Ebe Vrobinces.
Anti-League meetings are recorded at Durham, where the Duke of Cleveland attended, and 5001. was subscribed; Bridport, Sturminster, in Dorsetshire ; Rugby, in Warwickshire ; Saffron Walden, in Essex ; Leighton Buzzard, in Bedfordshire; Wokenbam, Maidenhead, in Berk- shire; Marlow, in Buckinghamshire ; Cowbridge, in Glamorganshire ; Bridgewater, in Somersetshire ; Exeter, Kingsbridge, in Devon ; Here- ford, attended by Earl Somers, 500/. subscribed.
The result of the meeting at Bridgewater, on Friday, was singular. The adherents and the opponents of the League both claim the victory ; but it can scarcely be allowed to the League with fairness. It was a county meeting, convened by the Sheriff, the Honourable P. Bouverie ; who presided ; and about 3,000 persons were present. A resolution against the League and in favour of protection was proposed by Mr. J. Hancock, a tenant-farmer, who had been in the occupation of land for more than fifty years. This was seconded by Sir A. Hood ; who at- tacked the "machinations" of the League ; and to the nobles of the land who joined with the agitators he addressed a warning language, alluding to those who aided in the French Revolution, and then became its victims. Mr. W. Bleadon made a spirited Free-trade speech ; taunted the agriculturists with attempting to drive Sir Robert Peel be- cause they could not trust him ; and moved a resolution in favour of free trade, the abolition of all monopolies, and the presentation of a petition to that effect. Sir Thomas Lethbridge said the question was whether the League should dictate the laws ?- The laws were made for all, and were not to be put aside by the Anti-Corn- law League, who put on their seven .league boots, and travelled from one end of the country to the other : but it would be of no avail: the agriculturists would maintain their cause without disturbing and exciting society with 330 or 360 paid secretaries—without having gentlemen meeting together and receiving money which they never accounted for — (Cheers and hisses)— who took money out of the great man's pocket ; that, however, he did not quarrel with, but they also took it out of the little man's pocket. (" No, no !") They did, though; and they went to the ale-houses, the pot-houses, and other resorts of the poor man, with their 9s. and 10s. a week, placed inflammatory productions in their hands, and sent them abroad to make converts to the cling) bread and good wages" system. (Cheers and uproar.) He did not stand there to say that the Corn-law was a good thing : he did not say that taxes were good things: but this he said, that they were necessary evils, and that they must bear a little evil to obtain a great good.
The Canada Corn Bill let in a good deal of corn from America ; which would necessitate an alteration of the Corn-law ; but the exces- sive burdens on land must first be altered. The League had begun at the wrong end : the right end would have been to petition Parliament for a readjustment of taxes, and not let all the burden be on one side.
On a show of hands, the original resolution was carried. A petition founded on that resolution was then moved; but a petition founded -on the rejected amendment was also moved, and declared to be car- ried by a large majority. It is said that many farmers had left the meeting before the petition was put.
Mr. Richard Oastler has experienced a cordial reception at Hudders- field. He was met at Brighouse, on Tuesday, by a committee, who presented an address; and then he was escorted into Huddersfield by a large concourse, with bands of music. A hustings was prepared in front of the Druids Hotel, where he received another address, and made a speech.
-A strange inquiry has occurred at Cheltenham. On the 9th instant, and again, by adjournment, on Saturday last, a Coroner's inquest sat on;the body of a male infant, that was sent down by the Cheltenham railway, a day or two before, and received by the Reverend Mr. Close, of Bayshill, in a hamper. There was no evidence to create even a suspicion as to who the mother of the child might be, and there was nothing to show from what place the body hkd been sent. Two re- spectable witnesses stated that Leopold Sach, a converted Jew, had told them that he was in the kitchen of the Vicar's house when the coffin was opened, and that he saw inside the lid a paper, on which the words " Behold thy likeness" were written. This, however, Sach now de- nied upon oath; and Sarah Doleman, a servant to Mr. Close, proved that there was no paper of any kind within the coffin, and that Sach had not been at her master's house on the day on which the hamper arrived there. The conduct of Sach was severely censured by the Coroner. The Jury, after a long consultation, returned a verdict, " That there was no evidence as to the identity of the deceased, nor cause of death, nor by whom the body was forwarded to Cheltenham."
Mary Johnson, a girl only thirteen years of age, has been committed to Lincoln Castle, for the murder of two little boys, her half-brothers, at Benington, near Boston. They were found to have been poisoned with arsenic.
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