tht Vrntuurto.

That the agricultural and Conservative mind still looks for some com- pensation for the loss of Protection, is evident at every gathering of the popular supporters of Lord Derby. At Newcastle, on Tuesday, a dinner was given to Mr. Henry George Liddell, one of the Members for South Northumberland, by the Conservatives of the Division. They were in great spirits after dinner, and applauded the speakers to the echo. In the course of his speech, Mr. Liddell revealed his expectations from the Government.

" Without entering into a lengthened discussion upon the great political questions of the day, he might be permitted to say, that he went to Parlia- ment with the conviction that great reforms were needed in our financial system; and he thought he might also safely say, that it was by those reforms only that relief could be afforded to those interests which bad suffered and still suffer from the recent changes in legislation. But he had entire con- fidence in the ability of that great Ministerial seer who bad already. conjured up the vision of a financial system, which, though still looming in distant obscurity, would ultimately emerge from its source in the substantial and useful form of a well-framed budget ; which, while it provides for the neces- sities of the nation—while it maintains our national credit—will also give relief where relief is due, and, if he might be allowed to use a familiar ex- pression, will, by relieving the foot where the shoe. pinches, enable that foot to keep pace with the rapid strides which other rival interests are making. (Cheers.) Other Governments had year by year acknowledged the existence of great distress in the leading branches of internal commerce, but it remained for the present Government to frame measures for the relief of those interests; and he had little doubt both of their intentions and ability so to do." (Cheers.)

Similar opinions were uttered by the other speakers ; and confidence in Lord Derby's Ministry was the watchword of the evening.

Mr. Ord, late Liberal Member for Newcastle-upon-Tyne, has received an ovation at the bands of his former constituents, supported by two of the leaders of his party. They mustered on Wednesday, in the great Assembly Room, and dined together, some two or three hundred strong. A very enthusiastic spirit animated the company : they loudly cheered the praises of Reform and its progress during the fifty years which Mr. Ord had sat in the House of Commons, as those praises fell from the lips of Lord Grey, Lord Carlisle, and the local leaders. Next to warm eulo- gies on Mr. Ord, the topic which found most favour was the growth of popular power, from the disastrous times of the French Revolution, down to the present day, when, according to Lord Grey, " no measure which is demanded by the majority of intelligent and educated men can be long refused, and no measure which they object to has a chance of being carried " ; an assertion ratified by " tremendous cheers." In the speech of the Earl of Carlisle, who set up Mr. Ord as " a model and an exponent of sound good Whig principles," occurs the following passage, which by its heartiness merrily breaks the now stagnant stream of politics.

" I have heard it often said, and Mr. Ord must have heard it still oftener, and said too with much positiveness and confidence, that the Whigs, as a po- litical party, were extinguished, annihilated, done for, smashed ; and that Whiggism, as a political creed, was repudiated, spat upon, dead and buried. (Laughter.) All I can say, if this is true, is, that I have seen marvellous in- stances of political resurrection and political rejuvenescence. (Cheers and laughter.) Nay more ; even now, when the Whig leaders, the subjects of your late toast, have been removed from office—when we are enduring the sway of a Tory and Protectionist, and, perhaps more in will than in power, a reactionary Administration—I feel convinced in my own mind, that the old Whig principle is still full of youthful sap and vigour, and that, like the oak on Mount Algidos, it will continue to gather resources and vigour from each descending stroke. The party may be out of place ; their chieftains may be out of power ; they may no longer be on the sunny side of the street —if men choose to think it so ; but I do feel in my own mind assured that their opinions and principles will still pervade the conduct of public affairs, marshalling the march of Imperial Government." (Tremendous cheering.)

There were seven Members of Parliament at the dinner, besides local notables. The young Earl of Durham was present, and spoke briefly. He was there, he said, to show respect to an old friend of his father, and to the Liberal principles he advocated during his life.

In the market-place of Bury, the natal town of Sir Robert Peel, now stands a noble bronze statue to his memory, sculptured by Mr. Bally. It was unveiled with public solemnities on Wednesday ; Mr. Frederick Peel, Member for the Borough, Dr. Peel, Dean of Worcester, and Mr. Lawrence Peel, the son and brothers of the great Minister, were among the guests. They met on the lawn of a house called Chamber Hall, where Sir Robert was born; and thence, accompanied by a large and well-ordered pro- cession, they went to the market-place. An enormous crowd, probably 20,000, witnessed and ratified the ceremony.

The figure is ten feet high, and represents the statesman in his usual attitude when addressing the House. On one side of the pedestal the sin- gle word "Peel" is deeply cut; opposite the sentence so often quoted from his famous speech ou leaving office'in 1846. After the ceremony, there was a banquet, followed by oratory, in the Town-hall. The principal speakers were Mr. E. Grundy, Mr. F. Peel, Mr. T. Baxley, Dr. Peel, and Mr. W, Brown.

The harvest in the Southern counties is now held to be deficient both in quality and quantity. The heat of July and the rain of August equally contributed to spoil the crop. There is a superabundance of straw, but the grain has been much damaged by mildew and sprouting. North of the Humber, however, it is believed the crops have been quite up to the average in quality and quantity. The potato disease is pretty general ; and the loss is said to be likely to rival that of 1846.

Since the Great Exhibition, few things have so excited the followers of agriculture as the reaping-machine. Recently the Royal College of Agri- culture caused two—Hussey's and M'Cormick's—to be tried at Cirences- ter; and the task they had to perform was that of reaping one hundred acres of different kinds of grain crops. Five tenant-farmers and one country gentleman were selected to watch the trial and report the result. They have done so ; and while they publish some intelligent criticism upon the working of both machines, they conclude that both have done welL Nevertheless, the balance appears to be slightly in favour of M'Cormick's ; for the report states, that the judges " are of opinion, that of the two machines thus tried, M'Cormick's has the advantage in light- ness of draught, security of cutting and clearing itself under adverse cir- cumstances, and in the more convenient delivery of the sheaves." They conclude with a practical suggestion, that both machines may be much improved, " especially in providing for the cutting and proper delivery of heavy and laid crops, and for working without the risk of the wheels clogging in wet and soft ground; points in which they are as yet de- fective."

Recruiting for the Militia proceeds actively in the provinces. In some places it does not as yet appear to be, very successful ; but in others the number of volunteers is large. At Derby, so many appear before the Ma- gistrates to be sworn in, that it is thought the ballot will not be needed to make up the quota for the district. At Liverpool, 470 men had volun- teered up to last Friday ; in Coventry, the number is a hundred.

The men in the iron-works throughout the kingdom have recently de- manded an increase of wages, labour now being less abundant than em- ployment. An important step towards healing the differences which have sprung from this demand has been taken by the Staffordshire iron-mas- ters ; who have met at Wolverhampton, considered the matter, and con- sented to grant the increase of pay. They can afford to do it ; for the orders from America and elsewhere have recently been so extensive that their effect upon the market has been an advance of 108. upon Stafford- shire pig iron, and 20s. upon all descriptions of manufactured iron.

According to the Government returns, in the last month, sixty-one ships, with 21,907 emigrants, left Liverpool for America and Australia— an increase yf 522 over the month of July. In August 1851, the emi- grants were 16,714.

Coal-mines have hitherto successfully rivalled railways in the number and severity of the accidents attending their working. Some practical steps have been taken with a view to prevent these evils in future by the coalowners and mining engineers of Northumberland and Durham. They have established a society called "The North of England Institute of Mi- ning Engineers," having for its object not only improvements in mining, but especially the prevention of accidents. Tho society meets at New- castle-upon-Tyne, and numbers seventy members.

Interest in the Shottisham case does not seem to have abated. Elizabeth Squirrel has published a statement of her own, written by her father at her dictation. She denies that she is a "mad-brain enthusiast," or that a "mystic pall of fanaticism " ever covered her case ; on the contrary, "no- thing," she continues, " has been manifested but must tend to confirm the close existing union of the visible with the invisible world, for every chord of our life vibrates in eternity, and every seed is a germ of immor- tality." She admits the discovery of suspicious appearances mentioned in our last number • but contends that they were forgotten, and that she has not been subjected to the operation of the ordinary laws of nature for twenty-four weeks. She prays for another investigation. The whole document is of a wild, rambling character. It is accompanied in the local papers by two others : one from her mother, supporting her daughter's statement ; and another from Dr. Matcham of Ipswich, the physician who sustains the cause of Miss Squirrel. Dr. Matcham is quite satisfied it is " a genuine case," and he wonders how people can belie a "girt of such transcendent talent " and " exemplary piety." He appends the following specimen of her talent at repartee with great zest. "A sentence copied from the Journal; he says, " was yesterday coin- • municated to Elizabeth Squirrel by Mr. Hayward, farmer, which, together

with her reply, I enclose—' The editor or correspondent of the Journal terms yours the ravings of a diseased spirit.' She immediately burst into a loud laugh, and then exclaimed, 'It is rather paradoxical ; I thought in the spirit there was no combination of matter. Their hearts are better than their heads ; they are not used to writing on such subjects. I thought that the spirit was an essence uncontaminated by matter. The spirit is in- dissoluble ; it partakes of no other existence but its own, and we only know of a spirit by its gleaming through the apertures of its own organization. It would be very awful to see a spectre raving, because no physician can heal the diseases of an invisible ; and I fancy that the most subtile philoso- pher would find his wits cracked in attempting to conceive of a diseased spirit. However, we will let this matter rest, and earnestly pray that the journalist may never have to witness the ravings of a spirit this side of eternity, and I am sure I hope he never will on the other. Most devoutly would I pray that he may realize in the invisible world what the so-called diseased spirit has an ecstatic glimpse of now.' "

Dr. Matcham's asseverations are opposed by the report of the Commit- tee of watchers, composed of credible persons, who state that in their opin- ion the whole thing is a " fraud " ; and they detail a variety of facts ob- served by them in support of their opinion.

Robinson, a travelling draper of Doncaster, has been murdered and robbed in the vicinity of Sheffield. Two boys discovered the body last Saturday; it was lying in the dry ditch of a field near Eastbank, about a mile and a half from the town; the circumstances denoted murder : the head was shattered, the pockets were rifled, the man's hat was thrust into the hedge some dis- tance off ; no weapon was found. Two surgeons examined the body ; and they found that at the back of the head there was a shot-wound about an inch in diameter, and penetrating two inches into the brain, where were lodged fragments of the skull, and a quantity of No. 4 shot. There was another shot-wound behind the right ear. The shot in this wound had passed under the base of the skull, and lodged in the bones of the nose, fracturing the temporal bones, the floor of the orbit of the right eye, and shattering the in- ternal structure of the upper jaw-bone. The inquiries of the Police soon led to the identification of the body ; and it was ascertained from Robinson's employer, Mr. D. Barber, a draper of Doncaster, that in all probability the deceased had been robbed of money, a silver watch, and a pack of drapery wares. Subsequent investigation led to the arrest of a man upon what ap- pears to be the most damnatory circumstantial evidence. On Thursday, Robinson dined at Sheffield with James Barber, a young man, and with three other young men, all travelling. drapers. James was a nephew of Mr. D. Barber ; he had been in his service with Robinson ; but he was discarded for embezzlement. A silver watch, intended as a gift to him, his uncle gave to Robinson. At the dinner, James Barber was heard to offer to introduce Robinson to some good customers at Gleadless, a village five miles from Sheffield ; the two set out together about two o'clock, Robin- son taking his pack : he was no more seen alive ; the field in which his body was found was in the direction of Gleadless, but- quite away from any house or public footpath. At five o'clock, Barber reentered Sheffield, and left the deceased's pack at a public-house, where he carefully cleansed his clothes and boots. On Saturday evening, Robinson's watch was pawned, not by Barber, but by a companion of his—a young fellow named M'Cormack. Barber and M'Cormack were arrested ; on the former the pawnbroker's ticket for the watch was found ; M'Cormack admitted that he pawned the watch, but said he did so merely at Barber's request, to whom he gave the money. Barber denied his guilt.

The two were brought before the Magistrates on Tuesday. When asked if they wished to go before the Coroner, they said they had no objection. Barber displayed great coolness.

At the inquest, on Wednesday, Barber was produced before the Jury. He is thus described—" He was dressed in a snuff-coloured jacket and black waistcoat and trousers. He is a short muscular man, and rather inclined to corpulency. Phrenologically speaking, his head is more intellectual than brutal, the excess of head being before the ears. His forehead is high and prominent, but his face is singularly. stolid and heavy. He frequently spoke to his solicitor, in a calm, slow voice; and the furtive looks of his cousin, Mr. D. Barber, he never attempted to evade, but encountered them without relaxing a single muscle." The evidence substantiated in detail the facts stated above. Alexander Robinson was a Scotchman, twenty-four years old. At the spot where the body was found there were marks of a violent struggle ; a pool of blood was covered with long dead grass. So mangled was the face of the corpse, that Mr. Barber, Robinson's employer, could only recognize the body by a peculiar formation of the feet, by the hands, and by the clothes. The prisoner M'Cormack was allowed to give evidence. He stated that he had been employed by Barber in his trade ; he had pawned the watch at his desire. Barber accounted in various ways to different people for his sudden possession of a watch. The wife of a publican gave this evi- dence of a conversation with the supposed murderer. " On Monday after- noon, about two o'clock, the prisoner came to our house, and he had some chops. I said to him, Mr. Barber, what a dreadful murder this is !' and he replied, 'It is, poor young man.' I said, Have you been, to see him?' He replied, ' I would not see him for fifty pounds.' I said, You having been companions so long, if I were you I would have run to see him, and nothing would have stopped me.' He never said anything in reply; and I said, 'What looks stranger still is, that you have not gone to Doncaster to his funeral.' He put his hand before his face, but he did not speak. I then said, It will be a great loss to Mr. Barber' ; and he replied, Yes, it will ; Mr. Barber will lose five hundred pounds, for he had three thousand custom- ers about Sheffield.' I said, ' When did you hear of the murder ? " On

Friday night,' he replied." inquest nquest was adjourned to Thursday ; when additional evidence was tendered, tracing Barber to within half a mile of the spot where the murder was committed. The Jury returned a verdict of " Wilful murder against James Barber." He is committed to York Castle, for trial.

At a Naval Court-martial, held on board the Victory at Portsmouth, Wil- liam Alexander Williams, a gunner of the Royal Marine Artillery, has been convicted of mutinously striking Mr. Oliver, the master-gunner of the Dauntless. The prisoner was in irons on board that ship, for violent and mutinous language towards Mr. Oliver. One day, while that officer was standing with his back to the prisoner, Williams suddenly struck him with his fist behind the ear. The only palliation the culprit could offer was, that he had been exasperated by the degradation of being placed in irons in a most prominent part of the ship. lie was sentenced to be hanged, on board the Dauntless, at such time as the Admiralty should appoint.

Edward Dunn, a private of the Thirtieth Depot, stationed at Dover has committed suicide by throwing himself from the summit of the Shallspere cliff: his brains were dashed out and his body was dreadfully mutilated. The act was committed about eight o'clock in the evening; a woman who was walking on the cliff saw Dunn take off his hat, coat, and belt, walk to the edge.q, cliff, and throw himself over. From the evidence of fellow soldiers,

it the fellow had become deranged in his mind : unfor- ' not take sufficient notice of his strange manner and

restraint. To one soldier he said, am deranged in my mind, and it is more than I can bear!" The Coroner's Jury pro- nounced the deceased to have been insane.

The Post-office authorities having suspected that the revenue was de- frauded at Ipswich, an officer was sent there to detect the criminaL Joseph Sheldrake, a clerk, was caught in the fact : money was paid for packets to go by post, but Sheldrako pocketed the money, and affixed to the packets stamps which had been cancelled. He was arrested. At his lodgings were found a large number of stamps with obliterating marks on them. The offender had been married only three weeks.

On Saturday night and Sunday morning there was a tremendous thunder. storm over the counties of Worcester, Gloucester, and Hereford ; its greatest violence was felt in the county of Worcester, Westward of the Severn. For twelve hours the rain descended in torrents, accompanied with fearful light. ning and thunder. In Worcester city the damage done was not very exten- sive. The greatest ravages were inflicted on the valley of the Teme river, which runs from Herefordshire and Shropshire, and falls into the Severn about two miles below Worcester. Upon this river, and its tributary streams Laughern and Leigh brooks, the destruction of property has been very great. Most of the bridges upon these streams have been blown up, or are so far damaged that they will require rebuilding. The rise of water upon the Teme was the most rapid and the highest upon record, and no living man recollects a flood anything approaching to it. The effects of the sudden rush of water at Powick, the lowest village on the Teme before it falls into the Severn, were fearful. At this place an island is formed by the deviation of the stream, for the purpose of supplying the corn and china mills at the place with motive power. The water rushed across the island, flooding the few houses there, and rising six inches above the second floor of Mr. Hadley's grist- mill. Just below these mills are two bridges over the Teme ; one of them is built at a considerable elevation above the banks of the river and the adjacent fields, across which an elevated embankment carries the road. This embank- ment, which in the highest floods had never before been reached, was flooded up to the village of Powick, about a mile. The destruction of crops and live stock along the Severn valley has been "awful." Nearly all of the wheat had been got in ; but large fields of beans were swepkaway, and whole hop-yards—in which the valley of the Teme abounds—were destroyed. The damage done to the meal and grain in the corn-mills in these vallies is great; and the number of sheep washed away in the parish of Powick alone, is reckoned at 2000 ! Among the losers are the poor villagers of Powick, who have the right of depasturage on a common near the river called Powick Ham. The whole of the sheep on the ham were swept away. On Sunday, when the waters had partially subsided, carcasses of sheep were seen lying about in all directions.

At Hanwick Mill two men had a narrow escape : they were overtaken on the road by the flood, had to swim to a tree, and remain there for hours till rescued. At Stone Bridge, on the Leigh brook, a cottage was swept away, and a woman was drowned.

" Railway accident" again appears, this time on the Bristol and Exeter Railway, near Taunton. The morning express-train from London, carrying the Cape mails, was running round a curve, just beyond the Chard Canal bridge, when the engine and tender broke away, left the rails, and ploughed into the bank of a cutting ; the luggage-van fell upon the bank, having separated from the four passenger-carriages; these dashed onwards, one wheel got on to the up-line, and the vehicles came to a stand. The front compartment of the first carriage was smashed : fortunately, it was used for luggage. After the carriages had passed, the van fell back across the rails: this part of the matter was something wonderful; a corner of the van grazed each carriage as it passed, making a groove all along the train. Only one passenger was hurt—a gentleman whose forehead was cut by the rim of a hat on the head of a person sitting opposite to him. The railway men were less fortunate. Humberstone, the fireman, was killed—crushed into the earth, under the wreck of the engine and tender ; Eaton the driver's hand was smashed ; and a porter's leg and thigh were fractured. The tele- graph posts and wires were destroyed. An up express-train arrived imme- diately after the disaster, but stopped in time to esc .pe another accident. Assistance was semi got from Taunton, whither the wounded men were con- veyed. One surmise to account for the accident is that the train was pro- ceeding too fast round the curve.

While a train heavily laden with passengers was going at thirty miles an hour, at the Lenten Junction, near Nottingham, the engine burst, the pas- sengers were enveloped in steam and smoke, and the train came to a stop. Many persons left the carriages in their fright, but no further mis- hap occurred. The driver was much burnt and scalded ; but the stoker escaped by climbing to the far side of the tender. It appeared that a steam- tube had recently been damaged, and was soldered and plugged : the steam forced the plug into the fire. This patching of steam-tubes is denounced as very dangerous.

An aged woman has been killed on the railway at Baschurch, near Shrews- bury, by a train running over her at night. A railway labourer saw her on the line, and warned her that she was trespassing ; she replied, "I know all about it !" She refused to give her name, or say where she was going the man said he would follow her ; she exclaimed, "If you follow me I will knock your brains out 1" The man then left her. Poor people are in the habit of going on the line to pick up pieces of coke. A Coroner's Jury ,

gave a verdict of "Accidentally killed up and the railway man was repri- manded for not forcibly ejecting the deceased from the line.

Two men and a woman have been killed, and nine other persons have been hurt, two, it is feared, mortally, by the explosion of a boiler at Messrs. Smith and Co.'s bleach-works, Great Lever, Bolton. There was a great destruction of property. It is said that the boiler was new, properly stayed, and clean.

Another man has died from the boiler-explosion at West Bromwich, making the fifth victim. It appeared at the inquest, that the disaster was caused by certain stays having broken, which weakened the boiler so much that it gave way under a strong pressure of steam. The verdict was "Accidental death," with a caution to the engineer to be more careful for the future in looking to the condition of his boilers.