raularial.

At Liverpool, on Wednessay, Mr. William Brown, the rich merchant who represents South Lancashire, laid the foundation-stone of the Free Library and Museum, a building to be erected at his sole expense. The proceedings of the day began in the Town-Hall. Here Mr. Brown met a deputation of the Historic Society, and received from its President, MajorGeneral Sir Edward Cust, a highly eulogistic address, and similar addresses from other bodies. The gentlemen present, including Lord Stanley, Sir John Pakington, Mr, Momekton Mines, Mr. William and Mr.

Christopher Ewart, Mr. Nathaniel Hawthorne the American novelist, and the Bishop of Chester, formed in procession and proceeded to the site of

the new building. Alderman Holme, acting for the Mayor, absent from indisposition, addressed Mr. Brown, who had first volunteered to furnish 60001. towards a building-fund, and then took the whole burden upon himself " You have learned a lesson which a position of immense wealth, however anomalous it may appear, very rarely teaches. Your career, sir, has been

an important one, for you have lived in very eventful times. You have seen

this great port extend beyond anything this world has ever seen before for the accommodation of commerce. In the commencement of your career, in

1810, our dock space was only thirty-six acres, and it is now 209 acres;

while, in addition to the provision made on the opposite shore, fifteen acres more are in the course of construction. Your tonnage in 1810 was 734,000

tons, and last year it was 4,320,000 tons ; and notwithstanding there have

been two large reductions in our dock-rates, the receipts last year were 326,8501. against 65,782/. in 1810." He referred also to the growth of the Colonies ; the spread of civilization ; to the recent preservation of peace be tween England mid the United States, which he attributed mainly to the commercial influence and example of Mr. Brown ; and to the necessity for the spread and extension of progress. The trowel, embossed with a symbolical design, was presented to Mr. Brown ; and with due solemnity, and a prayer from the Bishop, the stone was laid. Mr. Brown then addressed the persons assembled on the advantages of education, and the uses of free libraries and museums. He expressed a hope that the paper-duty would be abolished, and a decimal system of accounts adopted. Lord Stanley, Sir John Palcington, Mr. William Ewart, and Sir Harry Smith, spoke a few words to gratify the desire of the multitude. During the ceremony, Mr. Brown announced the birth of a Princess at Buckingham Palace, and the guns of the Militia Artillery at the North Fort fired a royal salute.

Later in the day, Mr. Brown was entertained at a banquet given in his honour by the Corporation of Liverpool in St. George's Hall. About eight hundred persons dined together ; Alderman Holme continuing to act for the Mayor. A letter from Lord Derby was read, regretting that he could not be present, both because he takes a personal interest in the work in hand, and because he should have had much pleasure in paying a tribute of well-merited respect to Mr. Brown for his munificence and public-spirit. After the cloth had been removed the oratory began. Praise of Mr. Brown occupied a large portion of the speeches. 'I'hc Bishop of Chester warmly advocated the extension of education. Sir Harry Smith remarked, that upon a recent inspection of the Twentyfifth Regiment there were 340 of that regiment voluntarily attending the school, and progressing in the higher branches of architecture and in practical knowledge. Mr. Brown cited the example of America in matters educational. Sir John Pakington and Mr. William Evrart enlarged on the merits of Mr. Brown, and the necessity for education. Mr. Monckton Milnes described Mr. Brown as a citizen of both worlds, the New and the Old ; and Mr. Hawthorne, tho American Consul, testified to the fact that the Americans are as proud of Mr. Brown " as if he wore one of us." Lord Stanley, in reply to a sentiment from Mr. Horsfall—" the house of Stanley,' delivered a speech that embraced other topics.

'Between the faintly which I stand here to represent and the town whose guest I have the honour to be, there has existed for several centuries an intimate and unbroken connexion. If we are to go back to those old times —I believe it is now something more than five hundred years' ago—nearly one-twelfth of the whole recorded annals of the human race—since an ancestor of mine obtained a licence from the Crown to embattle and fortify a house, the site of which lies somewhere—I know not exactly where— buried among the crowded streets and buildings of this vast commercial capital. There may be some vanity in such reminiscences of past times ; but, standing here, I may be permitted to say that none can more rejoice, none can more exult in the present greatness and glory of the town of Liverpool, than those to whose forefathers were committed the charge of watching over its earlier and still undeveloped infancy. Gentlemen, we are told that society in the present day has changed, and in some respects it is so. Our improved means of communication everywhere, the rapidity with which transit is effected from one country to another, have done much to dispel local prejudices Old to destroy provincial peculiarities. But though they may have destroyed prejudice, and though they may have destroyed provincial peculiarities,—though they may have fused, as it were, the various elements of these peculiarities into one similar whole,—I do not believe that those characteristics of the present time have destroyed, I do not believe that they have materially weakened, those ties of local attachment and local sympathy which are founded upon common interests with the present —upon common reminiscences of the past---when a mutual repository of friendship and good offices plays so important and valuable a part in our social system. At least I know this, that in that political arena—the House of Commons—where my lot is chiefly oast, we who come from Lancashire, notwithstanding many diversities of public opinion and conduct—whatever may be the political ranks in which we serve—are apt to look upon one another with feelings of mutual friendship and good-will. We are proud, and justly proud, of the intelligence and activity of that section of the population among which we are called ; we are proud, and we may well be proud, of the vast influence which this country exercises over the councils of the state ; we are proud, and it is a reasonable pride, of the more than common proportion of eminent men whom Lancashire in the present century has contributed to the national service."

He also eulogized the merchants of England for their patriotism, and signalized the act of Mr. Brown as one that has given an impulse to the cause which puts to shame the comparative apathy both of individuals and of public bodies elsewhere. In the course of the evening, Mr. Brown attended a soiree held by the working men ; and received from them an address thanking him for the blessing he had conferred on them.

Lord Robert Cecil met his constituents at Stamford, on Wednesday, and addressed them on the duty of extending education. Among the political predictions hazarded during the recent election, had been that of an organic change in the representation. Now, that change will not be safe unless the people are educated to meet it. Everybody must have read the extraordinary details of a belief in witchcraft, furnished by magistrates from different parts of the country, which show that that most ludicrous of all superstitions still clings with unyielding tenacity to our rural population. Most of these people are strict believers in witchcraft. They believethat whenever a cow falls ill or a pig dies some old woman ought to be tried for it; and that if anybody is out lute at night they have been carried off by some spiteful neighbour, and whirled a hundred miles an hour through the air. The very people who believe these things would be the people who, by the organic changes alluded to, would be intrusted with the choice of their representatives in Parliament. Now, remember what the choice of a representative means. It means the choice of the person who makes the laws, who imposes the taxes, and who devises measures for the security of our lives and property. Now if we wish to extend the franchise to the people in question, it will be absolutely madness to do so unless the educated classes make "a strong pull and a pull altogether" to, educate them up to the duties which they will have to perform. The question may be viewed in other lights. We are venturing on one of the greatest changes ever attempted—the abolition of transportation. Now, ignorance is one great source of crime. A taste for knowledge will keep men in the long evenings from the public-house, and habits of drunkenness contracted during those long evenings lead to frightful crimes. Then education is part of the great scheme of evangelization. There are now around us heathens as degraded as could be found in any nation in the world ; and what is a stronger fact still, not only are there such heathens, but he would venture to say there is nowhere In the world that stolid, invincible, insuperable ignorance, which is to be found in the genuine English peasant. Perhaps they are better in Lincolnshire • but he thought he might safely say that those of Sussex have not their equal. In more Southern countries they are quick to catch ideas, quick to exercise their faculties; nature makes up for the deficiencies of man. And if we go to those who are called par excellence "savages," why the very necessity of their position, the necessity of providing for themselves daily food by their own skill and cunning, make them ten times as quick and bright as the English labourer, for whom everything is provided. He had travelled among and had intercourse with natives of New Zealand, and marked the difference between them and the English labourer ; and, though we are in the habit of speaking of the former as a "poor benighted savage," and pleading for him at our missionary meetings, he is in intellect and in the quickness of his faculties far superior to our own countrymen. Therefore he thought we ought to give to this matter of education our most earnest attention.

The Conservative Members for West Suffolk, Mr. Harry Spencer Waddington and Captain P. Bennet, were entertained at dinner by their constituents on Wednesday, at the Town-hall, Bury St. Edmund's. The most noticeable speech after dinner was made by Sir Robert Buxton, of Shadwell Court ; a gentleman of great landed estate, and a probable aspirant to Parliamentary honours. Sir Robert deprecated a sweeping Reform Bill, as likely, by degrading the suffrage into the hands of the ignorant and unlettered, to increase unduly the burdens of the agricultural interest, and to establish the worst of all tyrannies that of a democracy. He proposed as a toast the Conservative electors of the division ; and 31r. Dobito, in replying, expressed his opinion that Lord Palmerston is as good a Conservative as any gentleman on the other side of the House. This rather unexpected intimation created some sensation; and Mr. Bidden sharply criticized Lord Palmerston, pronouncing his principles incomprehensible, and his policy disingenuous, and in some respects despotic.

Lord John Russell, having been asked to deliver a lecture at Bradford, has declined. In a letter to Mr. Wickham M.P. he says—" I have found that my time and occupations are so much disturbed by the preparation and delivery of a lecture, that I have determined not to give any for the future." [In 1854, when a member of Lord Aberdeen's Government, Lord John found time to distinguish himself by his appearances in the provinces.] Mr. Cobden, in a letter of acknowledgment to the electors and nonelectors of Huddersfield, imputes his want of success to the suddenness of the dissolution of Parliament.

"The circumstances which preceded the dissolution of Parliament, and which imparted to it somewhat of the character of a surprise, precluded the possibility of your making an accurate estimate of the probable issue of a contest for Huddersfield ; and my first step was unavoidably, to a great extent, a leap in the dark. No one can, therefore, be fairly held responsible for a miscalculation of the chances of success; nor does the result of the election afford any criterion of the strength of parties for the future. I have only to Bemire my friends, that I have appreciated their kind and courageous efforts all the more highly since I have known that they were from the first embarked in an adverse struggle. To the non-electors, who afforded me all the support which the constitution allows them to give, I beg to offer my warmest acknowledgments."

The Croydon Magistrates have tined four bakers 101. each for using alum in making their bread,—a pernicious practice, believed to be almost universal. Alum, by absorbing water, increases the weight of bread, and enables the baker to use an inferior flour, while it improves the colour and firmness of the loaf.

A Coroner's Jury have decided that the old farmer who died of eating poisoned minced pie at Collingham was murdered by his nephew Richard Hodson, and Sophia his wife. Strong evidence was brought forward tracing the pie back to the couple under suspicion, and it was further shown that Mrs. Hodson had recently purchased arsenic. The motive is the old one— a desire for the old man's property.

The lengthened inquiry before the Coroner into the cause of the Lundhill explosion seems as yet to have been a failure : nothing definite has been elicited to account for the disaster. At the most recent sitting, Mr. Joseph' Coe, the viewer of the pit, was examined for five hours. He could only suggest that a fall of roof had liberated gas, which had taken fire at a naked light. He considers the system of working the pits around Barnsley very bad. Nothing but safety-lamps should be allowed to be used at Lundhill in future. [The proprietors of the pit say they will carry out this system.] The inquest has been adjourned to await the recovery of the bodies from the pit. The first corpse was found floating on the water in the shaft on the 10th instant—in a horrible state.

Two colliery-explosions are reported. At Bredbury, near Stockport, the i gas was fired, it s believed, at the naked candle or uncovered kamp of a collier named Platt; and he and others were very badly hurt, while William Holworth and his two young sons perished from the succeeding chokedamp. At Gorse Colliery, near Sweasea, the disaster was singularly like that at Bredbury : the fire-damp lighted at the flame of a lamp from which a collier had improperly removed the cap ; he and five others were burnt, but not to the loss of life ; John Griffiths and two lads died from the chokedamp.

By a series of explosions at Messrs. Curtis and Harvey's powder-mills, Hounslow, about noon on Saturday, much property was destroyed. Fortunately, no life was lost, but two boys were hurt. By the explosion of a boiler at Leebrook Works, near Wednesbury, two women have been killed, and several other workpeople fearfully mutilated. Mr. Ilugh Baines has invented a self-acting safety-apparatus for preventing accidents in the use of " hoists " from the-breaking of ropes. It was tried at Messrs. Fender's warehouse in Manchester on Monday. Four persons had been lifted in the hoist, and the ropes were then unconnected. But the self-acting apparatus failed to act; the hoist fell a great depth ; and the four gentlemen suffered fearfully--one, Mr. Shaw, died the same night. Mr. Baines himself was on the hoist when the disaster occurred.

On Tuesday evening, between Tuxford and Carlton, the axle of a truck forming part of a coal-train on the Great Northern Railway broke ; sixteen trueks were scattered over both lines, and all traffic was stopped for a time : but no further disaster ensued, a passenger-train being stopped in good time.

William M'Cabe, who was employed at the Stafford station, was knocked down by a train on Monday evening, and the wheels of the locomotive cut off his head : his son witnessed the frightful scene.

Two men have lost their lives, at West Bohlen, near Sunderland, from eating the root of water-hemlock, in mistake for some other root.

The Manchester Examinereentsins an account of a disgraceful scene that occurred at Bradford an Easter Monday—a pauper wedding. "James Tetley, a pauper, well on in years, was married to Betty Stoekdale, whose previous husband was killed at Bowling Ironworks. The parties had lived some time as man and wife, and the legalization of the marriage was necessary to secure pauper relief. A procession left the neighbourhood of Sticker Lane, where the couple resided, shortly after eight o'clock, aceompanied by thousands on its onward march, the multitude still increasing in density as it passed down Leeds Road and up Vicar Lane to the Old. Church. It was led by a man on horseback with white hair, ninety-seven years of age, dressed in a scarlet cloak; and this patriarch of the cavalcade gave away the witting bride. Two other horsemen followed, one dressed in a soldier%3 coat and a sorry hat, with his face painted as red as the coat; and the other in a bearskin jacket or cape, with hat to match, and his fate painted like that of a savage New Zealand Chief. Then followed, in a cart, the bride and bridegroom, with an object sitting low between thorn, resembling in his crouched position the figure of Old Nick playing the bagpipes in 'Tam O'Shanter.' The bride eat calm and meek, seldom looking round her ; but the excited bridegroom often gesticulated violently, showing the intended wedding-ring on the little finger of his right hand. Thirty riders, on patient-looking donkeys, came next. Many of them were smoking, had their faces coloured, and were dressed in all imaginable costumes. Behind these came several vehicles full of weddingers' and others enjoying the singular scene ; and to add excitement to all, a band of musicians made the welkin ring with their furious execution of' See the conquering hero comes.' By the time the procession had reached the top of the Church Bank, no fewer than 20,000 persons, who had escaped chiefly from mills and warehouses, crowded the churchyard and many of the adjacent streets. When the knot was tied, they were prevented from parading through the town by the police, and went to a public-house up Harrogate Road, thousands still following."