Cht 1rattititto.
Two candidates have been named to fill the seat for Bath, vacated by Lord Ashley's succession to the Shaftesbury Peerage. Major Brathwayte was invited by the Conservatives, but he declined, and they are still seek- ing. The Liberals of all shades, "from Whig to Chartist," unite in fa- Your of Captain &obeli, R.N., of High Lyttelton ; a union which is considered to render his success certain.
Some fifty or sixty gentlemen, members of the Church of England re- sident in the diocese of Exeter, assembled in the Exeter Athenaeum on Saturday, and discussed the propriety of the course suggested by the cir- cular which convened them, of concurring in a "protest by the laity against the approaching Synod" in the diocese, on the 25th of June. Sir John Kennaway was voted into the chair. He stated that the Mayor of Exeter concurred -in the propriety of expressing the opinion of the laity, and had advised the mode of circulating a well-digested protest : the Lord-Lieutenant of the county, Earl Fortescue, had assented to and approved of the resolutions which would be proposed at this meeting. Mr. L. V. Palk, of Holden House, particularly disclaimed the least feeling of personal opposition to the Bishop of Exeter ; but avowed the conviction, that while it is a duty to maintain the Bishop in all his legal require- ments, it is a higher duty to maintain the purity of our Reformed Church. Mr. Palk, in proof of the highest sanction to the present proceeding, read the following letter, not before published, from the Archbishop of Can- terbury to the united parishes of Tomorham and Upton.
" Lambeth, Ma 21, 1851.
" Sir—I have the honour of acknowledging an address which you have forwarded to me as Chairman of the Vestry of the united parishes of Tomor- ham and Upton, in which you express your objections against the measure proposed by your diocesan of holding a Diocesan Synod, and desiring my in- terference to prevent the evils which you anticipate as likely to result from such a measure.
" I am by no means blind to the probability of such evils, and I greatly regret that such a measure should have been devised. Vut if it is not a transgression of the law of the land, it cannot be successfully resisted ; and if it does violate the law, I have no doubt that the officers of the Crown will interfere by means more effectual than I have authority to employ.
" I have the honour to be, sir, your obedient and humble servant,
" Wm. Kitson, Esq. J. B. CANTUAR." Mr. Palk moved the adoption of a protest against the steps taken by the Bishop in summoning the Diocesan Synod ; on these grounds—
That it is unnecessary for any Churchman to reaffirm the doctrine of " one baptism for the remission of sins," inasmuch as he affirms that doctrine every time he repeats the Nicene Creed ; that the proposed assembly, if not illegal, will be against the general practice of the Church since the Reformation ; that no emergency has arisen such as to require that the diocese should isolate itself, oppose the Metropolitan, and bring into question the supremacy of the Queen ; that the proposed deliberations will increase divisions, and by tend- ing to separate the Church from the State, may produce fatal consequences to the Monarchy and the Reformed faith : lastly, the protestors object to ex- clude many honest and conscientious clergymen who do not concur in the Bishop's interpretation of the article of the Creed on the remission of sins by baptism.
Mr. Montague Bere, Commissioner of Bankruptcy at Exeter, supported the protest ; which was adopted unanimously. Mr. J. March Phillips, Captain Foster of Dartmouth, and Mr. Bel- lamy of Plymouth, addressed the meeting with suggestions, including one for a county meeting. A committee was appointed to give effect to the protest.
At the last Chester Assizes, Thomas Smith, J. Feehan, James Haggarty, and Matthew Griffin, with another prisoner, since discharged, were convicted of a riot at Birkenhead, and sentenced to twelve months' imprisonment. A petition praying for a mitigation of the sentence received 17,000 signatures in one day. Upon consideration of the whole facts of the case, the Queen ordered the immediate discharge of the prisoners, and they arrived in Bir- kenhead on Friday morning.—Liverpool Mercury.
At the recent election for the Isle of Wight, a riot at Ryde so terrified Mr. Cole, an agent for Captain Hamond the Protectionist, that he fell dead. It seems that he was chased along several streets, pelted with rotten eggs and turf, pulled by the hair, and knocked down ; he rushed into the house of Captain Christian to escape his persecutors, and dropped down. It was stated at the inquest, that a post-mortem examination showed marks of disease of the heart ; the membranes of the brain were congested with blood, and there was an effusion of blood between the scalp and the skull : but these things would not account for the death. The Jury gave this verclict-ps " Manslaughter against divers persons unknown."
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