'be 413robinces.
Mr. Musgrave Briscoe, of Coghurst Hall, is mentioned as the Con- servative candidate for the vacancy in the representation of Hastings; Mr. R. It. R. Moore as the League candidate.
A meeting took place at Coventry, on Monday, to receive and- support Mr. O'Connell. It was convened by the Mayor, and was held in St. Mary's Hall. Tile building is capable of holding about 1,000 persons ; it was completely filled, and great numbers could not ob- tain admission. The pressure of the crowd was made the pretext for a considerable disturbance, which seems to have originated among the. Liberator's Chartist opponents ; and the proceedings were interrupted for nearly two hours. At length, the Mayor, who presided, and who is said to have much influence with the Chartists, administered a sharp rebuke to the disturbers; and the noise was suddenly and un- expectedly allayed. Resolutions, expressing sympathy with Ireland and a censure of the late prosecution, were passed by acclamation ; and then Mr. O'Connell delivered a long speech on the usual topics of Repeal and the incidents of the trial. In the course of it, he amusingly justified his own iteration- " There is a story told of an old damsel, who at one time was sentenced to be ducked for scolding ; but the very instant she got her head out of the water, after her sentence, she began to scold again. Now, I am in nearly a similar position : they may put me under the waters of conspiracy, but the very instant I get my nose above the surface 1 will cry out ' injustice.' Yes, as often as I get may nose above water, I will cry out injustice;' and if my voice should fail me, 111 buy a parrot, and teach it to cry ' injustice.' "
At Haverfordwest Assizes, on the 13th instant, William Walters and David Vaughan were convicted of having taken part in a Rebecca riot, at Prendergast turnpike, in Pembrokeshire, on the 25th August last. They were sentenced to ta dye months' imprisonment. In twenty-six. other cases, the accused parties were simply held to bail; the Crown proceeding no further.
At Shrewsbury, on Monday, Joseph Willetts, aged seventeen, was convicted of having set fire to a barn and four stacks belonging to his master, Mr. Joseph Morris, of Halesowen. Willetts confessed that he had set fire to the barn, but made a fruitless attempt to persuade the Jury that he had done it accidentally. He was sentenced to transporta- tion for life.
At York Assizes, on Friday, George Lowther and Matthew Pearson were tried for the murder of John Moffitt, the Marquis of Normanby's gamekeeper. Moffitt was one of a party of four men, who, while watch- ing on Lord Normanby's estate at Lyth on the night of January 29th, encountered the two prisoners poaching fcr pheasants. Lowther called to the keepers to stand back ; on their rushing forward, he fired ; and Moffitt fell, mortally wounded. With the assistance of two more men, Lowther was secured; but Pearson escaped. Lowther asked the dying man's forgiveness ; which he received, on condition of his disclosing his accomplice's name ; and he reluctantly did so. When asked why he shot the keeper, he said that he had a double certificate fine upon him, and he thought if he could get a little game it would help to pay his fine! The defence for Lowther was, that he had discharged the gun accidentally ; for Pearson, that he bad no expectation of any violence, and that he had only gone out poaching on the persuasion of Lowther. The Jury pronounced Lowther to be'- Guilty " ; Pearson, " Not guilty." The convict was sentenced to death by Baron Rolfe.
Brighton was startled by a most sudden and wanton murder last week, and the murderer has been promptly called to account. On the even- ing of Wednesday week, John Lawrence, a reckless vagabond, was brought to the Police-office on a charge of stealing a carpet. While waiting for a witness, Mr. Henry Solomon, the chief Police-constable, turned to converse with another person. Lawrence asked for a knife to cut his throat, as life was a burden to him ; and presently, springing to the fire-place, he seized the poker and felled the chief-constable to the ground with a blow on the head. Mr. Solomon died next morning. The murderer was examined before the Magistrates, and committed for trial. He was tried at Lewes on Wednesday last, convicted, and sen- tenced to death.
A brutal murder was committed at Newcastle last week. Mark S'ierwood, a pensioned soldier of the Artillery, who led a very dissolute life, bad often quarrelled with his wife, a woman past fifty years of age; and he had often been heard to threaten that he would cut her throat. After a long and customary absence, he returned to his home, a mise- rable abode in Blandford Street, on the Wednesday. That day the wife, crying, told her niece, Mary Sutherland, who called to see her, that Mark had threatened to do something to her, but had made her swear not to say what it was. Next morning, Sutherland, who lived in Gateshead, found her aunt lying on the floor, with her throat cut in two places, and Sherwood lying near her, in a state of torpid intoxica- tion. The neighbours were called, with a surgeon and the Police. Sherwood was restored by means of the stomach-pump ; which removed a quantity of whisky. Rising up, he pointed to his wife, saying, 4' There she is." The remainder of the day he passed in sleep, with brief intervals of waking, occupied in pouring out imprecations on the persons around him. After he was seized, two razor-blades were found in the fire ; and in the house was discovered an illicit whisky-still. The murderer has been committed for trial on a Coroner's warrant.
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