Zbe Vrobinces.

The nomination of candidates for the vacancy in the representation of Exeter took place in the Guildhall of that town on Saturday. In proposing Sir William Webb Follett, Mr. Hooper, the Mayor, said that Sir William had intended to leave Tunbridge Wells and to travel by easy stages, to be present at the election ; but his medical advisers had urgently recommended him to desist. He hoped that absence would not militate against the interests of Sir William. Mr. S. Maunder pro- posed Major-General Briggs ; and excited some amusement by the awkward way in which he read a manuscript speech. Mr. R. B. Fol- lett was about to address the meeting on behalf of his brother ; but Mr. Besley, the General's seconder, objected; and the Sheriff decided that none but electors could address the ineeting,—an arrangement which also excluded Mr. R. R. R. Moore, who seems to have been ready with a speech. General Briggs avowed himself a Free-trader and an advocate of the Ballot ; but his address, like that of the other speakers, was spoiled by the constant and uproarious interruptions of the crowd. Sir Thomas Acland made a speech in support of Sir William Follett, but was heard no better than the General. The show of hands was de- clared to be in favour of Sir William. A poll was demanded; and at its close, on Monday, the numbers were—For Follett, 1,293; Briggs, 529 ; majority, 764.

Huntingdon election began and closed on Monday the 22d. Mr. James Acland, the lecturer employed by the Anti-Corn-law League, had-raised the expectation that a Free-trade candidate would appear;

but at a late hour he issued an announcement, that its deference to the opinion of the League's friends in the place, he should abstain from further action in the matter of that election. On Saturday evening, he left Huntingdoa for Manchester. The proceedings were enlivened by no contest, and were particularly quiet. Mr. Thom is Baring was pro- posed and seconded, and declared duly elected. His speech to the electors needs little remark. He avowed himself a sapsorter of the present Administration ; and emphatically declared that he would go a great way for the maintenance of peace as advancing religion and civi- lization throughout the world.

The election at Woodstock, which occurred on the satne day, in the Town-hall, gave rise to some very singular and imeresiing proceedings. There were two candidates, both Conservative—!ly? Marvis of Bland- ford, just two-and-twenty years old ; and Mr. Hutufrey the barrister. Lord Blandford was accompanied by several inhabitants and a number of Blenheim agents ; Mr. Hinnfrey was accompanied by the Reverend Dr. Bowles the Rector, Mr. Walesby the Recorder, time Town-Clerk, and several eleotors. A party of gentlemen, including Sir James South the astronomer arid Mr. M. Ricardo, were present as spectators. keep- ing al tof from both parties. Alderman Morris proposed the Honour- able J. Winston Spencer Churchill, commonly called the Marquis of Blandford. Mr. T. Robinson, who seconded the nomination, declared that it was exceedingly unbecomiag in certain nersons to come there to foment a sore. The substance of all the speeches on the other side consisted of a tremendous attack on the Duke of Marlborough. Lord Blandford's father. Dr. Bowles, who proposed Mr. Labbeius Charles flumfrey-, said— He was the specially appointed Guardian of the Poor of Woodstock. die was there to use his humble endeavours to rescue that pour from a state of tyranny and oppression which, on his coascience as a clergyman, he believed to he without parallel in any other p iris% ia this kingdom. lie was there to tell the Duke of alarlharough that rank and wealth had their duties as well ail their privil..ges, and that by grossly neglecting the one he had most ju-oly for- feited the other; unless, indeed, the prinriples of Gods jurisprudence were to he set aside to suit the wishes and to pander to the van of matt.

This was received with loud cheers, which responded to every suc- cessive blow. Mr. H. North, who seconded tile nomination, followed up the attack— He was old enough to remember the good old Duke and the goal old times. How they bad changed ! Where were the time old Blenheim yearn n now where were the tenants? Not a penny of the Blenheim money was of yore spent out of Woo lstoek ; now barely 59/. a year came into the pockets of the tradespeople. 'rite Duke give them nothing lout a Member. That morning there had been a breakfast at Blenheim : he was glad of it; it was a good sign, for it was the first public entertainment that had taken place there within his knowledge for a long time past. The Marquis of Blandford avowed himself a supporter of' the Church of England, and of agricultural protection, abjuring "the newfangled doctrines of free trade" ; and a supporter of Lord Ashley. his truly noble relative, and once the re,iresentative of Won 1st iek. H adrled-

" I anus unwilling ti heir what has been said about nty father; but let me remark fur myself, that I ant not time arbiter of his actions. If you retitrn me, however, I will promise to study what is f your benefit, to inquire into your grievances, and to give help and assistance whom I tinl them needed."

Mr. Harnfrey complimented Lord Blau If.mrd ; taking up a good po- sition with the meeting- " Lord Blandford, let me tell him, without flattery, has &MC himself great honour by the speech he has just delivered. ((iheers, and a cry of‘. That's all the worse for you!") It may be all the worse for rue hut it is not because it is all the worse for me that I am to he prevented teen thing an act of justice to an honourable adveriary: I an here to oppo e him, but net to do him an act of injustice." Lord Blandford had said that he :vai not the orbit .r of his father's acts ; but he came there strengthen!! I by bsing the Doke of Marl- borough's son, and with the aids he toast take up the burdens that belonged to his larty. " After the most industrious pers mal int-fairy. I ant hound to say, that I believe there never was in the history of this country a borough 50 neglected—a tyranny so oppressive—a borough in whicls the poor were so ut- terly forgotten, the sick and destitute so unrelieved; whilst the Doke of Marl- borough, living at Blenheim, enjoys all the honour of his princely rank, all the wealth of his high station, without doing the sligh:est goal to a borough of which he claill13 ma ba the owner and pierou. Geatlemen, from this thraldom I, the unknown candidate, come to relieve you." Mr. Llumfrey alluded to the number of influential men who ware his friends; he had come upon invitation, and Ile said distinctly, th it if the Duke ha l been such a landlord, such a neighbour, such a friend to the hour as he ought to have been, he himself never would have cama to ask the electors' awes. One of Lord B!andford's flags was inscribed "Prosperity to the trek of Wood- stock "—what a mockery ! What did the house of Blenheim do for its trade ?. ("Baia it.") What had become of the yeomanry of Woodstock ? " A. beau- tiful Eastern proverb supplies me with an answer--'1came to the place of my birth, and cried, the frimids of my youth, where are they? and Echo answers, where are they? ' Echo indeed answers the inquiry at Woodstock. Your streets—why, they are deserted. Tile tenantry are dismissed. No matter how long they hail been emaloyed—no matter if they had worked :tarter the Duke's father and grandfather—nothing satisfied this man hut rent. Yes, the burden of his song is in that one word—rent ! rent ! rent ! Gentlemen, you have heard of a roan named Smallbones. (Stitch sensation.) Let me remind you how that poor man was treated. Mr. S.nallboues wits a fanner on the Marlborough estate—rich, flourishing, and respected: he lent mousy to the Dukes of Marlborough when they knew not how to obtain it; and when the present Duke fa:nicely knew where to lay his head, he took him in and gave him a home: that man is now turned away ! Ilia rent was raised ; and because he would not pay it, he was turned out. But it is not such men as Small- bones only who have felt the weight of the Duke's power: there are hundreds of poor cottagers here living in their little cottages, which, with a plot of garden- ground adjoining, may be worth 30s. a year; and these poor people are turned oil', because they will not or cannot pay 31. or 4/. 1 hold in my hand a paper dated the 25th of March last, and signed 'J. W. Whately,' giving notice to quit on behalf of the 'Must Noble George Duke of Marlborough.' To how many tenants do you think 'J. W. Whately,' the Duke's steward, has sent this notice? To one hundred and forty families ! one hundred and forty families are to be turned out into your streets, without a home, on the 29th of September next. I told Lord Blandford in my address that I was going to ask him one or two questions : I will ask him this—If he be returned as your Member, will he undertake that these notices shall be withdrawn ? (Cheers.) Bat, gentlemen, let me tell you another case. There is a man named Harris— (.4 Hear, hear !")—ty, and that name of Harris is a name which if it do not haunt the Duke upon his dying bed he is more hard-hearted even than you re- present him. Harris was a respectable man, but poor : he held a cottage under the Duke, and he kept a poor old horse : one day he had taken the horse to water to a pond in your town: he had no right to go to the pond; and the Duke's hayward, Timothy Sling°, going by, seized the horse to tuke him to the pound ; Harris gave the horse a cut with his whip, and it broke from Sling°, and ran back to the stable. Harris was summoned for pound- breach. Ile was fined Is., and the costs, which amounted to 19s. 6d.He could not pay, and he was sent to gaol. Whilst lie was in gaol his creditors came upon him ; his goods were taken in execution ; and when he came out of gaol he was a ruined man. At this moment he is working on your roads. But this is not all. This man was first of all taken before two Magistrates, who at first refused to convict him. [Here there was a cry of " Ilere he is !" and the man Harris, amid a scene of intense excitement, was elevated upon the shoulders of the people at the loser end of the room. Mr. Humfrey re- sumed.1 Two Magistrates refused to convict him. The Duke, a fit judge in his own cause, was sitting in front of his dog-kennel, with a glass of ale in his band; when the man was brought before him, and he himself caused him to be committed to gaol. (Great sensation.) Now then, gentlemen, I ask the Marquis of Blandford, will he restore Harris to his former position ? will he compensate him for the iujuries itiflicted ? AM he restore his cottage, his furniture, his common comforts ? Alas ! I fear he can never restore him to his peace of mind and former happiness. But now for another case." This cage was that of one Punch Wilkes, who had picked up a bit of horn in Blenheim Park, and was charged with having •• unlawfully and wilfully committed certain spoil to or upon a certain buck's horn, the property of his Grace the Duke of Marlborough "— Elliott, the keeper, here interrupted, and said, " Tell the truth, Mr. Hum- frey ; the horn did not belong to the Duke, but to me." Mr. Humfrey—. Tell the truth, Sir ! ally, if you tell the truth now, you are a perjurer ; for you distinctly swore before the Magistrates that the horn belonged to the Duke of Marlborough, and it was upon your evidence that poor Wilkes was convicted. Let me advise that fellow, then, to hold his tongue for the future. But for this certain spoil committed to and upon a buck's horn ' Wilkes was fined 8d, and 7s. 6d. costs ; 4s. of which money went into the poclet of Mr. Holloway there, t he Duke's agent." (Cries of" Shame ! shame !")

Mr. Holloway—" 1 received it as Clerk to the Magistrates."

Mr. Humfrey—" Oh, you did ? what a rare specimen of disinterestedness! But I now conic to another case."

Mr. Humfrey went on with case after case of petty oppression. One Bart- lett, who had just buried a child, and had himself recovered from an attack of cholera, picked up a dead rabbit, half eaten by a weasel: lie was carried before Mr. Carme, a Magistrate and the Duke's chaplain, sentenced to pay a fine of 15s., and in default committed to the house of correction for fourteen days. Graham. a man ninety years old, had been allowed 10s. a week by the two previous Dukes: the present Duke withdrew the allowance, and Graham would have died of want if Mr. Southern had not supported him. It was impossible to conceive the paltry acts of which the Duke had been guilty. The Rector had been forbidden the park. A Mr. Jardine had bad an action brought rgainst him, and been tined one farthing with costs, for wheeling the chair of his in- valid wife on the grass. The inmates of some almshouses, erected near the town by a former Dutchess of Marlborough, had been aline ed to walk in the park : the present Duke excluded them. An ancient pathway, said to be the 44 Roman road, had been stopped ; a kind of invasion of public right which l'athe Earl uf Harborough had recently attempted and Mr. Ilumfrey had been instrumental in defeating. One more case out of a hundred that might be named. "There's a man standing there—Castle. Ile made a coffin for the remains of the late Duke of Marlborough, and has not been paid for it to this day. The Duke will not pay him, because he said he did not order it. Why, what do you think of prosperity to the trade of Woodstock ' after this?"

Mr. Whately—" You have been misinformed upon this poiut, Mr. Ilumfrey."

Mr. Castle—" It's all true."

Mr. Humfrey—" The question is, is Castle paid?"

Castle—" No."

"Tie Duke is buried in Castle's coffin: Castle Las applied to his son to pay for making it ; and the son has not paid. This, I think, is a climax. I may stop here."

Mr. fiumfrey concluded by saying, that he might he beaten by two or three votes ; and be knew enough of the Duke of Marlborough to feel that he ought not to leave to the vengeance of that mighty house the many poor persons who, regardless of all consequences, would wish to give him their suffrages: therefore he withdrew ; believing, however, that good would result from his appearance there. Mr. Humfrey had been repeatedly applauded in his speech, and when he ceased he re- ceived three hearty cheers.

Mr. Walesby addressed the meeting ; explaining, that nothing but ill- health had prevented his accepting the invitation to stand and he be- lieved that he should have been returned. He gave the young candi- date a warning— If Lord Blandford would only behave kindly to the poor, and maintain the interests of the town and borough of Woodstock, then he should not be dis- turbed in his seat : but assuredly, on the next election this opposition would be renewed, and successfully renewed, if his Lordship neglected the high and Important duties that day committed to his charge.

The show of bands was taken, and Lord Blandford was declared duly elected. In returning thanks, he alluded to what had been said of the Duke of Marlborough-

4.1 have today beard a great many things which have pained me exceedingly as a son. In answer, all I can say is, that I regret that my father's position in society prevents him from being here to answer these aspersions himself. I am not sufficiently acquainted with the facts to give a full and complete denial to the accusations; but one thing I will say—that there is not in reality a kinder-heal ted man in the world than my father, and that I am sure he would not willingly injure any one. A man in his position in life must have many about him to execute inferior functions; and I certainly have heard in my can- TM, and believe, that they have created great unpopularity against the Duke of Marlborough. In returning me, 1 promise you to redress all the grievances that come to my knowledge as far as 1 can : but at the same time, be it under- stood, I will not dictate to my father. I will du all I can for you."

With thanks to the Mayor for presiding, the meeting separated.

The Standard uts forth this as a correct explanation of Mr. Thesi- gees connexion with the borough ot Woodstock-

" Upon the accession of the present Duke of Marlborough to the title in 1840, his Grace, unsolicited and of his own free will, tendered to the honour- able gentleman his interest in the borough, with a promise of undisturbed pos- session, until the Marquis of Blandford should attain his majority. The Mar- quis of Blandford came of age some eleven months ago; notwithstanding which, Mr. Tbesiger has never been called upon to fulfil his engagement. A vacancy occurring by reason of the honourable gentleman's appointment to the office of Solicitor-General, the Marquis of Blaneford naturally offers himself to fill the seat ; and such proceedings, therefore, ought neither to have been unexpected by nor a surprise and disappointment to her Majesty's Government or the honourable gentleman himself."

Ten-hours meetings have been held at Blackburn, Ashton-under- Lyne, and Bury. Mr. Wader was not present at the last.

At Blackburn, Mr. Oastler promulgated one of those pieces of "ex- clusive intelligence" which abound with him— He knew there was an attempt making just now through the factory dis- tricts to impose upon the House of Commons, and make its members believe that the factory-children were well educated. Persons were going round the mills and inquiring of the factory boys and girls if they could read. The boys and girls would say, " Yes, we can reatl," and then every one of these was put down as able to read and write. They were never asked if they could write—they were never asked to read; they were simply asked if they could read, and if they only said " Yes, we can read," their names were entered in the column of " Able to read and write." A striking instance of this came to his knowledge the other day : a boy, who was engaged by a spinner as a helper, was asked by the overlooker of the mill, in the presence of the spinner, if be could read; the lad replied, "Yea, I can read t"restament." He was con- sequently entered among the "learned." No sooner had this examination taken place and the overlouker had withdrawn, than the spinner said to the boy, `. Thou has tilled him that thou can read ; now, there's a paper for thee to read," offering him a printed placard. Ile tried him with three of the simplest words: the boy, however, was much more speedy at invention than at read- ing, for he pronounced three words as different as possible from the words which were printed. Some of the plainest and most practical-looking arguments were ad- duced, at the Blackburn meeting, by Mr. Kenworthy, a master-manu- facturer, and the partner of Mr. Hornby, the member for the borough. He was himself not inexperienced in protracted toil—

Same people advocated the principles of no restriction upon factory-labour. He remembered the horrors of that system. When he was a" piecer " in the cotton-mill, many a time had he tied his legs together on going to bed that he might not be too late for his work in the morning ; and thus was he kept in a state of complete watchfulness during many a long night. Those were b) gone days with him; but he knew that there were many anxious parents in that assembly si ho were kept in a similar state of watchfulness to secure the early rising of their children; and, whatever no restriction might be in theory, it o as daily proved to be most baneful in practice.

He reasoned thus— flow could it he impracticable to try eleven hours, as proposed by Lord Ashley ? The operatives need not be told that they cnuld not spin or weave as much in eleven hours as in twelve, and they were fully aware that the differ- ence in the quantity of work done would not be in proportion to the dimiuu- tion of time. Ile felt perfectly satisfied that it would nut make a difference in wages of above 6d. per week per head ; and for this trifling sacrifice work people would enjoy great comforts throughout the week ; for Id. a day they would add 50 per cent to their leisure time fur the improvement of their mental and physical powers. It was not to be supposed that because a man's family got home an hour earlier, there were no domestic duties to which their attention could he directed which would be even more advantageous in a pecuniary view than being at work in the mill. Then there was the master's interest to con- sider. True, the only difference to the master would be, that instead of count- ing his interest and profits by twelves, be must count them by elevens—that was to say, where he now got 12 per cent for interest and profit, he could get full 11 percent: but surely no feeling master could object to subscribe his mite along with his operatives to obtain an object so paramount to the happi- ness of his workpeople. Under this mutual arrangement, the prices of goods. would remain jest as at present, and therefore foreign competition was out of the question. It might be said, that out of 12 per cent a master could not afford to lose 1 per cent ; hut when they looked around, and saw gentlemen of various trades and professions investing their capital in mills, they would know what amount of credit to give to such an assertion. But if it were so—if the master could not afford to lose 1 per cent at 12, it would he in consequence of the production being greater than the demand ; and if this was the case under the eleven-hours system, he would have to lose more under the twelve-hourss system.

A public meeting was held at Cirencester Assembly Room, on Mon- day, to establish an Agricultural College, in connexion with a modeL farm, for educating young men in the theory and practice of agriculture. Earl Bathurst presided : Earl Ducie, Sir John Dean Paul, Dr. Daubeny, were present, and active in the proceedings; in which some tenant- farmers took a part. A report read by the Secretary stated that half the necessary funds had been subscribed. Sir John Paul declared that the scheme was cordially supported by the tenant-farmers, and the- landed interest would support them in a manner that would surprise them. Resolutions in furtherance of the project were adopted unani- mously.