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-Most of the principal towns in England have nowjoined their voiees to the Protestant chorus with which the country resounds ; and the counties are now swelling -the roar with their deep tones. To the theological meeting at York of last week are now added the pronouncerment of Leicestershire; at which Mr. Puke, M.P., indicated a further sign of complicity between our Ministry and the Pope, in the number of the new Bishops—tliitleen, the very number Earl Grey once said he should like to see sitting in the House of Lords in place of half the present Epiecepal bench ! At the Berkshire meeting, Mr. Blackstone sensibly proseribed the free circulation of the Bible as the beat remedy for the reeent eggees- sion; and Mr. John -Walter, M.P., declared that however diffiault he might find it to reconcile Load-John Russell's letter with previouso.ottra- ordinary and no doubt inconsiderate expressions, it -is now our duty to keep him up to the Protestant mark. At the Gloucestershire meeting, a counter-address was moved by a Dissenting Chartist, who denied the au- premacy of the Queen : it was withdrawn.

A meeting at Sevenoaks in Kent was marked by the declarations of Mr. Harries, M.P.; designated by the Standard as "leader" of the party in the House of Commons— There had been two manifestoes published, the one by the noble Paender of this country, and the other by the Prime Minister of the Pope inEngland, of the Pope. 'The noble Lord attributed those acts chiefly -to the acts of par- ties in the Church of England, encouraging by their adoption of the forms and ceremonies of the Church of Rome the belief that the English -people were favourable to that Churah; which Mr. Berries hoped never would he the case. On the other hand, the Cardinal assumed that the Church of Rome was justified in the couree she had pursued in consequence of the liberty given- by various enactments to the Roman Catholics, and the advemeement of Catholics by the Ministers of the Crown. Probably both views might be right in some degree ; and one thing was made certain—that as

i concessions were made to the Catholics n spiritual matters, and as civil rights were given to them, they, like insidious foes, endeavoured to take advantage of the position in which they were placed. The noble Lord said that the aggression of the (ffiurch of Rome was "insolent and insidious" : and If it was not insidious and insolent, how was it that Dr. Wiseman never thought of mentioning the subject to Lord John Russell

or Sir George Grey, who were so friendly to him, and who ought to have been consulted respecting it? No; though he was three years in communication with the Pope on the subject, he never once mentioned the subject to any of her Majesty's Ministers, who knew nothing at all about it until the whole of ,her people were made acquainted with it at the same time through the co- lumns of the press. Mr. /ferries "took upon himself to say that the Min- isters were to be trusted, and that they would act up to the spirit and deter- mination expressed by the Premier, in his letter."

The municipal demonstrations of the week have not been in every in- stance unanimous. At Stroud, as in Gloucester, at Devonport, and at Carlisle, and in some other Northern towns, Dissenters of different sects have protested against the Queen's supremacy, or have objected to charging such a protest against Catholics as a disloyalty : but nowhere has an amendment in this sense met with a numerically powerful sup- port; and the memorials from the provinces will therefore be of an uniform tone in that particular.

In one instance a serious disturbance and conflict has arisen out of the religious excitement among the lower orders of Papists which the Protestant agitation has raised. A meeting to address the Queen was summoned for Wednesday by the Magistrates of Birkenhead, where the great constructive works give employment to large masses of poor Irish : the notice summoned only ratepayers ; but the Irish population, feeling that the ratepayers did not represent the fair opinion of the whole popu- lation, assembled in a great multitude, and preoccupied the place of meeting. Some constables were employed to drive them back, but were overmatched in force ; and then in making more strenuous efforts they encountered a resistance that turned into a serious and bloody affray. The conflict raged only the higher when an additional but still insufficient _body of Police joined in it ; and was only stayed at last by the magical influence of the Romish priest. A body of soldiery marched to the spot to occupy it during the remainder of the night and a part of the next day. One of the Policemen first engaged lies in some danger from a wound in the head by a spade ; and several others were very seriously maimed. The influential priest, an attorney, and some dozen of inhabi-• tants, all of the Roman Catholic faith, have published an address excul- pating the Irish labourers ; and throwing the blame on an illegal mode of summoning the meeting, and the aggressive violence of the Police. On the other hand, prosecutions against the priest and the lawyer, as accom- plices in the prearrangement of the disturbance, are whispered of.

The Oxford Convocation has unanimously resolved to affix the Univer- sity seal to an address to the Queen on "the recent Papal aggression." According to usage, the petition will not be published till after its pre- .sentation.

The Peace Congress made a most successful demonstration on Thursday in the town of Birmingham. The great Music-hall, which is said to hold '8000 persons, was full ; and though at least one-third were women, the vast mass of the male majority were cannon-founders, gun-borers, sword- forgers, and other artisans connected with that manufacture of arms for which Birmingham is celebrated over the world. Mr. Lucy, the Mayor, ?resided. There was no variety or freshness in the handli, of the Peace topic. Mr. Sturge staidly narrated the negotiations of the Peace dele- gates between the belligerent powers in the Danish Duchies. Mr. An- gell James employed his imaginative eloquence in picturing to the de- lighted makers of weapons, the Czar, the Pope, the Emperor of Austria and the King of Prussia, the King of Denmark, and the rulers of his rebel Duchies, grouped as a happy family in the Crystal Palace of Hyde Park —of course invited, and introduced, by the successful League. Professor Worms, of Frankfort, announced in admirable English his near completion of a work on Arbitration among Nations ; propounding a plan which Mr. Cobden vouched to be no chimera, but a plan known in all ages, already used more than fifty times, and claiming the sanction of some of the greatest men that ever lived on earth. Mr. Bright was positive that a -man must be blind to the signs of the times who does not see how public opinion on this question is gaining more and more authority with the Go- vernment of the country. The Crystal Palace would indeed inaugurate the universal republic of the world.

The National Freehold Land Conference has held a two-days sitting at Birmingham, to hear the statements of members of the local Freehold Land Societies, and speeches from Mr. Cobden, Mr. Bright, and others, on the movement in extension of the forty-shilling franchise qualification. Mr. Scholefield, M.P., presided ; Mr. Locke King, M.P., Mr. Bass, M.P., Mr. Joseph Sturge, and Mr. Pease of Darlington, were among the leading men present.

A report was read, on Monday, by Mr. James Taylor, the originator of the Land Societies, and Secretary of the National Conference. It stated that there are about eighty local societies, containing 30,000 members. The amount of paid-up contributions exceeds 70,0001.; and the average price of the allotments has been something between 231. and 251. On a general statement of opinions, Mr. Whittingham, the dele- gate from the National Society in London, said he thought that the commer- cial principle had not been sufficiently kept in view in the rules of some of the local societies. In the National Society they had found it necessary to give up the primary political object., and had made their society as much as passible a savings-bank. Mr. Alderman Cutler, of Birmingham, on the contrary, doubted whether the original object of benefiting the working classes has not been lost sight of, and whether the National So- ciety has not kept the interests of large capitalists too much in view. Mr. Cobden thought it better at once to divest the public of any such idea : rthere were peculiar reasons why the enlistment of capitalists into the movement would be advantageous to the working man. It appears that Mr. James Taylor has not received "the smallest pecuniary remu- neration" for his great labours of' body and mind : he intimated that he could no longer discharge his duties on the past footing ; he stated that -" the entire work devolved on three or four persons," and suggested that 'the Council might be transferred to London. Mr. Bright advocated keep- ing in Birmingham ; the Corn League would never have rooted here else as in Manchester. Mr. Pease said, he was ink that there should be a deficiency in means. Mr. 0001. would be enough to cover all expenses. It was of the Union to consider the propriety of appoint- . It seems also that Mr. Cassell, the publisher of uncil's monthly periodical, has lost considerably by veral gentlemen "concurred in the necessity for dewy of the Council by aiding its funds."

423e4P4IP' 'ref On Tuesday, Mr. Cobden, Mr. Lattimore the tenant-farmer, Mr. Locke King, and Mr. Bright, made speeches on the great social and moral bear- ings of the movement. Mr. Lattimore broached the subject of the con- stant progress going on of annexation in land; and all the speakers after him enlarged on the evils of the land monopoly. Mr. Cobden, while al- lowing unrestricted accumulation, claimed equally the greatest freedom of distribution. Mr. Bright threw sarcasm on the Premier's three speeches and about twelve perorations per session, in laudation of our perfect constitution ; and declared that Lord John is getting worse and worse, and shows a great anxiety to obtain the support of the political party to which he has for the last forty years of his life been opposed.

Highway robberies to some extent take the place of burglaries in the re- ports of provincial crime.

Mr. Palmer, a farmer of Hall Flatt, near Carlisle, was returning home at night in his cart ; two men begged a ride ; he allowed them to climb into the cart; a third person jumped from concealment, and held the farm- er's horse, while the two whom he had taken up attacked him, beat him, robbed him of his watch, money, and a quantity of meat, which was in his cart. They left him senseless, and escaped for the time ; but they have been apprehended and committed for trial. Mr. Freeman, a farmer of Newbald in Yorkshire, in driving home at night, had to alight to open a gate; at the gate he was knocked down and robbed of his watch. The Police arrested two men—Jepson and Maltby—at Market Weighton : at the lodgings of the former were found a pair of double-bar- relled pistols, loaded with ball, and capped. Maltby made a confession, and pointed out a culvert where Mr. Freeman's watch was found. When ar- rested, the robbers were preparing to leave the town to waylay other farmers. Both have been committed.

The battles of keepers with poachers have been unusually desperate.

In Whitwell Wood, near Believer, the Duke of Portland's keepers came at night upon a gang of thirteen men, with blackened faces, and a chalk mark round each arm, that they might recognize each other. The poachers re- fused to surrender, and a struggle ensued; during which one of the depre- dators was shot dead by a keeper, and the head of a keeper was cut open by a cavalry-sword. Some of the poachers were apprehended on the spot, and the others subsequently. At Cubbington, near Leamington, Lord Guernsey's keepers encountered a band of poachers. The butts of guns, clubs, and stones, were freely used; and three of the keepers suffered severely, one dangerously. A poacher was soon after arrested, and the Police were on the track of others.

A boiler has exploded at the cotton-mill of Messrs. Waud and Co., at Bradford, scattering destruction in every direction. A man and a woman were killed on the spot ; and ten other persons were hurt, five dangerously. It is surprising that so few suffered, as there were four hundred people on the premises.