Zbe Vrobiritts.
A very numerous meeting was held in Leeds Music-hall, on Saturday, to promote the restriction of hours for factory-labour. Mr. Joshua Hobson, Secretary to the Leeds Short-time Committee, was called to the chair. The principal speakers were, Mr. Bulmer, a surgeon, who dwelt on the physical evils of labour too long protracted ; Dr. Hook, the Vicar of Leeds, who dwelt upon the moral evils ; and Mr. Richard Oastler, who, in a speech developing his well-known views, admitted that the new Factory Bill introduced by Government was a step in the right direction. Resolutions were passed, recommending a simple Ten- hours Bill ; but expressing a hope that even in the present measure the labour of " young persons " (between the ages of thirteen and twenty- one) would be limited to ten hours a day for five days of the week and eight on the Saturday. Thanks were voted to Lord Ashley and the Parliamentary supporters of a Ten-hours Bill, to Mr. Oastler, Dr. Hook, and the Chairman.
Anti-League meetings have been held at Shap, in Westmoreland ; Borpeth, in Northumberland; Ripon, in Yorkshire; Farringdon, Read- ing, in Berkshire ; Bridgewater, in Somersetshire.
At the Farringdon meeting, the Earl of Radnor attended; but being told that the meeting was one exclusively of friends to protection, he withdrew.
-' At Bridgewater, it was not an open meeting, but a dinner, intended to counteract the effect of the late county meeting, at which a Free-trade petition was adopted after a Protectionist resolution had been carried. About three hundred gentlemen and farmers sat down to the meal. The Chairman, Sir Alexander Hood, asserted, on the authority of another gentleman in the room, that the agents of the Anti-Corn-law League bad brought over three hundred persons from Taunton to force their own views on the late meeting. Arrangements were made to procure petitions from every parish in favour of protection.
A meeting of tenant-farmers was held at Harlestone, on Friday ; and, in spite of some slight opposition by a Chartist, Free-trade views were stoutly and generally asserted, and the following resolution was carried by an overwhelming majority- " That the Corn-law, whilst injuring the consumer, has failed to benefit the producer of English corn, inasmuch as it has fixed the expenses of cold- -ration without securing a corresponding price. That the duty on malt has proved a serious injury to both producer and consumer."
A petition founded on this and other resolutions was adopted unanimously.
The Anti-Corn-law League have had some successful meetings—at Preston Theatre, where 8951. was collected; and at Saddleworth, 2501. collected.
A deputation of the Free Church of Scotland has met with a signal defeat at Cambridge. Mr. R. M. Fawcett, the Mayor, defended the Established Church of Scotland ; and so well did he play his part, that at the close of the meeting, three groans were given for " O'Connell, the big Beggarman," three for " Candlish, the little Beggarman," and three cheers for " the Mayor and the Established Church of Scotland."
At Northampton Assizes, on the 7th instant, Nathalie Miard, a lady- like and vivacious Frenchwoman, was tried on a charge of having de- manded, on delivering certain letters to the Reverend Herbert Charles Marsh, 10,000 francs-4001. Mr. Marsh, Rector of Barnack, near Stamford, is nearly thirty-six years of age, unmarried, and is son of the late Bishop of Peterborough. Placed in the witness-box, be himself narrated his connexion with the prisoner. He became acquainted with her at a notorious house which he sometimes frequented in London ; and the acquaintance was subsequently renewed in Paris, and continued -with uncertain intervals ; during which, under various pretexts, she wrung considerable sums of money from him, ranging front 101. to 300/. : Mr. Marsh specified several sums paid, to the amount of more than 1,0001., besides 321. to be allowed during the life of a child—for she represented him as the father of one child, who died, and but for a fall, he would, according to her, have been the father of a second. When his payments ceased from exhaustion of means, she sent letters threat- ening exposure, and followed him into the country. In these letters she alluded to " Clarisse"—the attaebee, said Mr. Marsh, to a French theatre, with whom he was acquainted eight years ago ; and she also mentions a Miss St. Clair, to whom he admitted baying offered 51., which was returned to him. Mademoiselle Miard's last demand was 30,000 francs, to open a maison de jeu. Jaques Mutzig, a house-porter from Paris, Augustus Gougenheim, an interpreter, and William John Joseph Kemp, interpreter, deposed to conversations in which the girl said that she would make Mr. Marsh, " a rich man and a clergyman," give her money. For the defence, the prisoner's counsel contended that there was at least a probable cause for her demands, which de- prived them of the character of felonious extortion. The Judge left it to the Jury to say whether or not there was such cause ; and they re- turned a verdict of " Not guilty " ; at which there was applause in court. A second and similar indictment was suffered to drop. A third, for conspiring to extort money, was not pressed, on Miard's entering into her own recognizances to appear when called upon for trial and to keep the peace.
At Aylesbury Assizes, on Tuesday, the Reverend John Day, Rector of Hawridge, was tried under an indictment for having maliciously and feloniously wounded seven sheep, the property of William Weedon, in July last. Mr. Day lodged in the house of his tenant, Mr. Glenister ; and adjoining to the land occupied by the tenant, was Mr. Weedon's pasture. The sheep strayed on to Glenister's land, and Mr. Day told Mr. Weedon that he had impounded them. The other replied that that was all nonsense ; for if the sheep had strayed, it was over Mr. Day's fence, and therefore it must have been his own fault. The Rector ex- claimed, " Then I'll go and prosecute the sheep." He accordingly went to a stable where he had " impounded " the sheep, hamstrung them with his own hand, stabbed them about six inches deep in the flank, and drove them to their own pasture. Mr. Weedon, coming by, accused the Rector of having cut the sheep. He denied it, telling the prosecutor that he was a liar I Afterwards he offered to pay 2/. in com- pensation. The defence was, that the Rector thought he had a right to kill or wound the animals trespassing ; which negatived all notion of malice, and entitled him to an acquittal. Accordingly, the Jury ac- quitted him ; and he was discharged, with an admonition from Lord Abinger, who desired him " to profit by the grace and the mercy which had been shown to him, in acquiring a knowledge of the laws of his coun- try and the rights of his neighbour."
The Manchester Guardian states that true bills of indictment for bribery have been found by the Grand Jury at Durham Assizes, against. Mr. George Wilkinson and Mr. John Ward, agents to Lord Dungannon at the election in April last. The defendants put in bail to take their. trial at the summer Assizes.
Messrs. Fielden still refusing to pay the amount of Income-tax at which they are assessed, a Sheriff's officer took possession of their. factory at Todmorden, last week. In consequence, however, of the popular excitement in the place, the officer relinquished his post; and, proceeding to Manchester, he took possession of the warehouse belonging to the firm. A sale of goods under the seizure took place on Monday. last. Sufficient to cover the claim and expenses, about 400/., having: been realized, the sale closed.
A terrible boiler-accident happened at Bradford, on Saturday morning.. The engine-tenter at Mason's Mill was just about to ring the bell to summon the factory-bands to work, when he heard a " phizzing "- noise, and then an explosion, the boiler having burst. It was blown from its bed, and torn open. A boy who was near the place was thrown to a distance of twenty yards, and picked up dead. Four others were dreadfully scalded, three of them dying soon after ; and several persons were more or less injured. One side of the building was forced out ; and clouds of bricks, dust, smoke, and steam, were blown against the neighbouring houses. The damage is estimated at 1,0001.
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