The "Procession of the Flitch of Bacon" at Dumnow took

place on the 16th, in Lord Maynard's park. A great concourse assembled. Lord May- nard afterwards "gave a treat" to 300 children in the park. Gayety and jollity prevailed—respectably.

Mr. Charles Gatliff, the Secretary of the Society for Improving the Dwell- ings of the Industrious Classes, has written to time Times to say that it was he, and not Lord Ebrington, who originated the exclusion of females from the Metropolitan Chambers. Vice Chancellor Knight Bruce confirmed, to-day, the Master's report ill the ease of Miss Talbot, approving of the settlement on her marriage with Lord Edward Howard.

Dr. Lingard, the eminent Roman Catholic historian of England, (lied yes- terday in his eighty-second year, at Hornbey, a village near Lancaster. The keeper of the Vatican Library, Monsignor Moltza, has cut his throat, and he wrote the reason on a slip of paper—" Disgust and discontent at the proceedings of the Papal Court." In the debate on the Cape constitution, Earl Grey appealed to the feel- ings of the House by speaking of the conviets on board the-Neptune, de- tained there by the refusal of the colonists to let them landt as." those unhappy men, whose health was seriously affected and broken down from their long confinement, as well as from the effects Of a voyage' under,Tro- pical suns." Now, in a blue book entitled " &Option of Convicts at the Cape of Good Hope," presented to both Houses of Parliament in January 1850, we find an official report on this subject, from which we take the following extract : it compares ciniously with Lord Grey's af-

fecting allusicm. .

"We, the undersigned officers, ordered to proceed On board the convict- ship Neptune, have the honour to report for your Excellency's information, that, having carefully examined the accommociatien of the vessel, and haring carefully examined into the health and accommodation of the exiles on board, 282 in number," &e. &c. find that "the min at present look well, and the vessel is clean and in good order'—" We do not therefore consider it abso- lutely necessary that any one of the exiles should be sent on shore." "We are of opinion that the vessel is in every respect well calculated for the health and security of the convicts." (Signed) "A. J. Cloete, Lieut.-Colonel. John Hall, M.D. II. D. Shea, Surgeon; Royal Navy." Dated Simon'a Bay, Sept. 21, 1849.

From the subjoined communication, which Mr. Fairbairn has sent to our own journal as well as to the Times, it will be seen that another of Lord Grey's devices in debate was totally unwarranted.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE SPECTATOR.

Sir—In. reference to a personal matter introduced by Lord Grey at the conclusion of his speech on Tuesday night, in which he charges certain parties at the Cape of Good Hope with exercising "unmanly vengeance" against the wife and family of Mr. now Sir R. Stanford, and with ruining an innkeeper for treating them with common humanity, I shall feel greatly obliged if you will give insertion to the following extract from the report of the pro- ceedings of the Cape public on the occasion alluded to by his Lordship, and published in the Cape Town newspapers at the time ; which at once dis- poses of his very grave charge. Nothing can be imagined more different Irons the feelings and spirit entertained by the people of Cape Town, in the trying eircumstances in which they were then placed by Lord Grey's now admitted "error," than the evil passions which, under erroneous informa- tion, he ascribed to them on Tuesday night. I may add, with reference to the unhealthy state and sufferings Of the convicts on board the Neptune, also mentioned by Lord Grey, that, although they remained 153 days at the Cape, and had then a six-weeks or two-months voyage to Van Diemen's Land, they were all landed at Hobart Town in health, not one of the 282 prisoners having died during all that time,—a sanitary condition perhaps without precedent in a convict-ship. I remain your obedient servant, SOHN FALRBAIRN.

•

(From the South African Commercial Advertiser.]

"ANTI-CONVICT ASSOCIATION.

" Cape Town, Dec. 29, 1849.

" Mr. Sutherland—Mr. Fairbairn has pointed to the danger there is in believing statements made with regard to the proceedings of the Association, when the inform- ation comes from persons connected with the Government. One of the kind, which has obtained considerable currency of late, is, that Captain Stanford could not ob- tain a medical man to attend his sick child. We all know very well that an express resolution was passed to exclude judges, executioners—{Loud laughter)—ministers, and doctors, from the operation of the pledge. We know also that Mr. Holloway* furnished Captain Stanford with all the accommodation he required under the me- lancholy circumstances in which he was recently placed. (Cheers.) These reports are busily circulated by certain parties to cast a slur upon the Association, for their own vile purposes.

" Mr. Poeock-1 know that Dr. Abercrombie went to see the child.

"Dr. Abercrombie, who was standing at a distance from the table and was not seen, came forward and slated, that he had gone out to see the child; and when he came to Mr. Holloway's, he found Captain and Mrs. Stanford there with the dead baby, and that nothing could exceed the readiness with which Mr. Holloway attended to their wants under the distressing circumstances in which they were placed. (Cheers.) It was a proof to him that the principles which the Association avowed were adapted more to the relief than to the injury of man."

The innkeeper referred to by Lord Grey.