Zbe Vrobintes.

Mr. Shelley has retired from the contest for Shoreham; and Lord Alex- ander Gordon Lennox, third son of the Duke of Richmond, is likely to walk over the course, unopposed.

Oxford Convocation met on Friday, to consider the proposed new form of examination-statute. More than 300 members were present; nine out of thirteen of the proposed votes were adopted, three rejected, and the last with- drawn. The proceedings settle the details of the first public examina- tion, and of the second examination as far as the first three schools are con- cerned. The principle of establishing the schools of Modern History has been affirmed, but the details have to be reconsidered. Two proposed altera- tions have been rejected,—namely, that which would take the nomination of Examiners from the Vice-Chancellor and Proctors and assign it to eer- tain boards, and that which would allow a system of compensation between merits and defects.

A grace was carried in the Cambridge Senate on Wednesday, author- izing the Vice-Chancellor to abandon the opposition to the rating of the Fitzwilliam Museum.

About 180 gentlemen have sent in their names as candidates for mathe- matical honours at the ensuing B.A. examination; and rather more than 200 as questionists, not candidates for honours.

A banquet to Mr. Milner Gibson and Mr. John Manchester, took place in the Corn Exchange i evening. About 500 persona were present; anion shim, M.P., Mr. George Wilson, Mr. W. J. Fox, M.P., Mr. J. Williams, M.P., Mr. E. R. Langworthy, Member for Stockport, presided. Mr. Miner Gibso self to respond to the toast of "the Borough Member Looking on the events of the eight years during which h chester, he saw grounds of satisfaction with the past, o Great changes had been effected. Public opinion had been f to constrain reluctant majorities of both Houses of Parliam pride in his good fortune in being one of the rank and file w' great victories. The " Manchester School " was enee tori ser meant that the changes had been of a qr r to the insinuation was not true. The repeal t as to imports and exports, but one e found Mr. Disraeli stating that tb t class. The Manchester men h ed Tat the farmers should have the vote b tia A y would dissolve the Parliament—' it

1:18 /3,l al) dot Wh

OF Flit eats tection" and Tory Representatives are now asking, ly the thing

clamwc, on upon the ground that the present Parluunen when they

'': has lasted The Lancashire Public School Association held a conference on Wed- nesday, at the Mechanics' Institute, Manchester. Mr. Henry, M.P., was called to the chair. Mr. Lucas, the Chairman of the Association, ex- plained its principles,—that education should be national, unsectarian, supported by local rates, and governed by boards popularly elected. Mr. Biggs, of Leicester, defended a national system; contending that the vo- luntary system in education was as inefficient as a voluntary poor-rate would be. The Reverend Mr. Walker, of Oldham, believed great in- jury had been done both to religions and secular education by the attempt to unite the two. This system would leave the Sunday Schools devoted to religious instruction. He would have education compulsory. 1i Mr. Hole of Leeds supported the same view of compulsion. It was op- 1 nosed by Mr. Lucas, as being at present impossible; by Mr. Robinson of hailmslow, on account of " the present disposition of the people "; and by 31'..' `r"- --"^-, 1-Tall of Liverpool, on the principle. The Reverend Mr. Manch, twelve voluntary schools had been shut up in carried, ...... few years. A resolution was unanimously the country. -station of district associations throughout In the evening a great meet

bers present being computed at five Ay. held in the Trade Hall, the num- the chair. Letters, regretting inabilitj„, r six thousand; Mr. Henry again in bishop of Dublin, Lord Melgund, Mr. 11 to attend, were read from the Arch- the Reverend E. R. Larken, Mr. R. Cha 7..wart, M.P., Mr. Thomas Carlyle, M.P., Mr. Roebuck, M.P., Mr. Cobden, nbers, Miss Martineau, Mr. Mikes, eloquent speech, Mr. Milner Gibson ga M.P., and others. In a long and proposed system of education; a really n‘.13 his cordial concurrence to the of all religions persuasions could share its 13s\ tional one, inasmuch as persons ivantages, and also because the -if the ratepayers. He doubted 'vely mixed system of educa- thing which can be called re- ope that we are near the end the moral and intellectual and sacrifice the country's lefendimg the principles of .• the present means of edu- lied the meeting.

control of the funds would be in the hands the sincerity of those who advocate an excl tion, when even in the Universities there is n ligions instruction; and he concluded with a of that melancholy selfishness which negle welfare of the millions upon whose industry greatness is based. Mr. W. J. Fox followed; the Association, and exposing the insufficiency o cation. Dr. Watts and Mr. T. Smith also addrel ?3right, the Members for that town on Tuesday them, Mr. James Ker- " P., Mr. J. Pilkington, .P. Mr. Kershaw, the first presented him-

a."

had represented Man- hope for the future." and powerful enough mt. He took some I carried out these at for these vic- tial or local cha- of the Corn-laws tween Commer- tenant-farmers never denied ballashd

to the country'—we say, let it be so en e ve been advocating, under the cireumstan. by all mean& (Cheers and laughter.) Is it not precis , , a shorter too long? Take our receipt of triennial Parliaments, and take the ballot, and you at once accomplish for them the thing they ask. (Laughter.) But observe, there is this fallacy in the arguments which they now raise: they ask for these things to get a numerical majority in the Howe of Commons m favour of a restoration of protection, but would they try to carry it if they had such a ma. jority ? I say, I believe you always had a numerical majority; but it is not through them a Minister holds his office, but through the force of public opinion, Why, it was a numerical majority of Protectionists that repealed the Corn-laws! (Cheers and laughter.) I believe there was a Protectionist majority, and a very large one, in the House of Lords, when they repealed the Corn-laws."

Corn, sugar, and ships—here were the three great measures they had carried, involving great political and social consequences. "I have glanced at what I believe will be some of the consequences of a repeal of the Corn-laws. You will get from some of your agricultural districts good Liberal Members returned—men advocating reform and retrenchment. The effect of the equalization of the sugar duties will be that the eyes of the country will be opened to the fallacies the old Colonial system." The old Colonial policy went to cajole the colonist with the notion that he was getting some advantage from the British Government, and in- daced him to submit to conditions he will not consent to when colonies are placed on the footing of independent nations. "I say, let us ask the colonists to defend themselves—to govern themselves; and the end of the present measures will be, through that means, the beginning of great retrenchment in our expenditure." Four millions sterling, spent in " attempting to govern," might then be saved. The whole question of tariffs and duties was not yet settled; nor could there be much reduction of duties without looking the national expenditure in the face. He thought that beyond the interest of the National Debt there was a large mar- gin, worth attending to. He was not frightened at that large-sounding and not very generally understood norneoclature—the Consolidated Fund. "I don't think any contracts, although they may be settled by act of Parliament, are permanent, if they are not rightly settled. I consider them not binding in the way some people do. I believe every farthing taken from the pockets of the taxpayer should have an adequate return. I believe that the Government should have only as much income given to it as will pay for the services to be rendered; that men should feel that they paid for that which was bona fide rendered them in service, and nothing more. If you were to adopt some such principle as that, you would make a most tremendous sweep in the British expenditure." (Cheers.) Successive Governments, Whig or Tory, must be dealt with as a sort of corpora- tion—as something with a perpetual existence. Mr. Gibson continued to expa- tiate on the subject of financial reform; referring to the constant attempts on the part of the Military, Naval, and Ordnance departments, to dip into the pockets of the taxpayer; to the waste of the Crown lands,—instancing the returns for the New Forest, nil since 1840, though in not a single year bad they missed sending venison to the neighbouring clergy; and affirming that Mr. Cobden's reduction of ten millions was not "so visionary as people would have us to believe."

There are indications of increase of revenue. Let the overplus be applied to the reduction of duties that press upon industry,—the duties on soap, on paper, and the stamp-duties upon newspapers and advertisements—" a vital question in the cause of political progress." " The question is, are the people of this country going for ever to submit to excise duties, crippling their industry, taxing their knowledge, limiting the employment of their labour and capital, for the sake of paying for offices that are not necessary to good and efficient government, for the sake of mere tradition, and the keeping up institutions whose utility has passed away?"

He had hopes that the farmers were looking around them with a view to aid financial reform. Mysterious intimations in many speeches led him to think the Church was "not quite safe in the hands of the agriculturists." One speaker in Norfolk thought the tithe rent-charge was intended to support something more than the clergymen,—perhaps church-rates, perhaps poor-rates and other matters. It clearly showed that the farmers were beginning to think of these things; and the consideration must be advantageous. The agricultural body, having lost protection, had no longer any interest in bad government.

Mr. Gibson concluded by asserting his belief that "all power comes from the people, is given by the people, and is only to be held at the pleasure of the people, —an important maxim, upon which alone society may be secure either from foreign danger or domestic troubles."

Mr. Bright followed, with a defence of free trade; "through which the country is emerging slowly, steadily, but surely, from a state of disaster and difficulty which has rarely been paralleled." " We find throughout all conditions of the manufacturing and commercial dis- tricts of the country, employment becoming more abundant, and wages, notwith- standing the price of food, tending rather to rise than fall. We find food every- where more abundant than we have known it for twelve years past. We find poor-rates, in the vast majority of the unions in England and Wales, gradually, and in many of them rapidly, falling; and we find, that which we expected to find, that the great bulk of the labouring classes, for whom we worked as much as for any other class—that they have the means of living and of comfort extended to them to a degree which they hardly ever knew before."

He confirmed Mr. Gibson a view of the change among the agriculturists. "The landlords are, in fact, at bay; the tenants are distrusting them; they are opening their eyes to their true position; and the very instant they become disabused of the notion that protection can ever be recalled, you will find from that moment they will begin, not to combine with the landlords for the commission of injustice upon the rest of their countrymen, but to join with us for the reduction of taxa- tion and for the enforcement of good government, while at the same time they will insist upon a due regard to their own interest and independence in all future con- tracts with the proprietors of the soil." (Cheers.) He would ask a question or two on the threat of restoring the Corn-laws. " If there could be now an attempt to reenact those laws, don't you think that hundreds of thousands of persons who never yet consulted the clauses of the Re- form Act, or the principles of our Constitution, would begin to ask very unplea- sant questions about the distribution of our representation, and about the consti- tution of our House of Lords? Suppose men were to begin to ask questions like this, for example—' Why should about four hundred gentlemen, who are called Peers—men who, generally speaking, have not been born in circumstances to give them greater wisdom than other men—who have never had the ordinary stimulus to great exertion—who have never had the common inducements to comprehend that which is actually for the well-being of the country—whyshould four hundred gentlemen sit there, and legislate there, with no responsibility to anybody upon earth ? ' " (Loud cheers.) After passing over old ground concerning the lavish expenditure of the Govern- ment, and the defective nature of our representative system, he stated his opinion, " that the time is come when every man who values the welfare of this country, who is anxious for the contentment of its people, who cares that the prosperity and industry of the people should not be unjustly taxed, ought to look to the con- stitution of Parliament, and to see if that is not the spot whence arises so much of evil and whence springs so mach hopelessness of good. I would have in this town, in every town, in every county, associations formed upon this broad prin- ciple, that the House of Commons should (as our constitution professes that it should, or that it does) represent the great bulk of the property and the intelli- gence of the population of the United Kingdom. If we are to have absolutism, let us have it in its naked and unmistakeable form. If we are to have an oligarchical government, let it be acknowledged; and having made up our minds to it, let us submit. But if we are to have a popular government, a representative govern- ment, wherein the taxpayers have influence, and upon which the people can bring their opinions to bear, let us have a fair and plain and free popular representative government, such as our constitution would persuade us we already have." (Loud *erg.) Mr. George Wilson said, "if the agricultural interest believe that under this free trade they are unable to compete with the foreigners, then they must deal with the landlords, and rents must fall: and if that be still insufficient to meet their difficulties, they must become financial reformers, in order to reduce the taxation of the country."

Mr. W. J. Fox made a short but animated speech on the popular topics of the evening.

The annual meeting of the Cirencester Agricultural Association was held on the 7th instant. After the usual show, about two hundred assem- bled to dinner; Earl Bathurst in the chair. The Reverend H. Cripps, re- turning thanks for the toast of " The Bishop and Clergy of the Diocese," addressed the meeting on the aspect of agricultural affairs. He regretted the badness of that aspect, present and future; but " there were so many nostrums put forth for curing the present complaints in agriculture, that it was difficult to tell which to choose." One party proposed the abolition of the Malt-tax, another was for throwing certain local taxes upon the Go- vernment. He was for neither proposition.

For himself; he did not care a farthing about protection. He had sold wheat this year at 101. per load, and had got as fair or even a better profit than he had got last year at 15/. (Interruption by the farmers.) He was not afraid of the times. There were many present with a larger capital and more experience than himself, who had spent a large sum in manure and feeding. He had never spent a fa.-thing, but had confined himself to increasing his labour; and he had by that means made two crops grow where only one grew before. He advocated an in- crease of expenditure in labour on farms, instead of reducing the labourers' wages. The remedy for agricultural distress was in their own hands. From his experi- ence as chairman of the Board of Guardians of the Cirencester Union, he could ea that he had seen families of labourers driven into the workhouse at a cost of fifty pounds a year who might have been kept out for fifty shillings. (" Wehaven't the power!") If the wages of those men had been raised two shillings a week, they would have been kept off the poor-rates. He contended that those who im- proved their land by the employment of labour were doubly benefiting them- selves. At present the depression was alike in all trades; and the remedy which he suggested to them was, "that they should farm no more land than they had capital to cultivate, and that they should make the most they possibly could out of it.

Lord Villiers, M.P., did not think the occasion fitting for a declaration of opinion upon measures to come before Parliament, or relating to the agricultural interest; but he would venture to say one thing—that those who told the farmers that the agricultural interest was likely to be driven into a corner, and utterly destroyed, talked of that which they knew no- thing about.

Did they think that an interest which represented the mass of the wealth and intelligence of the country could be so treated ? He urged them to cooperate in the maintenance of one great principle—a fall application of capital to the land in order to secure the best return for it. The farmers' present difficulties were to be met by their own exertions—(" Oh, oh! "and interruption)—aided by their land- lords. Any system which would produce the greatest quantity of corn from the land would be doing the most good for the country. (" No, no! " and disappro- bation.) He was sorry to find there were gentlemen present who appeared to think that raising a large quantity of corn was not doing a great deal of good. (" No, no !") 'After some general remarks, Lord Villiers adverted to the reduction of wages. "Did it never strike them, that by making a reduction of wages they were reducing their power of production ? Was it possible, if they paid a man less wages, that he could do so much work? A great deal depended on themselves in seeing that their money was properly laid out. (A Voice—" Suppose we have none to lay out? " and satirical laughter.) There were so many there more able, more practically acquainted with this matter than himself—(A Voice—"No doubt! ")—that he would leave it in their hands."

Mr. Mullings, M.P., looked upon the meeting as evidence of the sym- pathy of landlords with their tenants.

The time was arrived when it was the bounden-duty of the landlords to assist their tenants in obtaining relief from the extraordinary and unjust burdens thrown upon them by the Legislature. Unless the farmer were relieved from some of his existing burdens, or unless they returned again to bare protection, the farmer could not escape from his difficulties. Turning then to the argument that the produce must be increased by high farming, he observed that the foreigner could do the same thing; and therefore they would be in the same position in the end.

Mr. Holland, formerly M.P. for Worcestershire, replied to Mr. Mullings by comparing the course of the Corn-laws here with the course of pro- tection of cloth in a country of "the far West." It had been there found impossible and unnecessary to restore protection. Mr. D. Bewley proposed the "health of Mr. Mechi." He remarked, that he should discontinue his premiums to labourers who had avoided parochial relief, because some of the great landlords about him were doing their best to drive the labourers into the unions, by refusing to let them have cot- tages. In two parishes, to his knowledge, this system had in one year cost 1691. An opposite policy would have cost the landlords a mere nothing. Mr. Mechi advised them to " send men to Parliament whose opinions were their own. Such men would soon set the matter right." He urged the importance of increasing our production by every means, and defended the high farming system. Mr. Mailings inquired how it was that the farm at the Cirencester Agri- cultural College had never paid its rent, although admittedly in the highest state of cultivation?

Mr. Mechi replied, that it was like.his own; it would pay in a year or two more: it had not had sufficiently fair play yet.

At the annual dinner of the Leicestershire Agricultural Association, on the 7th, Mr. C. Kilby, a tenant-farmer, made some pithy remarks.

Things would become worse than at present if the agriculturists acted on the assumption that nothing but a return to protective duties could save them. Protective duties were too remote to be trusted to for relief: something else must be done. It was a common saying at such meetings, that landlords and tenants "rowed in the same boat." But, in his opinion, the property of the tenants was en deck, and was being swept away with every wave that broke over the vessel, while the property of the landlords was securely stowed in the hold. (Great ap- plause.) What would they think of officers on board a ship who refused to sacri- fice any of their own property, while that of their crew was being thrown over- board? That was just the position of the landlords and tenants at the present time; and if they wished to save the vessel, the officers must make some sacri- flees as well as the crew—the landlords must sacrifice a portion of their rents. (Cheers.) He did not wish to be disrespectful to the landed gentry.

Re asserted that the labourer had not suffered by the repeal of the Corn-laws. And how much had the landlord suffered? He was sorry to have to say anything

that was unpleasant, but he could not suppress truth—the landowner had not suffered any loss. The rents of the country were no lower now than at any former period. On the other hand, the reduction in all kinds of produce was a saving to the landowner; and the repeal of the Corn-laws was actually putting money in his pocket. The farmers should insist upon equitable agreements, upon compensation for their buildings and improvements; and take care against being eaten up by game and gamekeepers. (Applause.)

The East Kent Protection Society met on Saturday,—Sir Brook W. Bridges, the President, in the chair,—to receive en address prepared by a sub-committee for presentation to the Queen. It merely stated the mis- chiefs resulting from the withdrawal of protection, and had no prayer at- tached to it: wherefore Mr. W. 0. Hammond moved an addition, in the shape of a petition to her Majesty, that she would "recommend her Par- liament to take the subject into their immediate and serious consideration." Mr. Deane moved, as a second amendment, a petition for the dissolution of Parliament. Mr. Plumptre and others thought this " premature." Mr. Hammond's amendment was carried by a considerable majority.

In Oxfordshire, the Duke of Marlborough has had eleven farms, varying from 300 to 800 acres, thrown upon his hands; not a tenant to be had on any terms.

In a memorial to the Archbishop of Canterbury, a number of the clergy of the Deaneries of Dover and Eltham have protested against certain doc- trines preached by the Reverend Mr. Gambier, at the recent visitation at Dover. His Grace replies-

" The impression left on my mind was not different from that expressed by yourselves. But I should not choose to pronounce a positive, still less an official opinion, without seeing the sermon as well as hearing it : more especially in one sentence, which I afterwards mentioned to Mr. Gambier as having appeared to me most objectionable, he explained as not having in his intention reference to the subject to which I had supposed him to apply it."

The Reverend W. F. Powell, Vicar of Cirencester, has refused to admit Mr. Thornton, Scripture Reader appointed by the " Gloucestershire Scrip- ture Readers Society," to the communion. In reply to the remonstrances of the Society, the Vicar says—" I beg to decline offering any explanation of my proceedings with the people committed to my charge, to the Com- mittee named by you."

The Worcestershire Chronicle reports the refusal of a clergyman to officiate at the marriage of a lady who had not been baptized, her father being a Baptist. The matter was placed in a solicitor's hands; and an opinion being obtained against the legality of the refusal, a formal !lotto* was served upon the clergyman, threatening that if he persisted in his de- termination he would have to defend it in the Ecclesiastical Court. The reverend gentleman thereupon consented to act: which he did with an attempt at obstruction by ultra rigid punctuality and so forth; but the "happy couple" beat him at literalities and exactnesses, and thus ex- torted the coveted blessing.

The miners of Newcastle, desirous to enlist the public sympathy and in- fluence in favour of legislative protection against the fearful lose of life by colliery explosions, are issuing a series of monthly tracts to elucidate the necessity of some preventive measure being enacted for that purpose.

The strike on the part of the engine-drivers and stokers employed on the East Lancashire Railway still continues, the differences between them and the company not having been arranged. A new set of men are now employed on the line; and considerable inconvenience has resulted in con sequence of the trains being delayed in some instances beyond the us time. The company are taking measures which th them shortly to obviate any inconvenience result' with their late servants.---Liverpool Albion.

were found guilty, and sentenced to to to two months.

At Liverpool Assizes, on Tuesday, wounding his wife with intent to mu at Manchester, in which, at the era so pathetically reminded the Bench • still her husband. He seems to ha man's fidelity: he pleaded at the t wife—he knew not what he was charge. Sentence of death was 1 portation.

On Wednesday, John Robinso veral forgeries in Manchester, tures of persons having accoun' the applicant as a means of g tamed 1,5001. The verdict r transported for twenty years.

On Thursday, Patrick Jo children. The case was a d he lost his wife and one chi' overturned; while in this throats, and then cut his

J.

able fences

A district court-martial has been hel3 Dragoon Guards, for misconduct at Lo a at bnemeid, on five men of the Third from barracks, and three escaped after t' jnghborough. Two absented themselves ey had been placed in confinement. AU ms of imprisonment varying from twelve John Barnsley was tried for cutting and er her. This was the case that occurred nation before the Magistrates, the woman t the culprit, wicked as he had been, was e had some groundless suspicions of the wo- "al that he was drunk when he attacked his oiog. He was found "Guilty" of the whole renounced, but it will be commuted to trans- n was tried for forgery. This man effected se- ondon, and other places. He imitated the signs- .s at banks, advertised for a clerk, and then used suing a forged check cashed. He had thus oh- 'as " Guilty," and Robinson was sentenced to be eph Catkin was tried for the murder of his two ful one. Culkin was in distressed circumstances; d by cholera, and was so affected that his reason was state, he killed his two other children by cuttingg their man was very evident ; o /own, but not mortally. The insanity of the unhappy account.

,nd the Jury returned a verdict of " Not guilty," on that John Lee was tried • i Lee was a blacksmith: J a quarrel arose; in the for the murder of Thomas Richardson, at Manchester. fichardson went to his shop to demand payment of a debt; ran towards Richards° progress of which Lee snatched two irons from the fire, Jury convicted the pr p

transported for life. -a, and thrust them into the lower part of his body. The

At the Liverpool ner of manslaughter only; and he was sentenced to be

charged with being oliee_offiee on Thursday sennight, Patrick 1PCafferay was

circumstances. 31 , found secreted on board an emigrant-ship, under suspicions of Chapman, Bee . George Bennett, a gentleman employed in the establishment the ship Albert G

and, on rummag , and Co., stated, that on Wednesday he went on board ther search, the 'ing, he found three women secreted in flour-barrels. On a fur- tin, then in the river, she being about to sail for New York, fur- than three feet / prisoner was discovered stowed away in a small box, not more oven before thy . long by about eighteen inches broad. The box had to be broken have been fat his confinemm ,prisoner could be got out, and he was then much exhaustedi by t: had he remained there much longer, the consequences must ,_aPPeared in c L The prisoner was discharged. In a short time afterwards he box. Mr. 11- surf, and created much amusement b' asking if he might have hii You were no liton refused his application; adding, "Go along with you; it is well t smothered in your application;

Mr. Beckwith, the late Secretary to the Leeds Infirmary, who embezzled up- wards of 1,0001. of the funds of the charity, has been sentenced to seven years' transportation. The three poachers charged with shooting Mr. Riddell, of Cheeseburn Grange, have been examined by the Newcastle Magistrates. There seemed to he no doubt that one barrel of the gun borne by Mr. Riddell's keeper went off accidentally while the keeper was stupified by ill-treatment, and Mr. Riddell received the charge. The butler called out that the poachers had shot his master; and the keeper then fired the other barrel, wounding a poacher in the thigh. The poachers were remanded on a charge of cutting and wounding the keeper only; the more serious charge being abandoned.

A mill-dam has burst near Todmorden • and the torrent of water has washed away the gable-end of a factory, doing damage to the extent of 1,4001. The wife of a beer-seller hearing the noise, opened a back-door to see what was amiss: the water rushed in, and mach ale and other property was destroyed.

An explosion of fire-damp having occurred in a pit near Wigan, the colliers, twenty or thirty in number, hurried to the shaft, and were drawn to the surface in batches. As the first basket left the mine, a youth attempted to spring into it; a man caught hold of him, and thus hanging out of the basket, the ascent was made; but the descending basket struck the unhappy youth: on reaching the sur- face, his head was found in the basket; his mangled body had fallen to the bottom of the shaft, minus a head, a leg, and an arm. Several men were much burnt by the explosion.

A boy has perished in the woods near Finsthwaite in Westmoreland, during a mow-storm. He had been sent on an errand ; on his return he left the high-road and attempted to pass over some hills; beset by the snow, he seems to hare lost his way, and wandered about till he was exhausted.

Peter Pulford, a workman of Birmingham, was in the habit of amusing his fel- lows by turning summersets; and at last he thought he would extend his accom- plishments by imitating banging. He suspended himself, other men looking on: presently he turned black in the face; the workmen immediately cut him down, but he was dead.

Two lads at Fenton Vivian resolved, for amusement, to descend a shaft recently sunk: one was let by the other down in the basket; near the bottom he fell out: a labourer descended to endeavour to rescue him; but the foul air overpowered him too, and both perished.

A father, mother, and daughter, have perished in succession by a singular ac- cident, at Wednesbau. John Pettifer occupied a small house erected on a mound of refuse from a mine. The daughter was sent at night on an errand; she did not return in reasonable time, and the father went to seek her; he too returned not, and the mother hastened in search of both daughter and husband: hours passed, and no one returned to the house. At length a boy aroused a neighbour, and a search was made. A large hole was discovered near the house, the crown of the pit having fallen in; • and. into this chasm the unfortunate people had suc- cessively fallen. Two or three days elapsed before the bodies could be got out. It is supposed that the sufferers perished from foal air before they reached the bottom of the mine.

The Hereford Journal mentions an inquest at Leighton, near Buildwas, on the body of Thomas Lloyd, a Mennonite, who perished in the Severe while baptizing a young woman by moonlight.