puninrini.

Reports of a probable " banquet " at Liverpool in honour of Lord Derby

were current last week. It was thought the dinner would be public. It has taken place, and turns out to have been a private party. Neverthe- less the Times of yesterday published the following exquisite account of the gathering from the holly Post. It is perfection in its way.

"One of the most distinguished companies that ever assembled to graec the civic board met last evening at the Town Hell. The party wits a private one, being one of those genial and hospitable reninions for which our chief magistrates are so famous.

"The guests numbered about fifty, including the Earl of Derby, Lord Stanley, Sir Thomas G. II:Actin Bart., Mr. Thomas B. Horsfall, 31.1'., Mr. Joseph C. Ewalt, M.P., the Honourable Algernon _Egerton, M.P., and Captain Mends, R.N.

"After dinner the usual round of toasts afforded ample - cope for the easy play of eloquence, which, under the shelter of privacy, became, if not so spirited, more sparkling.

" The Earl of Derby, in a lengthy address, alluded to the state of the

political world, lie expressed a hope that the ensuing session would wit- ness the ationtion of a Reform Bill. It was desirable that the vexed question should be set at rest, and he believed the Conservative party would offer no factious opposition to the present Ministry in bringing forward a substantial measure of Reform.

"The liberal and manly tone pervading the speech elicited frequent ap- plause. Lord Stanley was also happy in his remark, which indicated syra- panty for progress and toleration. "The health of his worship the Mayor was ',reposed by the Earl of Derby, and heartily received. "1 he company separated about 11 o'clock."

The Lewes election took place on Monday. Mr. John George Men- cow; a Liberal, having sound and enlightened views" was elected without opposition, in the room of the late Mr. Fitzroy. Mr. Bieneowe desires a practical measure, and the settlement of the church-rate ques- tion; and he will give a zealous support to the present Government.

Mr. Waterhouse, of Halifax, is to be put up by the Conservatives to contest the Pontefract seat with Mr. Childers.

Mr. William Coningham met a large number of his constituents in the Brighton Town Hall on Monday, and delivered a frank and spirited ac- count of his stewardship, and the events of the past year. Like all other speakers at these meetings he spoke of the free-trade letter of Napoleon

"Although I have always been a strong advocate for the French alliance, this opinion is not shared by a larc number of the people of this country. There has been a great am bound to say that it is not with:yet considerable grounds,—with regard to the intentions of the Emperor of the French ; but in the step he has taken there can be no mistake that it is cal- culated to promote the good feeling which exists between the two countrien (Cheers.) I am perfectly satisfied that if free trade be established between France and England it viii soon be beyond the power of Louis Napoleon er any other individual to bring about a severance of those ties which will then bind the two nations together. (Cheers.) You must remember, gentlemen, that France has far more to gain than we here in this matter. She wiit take our raw material, our coal, our iron, and wool, while we, who have already developed the principles of removing taxes upon raw material, shall in reality derive a much less benefit from it. However, if they take our coal and iron, we shall take their wine and manufactured articles. I firmly believe that this will materially conduce to the promotion of the peace pohey —a policy which I hope will be successful. . . . It has been said that pro- perty has its duties as well as its rights. I say that power also has its.duries as well as its rights. It is not merely in obtaining commercial treaties, la spinning cotton, manufacturing iron, or digging coal, that the greatness of the nation consists; it is in its moral character ; and I say that the great moral influence, and upon occasions, if necessary, even the physical infiu- ence of England must be used to prevent any of the despotic Powers on the continent from interfering with those nations who are struggling for liberty. (Loud cheers.) Has not Hungary your sympathy ? (Cheers.) Has Italy not your sympathy ? Are you not prepared to urge your Government to exercise its powerful influence on behalf of the struggles of those nations ? I believe that Hungary and Italy have the sympathy of this meeting— (loud cheers)—as well as the sympathy of this great constituency. This is not an appeal to arms I am making. Such an appeal is not necessary. Napoleon has done the fighting part of the business, and my opinion is that the Papacy will never recover from the deadly blow he has inflicted upon it. (Loud and continued cheering.) I trust it never will. (Renewed cheering.) I believe that a government like the Papacy exercises an influence which is curse to humanity. (Loud cheers.) I am making no appeal to religious fanaticism in what I say. It is a deliberate conviction in my mind that the Papal government, and the principles which it embodies, are incompatible with liberty. (Loud and prolonged cheering, and a cry of " Bravo, (70 ning ha m.") Europe will have to choose between the Papacy and liberty ; because if the Pope and Kaiser succeed, united, they will bind the hands of men, and their souls too, in a darkness which will spread itself throughout the whole of civilized Europe. (Cheers.) It is because I cannot believe that such is the destiny of these mighty nations that I am firmly convinced that a death-blow has been given, and by a curious fatality it has been given by the man who claimed to be the right arm of that very Papacy he is now—(Loud cheering, in which the remainder of the sentence was lost.) If I am in favour of a French alliance it is with its people ; but, strange as it may appear, though France is governed ostensibly by a despotism, she is the legitimate representative of the revo- lutionary and progressive principle in Europe. Napoleon's existence depends upon carrying out a liberal policy. He cannot depart from this policy without falling among the ruins of the anarchy which he would create. (" Rear !" and cheers.) He cannot quarrel with England, be- cause he would quarrel with the only constitutional Government in Europe ; and if the British people insist upon the British Government carrying out a thorough-going foreign policy it will be impossible that France ana England ever can quarrel. They must inevitably be fighting on the same side. (Loud cheers.) Don't talk to me about despotism in Europe, if the people will not have a despotism. Why, Louis Napoleon with his 500,000 armed men, his navy, and the aids and other supports with which he has to maintain the system which prevails in France,—why, even he is obliged to bow before public opinion. It is a despotism tempered by pamphlets. The Pope himself is brought to appeal to the public, and I confess that a most mournful and doleful appeal it is Let the House of Commons understand another thing—that we will have no tampering with despotism. The course is very clear. What the British Government is bound to do is to take care that the Italian people shall govern themselves according to the manner in which they like best—that there shall be no active interference and no coercion in the case. They have shown a degree of intelligence and for- bearance which entitles them to our hearty admiration, and I feel perfectly convinced that if they will persevere as they have begun we shall see a real constitutional government established in Italy. I am not one of those who feel inclined to act upon peace principles. I believe, for instance, that the Rifle Volunteer movement has done a great deal of good. It has restored confidence in this country ; for confidence needed to be restored in the minds of the people. There are many people besides old women who believe we are about to be invaded ; but my motto is—" La main de fer dans le

glint de velours,"—the iron hand in the velvet glove. We desire to be friends if you will be friends, but we don't mean to stand any nonsense.

(Laughter and cheers.) We mean to be prepared for any emergency, and, happen what may, England and every man in her will be prepared to do his duty." (Cheers).

The subscribers and friends of the Birmingham Reformatory Institu- tion held a meeting on Tuesday, the Earl of Shrewsbury in the chair. Lord Lyttelton, Mr. M. D. Hill, Lord Calthorpe, and Mr. Adderley, took part in the proceedings. The Staffordshire wing of the institution has been completed ; arrangements have been made to occupy additional land, so as to extend the facilities for out-door agricultural labour. Trades are taught. The following statistics, gathered from the report, are of interest :- Boys in the school December 31, 18.58, according to last annual report, 50; admitted during 1859, 10; total, 60. Emigrated during the year 1859,

; returned to their friends and known to be doing well, 4; absconded, 3; died, 1; total, 14. Now in the school, 46. By the enlargement of the school accommodation is now provided for 100 boys. Of the ten boys ad- mitted last year, the following are the number of their previous convictions, so far as the same can be ascertained :—Seven had been convicted once ; one had been convicted twice ; and two had been convicted three times each. Two of them could neither read nor write. Three could read a little. Four could read and also write imperfectly, and one could read and write well. Seven had both parents living, and three had lost their fathers but had step-fathers living. Six of these boys came from Birmingham, two from Stafford, one from Bedford, and one from Bridgnorth. Of the 46 boys now in the school, 12 are from Staffordshire, 11 from Birmingham, 9 from London, 8 from Lancashire, 2 from Warwickshire, 2 from Gloucestershire, 1 from Shropshire, and 1 from Bedfordshire. There are 5 boys under 12 years of age, 13 boys between 12 and 14 years, 21 aged between 14 and 16, and 17 above 16 years of age. These boys all work either as shoemakers, tailors, or gardeners, and all of them take a share in the labours of the household and yard, and in other industrial occupations which circumstances may from time to time furnish. An analysis of the expenses shows the fol- lowing result, as the average cost per week of each boy :—House expenses, including keep of agents, per week, 3s. 21d. ; clothing, sid.; salaries, 28. Ild. ; rent, 3d. ; furniture and incidental expenses, Is. ; total, 88. 7d.

Mr. M. D. Hill expressed his deep sense of the value of reformatories.

For many years after he held the office of Recorder, it was his painful duty to have to administer a law as barbarous in its conception and as in- jurious in its operation as could well be imagined, He said barbarous in conception, because it treated the poor tender infant with the same severity as the grown man for the same offence, and in its operation it was training him into a school of vice to send him to prison, especially as prisons were formerly governed; altogether, in fact, the sacrifice of a poor miserable young creature to ignorance, to be returned again into society as a double vengeance and as a redoubled punishment upon society which had so used him. It was impossible for any one who had not gone through the re- volting task to appreciate the pain which judges and magistrates felt when they saw little creatures brought before them, standing actually and lite- rally upon footstools in order that their little heads might be elevated above the bar and seen from the bench. It was, therefore, with great delight that he watched the progress of the Reformatory movement. It was with the deepest interest that he attended a meeting in that town, now eight years ago, at which the true principles of the treatment of criminal children were laid down, exemplified, and enforced by most excellent, experienced, and zealous men ; and he might say women too, for the ladies aided the move- ment nobly and effectually. The first point of that meeting was the esta- blishment of the reformatory the anniversary of which they attended that evening to celebrate ; and he could not mention the foundation of that in- stitution without recurring to what was so vividly impressed upon his me- mory, the exertions of his excellent friend, Mr. Adderley. (Renewed cheering.) He generously placed at the disposal of the promoters five acres of property, at the low price of 58. only per acre, but that was so trivial a matter compared with the sacrifices that Mr. Adderley had made, and com- pared with his constant and zealous attention from that time to the present to the interests of the school, that it was doing that gentleman an injustice to allude to it. The conference of which he had spoken was repeated in 1853, and the second important point was the passing of the law of 1854 by which the whole principle of the treatment of criminal children was changed, and changed for the better, as they all knew. From that period to the present there had been a rapid extension of the reformatory principle and practice throughout England and Wales. Before the first conference in Birmingham there were, so far as he knew, only two reformatories in the kingdom,—the one being at Red-hill, and the other, which he regretted no longer existed, at Stretton-on-Dunsmore in this county. But in those days unfortunately no aid was vouchsafed by the State, and the latter institution was kept alive by the unwearied exertions of a gentlemen now no more— Mr. Townsend Powell. After his decease it dwindled away, and could not even survive up to the point at which it would have been taken up by the statute passed in 1854, granting an allowance of so much per head by the Government for every lad sent to these institutions. With regard to the assertion that crime had so much diminished, he would not enter into any misgivings he might feel upon the matter, but he hoped and trusted that the change might be permanent ; at all events, while it lasted, it was a matter for the greatest congratulation. He had great confidence, neverthe- less, in the statement which that had been made and vouched for by Mr. Sydney Turner, a gentleman who could not be too much praised for the de- votion of a whole life to the reformatory work, and had carried it on with a zeal and ability that had been blessed with extraordinary success, and they might each and all rejoice upon having been the humble instruments of contributing to so much good."

Hires and Lane, the two American mates, charged with six murders, have been set at liberty by the Magistrates of Newport, in the Isle of Wight, from defect of jurisdiction. The story of the crimes of these men, as told in court, is horrible. Here are instances :—Lane gave an order to Armstrong, a negro. It was not done so rapidly as Lane desired, and he beat the man on the head with a mallet, knocking out an eye. The man was sent on a mar- tingale to clean an earing under the bowsprit. He was too weak to hold on, and fell into the sea, the martingale towing him along. Rock, a seaman, went to his aid, but Lane ordered him to cut the earing and "let the nigger go." The man was drowned. Hires knocked down Turtle, another negro, stamped upon and kicked him. The poor fellow went to his bunk ; Hires dragged him out, stamped upon him, and flung him into the lee scuppers. Thomas, one of the witnesses, said, "I'm not going to let this man he and die here in this way ; and took Turtle to the forecastle, where I laid him down. He did not speak ; he was helpless ; and his head IVO all in a gore of blood About two minutes afterwards Hires asked me, Tom, is that old nigger dead yet ? ' I said, 'No, sir, but he's pretty bad off.' This was about twelve o'clock at noon. I attended on Turtle until ten o'clock the same night." Hires strangled one Johnson; Lane beat one Frank to death with a behying pin. This last act took place "not quite within a league of Start Point. Mr. Stokes, representative of the American Government, claimed the men. Asked whether he was the agent of the captain and officers of the ship, he made no reply ; and it is remarkable that he made no formal claim for the detention of the criminals with a view to their trans- mission to America. When it was too late, the United States Consul entered the court and claimed the criminals in a legal way. The worst part of the case is, that the Magistrates were compelled to order the witnesses to return on board the ship, and thus placed them under the power of the mates.

A very curious trial for polygamy is likely to attract the attention of the gentlemen of the long robe at the next Lent Assizes for Sussex. A man of no small consideration in Brighton contracted marriage with five different women, three of whom are sisters, and with all of whom he has continued to cohabit for nearly eight years in town. A disagreement on some points of precedence brought the disgraceful affair to light.—Express.

The Leeds magistrates have dismissed King, the man charged with ab- ducting his grandson. King produced a document purporting to give him a legal guardianship of the child. King is a Roman Catholic ; the mother is and the late father of the child was a Protestant.

A young lady who eloped from Ramsgate with a sailor was stopped at Ashford by the police, in obedience to telegraphic instructions, and while she returned to her father her lover went on to London.