sbe iorobinces.

The Liverpool Agricultural Association held their meeting on Tues- day ; when about three hundred and fifty gentlemen sat down to dinner. Among the guests were the Mayor of Liverpool, the Earl of Sefton, Mr. Robertson Gladstone, Lord Lilford, Mr. Greenall, M. P., and other influential gentlemen. Lord Stanley presided, and made a speech. He touched upon the advantages of such societies in general, and upon the necessity of improvements- " Every one is struck with the appearance of preparation for future exertions, which are at the same time the tokens of well-deserved success. Some of the old farmers in this country—I mean the real old class—shrug their shoulders and Bay, 'What is the need of all this stir about improvement, and making the land grow so much more ? ' By-the-by, it is not so much making it grow more, as making it grow different crops—making it grow wheat instead of weeds. But some say, What is the use of all this? it is not a question for the farmer : we shall only have our rents increased the more productive the land is.' Such an argument, allow me to say, is the very climax of absurdity. To use a very homely phrase, it is cutting off one's own nose to spite one's face." Why should I undertake an improvement, because my landlord will benefit by it ?' appears to me a very inconclusive and absurd argument. I am not here to dispute the fact, that every improvement in value, every addition by science to the productive power of the land, everything which adds to its fertility, must in the long run be an advantage to those in whom the fee-simple is vested. But the question is, at the same time that it is an advantage to the landlord, is it not also an advantage to the farmer who occupies the land and makes his livelihood out of it ? 1 ask no man to undertake an improvement if his own good sense does not lead him to do it. 1 ask no man to apply any im- proved ruode of cultivation if it does not appear that his own individual advan- tage would be promoted by so doing. • • I want the tenant not to undertake any improvement that will not repay him, capital, interest, and pro- fit, during his occupation of the land."

He adverted to the subject of leases— "This I say, and as one connected with the land I feel myself bound to say it, that a landlord has no right to expect any great and permanent improve- ment of his land by the tenant, unless that tenant be secured the repayment of his outlay, not by the personal character or honour of his landlord, but by a se- curity which no casualties can interfere with—the security granted him by the

terms of a lease for years. • • • There are some expenses, more especially with the class of farmers of whom the great majority are composed, which it is idle to expect that they should undertake. If they are to add a permanent value to the land, they ought to be undertaken by the landlord him- self, charging on the tenant-such an amount of interest as may repay him for the outlay be has made, and at the same time afford a reasonable profit to the

tenant. * • * I allude especially to that which, again I repeat, is the basis of all improvement, and especially in this county—the thorough draining of the soil. And I repeat what I have already said on a former occa- sion in this room—that there is no investment in the world in which a land- lord can so safely, so usefully, or so profitably invest his capital, as in the im- provement-of his own farm, by money sunk in draining, on security of the land which belongs-to himself.' Lord Stanley stated that, last year, he and his Lathes' laid down 300- miles of-drains; employing 1,500,000 tiles, and expending 5,0001. or6,000L Some prises were distributed and-Lord Stanley took the opportunity of controverting the position that the bestowal of prizes humiliates the labourer; contending that they are not so much a remuneration as honourable marks of approval— He held in his hand a testimonial which was to accompany a premium of 41. to be given to Jonathan Hughes for twenty-five years of faithful servitude. The 4/. to such a man would be as unworthy a remuneration as a piece of paper ; but the testimonial itself would be kept by him and his children as a proof that his long and faithful services had been appreciated by those among whom he lived.

The Tring Agricultural Association held their fourth annual meeting on Friday ; when there was a dinner and a distribution of prizes. About sixty members and friends of the Association sat down to the dinner; and prizes were distributed after the meal. The labourers seem to have been present during the drinking of wine and toasting ; but how far they partook in the pleasures of the table, if at all, does not appear. The Chairman was Mr. James Adam Gordon, President of the Asso- ciation ; whose speech in proposing " Prosperity to the Tring A gricul- tural Association " contained several interesting points. He described the panic caused by the Tariff as having been quite dissipated— Confidence appeared to be restored to agriculture, and confidence was calcu- lated to increase prosperity. The removal of the duties on foreign wool had not rendered the price of the home-produce less ; but it had increased since those duties were taken off, because it was necessary to have foreign wool to work up with home-grown wooL He enlarged upon the recent revolution in agricultural chemistry. Ten years ago the mention of guano was ridiculed—scarcely ten pounds of it could be procured to make an experiment ; and Professor Liebig's name was converted into " Big-lie " : now 60,000 tons of shipping are employed in the importation of guano to this country ; and that day week he attended a dinner given to Professor Liebig in Glasgow, at which upwards of three hundred farmers were present. Mr. Gordon described a new method of increasing the fertility of the land—by elec- tricity !— In Morayshire, he met with a gentleman who communicated to him many agricultural facts, and informed him that he had recently seen on the farm of Findrassie a plot of land which seemed to bear barley and clover as if they were growing on a dunghill; and that that effect was produced by singular means, but easily to he comprehended by persons versed in science. Perhaps when he mentioned it they would call him a wire-worm; and perhaps they would be asto- nished if he told them that the most successful agriculturists might be the poach- ers, for who would deny that they well knew how to lay down wires? (Lattylder.) He came among them armed only with a pole or poles eleven feet long, a coil of common wire, and a compass ; and with these weapons he trusted be should in a few minutes convince them that he could wield an agricultural power not to be despised. But to proceed. He wrote to the proprietor of the farm at Findrassie, near Elgin—Dr. Forster, not Faustus—to open, with a lecture on the subject, a large room which he had built for agricultural purposes in the county of Aberdeen. Dr. Forster, however, was not able to do so ; but, with a practical liberality which marked him a true agriculturist, be was kind enough to write an account of the subject, which was the novel and surprising one of the influence of electricity and galvanism on the growth of plants as applicable to agriculture. Many years since, Mr. Forster read in the Gardener's Gazette the account of an experiment made by a lady, which mainly consisted in causing a constant flow or supply of electricity (to be afforded by a common electrical machine) to proceed from a summer or garden-house, and which was diffused by wire to a fixed portion of the surrounding ground : and the effect was, that vegetation did not cease in the winter on the spot under the influence of this wonderful power ; and that what snow fell during the con- tinuance of the experiment never remained, as it did on the rest of the garden around. This impressed Mr. Forster very much, and induced him to place a small galvanic battery in action on a grass-plot: and although the power from it was very small, still the effect produced fully confirmed the lady's experiment. This and other facts which Mr. Forster collected, led him to think that the electricity of the atmosphere (a constant current of which was found to proceed from East to West over the whole of this earth's surface) might, by some arrangement, be usefully employed in agriculture : for Mr. Crosse of Taunton had long since proved that the free electricity of the air might be easily col- lected by wire suspended on poles of wood at many feet from the earth's sur- face, the direction of the wire being due North and South by the compass; and many very interesting and important facts and experiments had been recorded by Mr. Crosse, and mainly collected from a careful observance of the electricity proceeding from the suspended wire. Mr. Forster next placed two poles four feet high in his front lawn, which had been recently laid down with chevalier barley and grass, after draining and subsoil-ploughing it ; and over those poles, which were due North and South of each other, he stretched a common piece of iron wire, fixing the two ends of it to stout wooden pins, driven in close to the earth ; and on the edge of the plot of eight English poles and around the edges, which were straight lines, he sunk about two or three inches beneath the earth two wires of equal length, the ends of which were fixed and in con- tact with the two ends of the suspended wire, which were meant not to be too tight, for its contrac■ion in cold nights would break it in two, or pull away the fixtures, and thus defeat the object. Mr. Forster formed two of these plots for experiment, measuring eight square poles each; and then proceeded to criticize his work : and to do so accurately, sought the aid of Noad's Popular Lectures on Electricity and Galvanism ; and almost the first half-hour's perusal showed him that there was such an error in one part of his plan as would effectually defeat his intention. This was, that the point of a blade of grass or young corn-plant has the most extraordinary faculty or power of attracting or appro- priating to itself all the free electricity present, at four times the distance that the finest point of metal would or could. So that when the points of the barley- plants should reach one foot high, all the electricity that the suspended wire might before that have collected and conveyed through the buried wire to the roots of the plants, would be abstracted by the points of thetarley; and thus, the suspended wire getting nothing from the air, could not, of course, supply anything ; by which all the induced electrical influence would cease. Mr. Forster, therefore, next day placed pules eleven feet high above the surface, with wires, &c. exactly the same, except that the space surrounded by the buried wire was twenty-four poles English measure. All the results are yet imperfectly known, but these were evident. The barley-plants on the two smaller plots (of eight poles each) soon became darker in colour, and grew faster until they had attained to about a foot in height ; the darker green colour then gradually disappeared ; and at the end of a fortnight after there was no perceptible differenee but in the height of the young barley-plants, and even this ceased to be very apparent as the crop advanced. When the barley of the larger or twenty-four poles plot was six inches high, it assumed the same lively dark green, and grew faster than the surrounding unelectrified barley-plant ; and this difference it maintained up to the last, except that the colour of course in time became yellow; and it was curious that this change occurred later than in the rest of the crop. The num- ber of stooks or shocks was also greater, and each larger when reaped ; the ears from one grain of seed were more numerous and longer ; the corn also was larger and harder. To make assurance doubly sure, Mr. Forster fixed to the short four-feet poles of one of the smaller plots pieces of dry pine-wood eight feet high, and suspended two wires to them, one at that elevation and another a foot lower down; and was pleased to find, that after some time this plot partially resumed its former darker green colour. The experiment had also been tried at Liverpool, with great success, on potatoes ; the crops being much larger than on the other parts of the land. It was the opinion of those scien- tific persons of whom be had inquired, that even Professor Liebig was not aware of the application to agriculture of this discovery. It seemed, then, that the meeting was now in possession of valuable details which were known to very few persons in the whole country. He hoped some gentlemen would try the experiments, and write upon the subject ; for he had written to the Royal Agricultural Society to offer 30/. for the best prize essay on galvanism and electricity as applicable to agriculture.

Mr. Gordon touched upon the subject of tenures. He had visited East Lothian, which Professor Liebig and others admitted to be the best agricultural district in the world : well, there the farms are let on nineteen-years lease ; consequently, upon those farms there are steam- engines. In agricultural matters Scotland is fifty years in advance of England : why ?—because the Scotch farmers have leases. Also, the Scotch landowners are the better able to carry on improvements on en- tailed estates, because they can charge two-thirds of the expense on the next heir. Mr. Pusey endeavoured by a Parliamentary bill to remove the legal impediments to the introduction of that plan into England ; but unsuccessfully, for no one would act under it, for fear of the Court of Chancery. The Scotch agriculturists never grumble. There was recently a storm which must have shaken the corn out of the ear, and done immense damage ; but nobody complained. In Scotland farmers always put the best face on every thing : and why ?— they have leases. Other speakers also insisted upon the expediency of granting leases.

Among the labourers at this meeting was a man more than a hun- dred years old—.

He looked not older than many do at sixty or seventy years of age. His name is John Richards ; and he is a native of Broad Cliffs, in Devonshire, where his baptism is registered as having taken place in 1739. He was a working-man, said Mr. Gordon, in the reign of George the Second; from whom he had the honour to receive a guinea for opening a gate at Long-leat Park. He had also frequently conversed in Windsor Park with George the Third; whom, be said, they used to call" Farmer George." He had been a sawyer, a drover, a herb- gatherer, and had latterly been employed in keeping the birds from the corn; for, Though 80 aged, his eye was still good, and sporting gentlemen would be sur- prised and pleased to witness his shooting. He was also in the Militia in the time of General Wolfe, and was wounded at the battle of Vinegar Hill ; but be had no pension. It is needless to say that this old man excited consi- derable interest. He appears to be still strong and active, and waved his arm vigorously when the toasts were cheered. It is painful to add, that this poor old fellow, who attended on the Prince of Wales's great grandfather, WU until very lately confined in a Union Workhouse. On Saturday morning, the old man made a trial of his skill in shooting at a mark, the fourth part of a sheet of foolscap, at forty yards distance; in which he placed twelve shots.

A Tam worth correspondent of the Times comments on the Premier's absence this year from the agricultural gatherings-

" Sir Robert Peel would appear to have decidedly cut the Agricultural Asso- ciations of the present year. Great was the disappointment created (after his solemn promise at the last meeting) by his absence from Lichfield; but every- body supposed that he would most undoubtedly preside over the approaching festival of his favourite farmers club at Tamworth. Here too his admiring agricultural friends are doomed to disappointment. The Club have issued an advertisement, in which they announce, that the annual meeting of the Tam- worth Farmers Club, for the purpose of auditing accounts, will be held at the Castle Hotel, on Saturday the 26th instant; but the Town-hall being under repair, the dinner is postponed.' The matter of the accounts, being a very small matter, will be a very short business; and Sir Robert's speech may be considered as postponed sine die."

The Bishop of Chichester delivered his first charge to the clergy of Isis diocese, at Chichester, on Tuesday. Among other things, he ex- horted his hearers to promote improvements in the dwellings of the poor, as conducive to the moral improvement of the inmates ; and he made a suggestion of the same kind as to the payment of wages-

" If masters could pay them on the Thursday instead of Saturday, I believe that many a victim of intemperance might be saved. Their Sunday comforts would be improved, and the duties of the Sabbath-day would be much less in- terfered with. The gentry and farmers of Sussex, and other employers of the poor in this diocese, are many of them doing much for the improvement, morally and spiritually, of the labourers, as well as the amelioration of their external circumstances. Let me, through you, entreat of them to add this to the other good deeds in their behalf ; assuring them that they will have their reward in more ways than one. And I need not remind you, my reverend brethren, that in olden times in many of our institutions the week ended on Thursday."

The Gloucestershire Chronicle briefly enumerates and describes a variety of remedies that have been suggested to ameliorate the physical and moral condition of the agricultural labouring-class,---namely, em- ployment in draining on a large scale, employment in soil-burning and in digging up conch-grass during the winter, allotments, emigration, cultivation of waste lands, education, improvement of cottages, en- couragement at agricultural meetings in ploughing-matches and digging-matches, &c. ; winding up with remarks from the Spectator on the feasibility of admitting labourers to sit as guests at the table of agricultural dinners ; and hastily mentioning auxiliary measures, such as loan-funds, benefit and clothing clubs, and the like. Our contem- porary observes- " The mistake which benevolent men too often fall into, and which is par- ticularly conspicuous at the present period, is, that every one has his crotchet, his bobby. At the Suffolk meeting, a number of plans were proposed, each of ....ad its promoters, defenders, and opponents; but none seemed to think, as has been shrewdly said, • that there might be an efficient union of all.' By degrees, all the remedial means we have mentioned might be brought into opera- tion, if those who have it in their power would put their shoulders firmly to the wheeL" The Liberal electors of St. Thomas's Ward in Birmingham enter- tained their Alderman, Mr. William Scholefield, at dinner, on Wednes- day last week. Mr. Scholefield took the occasion to rebut some charges that had been made against him as a Magistrate and politician. As Mayor, he was accused of introducing the London Police during the dis- turbances of 1842: now he disapproved of that measure ; but minis- terially, as an executive officer, he gave effect to the decision to which the Magistrates came ; and he was quite willing to bear his share of the responsibility. Another charge was, that he had declared against any system of national education not founded on the Bible now, though he would give his own children the benefits of a religions as well as moral and intellectual education, he held that national education, to be suc- cessful, must lay no trammels whatever upon its recipients as to reli- gious tenets and professions. At the last Parliamentary election, he was accused of being the nominee of the Reform Club : the Reform Club had no more to do in the matter than the Jockey Club. He was accused of being a " Whig "; and in controversion of that charge Mr. Scholefield brought forth his political creed. Although favourable to most of the "points of the Charter," he thought it unwise to insist upon them, as they impeded the progress of the one most important among them, the question of the suffrage. He was for giving the suffrage to every man at twenty-five years of age; the period between twenty-one and twenty-five being that in which the passions have the most imperious sway, whereas at twenty-five passion is yielding to the sway of mature judgment. To electoral districts, ballot, payment of Members, and abolition of property-qualification, he was favourable ; but he would prefer triennial to annual Parliaments.

A public meeting was held at Rochdale, on Monday, to resist the introduction of the new Poor-law into that town. The meeting was convened by the High Constable, on a requisition signed by 2,961 re- spectable inhabitants of the parish ; and an extensive piece of ground called the Butts was crowded. Mr. John Fielden was present, and energetic ; Mr. Sharman Crawford sent a letter of sympathy ; and resolutions against the measure were carried unanimously.

The first stone of Birkenhead Docks was laid on Wednesday ; an occasion as memorable as the scene was striking. Within a few months, Birkenhead was an obscure town of Cheshire, on the neglected Walla- sey Pool, a creek of the Mersey : now, a companion city to Liverpool is

already rising, and the Pool is to be turned into vast docks, for ships of any tonnage. The commencement of that great work was celebrated with parallel magnificence. The report of artillery awoke the day ; and a perpetual feu-de-joie was kept up on all sides from guns and cannon of every calibre. The morning was fair, and the day grew brilliant as it advanced. The shipping on the river were decked in their gayest. The water was crowded with boats, for it is computed that seventy thousand people crossed over from the Lancashire side ; many shops in Liverpool being closed in order that the inmates might attend the great festival on the Cheshire bank. Numbers also flocked to the place from the other parts of the country ; so that the population of Birkenhead for the nonce has been reckoned at 120,000. The houses of the town were decorated with flags and evergreens ; ladies stood at the balconies ; crowds kept possession of every point of view ; and at eleven o'clock,all awaited the procession from the Town-ball, with which the solemnities were to begin. This procession was an imposing affair : among its nota- bilities were trumpeters, a man in armour, military and other music bands, a printing-press at work, societies of Odd Fellows, Catholic Bre- thren, and such clubs, a body of one thousand workmen employed in constructing the People's Park which is comprised in the plan of the town, the shipwrights of Liverpool, gentlemen on horseback and on foot ; altogether making a train of such length, that it occupied an hour in passing any one point. Having perambulated the town's boundaries, the procession came to a stand, by two o'clock, at the Woodside Slip ; near which the foundation-stone hung, ready to be laid. Here was a large platform, crowded with gentry A prayer having been delivered by the Reverend Andrew Knox, Sir Philip De Malpas Grey Egerton, Member for South Cheshire, who held the trowel, (itself an elaborate work of art,) mounted upon the stone to address the great concourse around him— Sir Philip said, he had been present at many ceremonials of the kind, 'but never at one that could compare with the present for the important results likely to flow from it. A bridge over the Thames at London or over the Menai Straits, the Royal Exchange, which Queen Victoria was about to open—these were great works; but they would have only certain local or at least definite results ; whereas the influence of the docks about to be constructed at Birkenhead would be felt throughout the length and breadth of the land, throughout the trade and commerce of the country, circumscribed only by the limits of civilization in the habitable world. Comparing the natural facilities of this place, Mr. Telford had even gone so far as to say that Liverpool had been built on the wrong side of the river. All difficulties to the enterprise hail, at length been removed—" The Pool has been surveyed by a distinguished engineer, who has just taken part in these interesting proceedings. He has drawn out a plan for converting it into a series of docks ; that plan has been embodied in an act of Parliament, which was presented last session. The bill encountered strict, rigorous, and search- ing investigation in its passage through both Houses; but so manifest were the advantages held out—so ably were its clauses supported by the evidence of the most scientific men of the country—above all, so disinterested appeared the mo- tives of those who applied for the measure, that it passed triumphantly through this ordeal, and came unscathed and unmutilated through both Houses of Par- liament, and is now the law of the land. The works to be executed under this act are of a magnitude wholly unparalleled, I believe, in works of a similar de- scription. They will comprise, in the first instance, a small tidal harbour of about forty acres, with sufficient water to admit vessels at all times of the tide at which they can cross the Victoria Bar. Then there will be a harbour of refuge of ten acres, with beaching-ground of four or five acres extent, devoted to the use of the trading-craft of the river ; also a dock, applied to the present uses and purposes of the town of Birkenhead. If these were the only objects in view, they would be most valuable and important : but there is to be an opening out of the tidal harbour, by gates of vast extent, into a floating pool of 130 acres ; throughout the whole of which the water will be of such level, that the banks, comprehending nearly 8,000 lineal yards, will be applicable to the purposes of wharfs and yards, landing-places, graving-docks, warehouses, and all other accommodation necessary for a great mercantile harbour." Looking back to compare the present with the past, he could scarcely believe himself to be in the land of reality—" I have been told that shoat a century ago, at the time that my worthy ancestor occupied the mansion now so worthily occupied by Sir Edward Cust, it was proved in a court of law that Birkenhead was not entitled to the name of village, town, or even hamlet, as it did not con- tain three inhabited houses. Whether this be true or not, this I know from the census presented to Parliament, that in 1801 the number of houses only amounted to 16; that at the next census in 1811, that number was increased by only one; that in 1821, that number was increased by three, only by three; that in the next ten years to 1831, the increase was 400; that in 1841, the number of houses was 1,560 ; and now I am informed they amount to 2,300— occupying an extent of street exceeding thirty miles. This I look upon as a case wholly unparalleled in the annals of this country : and if among the num- ber of persons whom I now address I see a citizen of the United States of America, that country so famous for raising rapid towns, I might even challenge him to bring any analogous instance front-her annals." Be looked into the future—" I can fancy, I can picture, a forest of masts and vessels of all nations crowding these docks. 1 can fancy quays and docks and warehouses clothing these banks as far as the eye can reach. I can hear the busy hum of men : I can see the locomotive-engine at the back of the warehouses, prepared to convey by railroads in esse as well as in posse the commercial produce those warehouses contain. I can look at terraces, and streets, and palaces, and churches, and theatres, and market-halls, and town. hall, and lord mayors and aldermen, with bailiffs, and maces, and all the para- phernalia which belong to municipal dignity. I can almost shadow to myself a popular Member addressing the borough constituency from the city hustings. But to return from the fertile regions of fancy to the scenes of reality, I am persuaded I stand at this moment on the Rubicon of Birkenhead's prosperity— that as the Roman general of old, in his progress towards Rome, gained fresh laurels as he advanced, so Birkenhead will go on in the path of prosperity until she occupies the front rank among the communities around. In the words of one of the Liverpool papers, remarkable for their truth, she has the full tide of commercial prosperity in her favour : she has a cheap market, cheap materials to build with, the sanction of all the Government authorities ; she has the approbation of the Conservators of the Mersey, and the support of all the trading and manufacturing interests of the country. With these advan- tages to start with, I bid her go on and prosper; and from the bottom of my heart I wish her God speed."

When Sir Philip ceased, Mr. William Jackson, one of the chief pro- jectors of the enterprise, asked him to allow his portrait to be taken, as then standing on the foundation-stone, to grace the walls of the new Town-hall : the artist, said Mr. Jackson, was there. Sir Philip mo- destly assented. The stone was lowered to its place, amid a storm of cheers ; guns, bells, and music, vying with the clamour. That ceremony performed, the concourse broke up ; dividing into separate parties, to dine at various places in the town and neighbour- hood. The Birkenhead Commissioners gave the whole of their people a holyday ; full wages paid, and bread and meat distributed in plenty to every family. As much as 2,300/. or 2,500/. was subscribed for this multitudinous regale. The clerks and other employes were entertained at a ball and supper, given by Mr. William Jackson, in the Town-hall. At night, there was a display of fireworks ; and as the fashion became ge- neral, the whole place crackled with squibs, bonfires blazing at every turn or rise of ground. In spite of the concourse and the gayety, not a single injury occurred from accident throughout the day ; and but one person so far forgot himself in the jollity as to be called to account before the Magistrates next day.

But we have not done yet with the day. At five o'clock, the princi- pal folks sat down to a sumptuous banquet. The Commissioners gave the preference to a local innkeeper ; whose genius seems to have risen with the occasion, while they supported him bravely, building him a kitchen on purpose. Others contributed with princely munificence : for instance, a gas-company not only furnished a profuse supply of gas, but laid down pipes especially to illuminate the banquet-room and the grand ball-room within and without. The buildings at the ter- minus of the Chester and Birkenhead Railway were used : the banquet- room was the place in which the carriages are kept—a building 100 feet long, 40 wide, and lofty in proportion ; the ball-room was a still larger building next to it, generally used to keep the engines in. The ceiling of the banquet-room was covered with evergreens, high up among which hung three large Bade lights; the walls, tastefully hung with glazed calico of blue, red, and yellow, reflected a blaze from chan- deliers and gas-lights; the floor was covered with green baize ; fanciful draperies, brass, glass pendants, urns, flowers and shrubs, and a pro- fusion of of plate, contributed to form a brilliant picture ; while the fare was really sumptuous—the turtle tureens and venison dishes were to be counted by scores. To this feast sat down some six hundred gentlemen, of whom about two hundred were invited guests. The Chairman was Mr. John Laird, the eminent shipbuilder; over whose head hung a por- trait of his father, the late William Laird, suggester of the Birkenhead works : the Vice-Chairman was Mr. William Jackson. Among the principal guests were Sir Philip Egerton, Sir William Massey Stanley, the Earl of Essex, Lord Bateman, Lord Lilford, Mr. Edward John Stanley of Alderley, Sir Edward Cast, several Members of Parliament without distinction of party, and other gentlemen of influence in Cheshire, Lancashire, and Liverpool. Some passages in the after-dinner speeches are worth extracts.

Mr. Jackson paid a deserved compliment to the living sons of Wil- liam Laird-

" Fourteen years ago, when the individual whose likeness was then before them first propagated the great scheme which they were now likely to carry out, he was treated as a wild enthusiast and speculator—nay, he was denounced as a fool : but his sons had lived to carry out, not only the project of the docks, but they had also lived to see the very plan originally suggested by their father's mind carried into full effect. They had but one object in forming those docks, and that object was—to benefit the port of Liverpool—to take a fair share of the trade, which was increasing—to endeavour to aid and assist the port of Liverpool in giving additional accommodation to the commerce—to give the ships, as they arrived, ample accommodation—to reduce the charges, if pos- sible, upon merchandise, and, by such reductions, to enable the poor man to get his calico shirt if it was only threepence less than at present. * * * Let them hope that when times in which they could not expect to exist presented to the readers of a future age the page of history, the name of Birkenhead might therein be recorded ; and that, when read, she might be lauded for her honesty and purity, and that her sons might go forth from that port, to the East and the West, the spicy islands of the South and frozen regions of the North, and take with them the character of honest men."

Mr. E. J. Stanley, returning thanks as one of the Cheshire Magis- trates, who had been toasted, praised the enlightened views of the Bir- kenhead Commissioners— He would speak plainly of the pains they had taken conspicuously on all sides to promote the public good. They had laid the foundation of the great civilization of the town by preparing a system of draining—by preparing that system, which, he believed, would do more to banish vice and misery from the walls of a town than almost anything they could have under- taken. Be would speak also of that which redounded to their honour— he meant the noble attempt they had made in setting apart a great space for the recreation of their poorer and humbler brethren; and that not in some obscure corner of their vicinity, but in the very heart and centre of that great town—land worth in value by the inch and yard, they had given by the acre for the recreation of all the poorer inhabitants. And while he men- tioned this as a great means, he believed, for the civilization and improvement ef the community, he mentioned it also as one which would materially tend to lighten the labours of the magistracy. While he praised them for this, he would add, that in this as in other cases, the most honest, the most merciful sod Immune policy, was also the wisest and most profitable; and he believed that the inhabitants of the township would experience an advantage from what had been effected, not only in the superior moral character of the people, but in the real additional value they would find conferred on all the property in the neighbourhood.

Sir Edward Cust touched upon the same point-

" I believe that this is an instance of feeling towards the poorer population wholly unexampled in any town in this or the other hemisphere : for enormous streets have been projected and duly sewered, prepared for water, and all the luxuries that modern refinement could conceive, being all prepared before a single house had been erected on the land."

'rhe banquet over, the guests repaired to the ball-room ; which displayed the same magnificence that so curiously signalizes the cus- toms of this embryo city. The large saloon was converted into a kind of Eastern pavilion, with roof and hangings of blue, white, and yellow ; along the wall was a divan, covered with crimson cloth, and ottomans here and there. As a specimen of the taste which tempered the splen- dours, we may mention a reception-room, originally a booking-office, but converted into what one of the reports calls an " orangery " : the floor was covered with green baize ; in the centre of it a fountain with water thrown up from rock-work by allegorical figures ; all round, myrtles, laurels, and other odorous shrubs, and gas-lights ingeniously disposed to give a moonlight effect. About a thousand persons were present ; and the spirit of enjoyment had full sway. At half-past one in the morning, dancing was interrupted by a supper, for which the guests passed to the banquet-room ; and this repast equalled the after- noon banquet in luxury. After supper, dancing was renewed, and kept on till half-past four o'clock ; when the company broke up to the tune of " Sir Roger de Coverley."

Manchester has been made a port, and a customhouse has been es- tablished, with the necessary officers. On Saturday, the first cargo, con- sisting of wines and spirits, was brought from Liverpool in bond, and bonded at Manchester.

At a numerous meeting held in Birmingham Town-hall, last week, resolutions were passed for the establishment of public walks and baths in Birmingham.

The Manchester Guardian mentions some very gratifying proofs of the interest that the great meeting of the Manchester Athenmum has excited, not only in this country but on the Continent. Most of the London, provincial, Scotch, and Irish papers, and the leading French journals, mention it in terms of commendation : the Commerce urges the establishment of similar institutions in Paris and the principal towns of France. Several literary institutions of England and Scot- land, and many eminent individuals, have sent congratulatory letters. Among other donations, some are specifically named- " We may enumerate one from Mr. Montagu Gore, M.P. for Barnstaple, who has sent Edmund Burke's Correspondence from 1744 to 1797, edited by Earl Fitzwilliam and Sir Richard Bourke, just published, in four volumes ex- quisitely bound, with a most complimentary note; 5/. from the Reverend James Rildyard of London, per Mr. Disraeli ; and last, though by no means least in interest, a valuable commercial work from Monsieur Cary of Paris, written by that gentleman ; who in a most interestiug communication writes, that ativing seen from Mr. Disraeli's speech (upon which he bestows a well-merited cub- glum) that the library was deficient in commercial works, he has much plea- sure in forwarding a contributione—an example which he hopes to see exten- sively followed, and by which means the desideratum of having in a commercial town like Manchester access to the best and most authentic works on trade and commerce will speedily be attained.'"

The Directors of the Athenmuna have unanimously voted thanks to Mr. Disraeli for the important services which he has conferred on the institution ; and have paid a similar compliment to Lord John Man- ners, the Honourable George Sydney Smythe, Mr. Milner Gibson, Mr. Rowland Hill, and Mr. Samuel Carter Hall.

The daily papers mention the opening of "the New Durham Gram- mar School," on the 14th instant. This school is in some respects on a novel plan. It will afford to parents an opportunity of procuring for their sons a thorough and perfect classical education, on more moderate terms than at the great public schools near London. It is, in fact, the enlarge- ment of an ancient institution, founded by Henry the Eighth, and placed under the Dean and Chapter of Durham ; who have recently gone to a considerable expense in erecting new buildings, on an extensive scale, in a healthy and beautiful situation near the Prebendaries Bridge. The school-room is calculated to contain more than 200 boys : and the foundation, as now enlarged, comprises eighteen scholarships, from 254 to 301. each, for boys under fifteen years of age ; appointed according to proficiency, after an impartial examination, by the Dean and Chap- ter. There are also two scholarships in the University of Durham appropriated to boys educated at this school, and some smaller exhibi- tions at Oxford and Cambridge. The Head Master is the Reverend Edward Elder, of Baliol College, Oxford ; a man every way qua- lified for such a duty, both by his attainments and by his powers of teaching : and in addition to the classical instruction, given in a manner as efficient as at the best public schools, there are also masters for mathematics and the modern languages. Both the Head Master and the Second Master receive boarders ; and there is another boarding- house adjoining, in which boys are received upon lower terms. At present, the school musters about eighty boys, but both the scheme of tuition and the structure are calculated for a much larger number; and it promises fully to realize those benefits to the public, by extending widely a liberal and cheap education, which have been the sole motive for the Dean and Chapter to incur a large voluntary outlay.

At the Bucks Michaelmas Sessions, held at Aylesbury, last week, Sir Harry Verney moved that a memorial be presented to the Government on the evils of the Game-laws. He said that one-fourth of the crops of the county were consumed by game; and that of 539 persons com- mitted to the County Gaol, 169 were for offences against these laws. Dr. Lee and two clergymen supported the motion ; but it was lost by a large majority.

At the last meeting of the Bedford Magistrates, the Game-laws were also the subject of discussion. The great destruction to crops by game was generally admitted. No motion was made.

The Earl of Euston has addressed a letter to the Magistrates of Suf- folk, in which he strongly condemns the Game-laws ; and traces to the preservation of game for the purposes of a wholesale battue divers evil effects upon the farmer's property and the labourer's morals. At the Berks Michaelmas Sessions, held last week, William Jackson was found guilty of sheep-stealing. He had made a confession of his

guilt, but with this excuse—" I was almost starved, and only had eight shillings a week to keep seven of us." The prosecutor in his evidence said that he farmed 900 acres ; he had employed fourteen or fifteen men ; the rate of wages was from eight to ten shillings per week—some labourers were paid less ; be had heard of some receiving sixpence a day, exclusively of Sunday. The Chairman commiserated Jackson's poverty, but sentenced him to transportation for ten years.

Violent possession was taken of Stoneleigh Abbey in Warwick- shire, the property of Lord Leigh, on Monday morning, by a party of thirty men and two women, headed by Mr. John Leigh— who considers himself the rightful owner of the Leigh estates, which the House of Lords declared the present Lord Leigh to be. The attack was not unexpected, and the Abbey was garrisoned by police and la- bourers; the claimant led his forces to the attack, and a general con- flict ensued, in which the defenders were worsted ; and the assailants entered the housekeeper's rooms by breaking down a door. Here they remained for an hour. The alarm-bell, however, had been rung, and assistance soon arrived to Lord Leigh's party ; on which Mr. John Leigh said he had gained what he wanted, and, with his myrmidons, quietly yielded to the constables. They were taken to Leamington ; where twenty-nine of the men were committed to take their trial at the Sessions for riot and assault, the women and one man being released. One of the defenders of the Abbey was much hurt.

A most desperate attack by burglars, and gallant defence by the in- mates, were made last week at a house in a lonely spot, at Mancetter, near Atherstone, in Warwickshire. Five or six ruffians, wearing black masks and otherwise disguised, began cutting a hole in the front-door at midnight, and disturbed Mr. Worthington, the aged owner of the house, (in his eighty-ninth year,) and his niece ; who, with a grand- niece, a girl of fifteen, and a servant-lad and maid, were all the resi- dents. The robbers refusing to desist from their efforts to force their way in, Mr. Worthington and his niece attacked them through the hole in the door with a gun and a sword ; and this strange combat lasted for an hour, the thieves throwing large stones at their opponents. At length, the old gentleman being wounded, Miss Worthington parleyed with the burglars ; and, on their promising not to injure any one, they were admitted. Having taken all the money they could find, they de- camped.

A colliers' strike has taken place at Oldbury ; but it appears to be only partial.

An explosion occurred in a coal-pit at Rowley Regis, on Saturday ; by which eleven persons were killed, and six others much injured.

Another fatal explosion has occurred, in a coal-pit near Wakefield ; two men out of three who were in the mine having been killed. No- thing certain is known as to the cause of the explosion, but it is surmised that one of the men took the top off a Davy-lamp.

Three pitmen have been committed to prison for three weeks, by the Sunderland Magistrates, for drawing the flame through the wire of their Davy-lamps to light their pipes.

Mr. Mathew Liddell, viewer in Coxlodge Colliery, contradicts the statement that the " deputy " whose candle is supposed to have caused the recent explosion was a man recently taken from the plough; he had worked in the mine for eight years. There were some other misstate- ments and exaggerations in the accounts.

An application has been made to the Marquis of Londonderry for a subscription to the fund for the relief of the people left destitute by the Haswell explosion, and he has given 1001.: but the Marquis objects to such subscriptions; and observes, that it is the duty of all proprietors of collieries to maintain those who are bereft of their protectors by fatal accidents in the mines. He estimates the amount of money he has paid in this way, as coal-proprietor, since 1819, at 6,169/. 17s. 5d.

Four fires are reported in Bedfordshire, and one in Suffolk. A sawyer has been committed for trial at Bolton for setting fire to a timber-yard. Henry Brown, a Swede, has been charged, at Liverpool, with setting fire to the bark Hermes, off Holyhead, on her voyage to Buenos Ayres. A scuttle-hole was fired, and the forecastle-deck ; bat, happily, the flames were soon perceived, and extinguished. No motive has been discovered for the conduct of Brown.

Two men have been killed, and another much hurt, by a fall of earth and stone at a quarry near Manchester. Forty men were at work at the time, and a thousand tons of rock and earth fell ; but all the work- men escaped except the three.

A woman has been killed by a cow, at Oadby in Leicestershire, while attempting to drive it into a field ; and a bull has killed a man at St. Alban's. The man beat the bull, which was fastened to a manger : it broke its chains, knocked the man down, and gored him.