gbe thobintes. The Liberal electors of the West Riding of

Yorkshire met at the Nor- manton Hotel on Tuesday week, to select a candidate for the representa- tion in place of Lord Morpeth, now Earl of Carlisle. Lord Milton presided: Mr. George Wentworth Fitzwilliana, M.P. Sir Crompton Stanfield, M.P., W. S. Milner, M.P., Sir Charles Tempest, and representatives of all the important towns, were present. After much discussion, which resulted in

some degree of mutual concession by different parties, the following mo- tion, proposed by the Mayor of Leeds, and seconded by the Mayor of Wakefield, was carried unanimously- " That the Honourable Charles Wentworth Fitzwilliam is a fit and proper per- son to represent the Liberal electors of the West Riding; and that the gentlemen present do pledge themselves to give him their support, on receiving from him an assurance that he is favourable to the principle of free trade, to economical reform, to a gradual and safe extension of the suffrage, and opposed to any further endow- ment of religion by the state."

A very large meeting of the Nottinghamshire gentry, of all parties, as- sembled at Mausfield, on Thursday, to devise the fittest mode of honotiring the memory of the late Lord George Bentinck. The Duke of Newcastle presided, and opened the proceedings with a speech of great length, and much warmth of affectionate laudation. Earl Manvers took a leading part; also Colonel Wildman, a Liberal politician, but a West Indian proprietor, and "a man who yielded to none in the depth of his personal affection and respect for Lord George." It was resolved to wiled a county subscription for the purpose of erecting a lasting memorial of the deceased. A clause of the resolution, which proposed to engage that the memorial should be useful or charitable, was objected to by some gentlemen, who saw in it a "deference to the low utilitarian spirit of the ago"; and in the end the choice of memorial was left wholly to a managing committee.

The Saffron Weldon Agricultural Society held its annual meeting for show of stock and competition in ploughing, yesterday week. Lord Bray- brooke presided; Lord Sondes, Lord Walsingham, Mr. Octavius Duncombe, M.P., and Major Beresford, M.P., were among the numerous gentry that attended. The usual routine of agricultural speeches was relieved by the presence of Mr. Coleman, an American, who has been some years in England and the countries of Western Europe, on an agricultural tour— commissioned by certain public bodies to collect European knowledge on agricultural subjects for American use. Mr. Coleman made a speech full of hearty national sympathy with this country, and of instructive matter to his audience; whom he warmed to enthusiasm by the animation of his oratory. Some of his facts on the agriculture of the Flemings, the only people who excel the English in any department of that pursuit, were re- markable. For example, in comment upon the Flemish maxim, "With- out forage, no cattle; without cattle, no manure; without manure, no crop," he gave this statement—

The Flemish farmer keeps twice as many cattle as the English. A valuer was sent to value the manure upon some land about to be sold; and he estimated the manure per acre at—bow much do you think? Was it at 101.? Thirty shillings, one gentleman told him, was the usual price—at 151.—at 201.— will any one bid more—it's going; no, at 451. per acre. And the party who had manured in this way was a shrewd man who would not have put it on if he could not have seen his way to a fair return for it. Manure is, in fact, the life- blood—it is the foundation of agriculture. We hear of agricultural schools, and the researches of learned chemists, which are to turn everything into gold. Why, chemistry has long been well understood, at least to this extent, that we have not to learn the value of manure; and I say, let the chemist go on,—he will tell you what he has found when he discovers it; and in the mean time do you go on saving all the manure you can, and bestowing it with the most liberal hand."

Diverging from the more immediate topic Mr. Coleman touched on education; and thence on the institutions of his own country and of this— "You call us a Democracy. We are not a Democracy; we are a Republic. We are governed by refinements, the tendencies of which are to place us under the wisest and the best men of the country, if these were carried out. What country do we come from? From England; and you are a Republic. A limited Monarchy is a Republic; and you have the principle of Democracy infused into it. The opi- nion of some is, that there is no liberty unless every man has his will; but if every man had his will, there would be no liberty at all. There cannot be any liberty enjoyed but under the strongest government—the stronger the government the more the liberty: but I do not say a despotic government."

He ended with hopes for increasing harmony between his native country and "the old fatherland "—

" I can only pray that the sympathies that bind together these two nations of the earth in peace and civilization, the mother and daughter, the parent and child, may grow stronger and stronger. That which was considered the means of se- paration has become a bond of union; and may this union continue. If I could find a man on either side of the water who could speak with indifference and com- placency of a war between the two countries I would hang him—I would hang him for high treason to humanity, on the first tree I found. I am too much op- pressed with all I have seen in England to express my wishes as I could desire; but I earnestly pray for the continued prosperity, for the wealth, happiness, and glory of that magnificent, that great and glorious land, in which you live."

At the Birmingham Quarter-Sessions, held yesterday week, the Recorder, Mr. M. D. Hill, Q. C., took the opportunity of laying before the Grand Jury the steps he had pursued for carrying into effect, so far as the law allowed him, the great principle of reformatory punishment.

"Birmingham had given a memorable sanction to the reformatory principle, by causing to be erected a vast prison, at great but not unnecessary expense, in which, he was gratified to learn, the authorities had determined to adopt the reformatory system. He had had the pleasure of carefully inspecting the building, now nearly completed; and he could not forbear to exprearl his admiration of the sacrifices which had been made, and made cheerfully, 'he was informed, by the rate-payers, for so excellent a purpose. He trusted that in the end this would be found to be a wise outlay; that this liberality would be true economy, even in a pecuniary point of view, without reference to the high interests involved in the question of the reformation of offenders. * * * For a period of seven years, beginning early in the year 1841, he had acted on this plan with regard to ju- venile offenders—that when there was reason to believe that the person was not wholly corrupt, when there was reasonable liope of reformation, and when there could be found individuals kind enough to take charge of the young convict, (which at first sight would appear to present a great difficulty, but which in prac- tice furnished little impediment toathe plan,) he had felt himself justified in handing over the young to their_ Aare, under the conviction that there would be putter hope of amendment molar such guardians than in the gaol of the county." He was now informed by thePolice, that the proportion of the cases of reform was largely increasing. The greatest care was taken to prevent imposition and to ascertain with the utinost certainty the final results. Those results appeared to be as follows. "Out of 166 offenders, the conduct of 71 was good. Of the greater number of these the good conduct was of such long standing as to warrant the assumption that their reformation was complete. The conduct Of 40 was doubtfuL Partlylhat was said because their conduct had not been quite consistent, and partly because some of them had been lost sight of. Of 53 the conduct had been bad: and he might observe he had felt it his bounden duty to take care, when a youth had had a chance of forsaking his evil ways, and Was again convicted before him, that his punishment was such as to show that it Was from no weakness, from no false indulgence, from no indisposition on the llart of the Court to perform its duty, but that such a chance had been afforded

because it was the best means to effect their reformation. A severe punishment, therefore, in every such case, had been inflicted. The account on the whole ran thus—Out of 166 individuals, 71 were of good conduct; 90 were doubtful; 53 turned out ill; and 2 were dead."

By the kindness of the founders of the County Asylum at Stretton-on-Dans- more' he was enabled to send there those boys who had no friends or guardians. The Asylum deserved to be more' generally known and more largely supported. It was not a prison; there were no means whereby the boys might be restrained in it; and the means employed could only operate u... the mind and the heart; which, although at first sight might present a di i.culty, was one of the best means of improvement. Op to 1827, the proportion of reformed was only 48 per cent; that is to say, when 100 boys were taken, 48 were reformed and 52 un- reformed. But in 1843, the improvement was such that the reformed amounted to 56 per cent upon the whole. In 1844, it reached 58; in 1896, 60 per cent; and in 1848, amounted to 65 per cent. He was sure they would agree with him that this was a very encouraging state of things. It showed that there were the means of improvement in operation; and that they had no reason to believe that the ultimatum had been reached because they had arrived at 65 per cent, was strengthened by the results of another institution, to which he would call their attention. He regretted that the paucity of the fends of this invaluable institu- tion were limiting its means of good. Mr Hill gave an account of the system pursued at Mettraye near Tours, which he lately visited; and stated, that though in the French management the propor- tion of officers to youths in custody VMS 120 officers to but 500 youths, yet the charges per head were far below those of the Warwick Gaol management for the custody of the County criminals. The French cost was 201. a year, reduced to 121. by the criminal's earnings; the English cost was 201. a year without re- duction.

On the 18th, a corpse was found near a hedge in the vicinity of Halstead, not far from Seven Oaks: it was that of a female about forty years of age; life ap- peared to have been extinct not more than twenty-four hours. The head, face, neck, and shoulders, were a mass of wounds and bruises; on the ground were several pools of blood, and the condition of the spot showed that the poor woman had struggled strongly for life. She appeared to have been slaughtered by blows from flints and kicks from nailed boots. The object of the crime seems to have been plunder only; the woman's pockets had been rifled. She is supposed to have been on her return from hop-picking, her fingers being stained as if from that employment; but the body was not recognized by the people of the neighbour- hood, nor could suspicion be fixed on any one as her asaassm A Coroner s Jury met on Monday, but the inquiry was adjourned.

Rather more than a year ago, Mr. Smith, a wealthy farmer of Old Weston,near Huntingdon, died suddenly; though he had been a robust man, of temperate habits. His illness was violent; retching being one of the symptoms, accompa- nied with the most agonizing suffering. Recently, Mr. Smith's widow married a Mr. Parsons; and soon afterwards discharged a servant who had long been in the employment of the Smiths. This woman has accused Mrs. Parsons of poisoning her former husband, and she says that she saw the potion administered. The Coroner had the body disinterred; it was examined by three surgeons; and event- ually the contents of the stomach were sent to London that Professor Taylor might analyze them.

The passengers on the Ramsgate branch of the South-eastern Railway have had a fortunate escape. Early on the morning of the 20th, a luggage and fish train was on its way to London; on crossing a bridge or culvert over a branch of the Stour, three miles from Canterbury, the structure gave way; the engine, tender, and trucks, fell into the stream, or were scattered about the fields and railway; the engine having turned bottom upwards. Yet not one person was hurt. Not long before this accident, two passenger-trains had passed the bridge. It was evident on examination that recent floods had washed away the mortar and ce- ment of the piers supporting the road-way.

Two men and a boy have been killed in a coal-pit near Dudley, by the fall of a vast mass of coal and earth, while they were working beneath. The disaster was quite accidental; a pillar of coal left to support the roof having unexpectedly given way.

Two fishermen have perished by the upsetting of a boat as they were at- tempting to enter the harbour at Scarborough: the people on the shore made signals to warn them from the attempt, but the fishermen took no heed of them till too late.

A boy living at Great Clacton in Essex had been prohibited from playing with a gun; he secretly took it, loaded, from a cupboard, and concealed it in a ditch; a little while afterwards, he tried to draw it out again by the muzzle—the gun went off, the charge lodged in his side, and he died in a few hours.