell the com- pany "something about the Emperor of Russia, with whom he had been on such very intimate terms lately." Sir Robert evaded the demand, but gave some other results of his observations in Russia. He had visited the fortress of Cronstadt ; and there was but one opinion, from the Grand Duke Constantine down to the youngest middy on board the Vladimir, that had the energy of the commander equalled the pluck of the British Navy, that fortress at the present moment would be crumbled in the dust. Sir Charles Napier had been through the whole of the fleet and for- tress, and he gave it as his opinion that it was impossible to destroy the for- tress. It was certainly very clear at this moment that it was impossible to attack Cronstadt with success now : but when the war commenced the case was very different; and if the man who commanded the fleet at.Copenhagen had commanded the Baltic fleet, or if a man possessed of the spirit and ca- pacity of a Nelson had commanded that fleet, ho had not the slightest doubt that as the fortress at Copenhagen yielded so would Cronstadt have fallen. Sir Robert also touched upon the future. As he was most unjustly on his legs, they would perhaps allow him to say, that although peace had been concluded, there was much to prevent them -from relying on a continuance of peace. They were on the edge of a vol-

• cane, which might break forth at any time = and among the causes for dis- quietude were Naples and the Danubian Principalities. Had the war con- tinued, there was no doubt that the resources of Russia would have been inadequate to cope with the resources of France and England, and that a most effectual blow would have been dealt that Power, from which it would have taken her a long time to recover. But peace had been made, and it was to be hoped that it would continue. He must add, that there never was a contest in which the people of a country were more justly en- gaged than were the people of this country in the late war, or in which the people had come out of it with greater honour and distinction.

At a meeting of the Oxford Town-Council on Tuesday, it was unani- mously agreed that the next Mayor, who will be elected on the 10th in- stant, be recommended not to take the usual oath of submission to the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Oxford.

The Magistrates of the West Riding of Yorkshire have held another meeting to forward the scheme for establishing a Rural Police. A memo- rial explaining the plan is to be submitted to the Home Secretary. The Committee appointed by the Magistrates to organize the Police has been constituted a Police Committee.

It is now said that the defalcations of Camplin the fugitive actuary of the Bromley Savings-bank amount to 10001. In one case, a labourer had paid to Camplin, at his house, in the course of fourteen years, sums amounting to 2501. ; the actuary never made any entry of these payments in the bank- books ; and as the labourer never went to the bank itself with his money, the transactions are pronounced to be private ones between him and Camplin, and it is maintained that he can make no claim on the funds of the bank.

The actors in " mock auctions " may be punished. At the Liverpool Borough Sessions, two men, a woman, and a boy, confederates in the swindle, have been convicted of " conspiring to defraud," and sent to prison for periods varying from twelve to six months. The prosecutrix was a lady who had been induced to buy " a gold watch and chain" for 101.

Henry Harrison, the Leeds " wizard," notorious for his connexion with the poisoner Dove, has been overtaken by justice. The Leeds Magistrates have sent him to prison for three months as " a rogue and vagabond," for extracting money from a young woman on pretence of bewitching her former sweetheart; and he has also been sentenced to six months' imprisonment for indecently assaulting the same girl after she had repelled his advances. After he was sentenced, a woman came forward as one of his two wives, and a charge of bigamy was preferred against the miscreant : he was remanded for further examination.

Frances Wallace, a young woman of Dover, has been committed for the murder of her illegitimate daughter, a fine child five years old, by nearly cutting off its head. Her mind seems to have been affected by a fear that her sister in London was about to learn who was the child's father : it was that sister's husband. After the murder, and before the Magistrates, she seemed to have lost her reason.

William Jackson, an upholsterer of Chester, has been committed for mur- dering two of his children, a girl and a boy, six and seven years of age. He had been leading a dissolute life, and had separated from his wife, who took charge of two of their four children. The children were sent to him by a woman who had been taking care of them : soon after this they were missed, and the bodies were found buried in a pit in a garden, with their throats cut.

Three Sicilian seamen have been examined by the Portsmouth Magi- strates on a charge of piracy and murder. In July last, the prisoners and two other foreigners, who formed part of the crew of the barque Globe, then in the Black. Sea, mutinied, killed two English seamen, wounded others, plundered the ship, and fled. Two of the three seamen appear to have escaped as yet : the others were captured in Turkey.

Government has offered a reward of 1001., and the executors of the de- ceased 501., for the conviction of the highwaymen who robbed and in effect murdered Mr. Whitaker, a farmer of Thryberg, in Yorkshire.

More burglaries are reported at Bristol ; but two of the criminals have been caught—Job Vowles and his sea ; the latter a ticket-of-leave man.

A singular collision on the North-Western Railway during the fog of Wednesday, though unattended with loss of life, caused immense incon- venience. A goods-train was on its way from Birmingham to London; it consisted of thirty waggons, some laden with iron, and two " dead" engines in the rear—that is, engines not working. Between Blisworth and Wolver- ton, on an incline, the drawing-engine broke from the train and darted forward ; the heavy train descended the decline with ever-increasing ve- locity ; the engine-driver either backed his engine to regain the train, or waited for it—when the two met there was a fearful crash. Pike the fire- man's left arm was fractured, and Oscar the driver was scalded. The rail- way was covered with ruins ; both lines of rails were torn up, and the tele- graph-wires on one side were broken. The spot where the disaster occurred was a lonely one • but the single breaksman attached to the train acted with such energy and aiscretion that he prevented any further mischance. For nine hours one line of rails was obstructed, and the other was not cleared and got into working order for twenty-four hours. The result may be imagined : train after train was stopped on either line, and detained for many hours; and the passengers suffered, from cold, hunger, and a dread of further disasters.

Mr. Joseph Bennell, a young man, has been killed on the railway at Col- chester. In his eagerness to catch a train for Sudbury, he left the carriage he had arrived iu before the train had stopped ; in running towards the platform he tripped against the point-handles, and his legs fell beneath the wheels of the carriages : he died in a few hours.

The bodies of four miners have been recovered from the Bryn Melly Col- liery, which wasauddenly flooded while the men were at work. There are no hopes that the nine other colliers still missing are alive—no doubt, they all died from suffocation. A subscription has been opened for the families of the sufferers, and 8001. has been already collected.

A little girl has been killed, and several other persons much hurt, by an explosion of firewbrks at Rashcliffe' near Huddersfield : John Shaw, and his family were making fireworks for sale, with two unprotected candles stand- ing amid the explosives !

Mr. Milward, a manufacturer of Birmingham, was driving through the town in a gig ; the horse took fright ; Mr. Milward's servant leapt out, and was not runch hert ; the horse continued his furious career, and finally dashed into a .tobacconist's window. Mr. Milward was picked up dying ; and a gentleman who was leaving the tobacconist's shop was so Much hurt that he died soon-after he had been taken to the hospital.

There was a concert on Tuesday evening at the Victoria Rooms, South- ampton, at which Bims Reeves and other distinguished vocalists sang. Six ladies, residents of Lymington, about twenty miles from Southampton, at- tended the concert. The party set out for home in an omnibus specially hired for the occasion ; but-the driver of the vehicle mistook his road, and at Testwood, a few miles from Southampton, he drove into the river. The ladies, in their concert dresses, were up to their necks in water, and nar- rowly escaped death. One of the horses of the omnibus was drowned.

Edward Perrin, a boy of fourteen, has saved the life of a girl who was drowning in the Thames at Henley. Not only have the Royal Humane Society presented a medal to the courageous young swimmer, but the gen- tlemen of the town have subscribed and invested 301. for his future benefit.