ebt lirobinces.
Mr. Charles Russell has declined to stand for Reading; not wishing to enter into any Parliamentary engagement. Mr. George Bowyer, of North- court House, near Abingdon, the representative of an ancient baronetcy in the county and owner of a good estate in it, has come forward as a candi- date who has an "earnest desire to maintain the institutions of the coun- try, and support a liberal improvement of those institutions." Mr. John Frederick Stanford, of Portland Place, London, is a candidate on the "Moderate Liberal" interest. It is stated that Sir John Hare is also it. candidate "on the Liberal interest."
Captain D. A. Pelham addressed the Boston electors on Tuesday even- ing, as a candidate for their suffrages. He declared himself in favour of the trading policy lately adopted by the Legislature; but still considered the changes made as experiments, which he would be willing to remedy, if they prove unsatisfactory. In answer to Chartist queries, be repudiated vote by ballot, universal suffrage, and electoral districts. Mr. David Williams Wire, the London City Solicitor, is also a candidate at Boston, on the more advanced Liberal interest: he has addressed the electors, anti gained pledges of support from the Chartists.
The foundation of a great work of national defence was commenced by Prince Albert on Wednesday, by depositing the first stone of the breakwater which is to convert the Portland Roads into a harbour of refuge approach- able in all winds, for the largest English fleet. The occasion was made a gala-day by the inhabitants of the towns on the Southern coast, and the Corporation of Dorchester were officially present en masse. The founda- tion-stone was laid by simply dropping it at a signal from huge iron hooks which griped it and held it above the sea: it was an enormous mass of 14 tons weight, and fell into the sea with a booming plunge of the most im- posing grandeur! After the ceremony of depositing the atone, Prince Al- bert inspected the system of convict discipline established in the Isle of Portland; his visit being graced by an exercise of Royal clemency— "As the Prince entered the quarry-ground, a poor old fellow, who had been sentenced to seven years' transportation for stealing a goose, was feebly chipping with a hammer the rough surface of a block of free-stone; the Prince went up and announced to him that her Majesty presented him with a free pardon. The unexpected news overcame the old prisoner so much that he dropped to the ground for a moment quite overcome; but he soon resumed his hammer again."
The "siege operations" at Chatham, which took place on Saturday, at- tracted an extraordinary multitude of people from London and the country generally: it is said that 40,000 or 50,000 persons were present. Prince George of Cambridge, Prince Edward of Saxe Weimar, the Marquis of An- glesey, Viscount Hardinge, and others of the nobility, with many Members of the House of Commons, took their stations in the casemates into which the public were admitted by tickets: a vast number of ladies posted them- selves in prominent positions, and after a little tremulousness at the begin- ning, entered into the full spirit and excitement of the scene. The "operations" consisted of attacks by a besieging army, which had beaten a force sent to relieve the fortress besieged, and had returned to the siege operations; and of a defence by the besiegers, which was successful up to a certain point, but at last failed against the superior force and offensive ma- tdriel or the attacking body. The final and successful operation com- menced with the repulse of a sortie made by the besieged; in following
which, the besiegers entered the sally-port close on the heels of the troops from the fortress, who had not time to raise the drawbridge. At this juncture occurred what was at once the intended and the real climax of the operations. It is thus described- " The attacking party, on finding the stockade within St. Mary's sally-port to be of a strong description, placed two bags of gunpowder, containing 90 pounds each, against it. Sergeant-Major Allen, of the Royal Sappers and Miners, having ignited a slow match to give time to retire, in about two minutes the explosion took place, and effected a very complete breach. Large pieces of timber, several feet in length, were thrown upwards of a hundred feet into the air ; and, with the great quantity of clods of earth which showered upon the spectators, it was sur- prising that they escaped so free of injury. The Master-General, with the im- petuosity of a gallant warrior, rushed with his staff through the breach in the stockade; and the Royal Sappers and Miners, and the Royal Marines, also rushed in real earnest through the breach, to take possession of the lines by escalading them; forgetting, it is supposed, in the impulse of the moment, that the garrison had left slow matches at two mines under the batteries; one of which exploded when the Royal Marines were within a few feet of it, and covered them literally all over with mud and clods of earth, which caused them to retire with such haste that one poor fellow broke his leg. The Marquis of Anglesey was so near the mine when it sprung, that his hat was knocked off with a clod of earth; and several of the Staff were struck with large pieces of earth, and covered with dust, which nearly blinded them, and created, in spite of the serious nature of the scene, universal laughter amongst all who were near enough to witness it: none seemed to enjoy the laughter more than the Field-Marshal, who joined most heartily in the laugh itself; which was several times resumed, as each party re- collected the tumbling over of the Sappers and Miners and the Marines when struck with the clods of earth, and the narrow escape they had themselves from being so near the mine when it exploded. The other mine being a few seconds later in exploding, enabled all parties to retire to a safe distance to witness the effect."
Some slight mishaps are said to have occurred, chiefly from the eager- ness of the spectators to join the soldiers in the attack on the trenches, and their reckless defiance of orders to beware of the explosions: but no serious details are mentioned; and altogether the affair seems to have given high satisfaction to the immense concourse of spectators.
At Exeter Assizes, the Reverend Charles Rooks, a clergyman holding the living of Nymet Royland in Devon, was defendant in an action brought against him by Mrs. Brooks, a poor widow washerwoman of Exeter, to recover damages for loss of the services of her second daughter, Mary Maria Brooks, whom Mr. Rooks had seduced. Mr. Rooks is a married man, separated from his wife. There was no contest about the seduction; but the defence was, that at the time of the seduc- tion the young woman was Mr. Rooks's own servant; therefore the legal founds- tion--`• loss c,f service" to the mother—was wanting. It was proved that the de- fendant gave the young woman medicine to procure miscarriage a great many times in the years 1843 and 1844; she had four miscarriages in one year, and was confined in 1844: but some doubt remained whether the earlier miscarriages occurred at the end of 1842 or 1843—the witnesses were uncertain, and contem- poraneous memoranda were ambiguous; and upon this date turned the ques- tion whether the young woman was in Mr. Rooks's service or in her mother's. The Jury deliberated a long time, and ultimately gave the widow a verdict far 1001.
At Cambridge Ass7ze-s, George Shaw, a man of gigantic stature and strength, was tried for murdering Ann Simons, his reputed wife, by beating and kicking her to death, at Melbourne, on the 6th instant. Shaw had been at Melbourne Feast, he carrying a gaming-table the woman probably pursuing a vocation still more degraded: they bad been unlucky, and the ill success of the day so enraged Shaw, that he beat and kicked his wife all the way home towards Cambridge, as they returned at night. A publican who witnessed the outrage from his window, (drawn thither from his bed by the barking of his dog,) gave this evidence-
" I saw a man hunting a woman round the horse-trough. It was the prisoner. The trough is six yards from the house, and stands a yard from some palisades, so that he could Just catch at her across it. Fie kept striking at her, till he knocked her down. She kept crying out, 'Don't, George, don't hit me !' and crept under the horse-trough. The poor thing crept under it like a dog. She lay there curled up like a dog. I opened the window, and said to him, 'You leering hound, you—do you mean killing the wo- man? e He clawed up some stones, and said to me, ' Yon —, you, if you say another word, I'll smash your brains out.' He pulled her to the middle of the road, and struck and kicked her scores of times. He knocked her down, and kept swearing at her. She kept crying out, 'Pray, George, don't kick me any more ! if I have had bad luck today, I may have better another fair.' I am sure the prisoner is the man." Other witnesses had noticed blood on the road; and following it, they found Shaw leaning over the woman, and wiping blood from her face; she being apparently dead. He told those persons that his wife was in a fit, and he took her in his arms and carried her through the fields home to his house in Barnewell. She revived under medical treatment, but died a few days after, from effusion of blood on the brain caused by the blows. She was sensible, but refused to say how she came by any of the many wounds she bore. It was proved that Shaw and she lived together comfortably and affectionately; but that he was of a brutal temper, and in the habit of beatiog her occasionally. He was very kind to her while she lay ill. Shaw wept frequently during the trial. A defence was attempted on the point of mistaken identity: but the extraordinary stature of the man had fixed his figure in the memory of many witnesses who saw the violence, though the night had been too dark for identification of his features or dress. He was found guilty of manslaughter, and sentenced to be transported for life.
At Cambridge Assizes, on Saturday, James Lee, a boy only ten years old, was tried for the manslaughter of another boy, at Ely. The two began to "skylark" by the river, and ended by quarrelling; Lee ran off, and the other pursuing him, the prisoner threw a stone; it struck the deceased just over the right ear, and he died in a few hours after. The verdict was "Guilty." The Judge passed the no- minal sentence of two days' imprisonment, and gave the youthful culprit into his father's charge.
Ten Irishmen who had drunk deeply, at Grandborough, near Rugby, quarrelled, and pelted each other with stones. One of the missiles struck John Leven on the temple, and he fell dead. It appeared that the stone was not intended for the . d d; and so the Coroner's Jury returned a verdict of "Accidental death."
Mr. George Young, a farmer living near Beverley, has been attacked in a mur- derous manner by his brother Robert. The latter lived at the farm; for the last ten years he had suffered from mental depression, but he was not considered dan- gerous in his disposition. The other day, while in the fields, Robert assailed his brother with an axe, wounding him on the head in a way that it was feared would be fatal. He coolly regarded the removal of his brother to the house, and then worked on the farm as usual till he was arrested.
About ten months ago, a man named Michael died suddenly at Beaufort in Monmouthshire; but no suspicions of foul play arose, and the corpse was interred without an inquest. It was supposed that Ebenezer Jones, a man who lodged in the house, had an improper connexion with Michael's wife. After her husband's death, the widow lived with Jones. Soon after, two of Michael's children died suddenly. Three weeks ago, a third died. Then suspicion was excited, and an inquest was held. Aieenic was found in the boy's stomachs and it was proved that the mother had bought some of the poison. The verdict was "Wilful mur- der" against the woman. Two gentlemen have had a narrow escape from death in passing over a level crossing of the Whitby and Pickering Railway. While the carriage in which they were seated was yet on the line, a train dashed up, and struck the hind part of the vehicle, shivering it to pieces. The driver was thrown from his seat, gentlemen were thrown violently about in the carriage, and one suffered a fracture of two ribs.
A woman got into a train to proceed from Bolton to Bromley Cron station: while on her journey, the train moving at a rapid rate, she opened the door of the carriage, and leaped oat, down an embankment: she died next day. It is sur- mised that she thought the train had passed the place where she wished to atop.
A timber bridge amass a river on the Great Northern Railway, between Pea- kirk and Littleworth, was burnt early on Sunday morning. The fire was dis- covered by a plate-layer; and as he could not cross the bridge, he dashed through the stream, and hastened to Peterborough to give the alarm; but all efforts to save the structure were vain. It is supposed that the bridge, made of Kyanized timber, and thoroughly dried by the recent hot weather, took fire from some live coal which had fallen from a locomotive engine.
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