Vrnuiurrs.
The election for Morpeth, consequent upon Sir George Grey's accept- ance of office, took place on Saturday. The rain fell in torrents, but the Town-ball was well filled. Mr. T. Jobling proposed and Mr. J. Hood seconded the nomination ; and by an unanimous show of hands the new Colonial Secretary was returned. Having been declared duly elected, Sir George Grey made a speech in explanation of his relations with the Government, and in vindication of its foreign policy. He stated, that when Lord Aberdeen was commissioned to form an Administration, he had requested Sir George to become a member of it ; but, for reasons which he deemed consistent with his duty, Sir George at that time de- clined. On a subsequent occasion the offer was renewed. When Lord Palmerston resigned, in December, Lord Aberdeen wrote to request Sir George to accept the Home Office, and Sir George, then in the country, immediately went to London for that purpose ; at the same time ex- pressing the reluctance he felt to accept an official post. Happily, he was relieved from all difficulty by Lord Palmerston's retention of the office. Again he found himself, with great regret, invited to accept office : but, put to him in the manner it was, urged upon him by those to whose wishes he generally deferred, and also by Lord Aberdeen, he felt that ho should be guilty of political cowardice, and an undue regard to his own personal ease, if he again declined the offer. Thus he stood before the electors as a member of her Majesty's Government. Passing from this topic, Sir George entered into a justification of the war ; dwelling much on its evils, but maintaining that for the sake of peace and humanity we are bound to prosecute it with the utmost vigour.
The election of the new Bishop of Bath and Wells by the Dean and Chapter, in obedience to the conge d'elire, took place on Thursday week. It was chiefly remarkable from the fact that the non-residentiary Pre- bendaries exercised their right of voting, for the first time during more than 200 years. The Archdeacon of Taunton complained that no specific and personal notice of the election had been made to him. In this he was supported by the Reverend Prebendary Downes Willis. When Archdeacon Law was reading the Queen's recommendatory letter, he was interrupted by several members asking by what authority that letter was propounded to the Chapter. The Dean of Wells replied,.. by the authority of the conge d' elire. It was then insisted that the coup d'elire should be read. Lord Auckland, Bishop of Sodor and Man, being proposed, the Reverend Downes Willis protested against his election, on the ground that the practice of translatine. Bishops from one see to another, that opprobrium of the Church, had been solemnly condemned, and ought not to be revived. Among fourteen voting, Mr. Willis stood alone on a divi- sion in voting against the Bishop recommended by the Queen ; and his name was inserted in the certificate of election as a dissentient.
Two old English pageants were celebrated on Monday ; "the Shrews- bury show," and "the Godiva procession" at Coventry. At Shrews- bury, some 30,000 people gathered from the country side. The trades, each having some emblematic figure: at its head—such as an Indian chief, Vulcan in iron armour followed by smiths, Rubens followed by painters, Queen Elizabeth followed by barbers, "Cupid and the stag" followed by tailors and skinners, and so on—went in procession, headed by music, and accompanied by the Mayor and Corporation, to Kingsland. There dinners were given ; the trades dining in their arbours. The fes- tivities were resumed on Tuesday.
The procession at Coventry was duplex—there were Iwo Ladies Godiva, both from the Royal Academy. One was attired in full robes ; the other more nearly approaching a state of nature. The latter Lady Godiva was preceded by a banner bearing the inscription "To the pure all things are pure." Her dress, though scanty, is stated to have been "unex- ceptionable"; and she had the additional advantage of being the "beauty" of the day. Of course she was the favourite.
Affairs at Bradford in Yorkshire are in a very unsatisfactory state. Several worsted firms have failed, others are working short time, and some intend to cease work for the present. Messrs. Taylor and Sons, worsted-manufacturers at Halifax, have also stopped payment : liabilities nearly 100,000/.
The hay harvest has commenced in the Western counties : it is likely to be a good one.
The Norfolk Agricultural Association held their annual meeting yester- day. The entries of both stock and implements were extremely numerous, and the show was very fully attended, An extensive emigration is now taking place from the agricultural dis- tricts of Lincolnshire, and large sums are received from prosperous emi- grants connected with the locality for their less fortunate brethren at home.
A considerable number of the engine-drivers in the employment of the Manchester, Sheffield, and Lincolnshire Railway Company, are about to proceed to India, where they are promised high rates of wages.
The amount collected in Norfolk for the wives and families of the soldiers on foreign service amounts to little short of 900/.
Mr. Samuel Adcock, a young farmer of Ashby Shrubs, five miles front Leicester, has been robbed and murdered. He went to Leicester market on Saturday ; very early next morning his corpse was found in a ditch by the roadside, at a lonely place, three miles from Leicester. From the appear- ances observed, the farmer, a tall man, had been shot in the base of the skull, at the back of the right ear, by a shorter man ; the assassination had occurred in the middle of the road, and the body had been dragged into the ditch. One of the victim's pockets had been turned inside out, and all the money was gone. The neckerchief and hat were missing, but the hat has been since found behind a hedge. A post-mortem examination has detected a bullet between the scalp and skull, where it had lodged after passing through the brain. There has been a serious mutiny on board the Fidelia, an American emi- grant-ship, about to leave Liverpool. When the mate ordered the hands forward, they refused ; he seized one by the arm, the man resisted, and wounded the mate with a knife ; others were attacking the mate, when the master rushed up, fired two pistols, and wounded two of the mutineers, cue seriously. Thirteen sailors were arrested and taken on shore.
Robinson, a discharged servant of Colonel Sibthorp, has been remanded by the Grantham Magistrates on a charge of stealing 1100/. in bank-notes: the notes were taken from a cash-box at the Angel inn, the head-quarters of Colonel Sibthorp's regiment of Militia.
Early on Sunday morning, a fire broke out in the saw-mills of Chatham Dockyard, and in a few hours the buildings and machinery were a mass of ruins. The adjoining millwrights' shops and engine-house were saved by the exertions of the military and workmen. The cause of the fire is un- known, as everything appeared to be safe when work ceased on Saturday, and there were no signs of fire half an hour before the outbreak. There was not much wind, otherwise some of the building-sheds and vessels within them would probably have been destroyed.
There was a boiler-explosion at Beasley and Farmer's iron-works, Smeth- wick, near Birmingham, very early on the morning of the 16th. The en- gine worked by the boiler had been stopped for repairs ; just after the engine was again put in motion the boiler gave way at the ends, with an explosion of terrific violence. Many of the buildings around were shattered one piece of the boiler, weighing about six tons, ploughed through brick walls as if they had been paper. Fortunately, most of the workpeople were absent ; but three men and three boys were dreadfully scalded. The boiler had been examined recently and pronounced safe.
Previous page
