'It Troniitrtg.

The death of the Earl of Dartmouth, and the succession of his son, Viscount Lewisham, to the Peerage, has caused a vacancy in the repre- sentation of South Staffordshire. The Liberals are actively engaged in selecting a candidate to contest the division. Mr. Matthews, an iron- master, and the Honourable Arthur Wrottesley, are spoken of.

Mr. E. Holland, Liberal, and Sir Michael Hicks-Beach, Conservative, have both issued addresses to the electors of East Gloucestershire.

A proposition, last week, for a church-rate in the parish of St. Mary, Torquay, met with a decided and peculiar resistance. The rate proposed was 3d. in the pound. Thereupon an amendment was moved by Mr. Tozer, and seconded by the Reverend J. E. Gladstone, to the effect that the rate was "illegal and invalid" ; and that the Vestry was opposed "to the introduction of Popish doctrines into the Protestant Church of Eng- land," and would not support a man who, "eating Protestant bread," sympathized with "a superstitious, idolatrous, and heretical system, called the Greek Church," and whose proceedings have been publicly re- buked by the "four Metropolitans." It was further declared that the Vestry would not agree to a rate for "supporting error." In the Vestry this was carried by a show of hands ; but on a poll it was rejected, by 123 to 61.

An "Anti-Slavery Union" was inaugurated by a public meeting at Manchester last week. "The meeting was pretty well attended," says a reporter. Mr. Thomas Clegg, cotton-spinner, occupied the chair; and among the speakers were the Reverend R. S. Scott, the Reverend Mr. Ward, a Negro, and Mr. George Thompson. Mr. Clegg said he had two Africans in his employ ; one in the counting-house, "as expert a clerk as he had" ; and one in his mill. The two most efficacious means for abolishing slavery, adopted by the Union are, "first, the moral testimony of religious denominations in this country against that iniquitous system addressed by way of remonstrance to those denominations in the United States which either defend or do not condemn it ; second, the encourage- ment of the cultivation in India, Africa, and other countries, of cotton and other produce now grown by slave labour."

Mr. Robert Rawlinson, one of the superintending Inspectors of the General Board of Health, opened on Wednesday an inquiry into the sani- tary condition of Devonport, with the view of collecting data to enable the Board to judge of the propriety of reporting in favour of a provisional order to apply the Public Health Act to that borough.

Within the last three years, a borough rate has been altogether unknown in 'Yarmouth, in consequence of the good management of the authorities and the buoyancy of the local revenues.

The Ipswich Arboretum will be thrown open to the public next week, free of any charge.

The places for a concert about to be given in Norwich, for the benefit of Dr. Bexfield's family, have been nearly all secured, and it is anticipated that a large sum will be realized.

The news from the manufacturing districts is adverse to the men. On Monday, the factory-owners of Ashton, Staleybridge, Mottram, Newton, Hyde, and Glossop, commenced working short time—four days a week instead of six—to reduce the production to a greater equality with the demand. It is computed that this will affect the earnings of 40,000 per- sons, who have hitherto been large consumers of the articles they made : they must now cease to purchase. The Stockport masters have given notice that they will work only forty hours a week till Christmas.

Most of the employers of Burnley and Padiham having notified that their people might return to work on Monday, at "short time "—four days a week—with the reduction of the 10 per cent advance to the weavers, nearly all the workmen eagerly rushed to the mills to obtain employment on these terms. No reduction was made in the wages of spinners and card-room hands, as " spinnings " are in a better position in the market.

Certain Preston manufacturers have called Lord Palmerston's attention to their treatment by the workpeople of Blackburn on the 16th of last month. When they went there on business on their usual day, they were told that there was a conspiracy to mob them and the intention was "partially carried out." The inn where they usually stop was searched by a deputation of the mob, which would otherwise have attacked the house. They call upon Government to take steps to keep order at Black- burn: at Preston the "generally well-disposed and peaceable character of the inhabitants" has prevented any riotous proceedings. It is said that the Mayor of Blackburn had already written to the Home Secretary on the same subject ; and he expressed the opinion of the Justices that a company of soldiers should be stationed in the town during the winter, or till thereit a resumption of employment at other places. The authorities

have also helped themselves by augmenting the Police force, and a further increase is proposed.

Lord Palmerston appears to have complied with the request for troops; a company of the Thirty-fourth Regiment, from Preston, entered the town on Monday.

An immense meeting of factory-workers—from ten to twelve thousand, it is said—was held at Preston on Saturday. The speakers ridiculed a statement put forth by the masters, that since 1847 various advances of wages have taken place : when were these advances made ? The masters say that, considering sixty hours' work a week in mills is now the maxi. mum instead of sixty-nine, the wages were higher before the strike than at any former period. The men reply, that where sixty hours is the maximum the operatives produce more proportionately than before. The mobbing at Blackburn was condemned ; and a placard was produced, as having been issued by the Blackburn committee, which censured the rioters and advised workpeople to atop at home in the evening during the Preston strike.

The Preston masters have announced their willingness to receive appli. cations for work on and after Monday next, at the old prices ; when a sufa. cient number of people to set the mills going have offered to resume their labour, the masters to be called together to make arrangements.

The number of factory-workers who received relief last week was 14,247. The gross amount of subscriptions received by all the commit- tees was no less than 32921., of which Blackburn contributed 991/.

Two coal-owners only at Wigan are now standing for want of hands; the rest of the trade have resolved to supply these owners with coal and cannel, instead of locking-out all the miners to compel these particular men to return to their employment.

At Birmingham, however, the reduction of the French iron-duties has given an impetus to the iron trade, and an upward movement in prices is expected—to what extent, opinions differ. The copper trade has been again disturbed by another rise of 91 per ton.

It is said that though agricultural labourers in Devonshire get but seven shillings a week wages, they enjoy advantages which make their position much better than would appear from their pay. The farmers sell them wheat at 5s. a bushel, and bacon and fresh meat at a reduced price ; while cottage-rent to them is very much less than the market value.

The quiet of Leighton Buzzard has been rudely broken by two crimes- a murder, and a burglary.

Heath and Reach, a poor little village a little distance from the town, was the scene of the murder. Abel Burrows, a married man of thirty-seven, was the criminal; and a poor old woman, Charity Glenister, seventy-six Years of age, the victim of his wanton ferocity. Burrows, once an ardent follower of Primitive Methodism, and accustomed to talk of sacred subjects under the influence of drink, is a dissipated fellow; he had left his wife, and lived with another woman. On Friday morning he went to his father's cottage, where Charity lodged. What took place there is not very clearly known, but them was a quarrel ; it does not appear that Charity had anything to do with ft. Thomas Adams, who lives next door, states that Charity ran into his house, pursued by Burrows, armed with a large hammer of the kind used by road- men to break stones. The door of the house had been closed, but Burrows broke it open. Charity ran up the stairs to an upper room; Burrows followed, seized her by her gown, and struck her three tames on the head with the hammer, smashing her skull.

When Adams attempted to seize the murderer, he was assailed with the hammer, but escaped hurt. Burrows was subsequently apprehended by a constable. He exclaimed that Charity had ruined him and his mother—he was glad he had killed her. He was committed to prison by the Magistrates; and subsequently a Coroner's Jury returned a verdict of, Wilful Murder" against him. An account has been published which favours-an opinion that he is insane; but no evidence of that purport came before the Jury. The robbery was effected in the town itself. The house of Mr. Matthews, a jeweller, situated in the most frequented part of Leighton, was entered during the night of Friday, in a very skilful manner, and all the portable articles in the shop were swept off. The property is valued at 1000/. There were two dogs on the premises ; some chemical preparation had been used to quiet them; in the morning they were found in a state of stupefaction. The thieves lighted the gas in the shop, and plundered it so deliberately, that, with the exception of clocks, they left nothing behind but a brooch and a piece of a watch, which they had dropped on the floor. They got clear away. It was ascertained that three well-dressed men had stopped at the Sun Inn on the preceding night ; they were disappointed on finding that no mail-train for London left Leighton early in the morning ; they quitted the inn after midnight. The landlord could identify these strangers. A gentleman who lived opposite Mr. Matthews's saw the shop lighted up be- tween two and three in the morning : he thought the jeweller was at work upon an urgent task. On Tuesday, Lewis Myers, "jeweller," was arrested in London with some of the stolen property in his possession, 121. in coin, a ten-pound note, and a check for 15/. Mr. Matthews had gone to Mr. Sirrell's, the refiner in Barbican, to make inquiry about two silver tea-pots ; Myers was offering for sale some shirt-studs and a fob-chain' which Mr. Matthews recognized; he followed him into the street, and had him arrested. Myers declares that he is a respectable man doing a large business in the Southwark Bridge Road, and that he had purchased the articles found on him. He has been remanded by Alderman Sir George Carroll.

Two robbers entered the shop of Mr. Schwarar, a watchmaker of Sheffield, and carried off a large glass case containing watches and chains. A constable came upon the robbers as they were lurking about the streets at night, and they ran away : he discovered that Mr. Schwarar's shop-door was open ; and the abstraction of the glass case was noticed. Search was made in the neigh- bouring streets and alleys, and presently the case and its contents were found in a court.

The man Thompson, committed for the murder of Lorenzo Behn, at Tit- tleshall in Norfolk, preserves a perfectly stolid and unconcerned demeanour in the Castle, and does not appear to be at all impressed with a sense of the awful position in which he has placed himself.

It has been discovered that Mr. M‘Curtin, a Liverpool provision-merchant, has uttered a forged bill for 15401. It purported to be accepted by Sir David Roche, of Limerick; who has no acquaintance with M`Curtin. He has fled justice.

ustice.

There has been an unseemly fracas in Bridgwater church between the three Churchwardens. One wished to carry out a vote of the Vestry and replace a picture in a window ; the two others opposed this, and when the first em- ployed men to prepare the work interrupted them. The gas was put out, and there were abusive words and even a scuttle within the church. After carpenters had erected a framework the dissentient wardens had it-torn down and thrown into the churchyard. In the Cambridge County Court the Judge decided, last week—and very ;ugly—that a gentleman on discharging a servant has no more right to 'search her boxes than she has to ransack his desk. Mr. Warren, Recorder of Hull, has recently passed some severe sentences, .-in particular, one of eighteen months' imprisonment and five whippings on a boy named Regan. The attention of Lord Palmerston was drawn to the numerous whipping sentences, and especially this of Regan; and last week he directed that the sentence should be commuted to six months' im- prisonment and the remainder of the whippings dispensed with.

In consequence of some points at Patricroft being out of order, on Saturday morning, a train was across both the main lines at a time when an express. train approached : fog-signals had been placed on the rails, and the speed of the express was slackened, while the other train was put in motion ; but still a collision ensued. Two carriages were smashed, and several passengers were badly cut and bruised.

As the fast Scotch train from Euston Square was proceeding on its way Northward on Thursday morning, the axle of the engine broke near Berk- hampstead; the near leading wheel bounded off, ran up the embankment forty feet high, dashed through a hedge, and after describing a curve buried itself in the grass. The engine and tender toppled over ; the guard's break and a second-class carriage were thrown across the up-rails, and a first-class carriage, containing Barons Meyer and Lionel Rothschild, and four officers of the Guards going to a stag-hunt, and two ladies, one with an infant, turned round and stood across the rails. All the passengers got out of the carriage, but the ladies missed the child's nurse : she was found under the flooring of the second-class carriage, but still alive. Subsequently, the guard was found, breathing, under the wreck of his own break ; and while attempts were made to extricate the guard, the up-express was seen approaching. Fortu- nately it came at a comparatively slow pace ; but the collision with the debris threw the engine and tender off the rails. John Page, a farm-labourer, who had seen the first accident, also saw the ex- press coming, and with admirable presence of mind he ran towards it : when it entered the tunnel he stood at the other end, and as it emerged he waved his cap and shouted. He was observed, and this accounts for the slowness of speed at which the express arrived among the ruins. Another train now came from Euston Square, but was stopped by detonating signals. As the accident destroyed the telegraph, the line was blocked up for some miles by trains, before the intelligence could be sent on to Wolverton. The guard was got out of the wreck, breathing ; but he died on the embank- ment.

During the night of Monday, a train on the South Wales Railway was partially overturned in a cutting near Newnham, by a quantity of earth which fell from the bank, and forced the engine from the rails. The driver was found dead under the tender ; the passengers escaped with bruises.

A passenger on the South Wales Railway informs the Times of the escape of a train from peril by the vigilance of a man employed to patrol a deep cutting through rock. A train was stopped before it arrived at the cutting. The passenger got out, and found six or eight men removing a large frag- ment of rock—probably half a ton in weight—which had fallen upon the rails from the aide of the cutting.

A guard and a female passenger have been killed at the station in Great Howard Street, Liverpool, at midnight, by a locomotive suddenly coming along as they were crossing the rails from a train.

Windsor church had a narrow escape on Saturday night. The brick flues employed to heat the structure set fire to some adjacent wood-work ; but this was discovered in time to save the church.

John Smith, a confirmed drunkard, who was employed at some iron works near Sheffield, has been burnt to death through his favourite vice. While very drunk he lay down in the mouth of a coke-oven : his clothes were burnt off his back, and his flesh was "hanging in ribands," before he was sobered enough to remove himself from the place; and he died in the hospital.

Jesse Turner, a blacksmith employed on the North Devon Railway, has been killed by an explosion of gunpowder. Four hundredweight of powder had been placed in the smithy ; half of it was removed, and probably some had been spilled on the floor ; a spark set fire to this while Turner was at work.