Vrnuturro.
Mr. Layard has followed the example of Mr. Lowe and Lord Stanley, and has addressed a meeting of his constituents, at Aylesbury, convened by his desire. The gathering took place on Wednesday, in the County Hall ; Mr. Acton Tindal presiding. Mr. Layard's address included in its scope an account of his " unfortunate affair " with Admiral Dundas ; an autobiographical sketch of his recent public career ; speculations on Tur- key and its destinies ; the merits of Lord Raglan ; the general conduct of the war ; and Mr. Roebuck's Committee. The novelty was the auto- biographic sketch.
After his return from the East, Mr. Layard accepted the post of Under- Secretary for Foreign Affairs when Lord Granville was Secretary ; and when Lord Derby took office, the Tory Premier handsomely offered to con- tinue him, until Lord Stanley returned from India, when a diplomatic ap- pointment should be provided for him. His political friends thought he might accept that without compromising his honour ; but Lord John Russell was of a contrary, opinion, and when Mr. Layard knew that, he declined the offer. When Lord Aberdeen formed his Administration, Lord John Russell, in consideration for Mr. Layard'e claims, offered him the Secretaryship of the Board of Control; but a day or two afterwards he appealed to Mr. Layard to give up the appointment in favour of Sir Thomas Redington, who was " unprovided for,' and who had " greater claims." Mr. Layard readily gave way. He declined an offer of a Consulship in Egypt; but agreed to accompany Lord Stratford de Redcliffe to Constantinople, hoping to be of some use to the public. Differences arose between them; Mr. Layard returned to Eng- land ; and took that line, which, of course, precluded him from expecting anything from the Government. It was said he had acted from personal and disappointed motives ; but Lord John Russell, in 1863, had promised him the next vacant office ; and had he chosen to remain silent, the next vacant office would have been his. Lord Palmerston succeeded Lord Aber- deen : the new Government was pretty much the same as the old; on Mon- day week, a few hours before he made that speech "of which you probably have heard," Lord Palmerston offered him the Clerkship of the Ordnance. But he felt that the duty of the Government at the present moment is "to put the right men into the right places" ; he knew nothing of the Ordnance, and felt it would have been a betrayal of his principles to accept an office in which he could not serve to the best of his ability. On the following day, the members of the Government with whom he more especially disagreed re- signed; and last Friday Lord Palmerston offered him the peat of Under-Secre- tary of War. " Although I was not over anxious to take that office, yet, having expressed strong opinions on the war and on the conduct of the war, I thought, if I did not accept office, I might expose myself to the imputation of having been ready enough to criticize others but of being afraid of incur- ring any responsibility myself. When, therefore, Lord Palmerston offered me the Under-Secretaryship of War, I made some few conditions,—that I should have a certain influence, and that those views which I had expressed should be carried out ; and I thereupon accepted office under Lord Palmer- ston. On the following day, Lord Palmerston told me, that for certain rea- sons he could not hold to that offer, and that he had to withdraw it; but in ita place, he, at Lord John Russell's request, offered me the Under-Secre- taryship of the Colonies." But he was not particularly acquainted with the Colonies, and could not accept an office he was not capable of filling. " At the same time, in declining this office, I told Lord Palmerston that if I found his Government merited the confidence of the people and my own con- fidence, I would give him every support in my power." Mr. Layard counselled Lord Palmerston to place men at the head of af- fairs who are " the types of the day and the spirit of the age" ; predicting, that if he did so, he would be the strongest Minister that ever held office in England.
The meeting, by resolution, approved of Mr. Layard's conduct ; and agreed with him that a radical change is necessary in the system of Army promotion.
Mr. Vernon Smith is to be opposed at Northampton by Captain Napier Start, of the Grenadier Guards. He is a nephew of Lord Cardigan, and has returned wounded from the Crimea.
Mr, Llewelyn Dillwyn, " a moderate Whig, an advocate for free trade and the removal of religious disabilities—in favour of a more popular system of representation "—a, supporter of the war, and desirous of Army- reform—was elected Member for Swansea on Tuesday, without opposi- tion, in the room of the late Mr. Vivian.
There was a great meeting in the Birmingham Town-Hall on Thursday week—" a town's meeting," called by the Mayor on the requisition of four hundred inhabitants. The attendance has been estimated at six or seven thousand persons, and the Mayor presided. The object of the meeting was to support Army-reform and the demand for inquiry ; and two resolutions were adopted, one " imperatively " requiring "a full and searching inquiry into the causes of the disasters in the Crimea " ; the other declaring that the system of purchasing commissions checks military genius, and is unjust to officers, non-commissioned officers, and privates, and destructive to the best interests of the nation. The speakers were plentiful; but Mr. W. Mathews and Mr. George Dawson seem to have been ti e most conspicuous. Mr. Mathews said, if he carried on his business a; the Government carry on theirs, his name would be in the Gazette in a month. We will have no more of this jobbing ; it is a nuisance, and must be abated. However, he had just heard that " three of Lord Palmerston's most suspicious foremen had struck," and he was glad they had. They were "very designing, very clever, very doubtful, and altogether very suspicious men." Mr. George Dawson argued hotly for more than an inquiry—" a solemn inquest of blood" as he termed it. He imputed most of the evils to the "twenty Whig families—all, of course, born to govern." " They are all very amiable, but not very strong. You may write upon the best of them, when he dies, the epitaph Worthy, but weak.' " "Now, we demand that the whole system of England should be altered—not the Army only, not the Navy only, but all the Government affairs, all the Government offices ; that all appoint- ments shall be open to approved ability, tried by examination."
On the same day, a meeting of inhabitants of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, with the Mayor in the chair, passed resolutions similar to those passed at Birmingham.
Meetings have also been held at Preston, Leek, Nottingham, and Con- gleton, in the course of the week; at which resolutions were adopted de- nouncing the Government for the mismanagement of the war; strongly approving of inquiry ; calling for a reform of the whole of the civil de- partments connected with the war, and for the abolition of promotion in the Army by purchase.
Mr. George Thompson was defeated, last week, at Wakefield, in an at- tempt to obtain the vote of a public meeting against the war.
In the rooms of the Manchester Peace Society, on Tuesday, Mr. George Wilson presided over a meeting of manufacturers who desire peace. Mr. Robert Hyde Greg, Mr. Thomasson of Bolton, and Mr. Ashworth, made speeches. Mr. Wilson said that it was not intended " to take any action at the meeting beyond preparing the public mind for the conclusion of the negotiations." These gentlemen will reassemble next Tuesday.
At Carlisle Assizes, last week, Thomas Munroe, a miner, only eighteen years of age, was convicted of the murder of Isaac Turner, at Lamplugh. Turner, an elderly man, was in the employ of a mine-owner at Whitehaven; part of his duty was to carry i money to pits to pay the men. Munroe ap- pears to have waylaid him n the fields when he had some 10/. in his pos- session ; and to get this money he murdered Turner, by cutting his throat. The assassin was recommended to mercy. by the Jury, "on account of his previous good conduct." He protested innocence. He was sentenced to die ; Mr. Baron Parke holding out no hope of a remission of punishment on account of the Jury's recommendation.
Major Charles Colville Young, a distinguished officer of the Royal Horse Artillery, has returned from.the Crimea, where he was wounded, to perish in a strange way at Portsmouth. His wife and children reside at Ride ; on his way to join them, he arrived at the Fountain Hotel at Portsmouth, on the night of Friday last week ; on retiring to his bedroom, he told the " boots " to call him at seven next morning ; he seemed " rather excited in his manner." When the boots left him, he had partially undressed himself. The bedroom was at the top of the hotel, facing the street. About two in the morning Major Young hailed a Policeman from the window. He said he did not feel well, and wished to get quietly out of the house tea chemist's shop opposite, without disturbing the people, as it was so late. The Police- man went to the Inspector, to see what assistance he could give ; and when he returned the Major was lying bleeding on the pavement He was fully dressed, and had his hat, greatcoat, and umbrella. When found he was uncon- scious; he never rallied, and died in less than two hours, apparently from the rupture of a blood-vessel. Major Young was a tall man.; the height of the window-sill from the floor was only two feet four inches : it is supposed that the Major was seized with vertigo while leaning out of window, and fell over this low sill. The verdict of the Coroner's Jury was "Killed by acci- dentally falling from a window." By a curious coincidence, at the very time that the gallant soldier was thus killed by falling from a window, Mr. Lane, a commercial traveller, suffering from delirium, attempted to commit suicide by leaping from a window of a coffeehouse at Portsmouth : he fell forty-four feet, and yet sustained no serious hurt.
The steamer Morna, from Belfast to London, with troops on board, has been lost near Haverfordweet. The master, mate, and seventy-two soldiers and seamen, have got to shore ; but twenty-one seamen and soldiers, who left the wreck in a boat, are missing.
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