Sbe Vtobinces.

The committee appointed to select a candidate for the representation of Manchester, at the next election, have at length determined that Mn Bright, M.P. for Durham, be requested to stand.

At a meeting of Directors of the Manchester Chamber" of Commerce, on Wednesday, the following memorial for the opening of the ports was unanimously adopted, and despatched to Lord John Russell- " To the Right Honourable the Lords Commissioners of her Majesty's Treasury. "The memorial of the Directors of the Chamber of Commerce and Manufac- tures at Manchester showeth, "That your memorialists feel deep apprehensions at the prospects which threaten this district. Whilst the prices of raw materials have been advancing, the profits of trade have been diminishing, and important branches of our manufactures are now prosecuted under heavy losses. The depressing policy of our own country up to the last session of Parliament had long tended to fritter away our intercourse with several of our best customers, and the short interval which has elapsed since the change has not yet permitted us to resume the con- nexions which we once enjoyed; the price of food at home almost precludes hope that our people will have the means of purchasing clothing; stocks of manufac- tures are accumulating, and there are strong grounds for fearing that before win- ter shall have passed the demand for labour will be greatly lessened. Your memorialists feel, that any reference by them to your Lordships, respecting the present and expected stock of food on which the labourer has to rely until fresh crops be available, is not necessary; they content themselves with stating, shortly, that at the present moment, besides a great enhancement in the prices of meat and bacon in this town, bread has been advanced fully one-third, whilst oatmeal is selling at twofold and potatoes at threefold their usual price, and that they look forward with dread to the condition in which the people will inevitably be found in the spring of next year. "That, deeply grateful for the measures of relief passed in the last session of Parliament, your memorialists hoped to pass through the period of transition, and on the terms which the Legislature decreed, not only without despondency, but with a sustaining confidence. The dispensations of Divine Providence have, however, interposed, and, in the opinion of your memorialists, have thrown up= the Government further awful responsibilities. Extreme scarcity of food is inevitable; if labour fail, that scarcity will become famine. Prayers are directed to be offered up in our churches to have those evils averted; and yet one of our laws enacts, that whatever may be the price of wheat, the smallest duty to be paid upon the import of it shall be 4. per quarter; another law decrees that food brought into the country by certain vessels shall not be eaten at all by our people; whilst a third declares that nothing shall be used in our distilleries but thatwhich would serve as food. Your memorialists implore your Lordships to take instant steps to remove these conflicting and cruel anomalies, in such manner as the wis- dom of your Lordships may suggest. They believe that, to mitigate impending calamities nothing less will be sufficient than to admit into our ports every spe- cies of food necessary for daily subsistence free of duty; to permit it to be brought indiscriminately from every country by the vessels of any nation or flag; and to allow in our distilleries and breweries the use of sugar and molasses, without reference to the vessels which have already brought or may hereafter bring them to us. To this extent they humbly pray the immediate interference of your Lord- ships, believing that such a course will be approved by Parliament and applauded, by the nation."

The working men of Manchester met on Tuetday evening, in the Town- hall, "to memorialize Lord John Russell to open the ports." A memorial to that effect was agreed to, with the addition that the object should, be effected by an order in CounciL The annual cattle and cheese fairs were held at Leicester on Monday and Tuesday. The prices realized were rather high, sat tbe.sales are described as more than usually brisk. In a letter to Sir East Clayton East, published in the Reading papers, Mr. Walter, of Bearwood, joins issue with the Agricultural Associations on their favourite object of rewarding virtuous labourers; and in doing so he man- fully takes their fat brills by the horns. The immediate circumstance which has drawn out Mr. Walter is a speech delivered by Sir Clayton East at a late meeting of the "Royal East Berks Agricultural Association." On that occasion the worthy Baronet indulged in some comments on Mr. Walter's speech to his tenants and labourers at the recent rural fete at Bearwood. These comments Mr. Walter construes into a challenge to justify his own views. He begins with an argumentum de homine. Soon after the introduction of the New Poor-law, he says, the formation of agricultural societies was devised for supplying the benevolence "which it had been considered judicious to omit" from the new law; and a Mr. Bryan, originally a schoolmaster, was sent over the country "as the apostle of agricultual societies." "He became a distinguished patron of the poor, espe- cially the agricultual labourers, and publicly expressed a condescending interest in their case, in terms which even a duke might borrow." This Mr. Bryan by whom Mr. Walter was fruitlessly invited to join the Wo- kingbam Agricultnal Association became secretary to several societies and also to the savings-bank; but finished his career by absconding to Ame- rica, a defaulter to the amount of 2,0001.—"proving, by the smallness of the proportion he took with him, and his melancholy suicide, that he had not been deliberately dishonest, and was only the victim of an artificial, an illusory, and, I must add with reference to the effects, an hypocritical ikvatem."

Refering to the prizes awarded to labourers for bringing up families with- out parochial relief, Mr. Walter asks-

" How is it possible for an association of strangers to discover in ten minutes that which it takes a long, a very intimate, and very discriminating experience for an employer, a neighbour, a friend, to ascertain? If anybody were to send me a premium for the most deserving man in my employ, I should be puzzled, where all are good, to award it. To escape this difficulty, you descend to rough tints of merit—for example, BO many years' successive service with one employer. This is a mere escape from substantial justice into frivolous technicalities. A man may continue in one place more years than another man, because he has less ambition' less desire or power to better himself, or because his employer is wealthier, or his parish less populous, or for fifty reasons that have nothing to do with merit. If he has done without parochial relief, it may be simply because be is a stronger and healthier man, or has a healthier family, or has a private fund, or good friends or for some other piece of luck. His master may know all this, and take it into account: an association cannot. One thing is very clear—the

highest order of excellence will fare but ill among you. •

How is the sum of 308. given once a year to one steady elderly labourer in half a county to do the work of employing and feeding several thousand labourers and their families? You might as well think to clear a whole forest of wild beasts with two ounces of small shot. It is answered, that the encouragement is the effective principle. Unhappily, the halfp'orth of encouragement is neutralized by the enormous balance of material that tells the other way. To one honest industrious fellow who gets from an agricultural association a fiftieth of his de- serts, there are thousands, equally honest and industrious employed irregularly at starvation wages, and thousands not employed at all; besides the hundreds who, pour encourager tea autres, are driven to the union workhouse. On this point I think it right to confirm my own opinion byaqnotation from a charge of the late Lord Wynford to the Grand Jury of an adjoining county, in 1827—' Theft is the prevailing crime; unfortunately, from want of employment for the poor and low wages, the certain causes of this offence.' " But I return to my test. I am willing to stand by it myself, and I challenge the members of your association to stand by it also. Let any set of landowners in a parish or a district make it their object to employ their labourers regularly at liveable wages. Here is a competition rather more respectable, rather more worthy of an English gentleman, than the one which I have ventured to decline. Instead of trying to produce the fattest beast in the country, produce the greatest number of labourers most regularly employed, and at the best wages. We will compare notes, and exhibit accounts. Inasmuch as cattle are made for man and not man for cattle, so I venture to claim for my scheme precedence over yours. I have great hope that you will accept this challenge; because, however we may differ as to the means, I believe our end to be the same."

The conduct of Mr. Evans, Governor of East Stonehenge Workhouse, is the subject of a continued investigation before Mr. Graves, the Assistant Poor-law

Commissioner. Mr. Evans is charged with inhumanity to William Horswell, his wife and child, while inmates of the workhouse; and also with accelerating, by ill-usage, the deaths of three other inmates, named Eddy, Doddridge, and

Aishton. The inquiry, which had lasted some days and been adjourned, was re- sumed on the 9th instant, and many witnesses were examined. William Hors- well said he remembered Eddy's being taken ill while in the house in January 1845; he was ordered wine by the doctor. The man was pulled out of bed by Evans when unfit for work; and died in about a week. At the same period, Doddridge was in a decline, and the Master put him into a damp cellar to chop wood. Doddridge complained to witness of the bad treatment he experienced from a man named Wills, who had been appointed to look after him; and he had com- plained to the Master of it; but it was of no avail. He was removed to the bed in which Eddy had died, by two men, who took him by the shoulders and carried him there in a state of nudity. Mr. Evans was present. The rest of the evidebce of this witness went to show the inhumanity of the Master towards Doddridge and Aishton. Some evidence was given impugning the veracity of Horswell. The case was again adjourned, for the Master to prepare his defence.

A Coroner's Jury has been engaged, at Haverill, in investigating the case of John Webb, an old pauper who died in the workhouse of the Risbridge Union. The witnesses examined were—the son and a married daughter of Webb; Slater, a male pauper employed as nurse; Mr. Chater, a nurseryman, whose garden ad- joined the workhouse; Eliza Wybrow, Mr. Chater's servant; George and Samuel Nunn, his workmen; John Hurrell, a labourer; and Mr. Escott, surgeon to the Union. These facts came out. Webb was seventy-eight years of age; he had been in the Risbridge Infirmary for a year, and before that he had been living eight years with his daughter. Before he went into the workhouse, he was so in- firm that he could not do anything for himself. His children latterly found dif- ficulty in obtaining access to him. Marks of blows were observed on his face and body. About a month ago the daughter found him with blood trickling his face; and when she asked Slater what was the matter, the woman said, "You are a damned sight worse fool than your brother." Webb was then in a state of filthy neglect. When the son, Frederick, saw Webb, he was crying; and when the remark was made that he had been beaten, Slater said that he had merely hit him with a book, and did not hurt him. Frederick Webb told the Master that Webb had been cruelly treated. The Master exclaimed, that it was a downright lie; adding- " Why don't you take your old father out? tie is a damned filthy old man. He is as much trouble as ten." The neighbours confirmed these facts: they saw Slater strike Webb, and were alarmed at the violence inflicted on the bedridden man. Harrell saw Slater, one day, push Webb down on some stairs, and drag him up a few stairs by a cord fastened round the ankles, head downsea-ds. Slater then sent for Byforcl, a man of weak intellect; and they dragged the old man up the stairs, Byford pushing his shoulders and Slaterpulling the cord. Mr. Escott depo-

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sed that he had attended Webb in the Infirmary: he was labouring under great debili. ty; and had porter and mutton—in short, a liberal diet. Mr. Escott "did not attend to him particularly" until about six weeks ago: he was then told that the man had had a fall; he found a wound in the back, which he entered as an "ulcerated hip "; also a cut or two and a slight scratch on the head and face, which healed readily; but in the course of his daily visits he saw that Webb was evidently sinking. Mr. Escott examined the body in company with another gentleman,. and made a report, to the effect that there were no internal marks of violence or ill-usage, and only two slight external contusions, represented to have been pro- duced by a fall. He attributed Webb's death to water in the chest, arising from ossification of the aorta. In this first report no mention was made of the wound on the back; but some rumours having got abroad, the Guardians exacted a second report, in which that omission was supplied. The Coroner expressed strong dis- satisfaction with the medical evidence. The Jury returned a verdict of "Natu- ral death"-' but added a declaration of "horror and detestation at the cruel and inhuman treatment which it has been proved the deceased received from the nurse "; with further disapprobation of the Master's "gross negligence," of the paltry economy which dictated the employment of a man pauper as nurse, and of the attempts to prevent investigation.

An extraordinary explosion has occurred at the Walker Iron-works, on the river Tyne, near Newcastle. A quantity of foul air had by some unknown means

been generated in the air-pipes employed in the furnace-blast; this air escaped into some closets in the building, and accumulated there; a rnan.and a boy who entered the place were suffocated, and another narrowly escaped death. On this occurrence, search was made to ascertain whence the deleterious gas proceeded. There was a vast chamber erected for the purpose of keeping up a continuous. blast, a constant supply at a high pressure being forced into it by an air-pump; the air in this chamber had become foul—probably from gas generated in the fur- naces; a plug in -one of the air-pipes had come out, and the foul air had poured

through the opening. Two men proceeded to inspect the reservoir: they opened- a man-hole, and one of them Robert Rogers, was in the act of looking in' when a tremendous explosion occurred: the reservoir was shattered into fragments, Rogers was thrown into the air and killed, and the other man was hurt. Great damage was done to the premises, and hundreds of windows in the neighbourhood were broken. A workman's leg was fractured by a piece of iron which struck him. - Rogers and his companion had no light; the explosion is supposed to have been caused by the fire in the furnaces.

The cylinder of a large steam-engine at Castle Mills, Sheffield, has been rent to pieces, and the engine otherwise damaged, by an explosion of gunpowder, wil- fully caused. The explosion took place after the workmen had departed at night; the watchman was found at a safe distance, at a spot where he should not have been; and this, with other suspicious circumstances, has led to his apprehension. The mill was erected by Messrs. Marshall, for a grinding-wheel, apparently with the intention of thwarting unions among workmen.

Three men have been killed by an explosion of fire-damp in a colliery near Wakefield. The disaster, in all probability, was caused by the wire of the safety- lamp of one of the men having been in a greasy state: he had been warned of the- danger of allowing his lamp to be in such a condition; but it was admitted at the. inquest, that no one examined the lamps before the men entered the workings. The Jury appended to their verdict of' Accidental death," a sentence condemn.- lag the want of supervision with respect to the lamps.

A serious accident happened on the Eastern Counties Railway, very early on Saturday morning, near Bishop's Stortford. A truck-train from Cambridge had been delayed by the engine's getting out of order; while it was undergoing repair, the guard exhibited a red light some distance in the rear; when the train was about to start again, the guard ran towards it; hearing another train coming from Cambridge, he exhibited his lamp, and ran towards the coming train: it was too, late, and the second train, consisting of grain-trucks, dashed into the other. The. results were disastrous: the engine of the grain-train was forced off the line, and made a complete wreck; while sixteen or seventeen of the trucks were- smashed, and it took two or three hundred men several hours to repair the road- way. The damage is estimated at 3,0001. No person was seriously hurt.

Two more accidents are reported on the same ill-fated railway. On Monday,. the engine of s train from Hertford got off the line near Broxbourne, and, with the tender and a break-carriage, rolled down an embankment into a pond. Fmtn- nately, the engine had broken away from the train, which was left standing on the rails. When the engine-driver and stoker felt that the engine was off the rail, they jumped down and escaped; a guard who was in the break-carriage was= slightly hurt.

On Tuesday, a ballast-engine ran into some trucks on the Hertford line, be- tween Ware and St. Margaret's : the trucks were smashed, and the railway blocked up for a time.

- A serious collision has happened on the EastLancashire Railway, at Salford. A portion of the line is used by both the Bolton and Manchester Railway, and the Bury and Manchester. On Wednesday morning, as a Bolton train was stop- ping at Cross Lane station, a Bury train dashed into it, and the last carriage of. the Bolton train was smashed to pieces: fortunately, the passengers of this vehicle had all alighted; the people in the other carriages were much bruised and shaken. The engine-driver of the Bury train declares that he was not aware that the other train used to stop at Cross Lane on Wednesday morning.

A portion of the South Devon Railway in the vicinity of Teignmouth, where the line is carried upon a dry sea-wall along the beach, was so much damaged by recent gales that the traffic between Dawlish and Teignmouth was suspended for some time. A sea-wall of solid masonry, which was more exposed than the por- tion injured, was not in the least damaged. The Coroner's Jury which sat on the body of Hives, the man who was killed br- a navigator near Newcastle, has returned a verdict of" Wilful murder" against, the two navigators, Mathews and Hughes, the former as principal, and the latter as aiding and assisting. It appears that the fatal wound was a deep gash in the thigh, severing a large artery. There was no evidence of a previous quarrel be-. tween the deceased and his assailants; but there had been frequent disputes between the English and Irish employed-on the Newcastle and Berwick Railway. No fewer than three hundred informations were laid last week against the owners- of tenements in Liverpool for cellars which were either defective as respects ven- tilation' or were of insufficient size for human dwellings. It proposed to divan, of this formidable array by he, fifty summonses per diem.