Zbe Vrobincts.

" The British Archaeological Association" met at Winchester on Tues- day. This is the second society bearing that title which has met at the same place this season. It consists, indeed, of seceders from the original society; the other portion retaining the original President, Lord Albert Conyngham, and all the original officers but one. The seceders have stre- nuously beaten up for recruits with a view to swamp the rival body; and accordingly they have got the Marquis of Northampton for a President, Lord Ashburton, the Speaker, Mr. Justice Erle, divers Deans, Professors, and other ecclesiastical and collegiate dignitaries; and the meeting opened with Mkt.

The Anti-Corn-law League has created some trouble to the Conserva- tives in East Gloucestershire, by its proceedings in the registration of electors; having made sweeping objections, one thousand in number. At a meeting of Conservatives in Gloucester, on Tuesday, a Committee was appointed to raise subscriptions for the expense of opposing the League, with the ulterior object of provoking the League to exhaust its funds!

The Lancashire Short-Time Committee met again on Tuesday, to receive the letter of Mr. Henry Ashworth, in answer to their request that he would call a meeting of master-manufacturers for the purpose of consulting with the men on the terms of a Ten-Hours Bill. Mr. Ashworth made no reply to that request; but, instead, he asked the names of the delegates at the meeting of the Committee, and of the places which they represented. The Committee declined to furnish the required list, and declared the correspond- ence closed. In explanation of this refusal on their part, the Times says—" It appears that Mr. Ashworth has been one of those masters who have dismissed men from their employment for the part they have taken in having presumed to act as members of the Short-Time Committee. It was considered, therefore, dangerous to send a list that might merely be a guide to the selection of new victims."

The Birmingham Journal announces that the price of iron is again rising. The iron-masters of South Staffordshire have advanced bar-iron 20s. per ton, and pig-iron 10s. The colliers have asked for a further in- crease of wages of 6d. a day.

" Rebecca " is at work again. A Hereford paper says—

"In carrying out the provisions of the late Act of Parliament relating to the Turnpike Trusts in South Wales, some of the gates in the neighbourhood of Bre- con have already been removed, the tolls reduced, and the distances between the other gates are about being equalized. Among the latter, the turnpike-gate near the ninth mile-stone on the Merthyr road is to be removed, and a new toll-house erected this side of the Story's Arms. This building was last week in course of erection, and in a few days expected to be finished; but lo! on Monday morning last, upon the workmen going to their work, the new toll-house had disappeared, and the men were struck with astonishment at the industry displayed by he par- ties who had in so short a period levelled their work."

At a meeting of the share-brokers of Leicester, on the evening of Friday week, it was resolved that a Stock Exchange should be established. It was also determined that each member should give security to the amount of 2,0001., and that all transactions be for money on delivery of scrip or transfer. The subscription pro- posed is 201. per annum. The number of share-brokers' offices there has recently =creased from four to ten.

We understand that the firm of James Hodgson and Company, iron shipbuilders of Liverpool, are building, among other vessels, an iron ship of 1,200 tons burden, the first of a new line of steamers to ply between New York and Liverpool, with engines of 180-horse power; also one of 900 tons burden and 100-horse power to ply between Liverpool and Rio Janeiro, the first of a new line of seven; also one for Buenos Ayres; all fitted with a screw-propeller and Grantham's patent direct- action engines.—Liverpool Times.

The tenants of George Witham, Esq., of Lartington Hall, near Barnard Castle, are much indebted to their landlord for his kind consideration in ordering the destruction of the game on all his farms. This has already taken place on some of them, and great benefit will be derived by the farmers from the preservation of the crops.—Leeds Mercury.

Mr. J. Paley junior, the Mayor of Preston, delighted his workpeople, on Satur- day week, by giving them a pleasure-trip to Fleetwood. At seven o'clock in the morning, seven hundred workers, male and female, left Preston in a railway train. At mid-day, the Mayor and his wife arrived at Fleetwood; and were received by their people with acclamations, and then escorted to an hotel; a band of music which accompanied the excursion-party playing the while. Mr. Paley provided a substantial dinner at the Victoria Hotel for such as chose to partake of it. After the cloth had been removed, the Mayor entered, and his health was drunk. He made a brief reply, full of good feeling: he observed—" The interests between masters and servants I have always considered reciprocal; and I think myself as much indebted to you foryour services as you are to me for the wages you receive for those services; for I feel that you can as well do without me as I without you. I have always thought that the working-man is not only entitled to such remu- neration for his labour as will suffice to procure for himself and family the neces- saries of life, but also obtain him the comforts and enjoyments of existence."

The inquiry at Andover, before Mr. Assistant-Commissioner Parker, into the conduct of Mr. and Mrs. Macdougal, the Master and Matron of the Union Work- house, came to an abrupt and unexpected close on Wednesday, the fourteenth day.

On Saturday and Monday, the witnesses deposed to a long series of improper freedoms which Mr. Macdougal had taken with several of the female paupers,. fourteen in number; one of whom declared that she had been to Mr. Macdougal in loco azoris, although his wife was living at the workhouse as usual. Some of. the witnesses said that they had not complained to Mrs. Macdougal, because they were afraid of her; others, because they did not like to hurt her feelings, as she had once attempted to hang herself on account of her husband's conduct. One of these witnesses was violently attacked by the Matron while leaving the work- house on Monday: the Matron afterwards pleaded excited feelings in excuse for her behaviour.

On Tuesday, the Assistant-Commissioner entered upon an inquire into charges of drunkenness. According to the evidence given by paupers and by inhabitants of the town, Mr. Macdougal's drunkenness was the common talk of the place: on Saturday nights, his wife would fetch him home, or send for him; and those who went in quest of him had to look into the severalpublic-houses on the way. He would stagger home, followed by the upbraidings of his incensed wife. At a public-house, once, while he was dozing in a fit of tipsy drowsiness, a person ap- plied a lighted paper to his nose; on which Mr. Macdougal looked up, and dozed again. ?he practical joker was a Guardian ! While saying prayers at the work- house, Mr. Macdougal once recited the Lord's Prayer twice; being tipsy. He would when in that condition place beer in the pulpit; and one of the witnesses, a female pauper, said that she had found it there and drunk it. One Sunday, in the summer of 1841, people were called up in the dead of the night to assist Mrs. Macdougal; whom they found covered with blood flowing from hurts inflicted by the blows of her husband in a drunken rage, while Mr. Macdougal was pouring forth a stream of oaths: he tried to fetch a gun, but fell down in the passage and lay there; and the gun was hidden by a pauper under a bed in the boys'-room. This charge closed the case on the side of the accusers.

On Wednesday, a letter from the Commissioners was read: it was addressed to Mr. T. C. Westlake, the Medical Officer; and it expressed the wish of the Commissioners, that instead of the present tedious and expensive inquiry, a different method of investigation should be adopted: they would therefore cause an indictment to be preferred against the Master for some one case of assaulting a female with improper intention, and an information to be laid before Justices of the Peace for embezzlement or misapplication of food; leaving Mr. Westlake to select one case for each kind of proceeding; but notifying, that beyond the preferring of the indictment and bill, they would not be answerable for any subsequent expenses either for the prosecution or defence. Meanwhile, they recommended the Guardians to suspend the Master and Matron until the result of the law-proceedings should be known; the inquiry by Mr. Parker also to be suspended.

We find in a daily paper the following record of a decaying sport. " The great pugilistic contest between Count, the champion of England, and Bendigo, of Nottingham, for 2001. a side, the belt, and the championship, came off on Tuesday; and was decided in favour of Bendigo, after a determined contest which lasted two hours and thirty-eight minutes, during which time ninety-three rounds were fought. In the ninety-second round, Bendigo struck Caunt a tremendous blow, which completely winded him; and in the following round was about to repeat the hit, when Count fell without receiving the blow; which, according to the rules of the ring, was pronounced to be foul.' Bendigo was therefore declared the

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winner. The fancy' were disturbed three times. The original locale was New- port Pagnel ; from thence they moved to Stony Stratford; then again to Whaddon Green; and ultimately terminated the battle at Sutfield Green, Northamptonshire, shortly before seven o'clock in the evening. The spectators had to ffillow the pugilists between thirty and forty miles. The second fight, between Maley and Merriman, did not come off." Mr. Searle, a woollen-manufacturer of Tavistock, who recently, failed in busi- ness, has been committed for trial on a charge of forging three bills of exchange, for 2001., 1231., and 25/. They purported to be accepted by Messrs. Foster and Fison, of Bradford, in Yorkshire; but when presented, they were disowned.

A man was killed at the Dover terminus of the South-eastern Railway on Monday morning. He was directed to move an engine through the Archcliffe tunnel; as he passed into the tunnel, he imprudently jumped on the step of the engine, and was jammed to death against the side of the excavation.

The Globe describes an accident on the Brighton Railway. As the seven o'clock mixed train from Brighton was approaching the Clayton tunnel on Mon- day morning, at a slow pace, a fog having made the rails slippery, a pilot-engine, proceeding to its usual station at Horley, came up with the train, and struck the last carriage, a third-class, which was unhooked from the train. The passengers in that carriage suffered a severe shock, and many of them jumped out. Another statement declares that no such accident occurred; but that the _people in the last carriage were frightened by a jolt from some unknown cause. [Should not every train have an empty carriage or truck behind it as well as one next the engine?)

Two horses were killed on the Midland Railway, last week, by a train running

over them. There is a curve in the line, about six miles from Nottingham, which prevents a person seeing any great distance up or down the line; and in conse- quence, between nine and ten in the morning, the train which left Derby a short time before, on approaching the tong Eaton Station, ran through a team of two horses which happened to be crossing the line with a cart from an occupation- road. The first horse was thrown into the air as high as the engine-chimney, and fell with his hind-part across the up-line; the shaft-horse was dragged along with the train, the geanng having caught a buffer, a distance of thirty or linty yards, when the engine was stopped, and his head was literally smashed to atoms. Fortunately, the lad who drove the horses escaped unhurt, as on seeing the train coming he ran to the hedge-side. The passengers did art perceive that any acci- dent had occurred till the train had stopped.

Mr. David Holsgrove, the overlooker of the Bishopwearmouth iron-works, per- formed a noble act of courageous humanity last week, possibly at the expense of his life. The iron-works extend over a vast tract of country; and, for the pur- pose of a speedy transit from one part to the other, railways have been established; one of which is formed on an inclined plane, down which the heavily-laden ww- gons are propelled at a fearful rate. On Thursday morning, while one of the waggon-trains was passing down, two very old women, each nearly seventy years of age, labouring under defective sight as well as hearing, got on the line. A few seconds more and they both must inevitably have been crushed to death. Their us situation,, however, was witnessed by Mr. Holsgrove; in an instant he

ed forward, seized the two females, and threw them off the line out of the was, of danger. Unfortunately, the engine at this instant came up and knocked Mr. Holsgrove down: he appeared to be dead. Ho was instantly conveyed to one ofi the buildings in the neighbourhood, and medical aid was sent for; when it was discovered that he had sustained several contusions about the head, that both his aerie were broken in two places, and also one of his legs, besides other injuries about the body. It is supposed that some part of the train must have gone over the limbs. Although so severely and dangerously injured, there are some hopes of his recovery. The two old women escaped without the slightest injury.

Two more men have been killed on the Lancaster and Carlisle Railway, now in course of construction. One tried to draw a horse off an incline as a number of loaded carts were descending it, and both man and horse were so injured that they died soon after. The second sufferer fell under a waggon, and was literally smashed to death.

On Saturday last a sad accident happened in Fancy Wood. Two trains were proceeding on the railway towards the moor, when the foremost went ahead of the other to arrive at the " turn-off," so as to admit of the waggons passing down with the copper ore; and the man in charge of it had not proceeded far when he heard the driver call out to the horses. Presuming that something was the matter, he looked back and saw that the toe of the man had apparently been caught in the wheel of one of the waggons, and in another instant his head was nailer it; which, of course, was immediately crushed. An inquest has been held on view of the body before A. B. Bone, Esq., Coroner, and a verdict of " Acci- dental Death" returned by the Jury.—Western Luminary.

An alarming accident happened the other evening at the meeting of the Phil- harmonic Institute, held in the Manchester Amphitheatre. At the termination of the first part of a concert, some fifty or sixty persons forming the male chorus retired to a room for refreshment; the floor gave way, and they fell into a lower room, a depth of twelve feet. Many were bruised; Mr. Sudlow, an instru- mentalist, suffered a fracture of his left leg; and, being in years, his life is consi- dered to be in some danger.

The village of Aberdare has been terrified by another colliery explosion. Some workmen in the Blaengawr pit, contrary to the positive instructions of the master, had placed an under-ground door in such a position that it obstructed the current of air, and the consequence was an explosion of fire-damp. Happily, only ffve men were in the mine. Three were dreadfully scorched; but they are ex- pected to recover.

A collier of Chorley has committed suicide by leaping down the shaft of a coal- mine which is 125 feet deep. He had separated from his wife.

A horrible disaster has occurred at the Dinting Vale print-works, in Glossop. By some means, a young man fell into a pan containing three hundred gallons of caustic ley, which was at a boiling heat. He was not missed for three hours; but then, when a workman stirred up the liquor and found some clothes in it, and the pan was emptied, at the bottom was found the skeleton: that, the heart, and some remnants of clothing, were all that remained; the ley having dissolved all the soft parts of the unfortunate man.

William Archer, a young man residing at Slough as gardener to Mr. Penn of Stoke Park, has been drowned at Eton, in escaping from the Police. He Lad assaulted two gentlemen at night, for which he was given into custody: on the way to the stationhouse, he ran away from the constable, and dashed into a deep mill-stream: it was dark, and as he could not be discovered in the water it was supposed that he had got across and made off: the body, however, was after- wards found in the centre of the stream.

Six houses occupied by poor people were destroyed by fire on Sunday night, at Andover. The thatch of one of them caught fire, and the rest were soon in a blaze. Twenty persons have lost all they possessed, by what is imputed to some act of negligence.

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