Vraniurial.
The electioneering reports hying about would seem to indicate that a general election is not considered improbable. Mr. Walter retires from Nottingham to succeed, if possible, Mr. Robert Psdmen as Member for Berkshire, where Captain Leicester -Vernon is again trying to find a seat. The men of Nottingham are busy selecting a successor to Mr. Walter. Mr. Waddington will not stand again for 'West Suffolk. Earl Termyn, and Major Parker, are competitors for the seat.
Sir Maurice Berkeley has been advised by his counsel not to allow himself to be elected a Member of the House of Commons while he is the claimant of a peerage. He therefore has withdrawn the consent he gave to those Gloucester friends who invited him to stand at the next election.
Mr. Laboachere has been asked by his constituents to support the bal- lot. Ile frankly tells them that he will not. He has served them for thirty years but if they think that their difference on the ballot outweighs their general coincidence of views, no claims of his derived from length of service should preclude them from seeking a fitter representative.
Mr. Recorder Hill delivered, as usual, an instructive charge to the Grand Jury at the opening of the Birmingham Quarter Sessions on Mon- day. It threw a strong light upon the facilities which science affords to the perpetration of crime ; and is so suggestive that we reserve it for separate treatment.
An action to maintain possession of a public footpath on the banks of the Orwell has been successfully prosecuted at the Bury St. Edmunds Assizes, against Captain Sir George Broke, who desired to close the path. This ex- ample ought to be followed. There is in many places a desire to close pub- lic paths, and they should always be resisted. At present, the inhabitants of Belfast are deprived of an old right of way to the famous Cave Hill, one of the lions of Belfast Lough, in consequence of the exclusive pretensions of one of the nouveau riche.
Sentence of death has been passed at the Kingston Assizes upon Mary Jones a young woman who murdered her illegitimate child. She was car- ried ?rem the dock insensible.
A shocking incident, illustrating a far too common mode of treating -wo- men, has occurred at West Bromwich. John Corbett, a collier, who passed for a respectable man, has murderedhis wife. Corbett was not a respectable man. He frequently got drunk ; he gave his wife cause for jealousy by his infidelities ; one night he threatened to throw her down stairs ; another he turned her into the street in her shift. At length she left him and went to her mother's house. Corbett called ; she refused to return home. He asked her if she wanted to die ; saying he had got a knife this long while. On Friday week he took a long knife, made it sharp upon the hearthstone, and lay in wait for his wife near her lodgings. Seeing him there, the woman's sister went to warn her, and as the two women were re- turning together, Corbett rushed forth, and cut his wife's throat. Her sister hurried her away ; but the assassin followed, and completed his work, killing his wife in the arms of her sister. Hearing cries the neighbours hastened out of their houses, but Corbett brandished the knife, pursued one who started to fetch the pollee; resisted arrest, and finally cut MB own throat. He now lies in danger of losing his own life.
There are at Hounslow large gunpowder mills, belonging to Messrs. Cur- tis and Harvey. The buildings stand upon a hundred acres of ground, and are separated from each other by embankments and groves of trees. These precautions have been taken to obviate concussion in the event of an acci- dent. On Wednesday two loud reports were heard for miles around. Two buildings, a press-house, and a corning-mill had blown up. The heavy ma- chiney was broken up, and hurled afar off. The men engaged in the mills were torn to pieces, and their heads and limbs thrown great distances. There were five men killed; one, mortally wounded, soon died. Two were seriously injured, and very many hurt more or leas. Fortunately medical gentlemen hearing the report hastened to the spot and tended the Wounded. A detachment of soldiers was sent from the cavalry barracks with litters. They were employed to collect the remains of the dead men. What occa- sioned the disaster will never be known ; those who could have described the cause are dead.
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