Zbe Vrobintes.

Lord Ashley has addressed the following letter to his constituents, to whom it was published in the Dorset County Chronicle.

" To the Gentry, Clergy, and Freeholders of the County of Dorset. " London, Oct. 10.

"Gentlemen—The interval of the recess from public duties affords me leisure to address you on the subject of my conduct as a Member of the House of Commons.

"I have taken the course of addressing you by letter, because it is not likely that I shall have the pleasure, this year, of attending any of your agricultural anniversaries; and if, moreover, the period of a dissolution of Parliament be nigh at hand, you may possibly be summoned to exercise the elective franchise before another such opportunity occur for inquiry or explanation.

"A requisition has, I understand, been numerously and respectably signed, and circulated throughout the county, to call upon some other gentleman, whose prin- ciples and whose practice are more in accordance with the views of those who have subscribed it, to offer himself as a candidate at the general election for the honour of representing you. "I do not complain of this proceeding on the part of the requisitionists; they have exercised, openly and legitimately, a constitutional right, and probably a duty: yet it renders inevitable a declaration on my part of the course I shall pur- sue, that we may not remain in ignorance of the views of each other, and that I may not have anything to suppress now and explain away hereafter.

" But it will be very short, because I cannot promise you any alteration. It would be desirable, I know; for I am fatly aware of the incompetent manner in which I have discharged the trust committed to my hand: but that is an imper- fection beyond my power to amend; and thus, as I am unable to improve my abilities, and altogether indisposed to change my conduct, I have the pain to find myself at variance, for the first time during the space of fourteen years, with many of those who have hitherto honoured me by their countenance and support.

"I will seize this occasion to touch the subject of the Corn-laws, and the cer- tain result of the present movement against them. It appears to me that their destiny is fixed; and that the leading men of the great parties in the Legislature are by no means disinclined to their eventual abolition. The debates of last ses- sion have left no doubt on this head: both the candidates for power and the occu- pants of it approximated so much inure closely than at. any former period, that most of the hearers were induced to believe that their difference was less a matter of principle than a question of time. " If this be so, it is needless to argue the policy or impolicy of such a changes it would rather be wise to consider in what way you can break the force of an inevitable blow. The sudden repeal of these laws would be destructive ; the gradual abolition of them would be less injurious. You have, at this moment, the power to offer such terms; there is no certainty that you will retain it much longer: our actual prosperity must come to an end; and then the wide and fearful pressure of commercial distress, with the hostility on the one side and the indif- ference on the other of the great political chiefs, will leave you, in an hour of

..esp,scial difficulty, altogether without a refugee or resource.

And now, gentlemen with many and sincere thanks for the kindness and confidence you have hitherto bestowed upon me, allow me to subscribe myself, with much respect, " Your very faithful friend and servant, Ammar."

This letter has of course occasioned a good deal of comment. The Agriculturist Morning Post flies at the deserter open-mouthed- " We do not know any man of his time with abilities so limited, and with intentions so far removed from evil, who as done as much mischief as Lord Ashley. The reason appears to be, that he meddles with important matters, and in an apparently serious mood; but he is always found to be devoid of that manly spirit and that resolute good sense which are necessary for bringing any important to a desirable issue. There is a certain sort of respectability attaches to his name; but his mode of proceeding is so nerveless, so effeminate, so wanting in vigorous perseverance when the affair goes well, so canting and splenetic when the affair goes ill, that no cause is ever the better of his advocacy, nor is any c

use much the worse of his hostility. We bear the noble Lord no ill-will; we heartily wish be were in the situation for which he is best fitted; and therefore we should not be displeased to see him out of Parliament, and well settled as secretary and manager of some Ladies' Bible Society in the country."

The canvass of the two candidates for Windsor has been marked by some angry sallies. An elector wrote to the Duke of Wellington complain- ing that officers and men in the Second Regiment of Life Guards had in- terfered by canvassing for Colonel Reid, their commander; and it is under- stood that the Duke has taken steps to prevent that breach of military etiquette. Sir John De Beauvoir has issued an address to the electors, de- claring that he had not transferred his interest to Colonel Reid or to any candidate. It is said that Mr. Norton, Superintendent of the Royal House- hold, has told several of the tradesmen that "the highest personage in the realm" has no wish to influence their votes.

, A grand dinner was given in the Polytechnic Hall of the Sunderland Athenwum on Tuesday, to Mr. George Hudson, in celebration of his re- turn as Member for the borough. Among the company were Lord Sea- ham, Sir Adolphus Vane, Sir John Lowther, M.P., Mr. Mathew Bell, M.P., Aix. Hodgson Hinde, M.P., Colonel Thomas Wood, M.P., and Mr. Liddell, 11.P. The speeches were highly complimentary and exultant, but not Interesting.

The Morning Chronicle notices an important evidence of improvement in the laws, police, and habits among the people, but above all, of improve- ment in their earnings and material condition-

" At several of the Michaelmas Quarter-Sessions, the Chairmen have been con- gratulating the Grand Juries on the improved condition of the calendar. This has been the case more particularly. in Sussex and Suffolk, especially in the latter county. The country-gentlemen, though pleased with the result, are either un- able or unwilling to explain the cause. The Earl of Chichester, in Sussex, made large allowances for the brief period that had elapsed since the previous session— less than six weeks—during which they could not expect a great many offences.' But the Suffolk Magistrates come nearer to the point, because they have more reason to do so. The time is not so very remote when incendiary fires scared farmers and landlords into a feeling of insecurity, the oppression of which was horrible. From this they are now happily relieved. Even the preliminary of in- cendiarism is disappearing. One Suffolk Magistrate expresses his astonishment at not finding a single poacher in the gaol. He has been twenty years on the bench; and he never knew a similar occurrence to that which, in his locality., cha- racterizes the current month of October. And another gentleman, reasoning on the subject, says, Whatever may be the cause assigned for this happy change— whether the alteration in the law, the zealous exertions of the police, or the efforts of good people and the Government in affording to the poor a virtuous and a .Christian education—it must be matter of great congratulation that such a happy await has been obtained.'"

A special meeting of nail-masters residing in Dudley and the neighbour- hood was held last week, to consider the state of the trade, and the advance required by the men, who have turned out for wages or a rise of 10 per cent. There are altogether in the district between thirty and forty nail- masters, only eleven of whom were present at the meeting; but these, we are happy to say, were unanimous in their opinion that the men should receive 20s. in the pound, instead of subjecting them, as has been the case hitherto, to an abatement of 10 and in some instances 20 per cent. As, however, so small a number of the trade were present, the meeting came to a resolution to apprize the other masters of their decision, and to request their concurrence in the advance. This, as a matter of course they will accede to, as it is not likely the men will work for those employers who adhere to the old prices. Now that the briskness of trade seems to justify the rise, it is good policy for the masters to exhibit a liberal and friendly spirit towards their workmen, who are worse remunerated for their labour than any other class of operatives in the district. The meeting adjourned in order to hear the replies of the non-attending masters; but the " strike" may be virtually considered at an end. A number of men in Dudley have already recommenced work at the advance.—Birmingham Journal.

The account of Birkenhead, by a "noble diplomatist," which we quoted last week, however graphic in describing the present, contained some errors in respect of the past. "Seven years ago," says the writer, "there were not three houses on tha tside of the Mersey" ; which makes the Liverpool people smile. According to him seven years ago Sir William Stanley's hounds killed a fox on the site of Hamilton Square: whereas seven years ago there was no Sir William Stanley; and Hamilton Square was planned twenty .years ago, by the late Mr. William Laird. Mr. Jackson was not the ori- ginator of the Birkenhead improvements but Mr. Laird. Liverpool con- tains, instead of ten acres of docks, a hundred and eleven acres.

Byron's statue, whilom imprisoned in the vaults of the Customhouse, has at length found a home in the bosom of his alma meter, Cambridge University; and a correspondent, of Trinity College, whose vein of language is somewhat heightened by the occasion, thus moralizes the subject-

" Some thirty years ago, Lord Byron was driven from his native shores, with a Yell 4. IStaexatickas amversal and as sudden as was the burst of applause at which,Jhorily bifotiateleilleke and found himself famous.' The most popular poet of:this,eltry, ldnrallekof;the rank and fashion of the land, was in a moment degraded fann his loftrped&atal, and dragged through all the mire and infamy of public hatred: Reavas scouted from society, denounced from the pulpit, and vilified by the -press. Thelloloch of conventionalism had demanded its periodical .yicthm; and the more illuatriotts the sacrifice, the more perfect the satisfaction of

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the monster, the more wild and frantic the delight of its devotees. A few years later, when the laurel of the hero was entwined with the wreath of the poet, when the glorious enterprise in which he fell had shed a melancholy splendour round his parting scene, and when poignant feelings of self-reproach and regret for the past had seemed to promise a new and more manly career, his ashes were refused admittance to the shrine where the chiefs of native literature have a prescriptive right to repose in death. A foreign sculptor, not only the first artist but also one of the noblest spirits of his time, moved by sympathy with kindred genius, had breathed upon the cold marble, and the Pythian of the age' came back in form and spirit as he lived: but the Church, never less catholic. than when most worldly, denied the claim of the great poet to stand in marble among his breth- ren—for he had scoffed at creeds and violated decencies. And now twenty years have passed away, and Thorwaldsen's Byron stands conspicuous in the noble library. of Trinity College. The man whom Dean Ireland and his Canons ex- cluded from the temple hallowed by the mute memorials of the mighty dead, the royal and religious foundation of Trinity College' has honoured with prece- dence among all the great men whose images adorn that classic hall. Is the moral standard of Trinity College lower than that of the Dean and Chapter of Westminster? or is it only less sectarian? Is, in fact, the University wider in its sympathies, larger in its comprehensive tolerance, than the Church? Something, we believe, of this—but still more do we attribute to the growing prevalence of a conviction, that it is false and therefore immoral to judge a man by his acts alone, without reference to individual temperament, and the thousand causes which, with an almost inevitable necessity, mould the form and fix the colours of human existence. More still to the better understanding and truer appreciation of the poet's mission; to the clearer insight with which we perceive and recognize the great fact, that genuine poetry is the most touching utterance of the human heart in its yearning for all that is beautiful and good—that the poet is the highest teacher of

Wisdom, a name to shake All evil dreams of power ;

and that the spirit in which we receive his teaching and do homage to his great- ness is a sure measure of our own advance in all that elevates and adorns humanity. And as all progress in enlightenment and extension of sympathy is sure to bring some substantial reward along with its more precious meed of delight and self-satisfaction, so in this case Trinity College has gained for itself the noblest work which England can show, of the most classic sculptor of the age; a work which if not equal to is at least worthy to stand in the same hall with the masterpiece of Roubiliac, the statue of him who is the glory of England and the boast of Trinity, the immortal Newton.*

A church-rate contest in the parish of St. Andrew, Newcastle-upon- Tyne, has terminated in a refusal of the rate: the numbers were 337 in favour of the rate, and 582 against it. The dilapidated state of the church having rendered repairs necessary to the amount of 4001., the Vicar offered to give 1001., and to raise another 100/. among his friends, if the parish would contribute the remainder.

Mr. Pugin, the celebrated artist for restoring ancient architecture in this country, has, by authority, submitted a plan for a Catholic cathedral, upon a grand scale, to be erected in Liverpool. Its length is to be four hundred and sixty feet, with two lofty towers, and a steeple of great height. It will stand upon two- and-a-half acres of land. The cost will exceed 100,0001. Several subscriptions of 500/. to 2,000/. each are already spoken of.---Liverpool Times.

Fourth-Lieutenant Lindsay P. Burrell, of the Queen's ship Superb, has been tried by a Court-martial, at Plymouth, for disobedience of orders and breach of the twenty-seventh Article of War. The Captain of the Superb had ordered that all officers should wear cocked-hats and swords when on shore; notwithstanding which, the accused appeared at a review at Portsmouth in undress uniform. During the night of the 8th instant, Mr. Burrell was officer of the watch while the Superb was lying at Spithead : during his watch, he sat down upon deck and fell asleep. Witnesses clearly proved these facts. Mr. Burrell declared that the first offence was a mere act of inadvertence: with respect to the second, he at- tempted to prove by medical evidence, that a disease with which he was affiictei' caused drowsiness; but in this he failed. The Court declared the charges to have been proved, and sentenced Lieutenant Burrell to be dismissed from the service.

A murderous attempt at highway robbery was made near Nottingham on Saturday evening. As Mr. Bunting, a solicitor's clerk, was returning from Mansfield in a gig, at a slow pace, he was violently struck on the head by one of two ruffians who had followed him along the road : his head was very much hurt. Before the thieves had time to rob him, however, a farmer came up, and they made off.

At Blackburn Petty-Sessions last week, four men were accused of shaking a woman in a sack ! All the parties were employed in a print-work: a man who had courted the girl got married; whereupon the defendants made a demand upon her of money for drink, threatening the alternative of " shaking in the bag," according to a custom of the district, which subjects the jilted to a penalty instead of the jilter. She refused to give any money; and in consequence the men actually did thrust her into a sack, and there shook her. Each of the de- fendants was fined 20s. and costs.

A collision of a serious nature, apparently arising from the recklessness of an engine-driver, occurred on the Midland Railway early on the morning of Monday. i The engine of the London mail-train, which s due at Leeds about five o'clock a.m., got out of order between the Masborough and Cudworth stations, and the train was propelled at the rate of only eight or nine miles an hour. Meanwhile, a messenger was sent back to the Masborough station for a spare engine. When the train had arrived at about a mile and a half on the Leeds side of the Cudworth station, the assistant-engine came up at a rapid pace, and dashed into the hind- most carriage; which was forced up from the rails, and the buffers were driven into the first compartment of a first-class carriage that preceded it. Two of the passengers were much hurt. The sequel is told in the following letter by a son of Mr. M.D. Hill, the Queen's counsel—s young engineer, who happened to be a passenger. Don't be alarmed : I am all safe, life and limb ; but I had the narrowest escape I ever met with. Soon after we passed Sheffield, our engine burst one of its cylinders, and broke the piston-rod. This was cleared in about a quarter of an hour ; and with the other cylinder we proceeded about four miles beyond Boursley, at a foot pace, send- ing word by a luggage-train that passed us for a fresh engine. This overtook us at such a violent pace as to crash up the last carriage, a second-class, and drive it bodily into the one I was sitting in (a first-class.) Fortunately I was in the centre compartment, and not in the last. I was thrown furiously forward, and pitched head-first Into the opposite seat. I lost no time, you may be sure, in picking myself up and getting out when a horrible scene presented itself. The compartment immediately behind mine was filled with shrieking and groaning victims, calling for assistance. The guard and I soon opened the door, and dragged one man out, who the moment he reached the ground fell. We soon had him up ; and I led him to the bank, seated him, felt his leg, and pronounced no bones broken. Returning to the carriage. I saw a horrid sight : an old gentleman with white hair was sitting with firm determination, his legs being both jammed between the buffer of the second-class, which bad penetrated into the centre, and his own seat—one leg cut completely off, except a small piece of flesh, and the other dreadfully smashed ; and what was worse, so fast were the carriages stuck, that it was nearly an hour before he could be released. A poor man with one leg escaped by a miracle losing that one ; and salt is, is much hurt. A lady Is much cut ; and braises are like blackberries. "As soon as I saw sufficient people attending the wounded, I sent an old gentleman. with a terribly crushed hat, one way wins a red lamp, whilst I went the other With another : by this means we stopped a down-train, which might have rushed in upon all the passengers. Soon after daylight, an engine came and fetched us away. ltiyearriage was forced off the rails; and the rest of the train before it broke away, and went on for hundred yards ; in which we went on. I luckily saved my level at first, and fortu- nately found everything right at last, with the exception of a slight hurt on the calf of my leg, and my nerves a good deal shaken. I am all right."

The old gentleman was Mr. Boteler, Commissioner of the Leeds Bankruptcy Court; the other person hurt was Mr. Stubbs, a sergeant in the Leeds Detective Force.

On Wednesday, Wheatley, the driver of the assistant-engine, was charged by the Railway Company, before the Sheffield Magistrates, with having negligently ran into the train, thereby endangering the lives and limbs of the passengers. The guard of the train described the collision as detailed in the foregoing account. There were, he said, two red lamps at the tail of the train. Wheatley was thrown off the engine by the concussion, and stunned. Another guard deposed, that on seeing the engine approach, he turned the green glass over his lamp, as a signal for the driver to slacken his speed; in turning the glass a white light might have been visible for a moment. A white light indicates a clear path. He got upon his knees upon the roof of a carriage to save himself when he saw a collision inevitable, and he was jerked into the air, but fell on the roof again. When Wheatley was picked up, he declared that he had not seen either train or lamps. A watchman at Barnsley station told the accused that the train was not far a-head, and was slowly ascending an incline: this witness could see the red lights of the train at the distance of a mile: shortly after the engine left the station, the watchman saw a white light exhibited on the train, and then came the crash. Several of the witnesses said that Wheatley had the character of a careful man. This was the case against the prisoner. For the defence, Walker, the stoker of Wheatley's engine, was called. This was his account of the matter: the watch- man at Barnsley did not say how long the train had been gone; when the engine had proceeded about half a mile they saw a white light, but no red one; the white light appeared to be coming towards them, and they went on till they saw the red lights; the steam was then shut off, the break put on, and the engine re- versed; but they were close upon the train—it was too late. The Magistrates adjourned the case until the fate of Mr. Boteler should be known; holding Wheatley to 'bail, but not to a heavy amount, his previous character having been so good.

An accident which created great alarm, and detained strain for three hours, occurred on the Great Western Railway on Friday, near the Brimscomb station, in the neighbourhood of Stroud. A correspondent of the Morning Post gives this account of it. "About two miles to the Eastward of this station, there is an extensive cutting, called the 'Strawberry cutting.' For the sake of security, it was deemed advisable to remove some large stones from one of the sides; and as they were loose, and occupied a position which would cause them to roll upon the rails if they fell, a number of men sufficient to remove such as might fall, with- out loss of time, was kept at hand day and night. In addition to this, a signal- post was erected, by which a warning could be given in the event of an obstruc- tion occurring. Shortly after nine o'clock on Friday morning, a heavy block fell, and rolled on the rails; and although a signal was instantly made to warn the down-train, which was due about the time, not to advance, still so near at hand was it that the driver was unable to stop the engine in time; and in consequence the train went onwards, but with diminished speed, and the engine came in con- tact with the stone. The stoker, seeing the danger, jumped off, and escaped with a few bruises; but the driver kept his post. By the shock the engine and tender were thrown across the rails towards the side from which the stone had fallen; but none of the passengers sustained any injury."

A railway-labourer has been killed at Sheffield, by getting entangled in a chain with which an engine was drawing some goods-trucks; the chain was dragged across his breast, and he was exposed to such a fearful degree of pressure that he died in three minutes after he was released.

A farmer and a draper's shopraan have been killed and many other persons seriously injured, at East Waldren, by the fall of the floor in a Methodist chapel. There was a full meeting to consider a plan for erecting a new chapel, the existing one being in a dilapidated state; and under the pressure the floor broke, precipitating the people into a cellar.

Several fires, believed to have been wilful, are reported in Cambridgeshire and Suffolk.