Ink ilirobincts.

The annual meeting of the Hinckford Conservative and Agricul- tural Clab was held on Friday last, at Castle Hedingham. Sir George Henry Smith was in the chair. Sir John Tyrrell, in returning thanks

for the toast of the County Members, undertook to defend his own con- duct in supporting Sir Robert Peel's Government. First in respect of the Corn-laws-

" I need not say that there was a considerable number of Members of the House of Commons who represented a mixed constituency, partly agricultural and partly manufacturing, who were anxious themselves to see a considerable extension and alteration of the Corn-laws. I will admit there were many others returned on the full understanding that they were in favour of mono- poly and the highest principle of protection. I must call to your recollection, that there was a considerable class of agriculturists who were anxious that the frauds in the averages and the speculations in corn should be, if possible, done away with ; and it is right to state on this point what has occurred; for I would ask that man who is most fearful of the effects, whether it is possible to take up a paper without seeing that your wishes on that subject have been most fully carried out ; that the speculators have been utterly defeated, and the frauds in the averages have to a considerable degree been defeated. (Cheers.) I am perfectly aware that gentlemen may think there are many points in the Corn-laws in which greater protection was desirable. • • • But, after the experience of the last half year, I think—particularly looking to the position of the money-market, and considering how money in London was to be had—that the capitalists were only enabled to get 2 or 2i per cent for their money, and the great bill-brokers, Sanderson and Gurney, could only get that—that every man who could command money or borrow a thousand pounds laid it out in corn, because they thought from the short harvest and the relaxa- tion of the Corn-laws they should be able to make large sums of money from the loss of the agriculturists—I think, considering this, our fears must have diminished."

They had, in fact, to choose between the 8s. fixed duty and the pre- sent duty of 18s.; and to outvote Sir Robert Peel on the Corn question was to turn out the Conservative Government. Sir John afterwards said- * Feeling, as I conscientiously do, that the Government is a friendly Govern- ment, and desirous of doing the best it can for the interests of sericulture, I believe that the alteration of the Corn-laws has not diminished or injured your interests."

He then turned to the Tariff; premising that in 1830 he was an advocate for protection of agriculture- * I stated, that one great reason for that protection was the large protection that was extended to manufacturers and articles of manufacture : but 1 cannot dismiss from my mind, that for a considerable period, for the last four or five years, the manufacturing interest has been in a state of great depression, though I believe those distresses have been largely over-stated ; to prove which, I could read you a passage from a charge of one of the Judges delivered two days ago. I stated then, if we had a free trade in corn, we should have a free trade in manufactures; and having advanced that in the Mouse of Commons on various occasions, 1 am not prepared to say, Sir Robert Peel having made an effort to restore the manufacturing prosperity of the country, that we should not consent, on your own principle of ' live and let live,' to some diminution of the protection you have hitherto enjoyed. From the sort of accounts we have of the Tariff, the statements are so contradictory, and come to such opposite conclusions, that I admit that I am not prepared to state its effect : it is a great experiment, and a great effort to restore the manufactures of the country : but I think Sir Robert Peel has done the best he can to make a wise and just com- promise for the interests of agriculture."

At the dinner of the Worcestershire Agricultural Association, on Friday, Mr. Barneby spoke hopefully of the Tariff— "With respect to cattle, I do think that these changes were necessary. say this after consideration of all the circumstances of the case, being myself a practical agriculturist, and connected with a large breeding county. I know that last year, at Hereford fair, two-year-old steers were selling so high as from 18/. to 26/. ; and breeders from various parts of the kingdom have been applied to to sell yearling steers as high as twelve guineas : therefore, I formed an opinion that some stimulus must be given to the importation of cattle, so as to keep prices more moderate. Moreover, I have no hesitation in saying, that if such prices could have been continued, they would have speedily produced a scarcity of fat animals in all parts of the country. It is true that prices have fallen in some places, but in others they are still maintained, though not to an equality with what I must call the extravagant prices of last year. But though I thought the importation of cattle necessary, I wished to see some difference made in the duties between fat and lean beasts ; therefore I sup- ported the proposition of Mr. Mills, that cattle should be admitted by weight."

In the Stafford Special Commission Court, on Friday, Thomas Cooper, the Leicester Chartist, was again arraigned, on a charge of conspiracy and sedition. He traversed to the next Assizes. He was arraigned on a third indictment, charging him with seditious language, and with inducing the people to cease from labour. Asked whether he was guilty or not, the following colloquy took place— Cooper—" If I am charged with inciting persona to cease from labour until they obtain the Charter—if that is illegal, and if that be a breach of the Peace—then I am bound in honour to admit that I did urge them to do so, and that I am guilty." The Solicitor-General requested that some legal gentleman would advise Cooper. Some person here made a communication to him in a whisper. Cooper (in a loud voice)—" No; I shall not tell a falsehood." The Chief Justice—" You will use your own discretion as to whether you will plead guilty or not." Cooper—"My Lord, on this charge I say guilty.' I did urge the people to cease labour until they obtained the Charter." Mr. Waddington—" That is only a part of the charge ; there are three other counts in the indictment."

On that showing, he pleaded " Not guilty," and traversed to the next Assizes.

Joseph Cappnr, described as "the well-known Tunstall blacksmith," was tried on Saturday, on a charge of sedition. The first witness against him was William Smallwood, a grinder, of Smallhouse, near Hanley. He described the nature of Cappur's language-

" The prisoner is a blacksmith, living at Newstall. On the 28th of Fe- bruary, I remember seeing& number of persons in Pepper's house, It was on a Monday night. I heard first a hymn, and then Cappur stood up next the window. I was looking through the window from the street. He said, the words of my text tonight shall be, To your tents, 0 Israel!' The meaning of that is to be ready in your own houses.' He twice cried out, ' Are you ready—are you sure you are ready ?' Some cried out,' Yes, yes.' He said, Have you got your guns, your swords, or bayonets ?' Some people laughed at him; and he said, ' I suppose you think Cappnr is come with his physical force again : it is no laughing matter; we shall have a severe fight, but it shall be a short one. What will you do when you have got the Charter? As I am to be one of your leaders, I'll tell you what I should recommend: we shall take tile Bishops and, clergy and hypocritical-Dissenters, and put them into a vessel and-transport them into Affinger, or something like that, to be assassinated among the Hindoos.' I have seen him two or *mantes at that house and in the open air addressing the people. I heard him speaking to a number of wo- men in the same house, on another occasion. There were men also present. He said, If you can't fight you can torch. You see what they have done else- where by clamming the people and starving them, and driving them to mad- ness.' He then referred to the firing of several cities and houses ; and, as far as I can recollect, he mentioned Nottingham and Bristol."

Smallwood admitted in cross-examination that Cappnr had sued him for a debt. Other witnesses, however, deposed to similar language at other meetings.

Cappur called evidence in defence. His first witness, James Nixon, spoke thus-

" I was chairman of the meeting on the 24th June. I know you (Cappur) these twenty, years. I often heard you speak. You are a very unconnected speaker. Your phraseology is not the most polite, but I never heard you use any violent language. I heard the people say you were an old fool, and that your conduct was harmless. (Great laughter.) They used to say,' It's only old Carman' " (Renewed laughter.) Cappur was convicted, and sentenced to two years' imprisonment in Stafford Gaol.

Joseph Linney, a noted Chartist leader, previously convicted of un- lawfully assembling, was tried again on Saturday, on a charge of sedi- tion. A witness repeated Liuney's expressions in addressing some colliers at Brockmore on the 27th July- " He said on that occasion,' Lads, you have got a great burden upon your backs ; but if you will join the Chartists, you will soon get some of it off.

Thousands have joined us in the Potteries, and in Yorkshire and Shropshire; and if you will be stout and join, lean let them all know in twenty-four hours, and we can all rise together. Never mind the soldiers ; they cannot be every- where. There is one man in particular who is a great oppressor of the poor— that is Sir Robert Peel : if you will be stout this time, we will soon make him lose his head. The Queen and the little Princesses wear little flowers about their heads ; but if you will be stout, we will soon have them off.'"

Reuben Plant, a coal-merchant, heard Linney address a mob on the 3d August-

" He then said, ' The masters in my country are calling out for protection ; but I bid you stick out and be ruled by me, and you shall have your wages and

all you want. Why are the masters calling out for protection ? Because they

know that the poor are starving, and that a starving people are a rebellious people.' He told the men that had 2s. 6d. a day not to go to work till they had 4s. a day. He said they would put the masters and their protectors in a ship, give them a good shove and three cheers, and never have them hem again. He said, We will have the land, cultivate it, and live upon it ourselves.' "

Linney was sentenced to six months' imprisonment for the unlawfully assembling, and to fifteen months' for the sedition.

The Special Commission closed its labours in Stafford on Saturday, The Nottingham County Sessions this week have been occupied with the trials of Chartists and persons charged with riot during the late turn-out. It will lie remembered that the rioting was less obstinate in Nottingham than elsewhere. The reports of the particular cases are meagre and dry. The sentences varied from two to twelve months' im- prisonment with hard labour.

Some attention has lately been drawn to the diseased condition of many persons discharged from the Northleach House of Correction ; and on Friday last an inquest was held on the body of one of them, Charles Beale, who had died on the previous Friday. He had been imprisoned for six months, with hard labour, for selling a stolen board. After his liberation, be applied for relief; and ultimately he died of con- sumption. A Committee of the Guardians had been appointed to in- quire into the case of the discharged prisoners who sought relief; red one of the leading committee-men, Mr. Hollis, saw Beale on the Friday before his death, the approach of which he then perceived ; and Mr. Hollis now repeated Beale's statement- " I asked him a great number of questions; and he stated, as a dying man, that what he had previously told myself and the two other members of the Com- mittee was true. He said his death would be caused by his treatment in pri- son. I asked him if it was true that be had been kept in a cold damp cell? He said it was; he was kept there for fourteen hours a day. for two successive days. He called it the cellar used for placing the potatoes in, and said he was employed in picking them. He said he was placed there when he was too ill to work on the tread-mill. I then asked him if this was the cold cell he had be- fore told the Committee of as having been forced into when hot from the mill? He said, No, it was not ; that was the one appropriated for taking his meals in ; and the cold he sustained there was the first cause of his illness.' 1 also then asked him, with reference to the Gaoler and the Surgeon, to whom it was that he attributed blame ? He replied, 'First and principally to the Surgeon, and next to the Governor.' I asked him why he blamed the Surgeon? He replied, that the Surgeon, he considered, had the power to prescribe for him medicine and food suitable to the circumstances; but all he did was to allow him half a pound of mutton daily extra; but his stomach was so bad that he could not take it. The Governor would not allow him (deceased) to see his father, who had come from Cheltenham for that purpose : but this was ac- counted for by his not having a Visiting Magistrate's order. He said he was quite well when he went to gaol. I did not see him again until he died."

Joseph Rowley, a fellow prisoner confined with Beale for the same offence, deseribed their treatment in prison-

" Beale was quite well when he went to Northleach. He was partner-sawyer with me for a long time, and was strong arid healthy. He was kept on the wheel at Northleach for two months at first. It was not so laborious as sawing, but more tiresome, as we had no ease or rest ; and it was harder to us. I was weak while there for want of sufficient food, which brought on my subse- quent illness. I went on the wheel when I was not able ; but I preferred it to being in the cold damp cell, as I was starved there. The cells are all id. cold stones, seat and all, and a brook rune under them. In one of the cells we had an iron bedstead to sit on. Deceased and myself got warm on the wheel at first. Our shirts were often eo wet with perspiration that we could wring them so that it ran on the ground. Deceased was taken ill after we had been there about two months. He had a yellow appearance, as if he had the jaundice. He was taken off the wheel, but put on again fong before he had recovered. To my knowledge he was then taking medicine. He walked two turns instead of one, which made it lighter, for about a fortnight. He was then put on again to his full work; but was soon taken worse again. He bad more medicine, continuing. his full work; but getting still worse, he was taken off the wheel and

locked up in the cell for some time; after which he was removed to the hospi- tal He was employed when ill in the potato-bin, which is on a level with the

brook. That was previous to his going to the hospital; from which he was discharged in three weeks, having served his full time of imprisonment. We could neither of us walk, and our friends sent a cart for us. Beale told me when I shaved him, that he was so famished ho had eaten nearly half a peck of raw potatoes while in the cellar. Deceased had applied several times to the two Surgeous (who are brothers) for medicine : they made the remark, "You don't get very fat," but gave him none. He coughed very much at nights, and was very ill at those times. I have often made the same application when I have been ill, but they would not attend to it. I have heard him complain to the Surgeons of a rain in his chest. He had medicine for his cough. I heard the Surgeon tell him to mind and not take cold, and this was just before they put him in the potato-cellar. When he was taken to the hospital he was bled, and had a blister on his chest and side. I went up to shave him, and had then an opportunity of speaking to him. I have known deceased obliged to leave the wheel, in consequence of weakness, before his proper time. 1 have seen many faint and fall down in the yard from the wheel."

David Hartley, one of the Surgeons of the Cheltenham Hospital, said that the state of Beale's lungs quite accounted for his death ; that dis- ease was the work of two or three months.

The Coroner said that he should adjourn the inquest, in order to communicate with the authorities ; and it was adjourned till Friday.

The subject of the state of the prisons was brought before the Glou- cester Quarter-Sessions on Tuesday. According to the tenour of the reports, it appeared that the diet was barely sufficient in the Houses of Correction at Lawford Gate and Horsley. A memorial was read from the Cheltenham Board of Guardians, complaining of cases of ill-treat- ment at Northleach and Horsley Prisons. Reports were read from the Visiting Justices on those two prisons. One of the cases alleged by the Cheltenham Guardians respecting Horsley prison was that of Jane Ber- nard; but the report showed that no such person had been in that prison for many, most likely not for thirteen, years— The dietary of the prison had not been altered for thirteen years, except an addition of half a pound of potatoes daily to such of the prisoners as were at bard labour. There were no complaints of the insufficiency of the food. Four deaths only had occurred in the prison during the last thirteen years, and one of these was an old man of seventy-five, and the others more recently; and all from causes quite independent of the prison-regulations. The case of Beale, as reported in thirty-one entries in the medical book, was quoted, to show that he had received every attention in Northleach Prison. We quote an abstract of the reports on this prison, as to its general state— The hours of labour at Northleach are ten hours a day for seven months of the year, nine hours for three months, and eight hours for the remaining two months. In the report, the cells are represented as well ventilated, and damp only when they have been washed, on which occasions they are not used for persons kept to hard labour. There is nothing injure those in the discipline, situa- tion, or atmosphere of the prison, calculated to njure those confined in it, and nothing but what is needful and consistent with a wholesome rigour of im- prisonment. A report from the County Surveyor, who had been employed to inspect the cells, was also read. It stated that the drainage was very complete, the build- ing perfectly weather-proof, the rain-water well carried off; that the cells are perfectly dry, and that if there was any damp at all the white-wash on the walls would make it easily discernible. The cells are warmed by artificial means. The level of the brook is five feet six below the level of the cells.

Mr. Townsend, the Governor of the prison, contradicted several par- ticulars in the statements respecting Beale— "Beale was a prisoner six months. He was never put for fourteen hours at a time in the potato-cellar picking potatoes. I understand from the turnkey, that he was put there once, for three or four hours ; but that was at his own request, because he said he would rather do that than be in his cell or walking in the yard: that was before he was ill. I am certain he could not be there fourteen hours at a time ; because the prisoners are not let out of their cells until six in the morning, and are locked up again at six in the evening. The Surgeon did not know of his sorting potatoes at the time; has been told of it since, but did not express any objection to it. I never heard of his eating the raw potatoes : he never complained, to my knowledge, of the fond. The potatoes are kept in a dry cellar. There is no water running through the prison now : the brook is now turned outside the boundary wall ; there is only suf- ficient water for purposes of cleanliness. The potato-cellar is not near the brook, which runs on the other side of the prison. The cell Beale was confined in was perfectly dry, as all the cells are ; they are heated in cold weather by the stoves. Don't suppose they were warmed at the time complained of, as it was summer-time. There is nothing in the cells for the prisoners to sit on but the large stone and the iron bedstead. When the cells are warmed, the hot air comes under the stone. It was in my presence that Beale told his mother that he was perfectly satisfied. None of the cells are glazed ,• they are fitted with wooden shutters, which the prisoners have the power of shutting. The cells are not quite dark when the shutters are closed, as there is an aperture the other side. Both sides are protected by the roof, which overhangs three or four feet. The rain may beat in sometimes, but not much. No prisoners' cells, either male or female, are glazed." Motions were carried, that the stone seats should be covered with wood, and that the whole of the cell-windows should be glazed.

At the Cheshire Quarter-Sessions, in Knutsford, on Wednesday, Eliza Bailey was convicted of stealing a 1001. note from Mr. John Marquis ; from whom bank-notes were stolen to the amount of nearly 2,0001, in the streets of Preston, in September, by Bailey and a man who accompanied her. She was sentenced to seven years' transporta- tion.

Thomas Colliss, of Ashton in Oxfordshire, and Ezekiel Savage, have been apprehended at Blackthorn, on a charge of murdering Mr. Broom- head, a commercial traveller, in October 1841. He left Brill, for Bi- cester, on the let of October, but never reached his destination ; and his body was found in the river Ray, near Blackthorn ; and some three or four hundred pounds was missing. A young man named Penn gave information of the discovery of the body. A Coroner's Jury returned a verdict of " Found Drowned." Afterwards, Savage and two of the Penn family were arrested, and committed for trial at the last March Assizes ; but a material 'witness being ill and absent, they were dis- charged. It is raid that fresh evidence leaves no doubt as to the fate of Mr. Broombead. A warrant has been issued for the arrest of a third party ; and the two men were remanded till today.

The flames broke out afresh on Tuesday night, amid the ruins left by the great Liverpool fire. A quantity of cotton, and of turpentine in barrels, saved from the conflagration, had been placed in a ruined " shed" or warehouse, and covered with bricks and timber: on Tues- day night the buried fire burst forth, illuminating the neighbourhood, and attracting thousands of spectators. It was soon subdued, having little to feed upon.

A terrible boiler-explosion occurred at Middlesborough, near Scar- borough, on Tuesday. At a quarter past nine o'clock in the morning, the steam-boiler of Messrs. Balcho and Co.'s iron railroad-manufactory burst, and blew off the roof of the building; which fell upon a great

number of men who had just returned from breakfast. On Wednes. day, fourteen bodies had been taken out, mach mutilated by scalding ; but how many bodies remained under the heap was unknown.