Zbe 113robinces.

Mr. George Darby's appointment as one of the two Enclosure Commis- sioners for England and Wales vacates a seat for East Sussex. The only candidate yet announced is Mr. John Villiers Shelley, a Liberal.

The Liverpool Mercury mentions a new move in Chartism- " On Friday evening last, the large room of the Borough Hall, Rochdale, was crowded; when Feargus O'Connor, Esq., delivered a lecture on the new move- ment of agitation for the Charter. He assured the audience, that if one half of the working class would deposit 21. 12s. 6d. each to purchase land, the Charter would be the law of the land in two years. At the conclusion, seven persons, who may fairly be supposed to have had more money than wit, had their names en tered as subscribers."

The Worcester Journal reports a very unsettled state of matters among the miners- " The mining districts of the North of this county and of Staffordshire are at present in a state of great commotion. At a meeting of the coal and iron masters, at the Talbot Hotel, Stourbridge, last week, we understand it was determined to blow out twenty fnrnaces, preliminary to a general resistance being made to the demands of the men. Other meetings have been held at Stourbridge and Birmingham ; but several of the masters have, we learn, given the men the advance contrary to the resolution come to amongst themselves last week; but there is every probability that the colliers and puddlers will eventually, resume work at the old prices. The chair-makers of Stourbridge have also resolved on forming a trades union; and their meetings have been attended by delegates from the stone- masons, the wire-drawers, and file-cutters. The gun-lock-filers of Darlaston have agreed that a general meeting of the whole trade be called on Wednesday [the 27th] to adopt measures to insure the prosperity of the trade, and also to put an end to the truck system. Thus it will be seen that things are coming to a crisis among our mining and manufacturing population."

An inquiry has been instituted by the Poor-law Commissioners into the con- duct of Mr. and Mrs. Macdougal, the Master and Matron of Andover Union Work- house. The charges are very numerous, and are mostly levelled against Mr. Macdougal: they are chiefly, that the diet ordered by the medical officer was withheld from Sarah Barrett, a sick woman; that the Master had been guilty of peculation in appropriating to his own use money and provisions supplied for the Union; -that he had been intoxicated; and that he had been guilty of grossly im- proper conduct towards the female inmates in the house. The inquiry was con- ducted by Mr. Parker, Assistant-Commissioner: it began on Monday; and so far from having yet closed, is expected to last for some days longer. The evidence was very voluminous, consisting in great part of repetitions; it has not been, of much interest; and relating as it does to persons of vitiated habits, it is most re- pulsive in its nature. The reader therefore loses neither pleasure nor advantage in having its drift rather than its details. Sarah Barrett is a widow, with children of twenty years old and upwards; her husband has been dead five years; but she was confined in Andover Workhouse in June last, when a child was born. At the same time, she had dropsy and other disorders. She complained that she had food insufficient for her condition, both in quantity and quality: for five weeks that she lay in, she had no "ex- tras," but only the workhouse diet; nothing in the night, though she was suck- ling, but dry bread to eat, and toast-and-water; to drink; no beer; dripping in- stead of butter. She applied to the doctor, and Dr. Westlake deposed that he ordered her beer. But it seems that he, who first promoted this inquiry, had consented to sign a book very irregularly kept, so that there was no record of his orders. Some of the witnesses, inmates of the workhouse, deposed that Mrs. Barrett's diet was of the kind which she described; that she had not enough milk for the infant; that a little gin was brought to her surreptitiously by the other women, to strengthen her; and that when, at last, the Matron made some im- provement in the diet, it was scanty, and comprised such things as mildewed bacon, which Mrs. Barrett could not eat. On the other hand, different witnesses deposed that Mrs. Macdougal mixed gin and beer, ordered by Dr. Westlake, and sent them to the sick woman; that she sent up to her to ask what she would have for dinner; and that all the paupers had butter for breakfast, beer for dinner, and food quite sufficient for health. The evidence respecting Mrs. Bar- rett's case has occupied the greater part of the week; having been protracted by the desultory nature of the examinations, and the difficulty of getting connected and concise statements from the uneducated class of the witnesses; and further interrupted more than once by the serious illness of the invalid. The other questions have not been so fully gone into, but have been touched upon incidentally. With regard, for instance, to the peculation in provisions, one of the witnesses employed in the kitchen described how tea had been missed, and how it had been found in cupboards, where it had been secreted, not by the Master, but by the paupers. Dr. Westlake repeated a conversation with Mr. Mae- dougal, in which he had referred to other charges that he should bring; and the Master's answers implied admissions. The sale of lard was alluded to, and the appropriation of the money to private purposes by the Master. This the Master admitted to have been the case, but urged that it was not his but his wife's fault. The witness also asked about the washing for Mr. Macdougal's son at Stock- bridge, which had been done at the expense of the Union. Mr. Macdougal said that it had not been done so long as two years and a half; but only while Mrs. Holley [the Workhouse washerwoman ?] was in the family way; and that he had paid for it. With respect to the alleged drunkenness, some of the witnesses said that they had seen Mr. Macdougal a little tipsy, and that one day he read the prayers over twice: but the evidence hitherto has not been stronger on that point. A by-charge arose against the Reverend Mr. Richards, the Curate of the parish, who had visited the woman Barrett, and was accused of having been brought in to frighten her from making complaints. He was examined, and was troubled with excessive vagueness and shortness of memory as to what he said; but he admitted that he had discoursed to her on the deadly sins,—" adultery and other sins, of which we are all (I) guilty,"—and that he had spoken about lying and falsehoods, to such purpose as to make her cry: on which she said that if she had had the nourishment that was ordered for her, she should not have been so ill as she was then. Being pressed, Mr. Richards said that the woman must have said so at his second visit, because then Mrs. Macdougal was not present; and he did

not think the woman would have made that complaint if the Matron had been present.

An agricultural labourer living near Standen, in Hertfordshire, has murdered his wife, by beating her with a stick on the head. The man is of a violent temper, and he had often quarrelled with the deceased and threatened her life.

The inquiry into the cause of General Dick's death was concluded at Bath on Saturday. Chemical analysis detected no trace, of poison in the viscera; but there were appearances of inflammation. The brain was healthy, but a surgeon de-

clared that the deceased bad probably died from serous apoplexy, the cause • igned by the medical attendants of the General. The Jury returned this ver- dict—" Died from inflammation of the stomach and bowels; but how produced, there is no evidence to show."

A train ran off the Scarborough Railway yesterday week, and a man was killed: he was jammed between a tender and the truck on which he was riding. It is said that the line is in bad condition. In that part of it where the accident hap- pened there appears to be no solid foundation for the rails, which are laid in very sandy soil; nor sufficient drainage for the water from the bill on the side of which the line runs, as between the rails and the hill the water was standing in pools, owing. to the late heavy rains. The luggage-van, which was placed be ore the carriages, was crushed to pieces. A correspondent of the Times asserts that the man was not killed, though his thighs were fractured.

A railway porter met with an accident at the Brighton station on Sunday, which it is feared will prove fatal. An engine was attached by a rope to an empty train which was to be moved out of the way, and the man seated himself on the buffers of a carriage, to remove the rope when necessary. In the process lie either lost his hold or was dragged by the rope on to the rail, and the carriages passed over one of his legs. A man was killed on the Newcastle and North Shields Railway on Tuesday. He was walking on the line at night, when a train ran over him, killing him instantaneously. He was not employed on the railway, and was trespassing.

The York mail-train which should have reached London at five o'clock on Wednesday morning did not arrive till one in the afternoon; it having got off the line near Rugby. No one was injured.

On Thursday last, as the morning train from Maryport to Carlisle was passing. along the portion of the railway about five miles West of Wigton, owing to one or the switches being wrong, it was thrown completely off the line; but, we are happy to add, without occasioning any injury to any of the passengers. A de- lay in the arrival of the train of about an hour was the consequence.—Carlisle Journal.

A labourer employed on the Cambridge and Ely Railway has been killed by the exhibition of that carelessness so common with his class. He was returning from his work in a truck which was proceeding at the rate of twenty miles an hour; and in heedlessly putting on his coat, he overbalanced himself, and fell under the train.

A young man has been killed at West Bromwich, in attempting to witness the performances of a strolling company without paying. A temporary theatre had been erected; and five minutes after the curtain rose, the gallery, which was filled with people, gave way: the audience were greatly terrified, but all escaped without serious injury. Under the ruins, however, a man was found dead : he had crawled under the gallery to get a peep at the acting, and for that purpose had removed some of the supports of the erection which caused it to fall.

An explosion of fire-damp attended with a fearful loss of life occurred at Jar- row colliery, about nine miles from Newcastle, on Thursday week. It happened in the afternoon, while a great many men were at work in the pit. The first in- timation of the disaster was a cloud of smoke ascending the shaft. A viewer and overman immediately descended; and on entering the first working, a few of the men were found alive: the weakest were sent up the shaft, while the others re- mained to give assistance. One man was in a state of delirium, and in the dark sprang to the rope in the centre of the shaft, and clung to it with the tenacity of despair. Had he missed the rope, he would have fallen a depth of nearly twenty fathoms, and must inevitably have perished. He was fortunate in retaining his hold; and he ascended the shaft in safety, shouting in delirious excitement to be out of the place. The overman, Defty, then descended to a lower seam; and close to the shaft he found three men dead. In his anxiety to render assistance, Defty penetrated the working too far, and was suffocated by the choke-damp. It was found impossible to explore the workings until they had been ventilated; and as all the erections for producing a current of air had been destroyed by the explo- sion, this was a work which occupied much time: it was not till Saturday morning that the pit could be explored to any extent. In the lower seam one man was found alive, but much exhausted, and around him were ten corpses; three other bodies were found a little distance from him. The bodies of three more of the pitmen were got out during the day; and on Sunday fifteen others; while some still remained in the pit. Altogether, thirty-nine persons have perished, and one is still in a precarious state. The bodies of many of the men were dreadfully mutilated; all except two were burnt. The inquest was held on Monday. The cause of this disaster is a matter of mere conjecture. It is supposed that a sudden escape of gas caused the explosion, as a short time previously the air was good, and the ventilation was at all times excellent. It appears that the explosion did not affect all parts of the mine; in some of the workings the men were not aware that anything had occurred till they were ordered to cease their labour. The explosion was very violent. A verdict of "Accidental Death" was returned.

The Tyro Mercury makes a statement which contradicts the assertion of the safety of the mine. " Jarrow colliery has gained an unhappy notoriety for accidents, the present being the sixth explosion that has occurred during the last twenty-eight years. At the first explosion, in 1817, six lives were lost; at the second, in 1820, two ; at the third, which occurred in 1826, in the Bensham seam, 42 ; at the fourth, in 1828, eight ; and at the fifth, which also occurred in the Bensham seam, in 1830, 42 ; making, with the present occurrence, no fewer than 139 deaths in twenty-eight years !"

Cromer, a small watering-place in Suffolk, is threatened with destruction by the inroads of the sea. It stands on a cliff, portions of which have given way at in- tervals; and a mass fell last week. In 1825 twelve acres crumbled down at once.

A fishing-boat was run down at the Nore, off Southend, on the 4th instant, by the Portuguese bark Duarte the Fourth; and the master of the boat and his ap- prentice perished. An inquest has been held at Leigh. The Portuguese vessel was in charge of Spence, a Trinity pilot: Mr. Pelham, however, averred on his part, that a Portuguese seaman was at the helm when the disaster occurred; and that the pilot called out to him in English to alter the ship's course, but the sailor did not understand him. A verdict of "Manslaughter" was returned against Spence.