t4t Ihunitato.

The election for East Gloucestershire began on Monday, in the Shire-hall, Gloucester. The contest, the first for twenty years, created an immense interest, as the Liberal party have not had a Member for that period. The hall therefore was crowded, and there was considerable -uproar. The Honourable J. Dutton proposed, and Mr. C. Hayward, a Magistrate, seconded, Sir Michael Hicks Hicks Beach ; and Mr. Guise, son of Sir John Guise, for whom he acted, proposed, and Mr. D. Ricardo, a Magistrate, seconded, Mr. Edward Holland. The speeches were not striking or novel. Mr. Holland carried the show of hands. The poll was taken on Thursday, and the result was—

Beach 3364 Holland 2343 Majority for Beach 1021

At a public meeting in Sheffield, on Monday,—the Mayor in the chair, —resolutions were voted, that it is the duty of England and France to -compel the Russians to recross the Pruth ; if necessary, by force. Upon these resolutions a memorial to the Queen was founded, and proposed to the meeting by Mr. Isaac Ironside. It contained the following para.- EraPh-

" That, insubmitting these facts and resolutions, it would ill become your Majesty's memorialists to refrain from alluding to certain painful rumours calculated to create alarm and distrust amongst the British people ; and they would at the same time beg most respectfully to suggest that the beat way of dissipating these rumours would be by a frank, honest, and hearty move- ment on the part of the Government, in the manner herein described." The Mayor strenuously and with success objected to this paragraph, as foreign to the question, without foundation, improper and impertinent in a memorial to the Queen. The allusion to Prince Albert was therefore struck out, after some altercation.

The credulity of the present age is astounding. It was a common ru- mour in Norwich on Monday, that Prince Albert had been committed to the Tower l—.&esi a Correspondent. [This " credulity " is not peculiar to Norwich : a friend of ours, a clergyman of the Established Church, met the same rumour in Nottinghamshire ; others in Newcastle and Southampton; and we find it has even descended to the household servants in London.]

At a very full meeting in Chester, on Wednesday,—the Mayor presiding, —resolutions were passed asserting the necessity of expelling the Rus- sians from the Principalities ; and affirming "that it is the duty aLd the interest of England to assist the Sultan in obtaining full justice from Russia, by the strongest warlike measures, and without delay." It was also resolved that the resolutions should be embodied in a memorial and forwarded to Lord Clarendon.

At a public meeting of the leading commercial men of Manchester, on Thursday, Dr. Bowring delivered an address on the decimal system, and on China. He enlarged on the advantages of fully opening the trade with China, the mere fringes of which we only touch at five points. He be- lieved that any demand for tea could be supplied. When he left China the exports of tea were 100,000,000 pounds ; the price was lower, and the article better. Respecting American competition, be said we must learn to look upon their success without jealousy. He believed the Government of the United States would act with us in a cordial spirit of cooperation.

A meeting was held at Ormskirk, on Wednesday, to consider the pro- priety of establishing a public library there. Lord dtanley presided, and delivered a speech on the subject full of sensible advice. It was resolved, on the motion of the Reverend C. Bush, to establish a public library.

In a recent charge to the Grand Jury, Mr. Warren, the Recorder of Hull, alluded to the unfair strictures lately passed upon his conduct on the bench, in a manner that did honour to his feelings and his position as a judge. Punishment, he took pains to show, should have nothing vin- dictive in it, but ho sat there to administer the law ; and when hardened offenders came before him, it was his part to inflict severe punishment Carrying on the topic, he asked how should offenders be prevented from getting into gaol ; and what should be done with them when they quit it ? The answer is, establish reformatory institutions ; a plan to which Mr. Warren frankly gave in his adhesion. "I have not the least hesitation in thus publicly declaring, and that in the most ardent and solemn language at my command, and as the result of all my own observation and experience, and communication with some of the best men of the age, that we must have, without delay, reformatory in- stitutions of some sort or other, or be held accessories before or after the fact to the destruction of great masses of the rising generation I protest, for my own part, that I never saw so many, such various, and overpowering motives to prompt, systematic, wise, and generous exertion, as combine to urge on us the establishment of reformatory institutions for the criminal youth of this country."

A school for the reformation of juvenile delinquents was opened at Newcastle on the 8th September last. The first master selected was un- successful in his mode of treatment, and some of the boys ran away. The second master has proved efficient. There are at present eleven boys in the school. Generally speaking, they are eager and quick to learn. Their principal inducement to stay would seem to be the better food, clothing, and lodging, which they enjoy. Nearly all of them have been in prison for theft.

Lord Palmerston, acting upon a report of the Commissioners of Lunacy, has ordered the authorities of Bristol to build a new lunatic asylum, in- stead of the present, which is inadequate to the wants of the city and dis- trict. The estimated cost is 45,0001. The authorities met on Monday, and after a long discussion adjourned for a fortnight ; Lord Palmerston's order to be printed and circulated in the mean time.

If any inference can be drawn from the augmented provision made for the reception of pauper lunatics, insanity appears to be largely on the increase. The Cambridgeshire, Essex, and Norfolk County Magistrates, are all about to expend large sums for this purpose, and a new establish- ment in Norwich is contemplated.

It is stated that the Bishop of London has intimated to the parishioners of Barking, Essex, that the clergy are on no account to refuse admission to the bodies of Dissenters into parish-churches for the purpose of having the burial-service read over them.

The severity of the weather in the Eastern Counties—to find a parallel to which the ingenuity of the "oldest inhabitant " was last week put to no ordinary test—has considerably abated. The snow has rapidly dis- appeared; but that usual concomitant of a thaw, a wide spread inundation, seems rather imminent.

The sum of 4001. has been raised at Ipswich to supply bread and soup to the poor of that town. Similar measures of extraordinary benevolence have been adopted at Norwich, Cambridge, Hereford, and many other places.

To the list of savings-banks which show the increasing prosperity of their depositors may be added the bank at Gainsborough, where the business of the past year shows an augmentation of 24581. 108.

It is proposed to erect a new corn-exchange at Melton Mowbray.

The sales of poultry at the late Birmingham cattle show exceeded 15001. ; and in the fourteen days during which the exhibition was open to the public it was visited by about 48,000 persons.

There was some negotiation last week between the workmen and a number of the employers at Preston, without immediate result. The funds of the locked-outs were flourishing-37051. was received, or 7611. more than in the preceding week. This week there has been a falling-off.

Mr. Hollins rang his factory-bell on Monday morning, but no workmen answered it : the delegates had notified by placard that Mr. Hollins was not going to pay a price tantamount to the " ten per cent " advance de- manded ; when asked, last week, if he would pay the same price as Messrs. Napier and Goodair, or the wages he gave before the lock-out, he answered both questions in the negative. Mr. Hollins has issued a reply. He shows by a tabular statement, that in 1847 he paid an average of 38. 9d. a loom per week [looms being mostly worked in pairs] : in October last that average had increased to 6; ld., though the hours of labour had been shortened by the law. Therefore he would now gladly pay only 10 per cent above the prices of 1847. He is not a member of the Masters' Association; will not interfere with the men's union—when they bet- ter understad their own interest they will voluntarily abandon it. He does not state the precise rate he will pay, but he pledges himself that a weaver will be able to earn 118. a week off a pair of looms, and he will give constant employ.

The movement of the Lancashire manufacturers to allow the Preston masters 5 per cent on the amount of the wages they pay is spreading. The Manchester Masters' Association have notified their adhesion.

The strike at Wigan seems to be giving way to a compromise. Messrs. Eckersley and Sons, the largest manufacturers in the district, have with- drawn from the Masters' Association, that they might be at liberty to em- ploy their bands upon terms mutually agreed on. Strippers and grinders are to have ls. a week advance ; rovers, slabbers, and tentera, 6d. a week,—half the amount originally demanded. Other employers have granted the same rates, and their hands have resumed work. On Satur- day, 3000 workpeople had returned to the mills—about half the manu- facturing population. More have come in this week, under an "impres- sion " that they will soon get what they demanded; but their sufferings from want were so great that they were glad to be again earning money. The strike has lasted fifteen weeks, and they received little support from other places. At Hindley the mills are still closed.

A Darwen " delegate " has absconded with 1601. which had been sub- scribed for the Preston operatives.

A court-martial was held on board the Wgterloo at Sheerness, on Monday, to try Mr. Lambert, Queen's pilot of Deal. He had charge of the Medea, 6, on her way from the Downs to Hull ; while under his care on the 30th De- cember, the Medea ran aground off Spurn Point, and her gig and cutter were washed away. Signals were made to the shore, and an unlicensed pilot boarded her and took her to Hull. The officers spoke highly of the conduct of Mr. Lambert before the accident, he was thirty-three hours on deck, in severe weather. Mr. Lambert pleaded the long exposure to the weather, and attributed the accident mainly to the fog and strong current. He was reprimanded by the Court.

Serious discontent, accompanied by violence, has shown itself in Devon- shire, in consequence of the rise in the price of food, wages remaining sta- tionary. At Topsham, the bakers bought off the menaced attack on their shops, by bribes of bread and money. At Exeter, the presence of the cavalry kept the malcontents in awe. At Crediton, on Friday and Saturday gen- night, there was a regular riot : windows were broken ; and to appease the crowds loaves were thrown from the upper windows and scrambled for ; produce was carried off at nominal prices, and butter was trampled in the mud. It was only on the report that "the soldiers were coming" that the mob dispersed. Women have been active promoters and agents in these disturbances. On Monday, the mob rose at Exeter, and broke the windows of the bakers' shops. The dragoons reduced them to order. They also went to the neighbouring villages and committed depredations. Several rioters have been arrested.

James Holman, a labourer of Crowan, a village in Cornwall, has been com- mitted for the murder of his wife. He seems to have beaten her on the head with the poll-end of a hatchet, and thrust her under the grate ; where the body ley when Holman called in some neighbours. He pretended that his wife, while drunk, threw a hatchet at him ; in retaliation, he pushed her, and she fell under the grate. But the hatchet was found concealed in a well ; and the cuts on the woman showed that she had been violently assailed.

A mysterious affair has occurred at Hunslet, near Leeds. A son of Mr. Longbottom, lessee of some mines, was recently married ; the couple resided at Mr. Longbottom's. Last Sunday morning, the young wife was found on the stone steps outside the house, in her night-dress, insensible, and bleed- ing from a wound in the forehead. The husband was missing ; by tracing the prints of naked feet in the snow, his corpse, covered only with a night- dress, was found in the river hard by. The hapless pair, from some unknown motive, seem to have got out of a window together ; for the doors were found fastened in the morning.

Emery Spriggs, a beer-shop-keeper of Westbourne, near Chichester, has killed his wife. They had a ball at their house ; both drank too freely ; after the com; any had gone, they seem to have quarrelled ; Spriggs took down a loaded gun, fired it at his wife, and shot her dead. He then called in a neighbour, and expressed regret ; and the particulars of the occurrence are only known from his own avowals. Usually, he was a quiet, inoffensive man. A Coroner's Jury has returned a verdict of " Wilful murder."

As a train was passing along the Bristol and Exeter line, near Nailsea, at night, a miscreant fired a gun at it. A bullet passed through a first-class carriage, entering by the glass on one side, and piercing the wood-work on the other. There were five passengers, but no one was hurt.

Five persons have perished by the collision on the Eastern Counties Rail- way between Hurling and Thetford. Hipperson, a fireman, Smith, carpen- ter, and Baldwin and Underton, plate-layers, were found dead in the ruins; the Reverend Joseph Bell, curate of Bunwell, and Fellow of Clare Hall, another sufferer, died on Sunday morning. James Latham, inspector of per- manent way, suffered seriously ; and twenty labourers were more or leas hurt. Besides Mr. Bell, two other passengers were wounded. Mr. Phillips, a silversmith of Birmingham, had both legs broken ; Mr Ellison, an ivory- turner of Norwich, was also hurt severely.

From the evidence at the inquests it appears, that a train conveying la- bourers to clear the line of snow left Norwich on Thursday afternoon. Mr. Latham, and Mr. Ashcroft and Mr. Mayhew, superintendents of the line, were in the train. There were two engines. At Marling there were danger- signals to stop all trains. A man named Briggs had been stationed to see to this; no engines were to go forward unless he piloted them on the down- line. But Mr. Latham and Mr. Ashcroft ordered the train to proceed for- ward on the up-line ; it did so ; at a few miles from the station it met a train from Thetford—also drawn by two engines—coming on the same rails ; the drivers of both trains were at first uncertain if the trains were on the same line ; when they saw they were it was too late to prevent a collision. The engines were reversed, the drivers leapt off, and a frightful crash followed. Latham's object in going on the up-line, contrary to the signals at Marling that no trains should go forward, was to clear that line, which he believed to be still encumbered with snow. The train from Thetford had been turned upon the up line at that station, by order of Mr. Howard, an inspector of the road. Mr. Howard was on the engine ; when the Marling train was seen approaching, he told the driver it must be on the down-line, as a man had been left at Marling to protect the up-line. The train started from Marling on the up-line against the station-master's consent. One of the offi- cers in the train excused the conduct of Latham and Ashcroft in proceeding on the up-line, because they fully believed it was obstructed by snow ; whereas, Peein fact, Howard had cleared it away with more expedition than had been ex-

The inquest on Mr. Bell and Baldwin the stoker was concluded on Thurs- day. Mr. Ashcroft offered himself as a witness ; but his evidence was not received. The Jury gave a verdict of " Manslaughter " against him.

A passenger-train on the Midland Railway, when it arrived at the Trent junction on Monday afternoon, instead of continuing its course towards Derby, ran on to the Nottingham line, and came into violent collision with a number of trucks : by some means the points at the junction had been re- versed. Many fractures, cuts, and bruises ensued.

The disasters to shipping on the North-east coast at the end of last week, and during a continuance of boisterous weather with falls of snow this week, have been very serious. Besides the great destruction of property by the entire loss or partial wreck of ships, in too many instances there has been a lamentable sacrifice of life. Near /rynemouth, on Friday, a schooner was in great distress ; a steamer was prepared and manned to go to her relief; unfortunately, the schooner's crew took to their frail boat, and as they ap- proached the shore they were plunged into the surf, and all perished : the steamer afterwards gamed the schooner and brought her into port. Many coal-ships were wrecked off this place ; some were dashed to pieces, the coals were strewed over the beach, and the poor people of the neighbourhood were allowed to carry off the fuel. Only two of the crew of a trading brig that was utterly wrecked were saved by a life-boat ; the huge waves washing off the seamen as they clung to the rigging before the boat could get near them. Two hundred sail belonging to the English coal-porta saved themselves by running in to Leith Roads : one of these was burnt there by the cargo's taking fire; but the crew escaped. A great many ships were lost on the Herd Sand, off Shields, on Sunday ; but, thanks to the brave fellows who manned the life-boats, no one perished: above a hundred mariners were saved during the night. Early on Tuesday morning, a schooner foundered on the sand, and all hands were lost. A brig is reported to have gone down with her crew at Hartley Baits ; a simi- lar lass occurred at Blyth. A Prussian vessel was spoken with, twenty miles 0111 Tynemouth, which had six men swept overboard ; two only of the Crew remained. A ship and crew were lost at Golestone. Between Leith ' ds and Lowestoft a hundred vessels are believed to have gone on shore

The Exeter and Crediton Railway, recently repaired after it had been damaged by one flood, has been again ravaged by a second inundation, ari- sing from the swelling of rivers by the melting of the snow. Traffic is again stopped.

Many cases are reported of death through the inclemency of the weather.

Fletcher, a plate-layer, perished on the railway near Heywood. A train stuck in the snow ; after a time every one abandoned it but Fletcher ; he was wet and benumbed, and would not leave the engine-fire. When the driver returned Fletcher was dead : he seems to have become insensible, and then to have fallen against the fire-box; his head and body were much burned.

Mary Pollitt, of Higginshaw, and James Fitton, of Buersill Head, in Lan- cashire, were found dead in the snow.

Humphries, a carter of West Lavington, perished on Salisbury Plain. In journeying with a waggon and two horses, he was overtaken by a storm of wind and snow ; the waggon got fixed ; he mounted one horse, and appears to have led the other : after some days his body was discovered in a plant- ation—one of the horses near him. The poor man appears to have lost his way, to have fallen from his horse, overpowered by cold, and slept the sleep of death. Had he remained in the waggon, he would probably have sur- vived, as there were plenty of sacks with which he could have protected himself from the cold.

A man has been frozen to death near Lowestoft. His watch was in mo- tion when found, but the heart against which it was placed had ceased to beat.

Richard Rattenberry, an aged inmate of Bath Workhouse, has perished in the snow. He went out of the house to give evidence in an assault case; at night he and another man and woman who were returning to the workhouse got drunk at public-houses, and Rattenberry fell down in the snow. His companions gained the house, but were too drunk to explain what had oc- curred. When the old man was found by the Police, life was almost gone, and he soon expired.

Ann Edwards, an old woman of Liverpool, has been worried to death by a mad dog, the property of her landlady, Elizabeth Jackson. Jackson kept the matter secret ; but the old woman was missed, the Police made inquiries, and the mangled body was found in the house.

Mr. Thurston, a nursery-gardener of Brockford in Suffolk, has been shot dead. He put a loaded gun in an oven to dry it ; when he went to with- draw it the charge exploded, either from the heat of the oven or from the lock striking something.

Clark Church had a narrow escape on Christmas morning. It was dis- covered to be on fire ; but by great exertions, especially on the part of Mr. Evans, a merchant of Liverpool who was staying at the village, and Jones, a tradesman, the main structure was saved. A very ancient communion-table was destroyed, and other damage was done. The disaster is ascribed to over- heated flues.

A third fire has occurred in the Roman Catholic convent in Bristol. The furniture of two bedsteads in the dormitory was found burning. This, like the two former fires, has baffled the attempts to discover the incendiary ; and the occurrence has caused much conversation among the numerous Catholics now resident at Bristol and Clifton.

An ice-house has been destroyed by fire at the railway station at Yarmouth A good deal of wood and sawdust stuffing had been used in its construction The melting of the ice produced much steam, but did not extinguish the fire A fire has done much damage to some chemical works near Chesterfield. It is supposed to have originated from freshly-made charcoal having been packed in boxes before it had been sufficiently cooled.

Three miners have perished in the Tron colliery, Noah Wales, from the chain of the skip breaking as they were descending the shaft : one struck against a scaffold, and was literally cut in two.

Erratum.—We regret that an inadvertent error occurred in the paper of the 31st December. Mrs. Webb was not convicted at Colchester Sessions : her sister pleaded guilty to the charge of shoplifting, but exonerated Mrs. Webb from all knowledge of her offence ; and the Jury acquitted that lady.