gbe girobinres.

The talk here is, that Mr. Bramley Moore and other gentlemen from Liver- pool, have been in London as a deputation, the object of whose going; had refer-

ence to the admission of Brazilian sugar; that they had an interview of pro- longed duration with Mr. Secretary Gladstone; that lie was, as usual, polite, and, for a Minister, singularly explicit; that the talk was interestime, and not unin- structive; and that the inference drawn from what passed is important,. viz. that the Cabinet are not agreed on the Sugar question, that they aoe not likely to agree, and that a " split" is inevitable.—Lieerpool Journal.

We understand that the receipts of the past month at the Manchester Custom- house, of duties on foreign produce entered hero, have been on a ratio which if continued during the next twelve months would give, as the total Customs-duties of the year, an amount not less than two hundred thousand pounds I.—Manchester Guardkn.

A new colliery is in process of being "won" at Seaton, near Seabam Harbour, which is expected to be one of the largest in the great Northern coal-field. ht sinking the shaft, the greatest obstruction has been caused by immense "feeders" of water—at one time, 6,000 gallons of water per minute were emitted; but thie difficulty has been so far got over, by means of wedges and iron "tubbing," that the flow has been reda.ed to ten gallons per minute.

The Duke of Buckingham is causing land to be brought into tillage on his Wotton estate. Twenty acres of rush beds, wood, in the parish of Brill, is now being cleared by his Grace's orders, and is forthwith to be laid to two neighbour- ing farms, the tenants of which are, we understand, to pay the same rent for it as they do for the othir land in their occupation, and are to " grub it" at their own expense. The tinitier is chiefly oak, and a great portion of it very fine, and the underwood is all cut down. The Duke has had from fifty to sixty men at work in felling and barking.—Bucks Gazette.

It is not often that we have to record the getting of a crop of hay so early in the season as the middle of May; but we are informed that a field belonging to Mrs. Ellis, of Thurlaston, was cut, carried, and stacked, during the week ending May 16.—Leicester Advertiser. Haymaking has commenced in the neighbourhood of Bath, with every appear- ance of an abundant crop.—Bath Chronicle.

John Digby, a cottager of Buxton in Norfolk, and the grower of four crops of potatoes in one ,year, makes the following strange statement, in a letter to the Norfolk Chronicle. "I have discovered a berry, which I will gather from the banks or hedges, and which will produce the finest potato or potatoes in quality that ever were grown. One quart of these berries will produce as much as one bushel of our common potato. These berries are of a small substance, and are to be planted whole. They must go through a regular process in the course of the winter, which is scarcely any trouble, and of no expense. I now have in my possession a quantity of potatoes raised from these berries last year; and it is my intention to grow crop otter crop this year, until the fourth crop. The size of the potatoes raised from the berries the first year are about the size of a duck's- 'egg. The berries are so numerous that all England can be supplied."

We regret to state that a serious caterpillar blight has attacked the fruit plan- tations in Mid Kent, which has affected them to such an extent that orchards which a month since presented the most luxuriant appearance, and the most pro- mising bloom, now threaten to be almost unproductive. The land generally is also infested with slugs, which cause the greatest havoc, particularly on garden- ground. The mildness of the late winter is no doubt the cause of these visits- tions.—Maidstone Journal.

A plan is in practice at Bampton of drilling turnips between peas the rows of having been planted rather wider than usual: we hear the plat; is likely to

me a general one, but a difficulty is experienced in using a horse with the drill on account of damaging the peas. This difficulty has been surmounted by our neighbour, Mr. Plummer: he attaches two dogs to the drill, who have rite strength enough to perform the duty required, and do not damage the peas. This method is seen to work well, and not to injure the dogs, as the draught of the drill is a very light one.—Banbury Guardian.

A fatal accident occurred to a fast train on the South-eastern Railway on Satur- day afternoon. The train left Dover at a quarter-past three o'clock: all went 'Well until it arrived mid-way between Pluckley and Ideadcorn; when the passen- gers were alarmed by a sudden jerk, accompanied by a cloud of dust, smoke, and steam, and in a few seconds the train stopped: the engine had got off the line, and was overturned across the rails, having struck against the side of a cutting, in which, fortunately for the passengers, the accident occurred. The engine-driver was found under the engine, alive; but he died soon after he was got out. The stoker was thrown by the concussion on to the bank, and, alighting on his feet, escaped unhurt. A guard was thrown from his seat, but he also was uninjured. The engine had traversed thirty or forty yards of the roadway after leaving the rail, ploughiu,g up the ground and cutting through the sleepers.

An inquest was held on Tuesday., at Smarden, a village near the Headcorn sta- tion. The fireman of the train said it was going at from thirty. five to forty miles an hour when the engine ran off the rail; he could not account for the accident. He did not see deceased suddenly shut off the steam; he saw it was shut off after the engine was off the rail. A guard who was in the luggage-carriage next to the tender agreed with the fireman as to the speed. This witness had a wonderful escape. He was seated in a kind of coupe seat, attending to the break; the front part was completely crushed in by the tender, and had he not at the moment been standing behind the break-iron he must have been killed. Mr. Nowood, the In- spector of the Permanent Way, was riding on the train. He examined the rails immediately after the accident—" I could not form any opinion as to the cause of the accident. On examining the rails. I found the powder of a crushed flint about two feet from where the train bad gone over. I was satisfied that the engine had gone over it. I cannot say that the stone forced the engine oft', nor can I say from the quantity of powder the size of the stone; but if it was a large one I should say that it was quite likely to have forced it off. It had evidently been recently crushed. The train was travelling at about forty miles an hour. As the rail was not cut, it was quite clear the engine had been lifted over the rail. The crushed stone appeared to be of the same description as those lying about the line." Mr. Barlow, the resident engineer, agreed with Mr. Nowood s view of the probable cause of the disaster—a stone on the rail; for he found the road in a very good state, and it was evident that the engine had been lifted oft' the rail, or the flanges of the wheels would have cut it. Mr. James Ctidsworth, Lo- comotive Superintendent, declared that the sudden shutting-off of the steam would have no effect in turning the engine off the rail. He tried it purposely with empty carriages, in consequence of what had transpired on the Norfolk Railway respect- ing an accident, and found no effect. At the rate of forty or fifty miles an hour, it would have no effect in forcing the engine off the line. A verdict of "Acci- dental death" was returned.

-We observe that the South-eastern Railway Company have adopted a plan of calling the attention of their servants to accidents happening on the line, as a caution against the future recurrence of them. A recent accident happened at East Farleigh, through the neglect of the Station-clerk and a Policeman; they were committed by the Magistrates for their neglect; a placard, detailing the offence and the penalties, has been suspended in every station. The plan is a sensible one; just towards the servants of the Company, and satisfactory to the public, as manifesting an earnest desire to prevent future accidents.—Kentisli Observer.

A serious accident happened to a party of navigators on the Stamford and Peterborough Railway, on Saturday evening. A ballast-waggon in which they were returning home was thrown oft the rails; twelve men were pitched out; six of whom it was found necessary to carry to Stamford Infirmary. Both the legs of one were broken; others had broken arms or dislocations; three are in a dan- gerous state. It is reported that the disaster was the result of carelessness or of "larking" on the part of the men.

Repeated robberies of goods have occurred within the last few months at the Bristol station of the Great Western Railway; but the thieves escaped detection. Last week, a hamper of wine was pillaged of several bottles; Merrett, a railway- peter, was suspected; and on his house being searched the property was found. .ett confessed, and said two other porters had assisted in the theft: at the lodgings of one of them a stolen shawl was found. All three have been com- mitted for trial.

A frightful steam-boat collision occurred in the Mersey on Monday n'ght. Between ten and eleven o'clock, two iron steamers—the Sea Nymph, going out from Liverpool for Newry, and the Rambler, coming in from Sligo—struck against each other near the Magazines, and the Rambler was made a complete wreck. In this vessel there were about two hundred and fifty passengers, mostly emigrants ft um America, and a great quantity of cattle. "Several of the passengers of the Ram- bler were either killed on the fipot or dreadfully injured, and others were crushed

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by the falling of the cattle. The Rambler, though a good boat, :is not built in compartments, and therefore began to fill immediately ; but the collision having happily taken place within a short distance of the shore, the Magazines life-boat was got out immediately, and saved the greater part of the passengers in five trips which it made to the wreck "; while some were taken to Liverpool by the New Brighton steamer. "The Rambler was subsequently run on shore. Within a very short time the inhabitants of the Magazines were roused, and numbers of them ran down to the shore to render all the assistance in their power- and. within a short time the survivors were removed to different houses and cottages, the wounded were sent over to the Liverpool hospitals and the killed laid in the life- boat-house and other places. The number of bodies ng in the life-boat-house is thirteen; there are five persons dead in private houses, three are known to be drowned, and twenty of the passengers were so much injured as to render it necessary to send them to the hospitals. This is the extent of the catastrophe, so far as it is at present known." The above is from the Liverpool Times; other particulars are added by the Liverpool Standard. "After the vessel grounded, some of the passengers, despite the persuasion of Captain M'Allister, who we learn, exhibited great presence of mind, took paesession of the starboard bola for the purpose of getting ashore. They let go the fore-davit-fall, and at that moment some one cut away the stern-fall. The weight of persons in the guarter-boat (some say seven, some eleven) caused her to upset, previous to her reaching the water, and the actual result it is impossible to ascertain; but at all events five were saved." The horrible effects of the collision on board the Rambler are described by a writer who visited the wreck the following day—." On going on board the Rambler, which we did by entering through the chasm made through her larboard side into the steerage a most extraordinary sight presented itself. Part of the flooring of the quarter-deck was smashed through, and the remainder a confused mass of smashed tables, forms, boxes, &c., some floating in the water which had filled this part of the ves- sel. The scene on deck was still more horrifying; the whole, both fore and abaft the funnel, being covered with dead pip part crushed to death, and another por- tion of which seemed to have been stabbed, the whole saturated in the blood. The most awful sight, however' was the bows of the vessel, which were completely be- dabbled with human blood, and strewed with crushed salmon, broken boxes, cord- age, &c., and the fragments of the windlass. From this part of the vessel thirteen human beings had been extricated, some with broken arms' or dissevered legs, all dead, and so crushed as to be almost beyond recognition. One poor woman, with her infant child, was taken up from underneath the broken windlass; the iron spindle of which had fallen upon her head, and smashed it completely; a portion of her brains were to be seen adhering to the iron spindle. When taken up, her in- fant had fast hold of the nipple of the poor mother's breast." When the vessels were observed to be approaching very closely to each other, both, according to a Liverpool regulation, should have ported their helms; but it is doubtful whether this was done—at least it would appear not to have been done in time to allow the vessels to swing fully round, so as to avoid contact. The pilot of the Rambler declares that the "Sea Nymph with her hehn, in his opinion, a-starboard, came stem on into the larboard bow of the Rambler, cutting her completely down to the water's edge, carrying away momentarily the top-gallant forecastle, smashing to pieces a heavy patent windlass, and severing the deck half way across, and so shaking the whole frame of the vessel that every water- tight compartment was rendered perfectly useless; and it was evident she must have sunk had not the engines been started and the vessel run ashore, as she immediately filled."

The Sea Nymph was much damaged, and had to put hack to Liverpool, where the cargo was relanded. Both vessels are nearly new, having been built last year, and are entirely constructed of iron. A Coroner's Jury was formally impannelled on Wednesday: it viewed the bodies at New Brighton, and then adjourned till Tuesday next. Two of the patients in the hospital have died, and others are in a precarious state. Many passengers are supposed to have been drowned.

There has been a fatal affray with fish-poachers on Major Winterton's estate, Fenwick Lodge, in Surrey. Several men were detected at night dragging a pond; and a struggle ensued between them and the Major' servants, who were accom- panied by two of their master's sons: these gentlemen prevented the servants from using the fire-arms with which they were provided; but one of them having been thrown down and nearly throttled by a poacher, he discharged a pistol, wounding his opponent dangerously in the groin. The poachers decamped: in the pursuit Robert Staines, a groom, grappled one of the offenders, and during a struggle both fell into a very deep pond; the poacher got out after a time, but Staines pe- rished. The man who was wounded is in danger.

Joseph Mason, the man who was transported for a crime of which he was in- nocent, and who recently returned from Australia, has been presented by Govern- ment with a gratuity of 25I as some compensation for his wrongs. Mr. Hudson, the Member for Sunderland, has offered to find employment for him.

The Home Secretary has sent an officer to Happisburg to make an inquiry into the recent wholesale poisonings there. It is said that many grandchildren of Balls, his father and mother, and even men who consorted with him, died very suddenly: but there is probably much exaggeration in these tales.

A woman named Lawless, living at Birmingham, has attempted to poison her husband, and a woman and child who were on a visit. When the whole were taking tea together, the woman put some arsenic into the pot, but avoided to do more than taste the poisonous mixture herself. The people recovered by medical treatment. The motive for the crime appears to have been the unhappy life Lawless and his wife led together. The woman has been committed for trial.

A woman has lost her life at Knottingley, in Yorkshire, through the improper treatment of a midwife who delivered her of a child. A Coroner's Jury has re- turned a verdict of " Manslaughter " against Mary Chapman, the ignorant pre- tender to surgical skill; and she has been committed to York Castle.

The immense chimney of a chemical manufiictory at Liverpool fell down early on Wednesday morning; the chemical fumes having so much weakened it that it was intended to have it pulled down. It was 231 feet high, 30 feet diameter at the base and 9 at the top. No person was hurt, and all the damage done was the destruction of three sheds.