ant Vrfininrtg.

Mr. Gisborne, the former Liberal Member of Parliament for Notting- ham, has issued an address to his late constituents, telling them that inti- mate friends who move more actively in the political world—" those on whose prescience I should be most disposed to rely "—are of opinion that a dissolution of Parliament is close at hand ; and offering himself once more as a candidate for their suffrages. Ho has such unlimited respect for the uncontrolled action of any constituency, that he has never com- plained against their choice of ?dr. Feargus O'Connor in preference to himself at the last election but as he never belied any principle he pro- fessed, and has now restored good health, he confesses that he does not possess the indifference or self-command" which would enable him to re- ceive their renewed disapprobation without "considerable disappoint- ment."

As the Session approaches, political activity of some sort is stimulated in the provincial centres of public 0pithon. The Council of the Manchester Parliamentary Reform Association as- sembled on Tuesday, at their rooms in New 's Buildings, to draw up their claims on Parliament for a share proportionate to the wealth and population of Lancashire in the new distribution of Parliamentary fran- chise which is to be made by Lord John Russell's Reform Bill. The ga- thering is described as more numerous than usual, and as "exceedingly influential" including the leaders of the Reform party in the respective neighbourhoods which swell the widely-selected Council. Mr. George Wilson introduced" business with a speech impressing on' his hearers the probability that upon the character of the measure now about to be brought into Parliament by the Premier, will depend whether the principles of progression or of retrogression are to prevail for the next twenty years. Mr. Bright went over the general "situation," with the apparent ob. lect of tracing the weakness of Government to the even balance of parties in the House of Commons ; and then of deducing that the only way to make a strong government, worthy of the confidence of the people, will • be so to modify the representative institutions as to make the Commons a true index of popular opinion.

Mr. Bright described the hideous condition of the Court of Chancery, the disgraceful management of our Colonies, the injustice of the Inoome-tax,. the malappropriation of the funds devoted to our national defenses—now made the fraudulent basis of a new invasion-panic, and possibly to be made the basis of new Government demands for additional soldiers, sailors ships, and money. These dark features of our position demonstrate that mirky con- siderations cause the sacrifice of all honest government in every case, till there arises some great emergency or i calamity, before which the faction of parties and the interests of individuals shrink into nothingness and become obscure and powerless : then, and then alone, Government is compelled to arise and "do something." From this general argument Mr. Bright descended into a detailed criticism' founded on Mr. Dod's Parliamentary Companion, of the too prevalent aristocratic element in our House of Commons ; and he concluded with statistics in support of the special claims of Lancashire to a larger proportionate share of Influence in the Legislature. Her wealth is- one-tenth of the rated wealth of England, and her population is one-eighth of the population of England,- yet out of the 456 members returned by Eng- land she returns only 26. Without interference with any other portion of the people of England, Lancashire is entitled to have a large accession to the number of her representatives.

Mr. Bright moved the adoption of the following resolution, formally em- bodying the case on behalf of ill-used Lancashire-

" That the population of the county of Lancaster, by the census of 1851, i de- clared to be upwards of 2,000,000, or one-eighth part of the population of England, and a fourteenth of that of the United Kingdom ; that its taxable property, by a Par- liamentary return of the session of 1847, is declared to be 6,463,663i., or more than one-tenth of the whole rateable property of England ; that its contributions to the national exchequer, whether from Customs contribution, or from payments of the various branches of the inland revenue, far exceed the average of the population sod area of the United Kingdom; that its position with regard to industry, wealth, intel- ligence, and population, is second to no other county of the United Ringdom : that on all these grounds, this meeting is of opinion, that in any measure of Parliament- ary Reform to be introduced by the Government, or enacted by the Legislature, the number of members returned from this county should be largely increased, in order that its influence in the Rouse of Commons may correspond to the magnitude of its interests and to its importance as a portion of the United Kingdom."

Mr. Heywood M.P. was the seconder of the motion ; which was car- ried unanimously. Mr. Kershaw M.P. moved the adoption of a petition by the inhabit- ants of Manchester, in favour of the principles lately adopted by the Manchester Parliamentary Reform Association, and promulgated to the country.

Mr. Milner Gibson seconded the motion in a good speech, which hinted that we might well concentrate on the improvement of our own institutions some of the excellent enthusiasm about the wrongs of dis- tant states which we have lately displayed ; and reminded his hearers that weak governments at home have at least had this to recommend them, in comparison with strong governments, that the strong ones have set all popular appeals at defiance, but the weak once have been made to yield to the people most of the political advantages they now enjoy.

The petition was adopted ; and the business wound up with a resolu- tion to open a subscription to advance the question of Parliamentary Reform.

The leading Reformers of Leeds assembled in their Music-Hall en Tuesday evening, to express the opinion of the town on the question of Parliamentary Reform. Alderman Wilson presided. Mr. I. Guth Marshall M.P. moved the initiatory resolution ; and was seconded by Mr. Edward Baines. Mr. Baines said, that though not prepared to go so far as the Man- chester resolutions, he is willing to sink any differences at present for the sake of unanimity of action. Alderman Carbutt moved a franchise reso- lution founded on the Manchester programme ; and Mr. David Green

seconded him, in a speech in favour of universal suffrage. Mr. Henderson and Mr. Frith moved that "manhood suffrage" should be demanded of the Legislature ; and they would not, even when implored by Mr. Brook, the Chartist leader, withdraw their amendment. The amendment was put to the meeting, and the numbers for and against it were so equal that the Chairman could not decide the majority. Another appeal was made to Mr. Henderson and Mr. Frith ; but they would not budge. Another division was taken, and the amendment was declared lost. The original proposition was then affirmed. Resolutions in favour of the ballot, trien- nial Parliaments, and no-property qualification, were then passed unanimously.

The latest provincial journeyings of the deputation from the National Parliamentary and Financial Association have been through Birmingham, Sheffield, and the iron-ware districts. At Birmingham, they seem to have been regarded with jealousy by an influential section of the local Liberals, on the ground that they are interlopers. Mr. Muntz and Mr. Schole- field, the sitting Members, sent a jomt letter to the chairman of the meet- ing, stating that when they lately accepted an invitation to the meeting, they thought the movement was a perfectly spontaneous one, "receiving its impulse wholly from the inhabitants of the borough ": but they found that the meeting owed its origin to "other than local influences," and was to be used to disseminate the political financial views of a body. to whom they feel no hostility, but with many of whose plans and prin- ciples they could not concur. They therefore respectfully declined to share in the discussions of the meeting. Mr. George Dawson and some other of the speakers smartly called the Members to account for this let- ter ; and the resolutions proposed by the "extraneous " Reformers were passed by acclamation.

The Patriot states that a numerous and influential deputation of the ministers and laymen of the various denominations of Nonconformists are applying to Lord John Russell for an interview with hira to impress on Ministers the importance of leaving education to the voluntary action of the people. The Manchester Examiner and Times states that a Conference on the subject is to be held in Manchester on Monday the 2d of February, and meetings—a morning sitting and an aggregate evening meeting in the Free Trade Hall—on Tuesday the 3d of February, to oppose Government grants and local taxation for education.

The Chester and Manchester Church 'Union, on the 15th instant, passed a resolution, among others, declaring their opinion that the promoters of the Manchester and Salford scheme of education "have not afforded any grounds for believing that the present attendance at the existing schools in those boroughs would be materially if at all increased by a free educa- tion supplied by a compulsory rate" ; and that the clergy of the diocese should take early measures to make their objections to the Manchester and Salford scheme of education publicly known.

We hear it reported, and upon good authority, that Thomas Ripley, Esq., of Liverpool, formerly a merchant in Lancaster, influenced by a desire to promote the welfare of the place of his birth, is about to build a school, and endow it with the munificent sum of 10,0004— Lancaster Gazette.

An overflowing meeting in the Town-hall of Reading, on Monday, adopted petitions to Parliament for the repeal of the Maynooth College Endowment Act.

Some of the provincial journals 'profess to have got intimations of the new distribution of the Parliamentary representation, which it is assumed Lord John Russell's Reform measure will propose to effect. A Kentish paper says that the Parliamentary borough of Greenwich is to be cleft into three boroughs—Greenwich, Woolwich, and Deptford; a goodly arrangement for giving a vote to each stick of the Ministerial faggot. The Gloucester Journal, on the other hand, says, that Westbury is to unite with Trowbridge and Bradford in Wilts, for the return of two Members ; an arrangement threatening the interests of the Board of Control.

A few Protestant gentlemen, to mark their sense of the high literary at- tainments of the deceased historian Dr. Lingard, and of his private worth, intend to erect a monument to his memory, in the parish-church of Hornby, near Lancaster, in which village he resided about half a century. His re- mains, it will be remembered, are interred at Ushaw in the county of Dur- ham.—Preaton Chronicle.

A gentleman has been ordered to find bail at Bury to keep the peace towards his wife and daughter, on the ground that he had assaulted them in an attempt to carry off his wife. Many years ago, Mr. John Leigh, pattern- designer, became enamoured of the daughter of Mr. Hamer, of Summerseat House, near Bury ; she eloped with him from a boarding-school, and they ware married. Twenty years ago, the lady fled from her husband to her father, carrying with her a daughter; and for a number of years she lived in a secluded manner, under an assumed name, in a distant part of the country. Subsequently, she lived at her father's, and her daughter was married to Mr. John Grundy. Mr. Hamer died in 1850. Till that event Mr. Leigh did not molest his wife. Lately, he concocted a scheme to regain possession of her. He sent a carriage to Summerseat House with a story that Mr. Grundy had been thrown from his horse and was lying hurt at an inn ; and he placed himself with assistants in ambush near the inn. Mrs. Leigh and her daugh- ter fell into the trap, and repaired to the spot. When Mr. Leigh presented himself, his wife managed to escape from the carriage ; and while he tried in vain to push her back, Mr. Grundy was fetched, and Mr. Leigh and his myrmidons were baffled. A warrant was obtained against Mr. Leigh. When ordered to give sureties to keep the peace for a year, he declared that he would rather go to prison for the whole time.

Mr. Cumming, a surgeon of Buxton, has been drowned with his son, a boy if twelve, in the river .Derwent, at Matlock. Mr. Cumming was on a visit to the place; in the afternoon he hired a boat to indulgehis son with a row. The stream was much swollen by floods. Mr. Cumming approached too near a weir, and the current carried the boat over; but it descended safely, and grounded below. The people of the vicinity were alarmed, and hastened with ropes to render aid. Unfortunately, Mr. Cumming got out of the boat, and, with his son in his arms, attempted to wade to land ; but the current was too powerful : oftener than once after having lost his footing he ma- naged to regain it, but eventually he was overpowered ; and father and son perished in the sight of those who were unable, from the great width of the stream, to rescue them.

At the resumed sitting of the .17—ry on the body of Giovanni Kalabergo, who was murdered near Banbury, the evidence was strongly inculpatory of the deceased's nephew, Guilielmo. A bullet-mould and a pistol-bag, con- taining powder and seven bullets, were found in the stable of the murdered man; six of the bullets were made of a white metal, and in a garret a piece at white metal and two pieces of solder were found. In the prisoner's waistcoat. pocket there were grains of gunpowder. The bullet found in the skull of Giovanni Kalabergo was not a leaden one, but it was composed of tin and lead. A shopman at a gunsmith's at Banbury deposed that he sold a double. barrelled revolving pistol, gunpowder, caps, a bullet-mould, and a bag, to young Kalabergo. He recognized the mould and the bag found in the stable, The verdict of the Jury was 'Wilful murder against Giovanni Brizilli Gut. lielnio Kalabergo." The young man has also been committed for trial by tho Magistrates. He declined to offer anything in defence. The deceased Was much respected in Banbury • he had been very kind to his relatives at Chiavenna, and had remembered in his will the very nephew now believed to have been his murderer.

On the 5th November, John Anderson, foreman of chemical works at Wid- nes, near Liverpool, was murdered as he was returning home at night. The assassins were not known. The wife of the murdered man died, and it was found necessary to place the daughter in a lunatic asylum. Application was made to the Liverpool Police, and John Conolly was directed to make in. quiries. He disguised himself as a labourer, and under the name of "Jack Callaghan" got himself hired at the chemical works. He remained working there for six weeks, and during that time gained such information as led to the arrest of three men employed at the works—John Shay, Thomas Nolan, and Darby Nolan his father. They have been committed for trial. They were not a little astounded when "Jack Callaghan" appeared against them as a policeman. John Nolan, a second son of Darby, drowned himself in canal when he heard that his father had been sent to prison.

A few days since, John Pemberton, the engine-driver at the time of tbe late accident on the railway near Ford station, was removed from the Chi- chester Infirmary to Petworth Gaol, having quite recovered from the wound which he at that time inflicted on his throat with intent to destroy himself: he will be tried at the next Assizes.—Beigheota Guardian.