Vrottinrint.

A sharp contest has again taken place at Devonport, this time for the seat vacated by Mr. James Wilson. The two candidates were Sir Arthur Buller, selected by the Liberals, and the notorious Mr. W. Busfield Per- rand, the choice of the Tories. Mr. Ferrand imported a very strong element of perstatalfty into the proceedings, and the hustings was the scene of smart recriminations. Sir Arthur Buller was proposed by Mr. Watson and seconded by Mr. Snell. Mr. Ferrand was proposed by Mr. Glencross, and seconded by Dr. Row. Sir Arthur's speech was chiefly occupied in exposing the statements of Mr. Perrand, and the latter person was chiefly engaged in explaining away some accusations rather damage- ing to himself. The show of hands was in favour of Mr. Perrand, and a poll was demanded by Sir Arthur Bullees friend. The course of the polling on Wednesday was similar to that on a recent occasion. At first Mr. Ferrand seemed likely to win; in the end he lost. The numbers were Buller 1189; Ferrand 1114—leavings narrow majority of seventy- five for the Liberal candidate.

At Hull the candidates are Mr. Gurney Hoare, the brother of the un- seated candidate, and Mr. Harvey Lewis, the defeated liberal of the last election.

Berwick is to be contested. hfr. Majoribanks, defeated at the general election, petitioned against his Tory competitors, Mr. Ralph Earle, private secretary to Mr. Disraeli, and Captain Gordon. The petition was with- drawn on the understanding that Mr. Earle should accept the Chiltern Hundreds, and that no opposition should be offered to Mr. Majoribanks. The local Tories have broken the "illusory arrangement," and have put up Mr. Richard Hodgson' formerly Member for Carlisle. Hence great wrath among the Liberals. Captain Gordon says that if Mr. Hodgson persists he shall feel bound in honour to resign his seat.

Mr. Ralph Osborne has been selected by the Liberals of Liskeard to contend for the seat vacated by Mr. W. R. Grey, now a Commissioner of Customs. Mr. Osborne has explained his well-known views. He is "a Whig and something more."

He was proud that he had been selected by the committee to stand before them on the present occasion, because he was well aware that if there Was an independent borough in the kingdom—and he grieved to say they waxed few and far between—it was the borough of Liskeard ; for it had the cha- racter of not being dictated to by a territorial landlord or by a Secretary of the Treasury. He was now ready to give any explanation, and ready, if it MI pleased the Liberal party, to fight a contest or walk over the course. (Cheers.) But he should prefer the latter alternative, because from some mischances he had been a fighting man all his life, and having received certain wounds- " He jests at scars who never felt a wound." (laughter)—but this Parliamentary fighting was not very agreeable to the banker's account of a Member of Parliament. He had suffered on a late occasion, but not severely, because he dissented from the first from incurring anything beyond the legal expenses. What was the consequence ? He stood on purity of principle, and was sent about his business. (Laughter.) Mr. Wyld has been elected for Bodmin in the room of Dr. Michell, without opposition.

The appointment of Mr. 'William Cowper to the post of Vice President of the Board of Trade, has caused an election at Hertford. The Con- servatives have seized the occasion to contest the seat, and have set up Mr. Robert Dimsdale. At the nomination on Thursday, Mr. Young pro- posed, and Mr. Crawley seconded, Mr. Cowper. Mr. Dimsdale was pro- posed by Mr. Curtis and seconded by Mr. Smith. The show of hands was in favour of Mr. Dimsdale; and a poll was demanded on behalf of Mr. Cowper. At the close of the poll yesterday the numbers were— Cowper, 281; Dimsdale, 203.

The Town Council of Lincoln have passed a resolution condemning, as an inroad on local government, the appointment of a Reorder for that city, without consulting them ; they say that the appointment of Mr. Vernon in the place of the late Mr. Clarke will shake confidence in the administration of justice, because Mr. Vernon is an untried man.

The leading men of Carmarthenshire have handsomely come forward with subscriptions for the establishment of a life-boat in Carmarthen Bay, at the request of that useful body the National Life-boat Institution.

Preliminary steps have been taken to establish a free library in Bir- mingham. A meeting on the subject was held on Tuesday, Sir John Ratcliff in the chair.

The annual harvest-home of the Philanthropic Society's Farm School at Redhill was celebrated on Wednesday evening. Having disposed of a substantial supper, the boys were addressed by several influential friends of the institution, and prizes distributed for industry, good con- duct, cleanliness, &c. Mr. W. Gladstone, the treasurer, in congratu- latine.') the company on the prosperous condition of the school, stated that most of the boys who had left the institution were doing well; many had been sent out as emigrants, and letters written home by them were very satisfactory. Some had entered the Army and Navy, and these were doing exceedingly well. There were some few doubtful cases, in which a good account had not been returned; but these he hoped would ultimately turn to good. The Reverend C. Walters, the resident chap- lain, in the course of an address to the boys called on them to thank the numerous kind friends, many of whom were present, without whose aid the institution could not be supported, and expressed great pleasure to find that some of those who had been trained in that institution had re- turned to visit the school, and were then present in the room. The Reverend Sydney Turner, formerly resident chaplain of the institution, and now Government Inspector of Reformatories, also addressed the boys assembled, and gave them sound advice as to their present and future conduct. He also pointed out the great good which had been effected by this and similar institutions, and stated that last year the committals of juveniles to prison were less by one-fifth than in the previous year, and next year he hoped to see a reduction of 40 or 60 per cent. The meeting was also addressed by other friends of the institution. The Committee's report showed that during last year the average number of boys maintained was 263 ; 73 were discharged during the year; of these 30 emigrated, and the remainder 'were placed out in England.

At the Gloucester Assizes Ellen Rutter was found guilty of the murder of her husband, but strongly recommended to mercy. Thomas and Ellen Rutter lived at Dursley. They led a sad and painful life. The man drank deeply, and in his cups quarrelled with his wife, and frequently beat her in a terrible manner. "He came home late at night, and mostly tipsy," said his own son. "He used to threaten to cut her throat." On the Friday night before the murder "she was in bed, he dragged her out, and cursed at her and made her go down stairs." He turned her out in her petticoat ' "He has beaten her a good many times, very badly sometimes." Th

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woman brooded aver this. On Saturday, the 7th of August, both were out drinking. Mrs. Rutter would not drink cider; she drank beer with "a strange man." There is no imputation against her. The people present, neighbours, advised her to go quietly home, not to have words with her husband. "You know what he is," said one. She said, "I'll cut his throat ; it is of no use for you nor twenty people to talk to me ; you don't know what I have got on my mind." She went home. Just past midnight the neighbours were awakened by the woman, "Tom was bleeding to death," she thought. They went and found that the much-beaten woman had kept her word. She had slain her brute of a husband as he slept, and admitted it. "Are you not sorry for me ?" she said to the female warder. "She told me she had lived a wretched life ; that she had had much trouble and had been brutally beaten." In the prison they would not allow her to wash off the blood of her husband, because they had no order from the superintendent. The Judge said it was a very wrong thing. The whole case was most painfuL The woman behaved with decorum in court. She was sentenced to death.

At the same Assizes, on Monday, two cases of "undue influence" at the Cirencester election were tried. Sermyn Colborne, Lavinia Susannah Colborne, and Walter Mullins, servants to Mr. Pole, "the squire of Strat- ton," a place close to Cirencester, were, that is Colborne and Mullins, sen- tenced to one month's imprisonment in the common gaol for administering laudanum, or some other narcotic, to John Sibblewhite in order to prevent his voting at the election. Mrs. Colborne was acquitted on the ground of acting under her husband's influence. These agents of somebody kept in the background, plied the old man with ale, tobacco, and tea, the second cup of which "was very dark and tasted very queer," took him a six miles ride, and dropped him at the King's Head Inn, at Ashtonlieynes, with in- structions to the landlady to give him twenty drops [of something they supplied her with in a bottle] which can't hurt him, they said, "for we've given him twenty drops before." Thanks to her disobedience and his own activity, the "old right voter" shook off his stupor, reached the poll before four o'clock, and voted "one and one."

Admiral Charles Talbot, in command of the fleet at Cork, the plaintiff in the other case, was not so fortunate in the exercise of his franchise. He reached Cirencester by train a little before four, took a fly for the poll, was beset by a mob at the railway station, got out of the vehicle to walk, was knocked down, and on his rising " embraced " by a Mr. Clarke, the defendant who, the aid of organized obstructive; and, under the pretence of "taking care of the Admiral," detained him until after the close of the poll—for which electioneering zeal Mr. Clarke was ordered to "enter into his recognizances to receive judgment when called upon." For his offence Clarke had been punished before and the Judge censured the prosecution as savouring of party vengeance.

Mr. Samuel Warren, Commissioner in Lunacy, is holding an in- vestigation at Exeter into the alleged sanity of Mrs. Phoebe Ewing,s, a lady eighty-two years of age. Some interest attaches to the case, because, so says report, she has bequeathed her property to her physician. It appears that the physician, Dr. Shapter, not only notified to the friends of the lady the nature of the will she had made, but distinctly stated that he would never take any benefit under it. He believed Miss Ewings to be of sound mind, but the commission decided that she was of unsound mind, and incapable of managing her own affairs.

John W. Moody, a native of Portland, Maine, second mate of the Mary of Bath, U. S., is in custody on a serious charge. While the ship was in the Tyne, Moody fell brutally upon a sailor named Witham, dragged him about by the hair, and finally fractured his skull with a bar of iron. While at sea Moody had, in a cowardly manner, beaten the man with "knuckle dusters" —knuckles of steel.

A serious accident occurred on Wednesday at the Tilbury station. Part of a train rounding the curve, plunged off the rails. The engine came to a atop in the fields ; three carriages were overturned. The driver and stoker were unhurt, but many passengers were greatly injured.

A fire at Woodford, on Monday night, destroyed several cottages, some farm buildings, corn stacks, and agricultural implements. It is supposed that this, like the more disastrous fires in Wilts and Oxon, was caused by the children at play with limiter matches.