sbt probintes.

Sir Francis Baring's seat for Portsmouth having been vacated by his acceptance of a Government office, as First Lord of the Admiralty, he has solicited reelection by the Portsmouth constituency, in an address which contains these passages- " I am aware that some of my friends are accustomed to look with jealousy at the representation of Portsmouth being held by any person officially connected with the Admiralty; and I am not surprised at this feeling: but as I do not owe ray long connexion with you to merely an official life, but have been trusted by you for twenty years during many political changes, I trust that there is no just ground for any distrust in my case. There are more perhaps who expect much advantage to the local interests from my official connexion with the Ad- miralty. I have heard this topic much used when it told against me; but I can- not hold out any such expectations. The duty of my office must not give way to my own inclinations.

"I shall have to enforce economy in the establishments of the yards. I know how painful the task of reduction always is, and how heavily it presses on per- sonal interests; but when done it must be done fairly, and I cannot exempt Ports- mouth on personal grounds. "Lord Auckland issued regulations respecting promotion in the dockyards. I concur in the principle of those regulations —namely, that when once in the dock- yard, a man should rise by his conduct, and not by favouritism or political interest. I will endeavour to give effect to the principle as freely at Portsmouth aselsewhere.

" Much patronage in a gallant profession will be intrusted to me. I will not consent to use it merely to gratify my own personal feelings of friendship, much leas to injure these who may not have served me though they have served their country.

"Official duties will prevent my coming among you as soon as I could wish. I must trust to your indulgence. My absence will arise from no want of respect."

The Financial Reform Association of Liverpool holds monthly meetings. At the last of these, held on Wednesday, a lengthened report was read, describing the origin of the Association, and the extensive sympathy and pledges of cooperation which it is obtaining from all parts of the kingdom.

Financial Reform meetings were held at Norwich and at Sheffield on Monday. At Norwich, resolutions were passed pledging the meeting to co- operate with the Liverpool Financial Reform Association, to stimulate pub- lic feeling. At Sheffield, the meeting resolved to frame a New Reform Association, whose objects should be "to promote free trade, the ballot, extension of the suffrage, and financial reform, and to oppose the extension of religious endowments."

A large number of the gentlemen and farmers of Leicestershire met at Waltham-on-the-Wolds on Thursday, with the double object of promoting the formation of a national memorial of Lord George Bentinck, and of considering the propriety of petitioning Parliament for a small fixed duty on corn and cattle. Lord John Manners presided; the Marquis of Granby, Lord Charles Manners, Mr. Augustus Stafford, and Mr. T. B. Farnham, all Members of Parliament, were present. The personal object of the meeting having been transacted—" a tribute having been paid to departed worth "—the meeting adjourned pro forma for an hour, and then re- assembled to discuss the question of agricultural protection. Lord John Manners introduced the question of what policy ought the farmers to pursue in the present crisis—

Prices are unremunerative, and the imports are still increasing. The Liver- pool returns are astounding. Up to the 1st September 1848, 4,000,000 bushels of grain have been shipped from New York to this kingdom. " The cost of transit from the districts round Waltham to Manchester is more per quarter than from New York to Liverpool!" Mr. Beasley described farming interests as alarmed by sad prospects for the spring. He rejected with warmth Mr. Cobden's Malt-tax sop, and moved, " That it is expedient to petition Parliament to impose a protective duty upon the importation of foreign cattle; and to retain, and it necessary to increase, the duties now imposed on corn and such manufactures as interfere with the produc- tions of British capital and industry." Mr. Augustus Stafford lauded the general terms of the resolution, and was eloquent on the agricultural interest. The resolution was carried by acclamation.

The inhabitants of Plymouth and Devonport and their neighbourhood, assembled in an aggregate public meeting on Thursday week, to bear the report of a deputation which had waited on the Archbishop of Canterbury with a memorial agreed upon in December last concerning the increase of Papistical ceremonial in the ministrations of the local clergy. Mr. J. Cory- ton Roberts, of Trevol, Torpoint, presided; and Colonel Dunsterville read the Archbishop's reply to the memorial laid before him. Acknowledging warmly their dutiful solicitude and good feeling, he expressed regrets at the general purport of the memorial= " You have already been informed by your diocesan, which of those practices can be, and which cannot be, defended by the letter of the Book of Common Prayer. I could certainly have wished that the younger Aergy, to whom your remarks are chiefly applicable, had thought themselves at liberty to follow the usage of their predecessors and the example of the great majority of their brethren at the present elay, tio as to acquiesce in those slight deviations from the Rubric which custom had sanctioned, and which had not been reproved by competent authority: I could have wished that they had considered the Apostle's example applicable to their case, and in non-essential things had yielded to the feelings of the people as he yielded to those of the Jewe, for the sake of avoiding offence and gaming confi- dence. Especially, I regret the introduction into our parish-churches of a mode of worship which, however proper and suitable in our cathedrals, appears too artificial and elaborate for simple and general devotion. But, on the other band, I am bound to respect conscientious scruples, even though I cannot participate in them. These clew assure me that they consider themselves fettered by directions which, in their judgment, the Church to which they have promised obedience requires them to observe.

In reference to a suggestion of a need for Parliamentary interference, the Archbishop declared-

" The time may possibly arrive when such a change as you contemplate might be effected, without occasioning far greater evils than those we wish to remedy. It must, however, be generally acknowledged that such a time is not yet come. A season of excitement is not a season for reasonable deliberation. Men judge of these things not according to their actual value, but according to the value which they themselves attach to them. And, after all, differences of real importance, differences in the tone and spirit of public teaching, can never be prevented by any law, or any form of articles or prayers. If the doctrine were erroneous, it would little signify in what dress it were delivered, or with what form it was ac- companied; whilst, on the other hand, if the minister be diligent in his duties and faithful in his instructions, we may readily excuse the addition of a gesture or the omission of a prayer. "I can scarcely hope that these remarks will prove satisfactory to those who seem to have expected more from my interference than I possess the power or see the possibility of accomplishing." Having deliberated on this reply, the meeting passed resolutions ex- pressive of regret at the limited power possessed by the Archbishop, and in favour of petitioning the Queen that she would be graciously pleased to "adopt such measures as she should deem best calculated to obtain an authoritative and Protestant determination of the sense of the Liturgy in all its parts, and also for defining the ceremonial of the Church in con- formity to established usages."

The two mail-robberies were finally investigated at Exeter on Saturday. A number of witnesses were called to show the movements of the prisoners on the day of the robbery, and the fact that they were in each other's company. Ser- geant Langley, of the Metropolitan Police, recognised the prisoner who refused to give his name: he is Edward Nightingale. No attempt at defence was made, and the men were committed for trial.

The letters stolen from the up-mail have not yet been discovered. It is now suspected that Poole has been engaged in several successful robberies on the Great Western Railway, such as those of two boxes each containing 2,0001. in gold; and that the plunder, and not, as he gave out, inherited property, enabled him to live in the style he recently did. Several I 0 Us for considerable sums of money were found on him.

Some workmen of Messrs. W. and P. Clark, cotton-spinners in Manchester lately informed against their employers under the Ten-hours Act, and obtained convictions. These steps were violently disapproved by the great majority of the workmen in the same mill; and the chief mover in them has been set upon and beaten severely. Fourteen men have been sammoned for taking part in the outrage. Messrs. Brownlow and Co., owners and builders of ships and steam-vessels, at Hull, having engaged some thirty Dutch carpenters to work in their yard, the Eng- lishmen supplanted have exhibited great enmity to the foreigners. A number of at- tacks have been made on them, and last week there was a still more serious out- rage: three of the Dutchmen were waylaid by some thirty or forty men armed with sticks, and the foreigners were savagely beaten. Two of the culprits have been taken, and committed for trial.

Three mysterious deaths have occurred at Penkridge. An old man named Cresswell, his wife, and two grown-up sons, one an idiot, lived together in a cot- tage. One morning there was nobody moving in the place, and a man entered by means of a ladder. All the family were in bed: the mother was dead, also one of the sons; the father and the idiot were not dead, but insensible, and the old man died in the course of the day. The idiot recovered, but no information could be Iiitained from him. The matter is under investigation. The swelling of the rivers in West Yorkshire by the recent heavy rains has caused a fatal accident near Brotherton. A vessel was moored below the contin- ence of the Aire and Calder, and while the master's wife and two children were on board by themselves, the stream broke the moorings, hurried the vessel along, and eventually upset it, drowning the three people.

A ferry-boat plying across the Menai Straits, near Camarvon, was lost in a gale of wind on the night of the 9th. The boatman and three passengers were drowned.