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A correspondence between Mr. Monckton Milnes and a portion of his constituents, the electors of Pontefract, vindicates the sentiments lately expressed by Mr. Milnes towards the Roman Catholics of Ire-

land, in a way exceedingly creditable to his feelings and understanding. The correspondence opened with the following address, signed by the Mayor and other electors-

" We, the undersigned, your friends and constituents, beg most respectfully' to dissent from the sentiments expressed in your late speech having reference to the measures to be taken for the benefit of the Roman Catholic population in Ireland ; and also to express our unalterable determination to maintain un- impaired the Protestant character of our Government, and to prevent the.- nation from becoming responsible for the errors of the Roman Catholic religion, by contributing to the support of its priesthood."

Mr. Milnes replied--

" TO THE REVEREND THE VICAR OF PONTEFRACT- .' 26 Pall Mall, Feb. 26.

"Reverend and dear Sir—I have received a memorial signed by yourself and other excellent friends of mine in Pontefract, declaratory of your and their dissent from the sentiments expressed by me in the late Irish debate in the House of Commons ; and I believe that a brief exposition of my opinions on the subject will be the best and most respectful answer I can return. "1 am most anxious to maintain unimpaired the Protestant Church es- tablishment in Ireland ; not because it is a bond of union between the two countries—not because it is secured by an act of Parliament—not because it is. subservient to the state—but because I believe it to be a true branch of the Church of Christ, and because I would not consent to deprive any of my. Protestant fellow-subjects in Ireland of the advantages of a Church Establish- ment. I do not think the resources of that Church too large, though, perhaps, they might be more beneficially distributed ; and I trust that you will find me earnestly opposing any proposition for their confiscation or diminution. " I naturally prefer the principle of Church-endowment to the Voluntary, system ; but, however opinions may differ on that subject in a country where the right of private judgment is admitted as soon as claimed, and where there is plenty of superfluous wealth to support unsalaried ministers, I cannot doubt the unqualified evil of the action of that system where the authority of priest- hood is despotic, and where the maintenance of the clergy is wrung from the necessities of an all but pauper population. "I find that the impolicy of leaving the Roman Catholic clergy of Ireland ER the exercise of this independent power was held by Mr. Pitt, Lord Sidmouth, Lord Grenville, and Lord Castlereagh. His Majesty George the Third, whose conscientious Protestantism can hardly be disputed, authorizes Lord Sidmouth to offer the Roman Catholic clergy of Ireland a similar grant to that given to the Presbyterians ; but, from the circumstances of the moment, the Ring's pro- posal was refused. In the year 1825, a motion, couched in the very words I used, was made in the House of Commons by that distinguished Conservative Lord Francis Egerton, and was carried by a considerable majority in an avowedly Tory Parliament. "The propriety of attempting to elevate and soften the character of the Irish Roman Catholic clergy was strongly urged in the late debate by a ma- jority of the speakers on our side. Sir James Graham, who separated from his former colleagues on Protestant grounds, declared he had no objection to the principle; and this opinion was confirmed by the speeches of the Secretary to the Admiralty and the First Lord of the Treasury, by Mr. Disraeli, Sir W. James, Lord Claude Hamilton, (a late Orangeman,) and many others; although some of them differed as to the fitness of the opportunity. "You say 'that you wish to retain unimpaired the Protestant character of our Government.' I would suggest that this phrase is hardly applicable, now that Roman Catholics are eligible to Parliament (Pontefract herself has twice - selected them as her Representatives) and to the highest offices—now that Sir Robert Peel has declared his intention of carrying out the spirit of the Roman Catholic Relief Bill without the slightest religious distinction—now that the State defrays the cost of the education of Roman Catholic priests, pays the Roman Catholic chaplains in workhouses and gaols, supports the Roman Catholic Bishops in the Colonies, and sustains a whole Roman Catholic hierarchy in Canada. Whatever principle can here be in question has been surrendered long ago; and I would earnestly impress upon you that the matter under discussion is now of a purely political character. "There is now formed in the House of Commons a considerable party of able men banded together to destroy the Protestant Church of Ireland. They will be assisted out of doors by a considerable body of Dissenters, who are op- posed to all establishments, and in Ireland by 2,000 Roman Catholic priests, who, under the present Voluntary system, owe their daily bread to political agitation. I own I cannot view such a confederacy without alarm. It will be able, at the least, to keep Ireland on the brink of rebellion, to inflict on Eng- land the expense of an immense military force, and to cause much anxiety in our relations with foreign countries. The only hope of meeting this evil seems to me to rest on the improvement of the tone of feeling of the Roman Ca- tholic clergy in Ireland. We cannot diminish their power—the penal laws themselves have failed to do that ; but we may possibly divert it from its de- structive course. We cannot alter what we believe to be an erroneous re- ligion—the zeal and piety of Irish Protestantism has failed to do that; but we may submit it to the general influences of order and law. If we leave it as it is, in its independent, irresponsible authority, I see no alternative but Repeal or civil war.

"With these opinions and this belief, it is my plain public duty to suggest. to her Majesty's Government whatever appears to me likely to avert these evils, and to assist them by all means in my power when I see them inclined to take such a course.

"Your object, my dear Sir, and mine, are the same—the preservation of the Protestant Church of Ireland without revolution or bloodshed : we only differ as to the means. And I may, perhaps, ask you and my other friends to repose some trust in the conduct of one who has given tolerably strong proofs of his fidelity to the Church of England, and who only desires to combine that feel- ing with the largest and fullest toleration of all his other fellow Christians.

"I have the honour to be, my dear Sir, your obedient servant and friend,

'RICHARD MONCHION MILNER."

Anti-League meetings are reported at Welshpool in Montgomery- shire, attended by the Earl of Powis ; Sherborne, in Dorset ; Guild- ford, in Surrey ; Kingsbridge, in Hampshire ; Harlestone, in Norfolk; Uxbridge, in Middlesex.

At the Guildford meeting, some opposition was offered by Mr. R. D. Mangles, M.P., and others, who maintained Free-trade principles, but unsuccessfully.

The Anti-Corn-law League, represented by Mr. Cobden, Colonel' Thompson, and Mr. R. R. R. Moore, had two meetings in Gloucester Shire-hall, on Friday and Saturday. At the former, a " city " meeting, Mr. Bowly presided ; Earl Dude attended; and the ball was well filled. Mr. Cobden spoke among the rest; the principal point in his speech being an allusion to a threat circulated in Gloucester by the Anti! Leaguers, that they would only deal with the shopkeepers opposed to the League ;* and he exhorted the men of Gloucester, if driven to it, but not else, to resort to the same weapon— A quack-doctor attempted to controvert the arguments of the League; but being unable to read his own written speech, he sat down amid 1140-*

jeers of the people. The sum collected was 501.; twice the amount of last year.

At the " County " meeting on Saturday, Earl Dude presided, and a very considerable number of landowners and tenant-farmers were pre- sent. Mr. Cobden expounded his view of the Corn-laws as affecting the working agriculturists ; and he noticed one of the most recent arguments on the subject, in a letter by Mr. John Biddle, a corn- merchant, published in a Gloucester journal-

" It was stated, that good wheat could be imported from Odessa and other places at prices ranging thus-36s. 6d., 32s., 31s., and 26s. These quotations, however, according to Mr. Biddle's own admission, were those which were current during the past month. Mr. Cobden contended that it was excessively unfair to take such quotations and exhibit them as giving an idea of the prices at which foreign wheat could be procured on the average of years, seeing that the present high duty in England had in a great degree prevented pur- chases from being made. He would advise the farmers tojudge for themselves, and ascertain the price at which Danteic wheat could be imported on an average of ten or fifteen years. If they did so, they would find that the price during the past ten or fifteen years averaged upwards of 40s. besides the expense of transit. This brought up the price to 50s., the cost at which the grain could be imported under a perfectly free trade. Ile had been accused of exaggerating the expense of bringing wheat from Dantzic. Now, he did not wish the meet- ing to take his word on such a subject, or the word of any other person. He would give them the authority of a recent statement made officially by the British Consul at Odessa; and it was, that in two years the freights had varied from 21s. 6d. to 6s. 2d. : but in quoting this, the opponents of the League chose the 6s. 2d. and left out of view the other extreme of 21s. 6d. The price of wheat in the Channel Llands, where the trade was perfectly free, exhibited nearly the same average as he bad stated in the case of Dantsic. As to the expense of freight and other charges, he begged to state that about five years ago the League requested two eminent corn-importers to give them the average coat of shipment from Dantzic, Odessa, and other places during the previous ten years ; and the result was, from Dintzic Ils. 6d., and from Odessa 18s. 5d. per quarter.

A resolution in favour of free trade was moved by Mr. Holland, of Dumb!eton, and seconded by Mr. Josiah Hunt, a tenant-farmer. Some opposition was offered by Mr. Clark, a farmer's son ; who was not a Anent speaker, but contrived to move an amendment in an opposite sense. It was seconded by Mr. Cother, a surgeon ; whose strange de- meanour made the meeting silence him by a vote that he should not be heard. The original resolution was carried ; eight or nine hands being held up for the amendment. A vote of thanks and confidence in the League was carried unanimously, and then a vote of thanks to the Chairman.

The Anti-Corn-law League were somewhat checked at Thirsk, in North Yorkshire' on Monday. Addresses were delivered by the depu- tation—Colonel Thompson, Mr. Archibald Prentice of Manchester, and Mr. Pilot of Leeds ; and Free-trade resolutions were moved. A counter-resolution was proposed by Mr. James Crompton of Stonehill, condemning free trade in corn, as destructive to agriculturists; and this amendment was carried, according to the Anti-League account ; but Colonel Thompson has published a letter denying it.

"King Oastler" has recommenced a Ten-Hours Bill agitation. He attended a weekly meeting of "the Leeds Committee in aid of the Liberation and Annuity Fund," on Monday ; was formally congratu- lated by the Committee on his release from prison ; and made a long speech. He said, that on coming into the world again he found that parties were much less divided than they had been, and all seemed to agree that "something must be done" to improve the condition of the people. lie proposed the Ten-Hours Bill as that something. He doubted whether it might not come too late, and whether an eight-hours bill might not be necessary to put all the factories in full work and restore full wages to the people; but at present, at all events, they would ask for no more than the Ten-Hours Bill. He attacked the Poor. law. He combated the notion that free trade would benefit the working- classes ; adducing figures to show that, while our export-trade had in- creased from 24,000,000/. official value in 1800 to 102,000,000/. in 1840, and wheat had fallen from 110s. 5d. to 66s. 6d., wages in the manufac- ture of cambric had fallen from 14s. to Is. per twelve yards. All poli- tical questions have given place to the great one, whether all shall be competition, or all protection for Dative industry ; and he argued for pro- tection. He passed some strictures, however, on certain opponents of free trade—the Anti-Leaguers--

"Theyare coming into the field of strife upon no principle at all. I read their declaration of rights, and I find that they say they are determined to sup- port protection, as far as it exists at least. And how far does it exist ? Why, they think that the Corn-laws are a protection to the landlords and the farmers, and therefore they are uniting against the universal competitionists to support their own industry. And when I see at their bead the Duke of Richmond, whom I believe to be a very estimable man in private life, but whose politics are as Anti-English and as Anti-Christian as it is possible for a man's politics to be—when I see the Duke of Richmond at the head of that party, and recog- size in him the right arm of the friends of the New Poor-law-1 know that they cannot mean well to the working-classes; and if not well to the working- classes, they cannot mean well to England. I shall, therefore, endeavour to save them from the error into which, I say, they are running, if they think to support protection upon the mere principle of the Corn-laws."

A large shed, part of the iron-warehouse of Messrs. Horton, Simms, and Ball, in Port Street, Manchester, fell on Tuesday, with a tremen- dous crash, into the Manchester and Rochdale Canal; some iron piled against a pillar having borne down that support. A gentleman come to purchase some iron was crushed to death ; a workman was buried in the ruins ; five other men in the shed were more or less injured ; a woman standing outside sustained a fracture of the thigh ; and a child was knocked out of her arms into the canal, but was picked out unhurt.

A fatal fire occurred at Oxford at two o'clock on Tuesday morning. The house of Mr. Aaron Jacobs, who kept a sort of general warehouse, was destroyed. Mr. Jacobs assisted his wife and most of his children to escape ; but is supposed to have returned to save some valuables, as his body was found in a small closet where they were kept ; and his eldest daughter, Rebecca, perished. Mr. Jacobs was a Rabbi ; and a brother Rabbi, Mr. Levi, anxiously obtained permission to be the first to touch the body; over which he performed some religious ceremonies.