'64t Vrtudurn.

The Barnstaple election inquiry has been concluded. The Commis- sioners sat sixteen days, and examined more than four hundred witnesses. There are 262 freemen in the borough ; of these 140 were proved to have been bribed. The householders number 510, and of these 110 were bribed. The general price for Conservative votes was 61.s-sometimes reaching as high as 10/.; and for votes split with one of the Liberal can- didates 2/. 10s. and 3/. were paid. The gross amount spent by the Con- servatives was 24001.; by Lord Ebrington 6001.

A public meeting to consider "the Eastern question" was held in the Town-hall of Sheffield on Tuesday evening. The requisition for the meeting had been signed by about 140 persons, amongst them Mr. Over- end, Deputy-Lieutenant for the West Riding. Several resolutions de- nouncing the conduct of Russia in very a strong" language were passed; and a memorial to Lord Clarendon concluded with this passage—

"Your memorialists therefore pray that the British Government will take prompt and decisive measures to cause the immediate evacuation of the Da- nubian Principalities; to make Russia bear all the expenses consequent on her lawless proceedings ; and to prevent her again outraging justice and in- ternational law."

There was some talk of "a subscription for Kossuth," but nothing was done towards it Practical agriculture was almost the only topic discussed after dinner on Wednesday at Watford, by the members of the Iferts Agricultural Association. The annual exhibition of stock took place during the day, and was pronounced "excellent." In the absence of the Earl of Essex, Mr. IL Clutterbuck presided at the evening feast; and in a short speech, referring to Sir Bulwer Lytton and the other County Members, he praised their "consistency of principle" as remarkable in "these days fertile of political weathercocks." Mr. Mechi was one of the guests, and, made a speech referring to the late improvements in agriculture. He gladly noted the increased. use of steam-engines : he was thought crazy when he built one, but now in his rural village steam-engines were busily made for the farmers around. Steam-ploughs should also come into use; and if by their means we could reduce the cost of ploughing to 10s. an acre, eg,riculture would gain "something like 10,000,000/. sterling."

They had come down from London to that meeting with the power of 150 i

horses contained n a piece of machinery not longer than an ordinary table ; and if they could concentrate such a mighty power in so small a space and so small a weight, surely that was something which might be applied to the benefit of agriculture. As an honest man, he intended, so long as it pleased

to spare him to tell the agriculturists of their faults. His balance- sheet may have been right or may have been wrong, and he maintained that it was right ; but, whether he was right or wrong, that did not affect the great principle of agricultural progression.

The Commissioners for inquiring into the local burdens on shipping visited Sunderland and Stockton at the close of last week. The chief local burdens on the Sunderland and Tees shipping are those exacted by the Newcastle Trinity House, which claims the right of primage, of ap- pointing pilots, and of levying tolls for the maintenance of the harbour- lights of the Tyne. The Sunderland and Tees shipping is also taxed by the Harbour Commissioners of Ramsgate, Dover, Bridlington, and Whit- by—harbours of no service te the shipping of the North. The attention of the Commissioners was called to the existence of a" Russian Company," having a monopoly of trade with Archangel, Petersburg, and two other ports in the Baltic. No one but a member of the Company can import goods from these ports without the payment of dues-3d. per ton on hemp, and on other goods in proportion. It requires a payment of three guineas to become a member of the Company ; and the money thus obtained is applied in support of an English church in St. Petersburg.

The Preston strike continues, and is well supported by the operatives at work in the town and neighbourhood. The working hands in Preston contributed 2131. last week in support of the hands "on strike," and Stockport and Blackburn have sent 100/. each in aid of the movement. The funds are distributed weekly among the men on strike ; 6s. per head being given to the weavers, winders, and loomers ; and 3s. per head to teeters. The operatives attempted an open-air meeting after sunset on Monday, but were prevented by the Magistrates, and had to meet in the Temperance Hall. The workmen's committee have earnestly advised the men to keep the peace : in future none of the common fund will be ex- pended for the defence of operatives tried for illegal acts.

The Manchester weavers are still "out," but their funds are getting low. They can now afford but 10d. a week to each man out of work. The strike of the fustian-dyers seems equally unsuccessful : 1200 struck work, but the masters have hired 852 fresh hands, and the number is increasing every week. The strike has now lasted for eleven weeks. A great deal of bitterness has been aroused, and personal outrages have occurred : on Monday a large paving-stone was flung at Mr. Crabtree, a master dyer; and the son of one of the dyers at work was fiercely as- saulted by a woman. The dyers say that their wages have not been in- creased for the last twenty years. The skein-dyers of the town have re- turned to work, having got an advance of 15 per cent.

The Bolton cotton-spinners ask a further advance of 5 per cent : some of the masters have consented.

At Wigan, the card-room hands have given fourteen days' notice to the manufacturers, that unless some have an advance of 2s. a week, and others is., they will cease work. The throatle-room people have resolved to demand 10 per cent increase.

There is a great strike among the colliers at Wigan. All the collieries in the district are stopped; and it is calculated that 5000 men are out of work. The men lately got an advance, but they demand a further ad- vance of 161 per cent, or Is. 2d. where they now receive Is.

Birmingham district is notable for the few strikes that have taken place there ; and it is boasted that in no trade connected with the town of Bir- mingham has there been a cessation of work, reasonable concessions having been always readily made. The naikrs of the town now ask an advance of 10 per cent ; and the request is likely to be granted.

The Wolverhampton carpenters demand an increase of 6d. per day.

The price of manufactured iron is on the increase. It is reported from Birmingham that orders have been taken for next quarter at an advance of 20s. a ton ; while in some eases the makers refused less than a 30s. increase.

The pearl-button trade of Birmingham is in imminent peril, from an enormous increase in the cost of the raw material : that which for years was 25/. a ton, is now 551., and has been as high as 1001. The conse- quence has been, that other buttons have been introduced into the market, and they are superseding the pearl ones. Speculators in shell are accused of having ruined the trade.

A very large dinner-party met at Saltaire, near Bradford, on Tuesday last, to celebrate the opening of Mr. Salra great alpaca factory. Mr. Salt himself was the host ; and the guests numbered 3750, including Lord Harewood, Lieutenant-Colonel Adams, the Mayors of Leeds, Brad- ford, Halifax, and Wakefield, many other persons of West Riding nota- bility, and 2500 of the operatives employed in the works. After the dinner, Mr. Salt ordered special trains and conveyed his guests to Brad- ford, where he treated them to a concert in St. George's Hall. The new buildings, covering six acres, will employ 4600 hands, and cause an in- crease of 9,000 or 10,000 to the population of Saltaire. To meet this in- crease Mr. Salt is building 700 comfortable and airy dwellinghouses, in wide streets and spacious squares, with gardens attached, grounds for re- creation, baths and washhouses, a covered market, schools, and a church.

Another illustration of the power and liberality of Englishmen of busi- ness is shown this week at Liverpool. Mr. William Brown, Member for South Lancashire, has offered a donation of 61001. for the erection of a town Library, open to all classes of the community.

A locking,house for unmarried workmen and labourers has been opened at Windsor : it will accommodate fifty men, paying 2s. a week each. By its aide is another lodginghouse open for the reception of "tramps." Both buildings have been erected_ by the Windsor Thayal Society, of which Prince Albert is President.

Piddington has at length got its Perpetual. Curate. The people of this little rural parish have the right to elect their own curate. A contest took time some time ago ; hut the voteafor the two candidates—the Reverend W. H. Spencer, and the Reverend J. Thorp—were equal, and the polling was therefore void. Mr. Spencer has now retired, and the Reverend Charles Hill has been elected by a majority of 42 to 38.

The Commission appointed to inquire into the punishments used in Leicester Gaol have taken the evidence of the Governor, Mr. William Musson, and of the Chaplain, Surgeon, and other officers of the gaol. Their evidence generally shows that a system of extreme severity was rigidly but not partially carried out. The separate system and crank labour were first used in 1846. Prisoners above seventeen were required to perform 1800, and prisoners under seventeen 1500 revolutions per hour. Eight hours a day was the longest period of crank work ; and the diffi- culty of the labour was proportioned to the strength and previous occu- pation of the prisoner. An hour's work, including 1800 revolutions, was- required each morning, and breakfast was not given until this task was accomplished. This was done expressly on the "Scriptural principle "— "if a man will not work, neither shall he cat." Untried prisoners were frequently punished for talking to one another, and for turning round in chapel ; the general punishments being, confinement in a dark cell, con- finement upon bread and water, and whipping. Prisoners in some eases were strapped for an hour to the wall in the day-time, and at night were secured to their beds. The Governor said, he did not recollect a single instance of a woman's being put in a strait waistcoat. He admitted that he had one day stopped the dinners of nine debtors in the county prison : one of them had laughed loudly, and not knowing which it was, he thus punished all. In chapel the prisoners were kept standing, each in a separate stall. The Surgeon to the gaol stated that he had noticed de- bility, swelling of the legs, wasting of flesh, and paleness when at work, as the effects of crank labour. One man was kept without food for a whole day and until four o'clock of the second day. "Several cases" of mental depression occurred : in two cases the prisoners had been, removed to the Lunatic Asylum. One prisoner, numbered C. 3.11" was kept "strapped to the wall daily, by order of the Surgeon," from the 13th of April to the lfith of May—thirty-three days.

A boy ten years of age has thrown himself from the third story of a /louse at Burbage in Leicestershire, apparently with a suicidal intent. He had re- peatedly run away from school : when his mother took him back the last time, he was sent up-stairs to his bedroom; and after his mother had gone, he flueg himself from the window. lie received a compound fracture of one of his thighs, severely sprained his wrist, and knocked out several teeth.

John Rourke, an Irish cattle-drover, lies been killed by a collision on the railway between Crewe and Whitmare ; a pilot-engine hiving run into a break-van at the rear of a cattle-train : Rourke and six other men were in, the van ; the others escaped with bruises, butt ltaurke's spine was fractured. A Coroner's Jury pronounced the death "Accidental," but expressed an opinion that there had been a want of caution in the management of thh. pilot-engine.

An express-train from Dancaster to London left the rails, on Friday VII- night, when about half a mile from Dane-aster. The train had not acquirel much speed, and it was quickly stepped; the passengers escaping with a shaking and a fright. The accident happened at a sharp curve.

A woman has been dashed to pieces on the Dover Railway, near M.,rsharn, by an express-train striking her as she was attempting to walk over the rails at a farm-road. No blame attached to the driver, forties unfortunate wen-an got on to the rails when the train was close upon her.