Ebe tirobtnces.
At the close of the poll for East Suffolk, on Saturday, the numbers were—for Rendlesham, 2,952 ; Adair, 1,818 ; majority, 1,134. On Monday, Lord Rendlesham was declared duly elected. The election was a very dull affair.
The Honourable E. P. Bouverie, a son of Lord Radnor, is a candi- date for the seat for Salisbury city, vacated by the resignation of Mr. Brodie. He is in favour of religious equality for all classes, " any rational plan for extending the blessing of sound education to all classes of the people," removal of all commercial restrictions, and repeal of the Income-tax. Mr. A. Hussey, the late High Sheriff of the county, is the Conservative candidate.
A meeting of landowners and farmers was held at Grantham, in Lin- colnshire, on Saturday, to oppose the Canada Corn Bill. A resolu- tion against the measure was carried unanimously. Mr. Hickson com- plained that the farmers had been grossly deceived by the present Members, who were returned on the faith that they would oppose the alteration of the Corn-laws, and in whose favour Mr. Handley was re- jected. The Chairman defended the Members, on the score that they had chosen the lesser of two evils ; for to have rejected Sir Robert Peel's measures would assuredly have brought in Lord John Russell and other measures more destructive to their welfare. He announced, however, that he and Sir John Trollope were prepared to oppose the present measure. Other resolutions directed petitions to be presented to both Houses, to be intrusted to Earl Brownlow and Mr. Turner.
Another meeting against the same bill was held at Bourn; on the same day ; Sir John Trollope in the chair. He was supported by Lord Willoughby d'Eresby, Mr. G. J. Heathcote, M.P., General Johnson, and several influential gentlemen, farmers, and graziers of the neigh- bourhood. The Morning Post thus sums up the business done-
" The several speakers repudiated in the strongest terms the intended inno-
Meetings to oppose the Factories Bill have been held at Manchester, by the Unitarians at Liverpool, at Brighton, by the Dissenters and by the Roman Catholics of Bristol, and at Bath.
The Manchester meeting was held in the Free Trade Hall, on Friday. Mr. George Hadfield took the chair ; and there were present Mr. Charles Hindley, several Dissenting ministers, and some of the active Liberals. Among the resolutions passed was the following-
" That as neither this bill nor any modification of it, as yet proposed, suffi- ciently recognizes the civil and religious equality of all classes of her Majesty's subjects, this meeting pledges itself to resist, in every legitimate way, the bill now before Parliament, and every other measure founded on similar principles of injustice and interference with the rights of conscience."
At the Brighton meeting, Captain Pechell promised to oppose the
a*, bill altogether. Lord Alfred Hervey stated, that while he would vote for an alteration in the measure, so as to extend the power of giving tional certificates entitliug the child to work in the factories, to
the mas e school, the„systero instruction in which was considered efficient by the Government, he would not support any measure which did not recognize the Established Church. If the Dis- senters were determined to be satisfied with nothing else than the sepa- ration of Church and State, then, he said, they were assisting to perpe- tuate a degrading system of ignorance and vice. The resolutions ori- ginally moved were not altogether unopposed ; for the Chartists, whose spokesman imputed the Dissenters' opposition of the measure to the Anti-Corn-law League, proposed an amendment limited to a declara- tion against the power given, and reposing the election of trustees in the vestry. But the original resolutions were carried by a large ma- jority. The Catholics of Bristol, among other resolutions, adopted this-
" That the following are among the grievances contemplated by the proposed bill, and against which we protest. First, Provision made for the religious instruction of children of the Church of England ; but most for the religious instruction of the Catholic children, or those of any other denomination. Second, The requiring of the children to read the Protestant version of the Holy Scriptures. Third, And to join in prayer with persons differing from them in faith, against the principles of the Catholic religion. Fourth, The necessity of obtaining certificates of attendance on schools which the children cannot conscientiously attend, before they be allowed to enter factories to earn their daily bread. Fifth, The necessity of special notice on the part of parents or sponsors, without which Catholic children will be compelled to attend Pro- testant religious worship, instruction, &c. Sixth, The being taught from books in which no regard is paid to the religion or feelings of Catholics, as they most frequently contain positive insult, and misrepresentation of the Catholic religion abound."
The Members for Bath were among their constituents ; Lord Duncan intimating a disposition to float with the stream ; Mr. Roebuck deve- loping a view of his own : he forcibly depicted the appalling evils of the present popular ignorance ; explained the difficulties of dealing with the question in Parliament ; insisted on the paramount necessity for some measure; and promised to devote all his energies to amend the one before the Legislature.
vation. A petition to the Legislature was adopted, showing that the peti- tioners bad, by the alteration of Corn-laws and the Tariff in the last session of Parliament, incurred a loss of. 25 per cent on their capital and annual re- ceipts: that they considered the want of due protection against the introduc- tion into this kingdom, through Canada, of corn grown in the. United States of America, likely to have a most prejudicial effect on the'prices of agricultural produce, and most unnecessarily to depress them ; that the proposal to admit flcur and wheat from the United States through Canada, at a nominal duty, appeared to the petitioners a direct violation of the promise implied in the declarations of Ministers in the House of Commons, at the commencement of the present session, that no further alterations were contemplated by them in the Corn-laws; that the alterations proposed were likely to add greatly to the distress under which the agriculturists suffer, without any countervailing ad- vantage to the manufacturing interest, inasmuch as the commercial regulations of the United States are more stringent than ever in discouraging, by the im- position of higher duties, the importation of the manufactures of this country. On these grounds, the petitioners prayed that no law or regulation under the authority of Parliament might be passed to admit corn or flour from the con- tinent of America at lower duties than those hitherto imposed."
A similar meeting was held at Spalding, on Tuesday.
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