Zbe tirobincts.
The nomination of candidates for Boston took place on Wednesday. Captain Pelham and Mr. David Williams Wire were proposed. The po- pular demonstrations were in favour of Mr. Wire, and a poll was demanded for Captain Pelham. Great political excitement prevailed. There were mutual charges against each party of using improper means to carry the election,—against the Captain's, that the great and wealthy family of Pel- ham were using undue influence, and were unscrupulously traducing Mr. Wire's character; against Mr. Wire's, of intimidating and cozening the voters. At the poll on Thursday, the numbers were—for Pelham, 426; rue, 329; majority, 97.
No fewer than five candidates for Reading have been in the field,— three Liberals, one Conservative calling himself a ".Moderate Liberal," and a Chartist. Of course, difficulties arose as to which of the three liberals should retire: the Ordeal of a public meeting was proposed by Mr. °miner's friends, but rejected by Mr. Bowyer's friends; Sir John Hare's Pretensions seemed at first unimportant. But on Tuesday, Mr. Gardner suddenly retired from the contest, to the disappointment of a large and ac- tive party, who are now likely to support Sir John Hare. The fifth candidate is Mr. Thomas Clarke, a London Chartist. If the two Liberal candidates go to the poll, Mr. Stanford, of Foley Place, London, will be returned by the Conservative party. The nomination is fixed for Monday nett, and the polling for Tuesday.
The tone of the proceedings at meetings of agricultural societies is in. creas, inglY liberal and less political. At the meeting of the Yorkshire ssgrmaltural Society in Leeds, on Wednesday, the speeches turned more ea improvements in the science and art of agriculture than on Protection f,r. Free-trade; at that of the North Lincolnshire Agricultural Society, on 3,11°12daY, the disposition seemed to be to give present arrangements a fair '04, The Essex Standard reports at length the speeches of a large party of farming notables collected last week, without distinction of party, from
all quarters of the kingdom, by Mr. Mach' of Tiptree Hall; and among the speakers of liberal and enterprising practical tone was Mr. Robert Baker of Writtle, the originator of the Protection Societies.
Meetings were held at Wakefield and Leeds on Monday evening, and at Leicester on Wednesday evening, to express sympathy with the Italians and the Hungarians. At the Wakefield meeting the Mayor presided, and several leading gentlemen took part in the proceedings. At the Leeds meeting, Mr. Alderman Richards presided; and Mr. Thomas Plint was one of the speakers to a large and respectable audience. The Leicester meeting was influential and numerous, and the Mayor presided.
At Shrewsbury Assizes, Catherine Mercy Newton was for the second time pat on trial for murdering her mother, by strangling or suffocating her, afterwards setting her on fire, or by burning her to death. The evidence was almost the same as that adduced at the former trial; equally complicated and inconclusive, both in fact and in surgical theory. The Jury were locked up the whole night and till the following morning, with no nearer approach to agreement on a verffict than at the former trial. A juryman's illness at last necessitated their discharge; and the prisoner was once more sent back to prison. In respect to this juryman's illness, there was some medico-legal discussion between Mr. Baron Rolfe and the juryman's doctor, whether the latter might give beef-tea or a glass of brandy as medicine; the patient's illness being palpably due to exhaustion conse- quent on the antique absurdity of denying all food to the jury for the duration of their inquest. Baron Rolfe declared that the juryman could "not be allowed nutriment which all might equally want, merely because he is weaker and less able to do without it." The doctor's " diaoretion " should not be controlled; he might administer either sedatives or stimulants—"anything that as a medical man he called medicine; but no food."
At Lewes Assizes, on Wednesday, Mary Anne Geering, a woman of masculine and forbidding appearance, aged forty-nine, was arraigned for the murder of her husband and two of her sons, and for attempting to destroy a third son. The case with which the Court proceeded was that of Richard Goering, the husband, alleged to have been poisoned with arsenic by the prisoner. The evidence was mach the same as that given at the sittings of the Coroner's Jury. Fellow la- bourers of Goering described how he was taken ill twice immediately after dining. Benjamin Goering, the young man whom it was alleged the mother had at- tempted to poison, related the circumstances of his father's death and that of two of his brothers : the symptoms were those of poisoning. He also described his own illness: two doctors attended him, and he was saved. His father and brother belonged to a burial-club; this society made a collection of a shilling from each member for the burial of a deceased subscriber. A daughter and two other sons of the accused were examined. They had not heard complaints that their house was troubled with rats, or that it was necessary to have arsenic to destroy them; nor that arsenic was required for the horses which James Geering, one of the deceased, had charge of. Richard Geering had some money in the savings-bank: he and his wife often quarrelled about it; the woman appears to have drawn most of it out. On the death of her husband, the prisoner attributed his death to a family complaint, disease of the heart; the medical attendant was thus imposed on, and gave a certificate accordingly: he had treated the de- ceased for a bilious intermittent fever as the immediate disorder. Mary Anne Geering had wished that her husband was dead; after his decease she was anxious to have the coffin screwed down quickly. Surgeons detailed the appear- ances presented when the corpses were exhumed: the internal organs exhibited the signs of an irritant poison. The viscera were sent to Professor Taylor. A large pill, evidently made by an unprofessional person, was discovered in the house. Dr. Taylor's evidence was the most important: he found that all the or- gans of Richard Geering—even the centre of. Ishe heart—were impregnated with arsenic: he collected a portion, no less than seven grains. In the remains of George Geering he found no arsenic, but the appearances of an inflammation were those of poison. He discovered the mineral in the body of James Geering. A portion of what Benjamin had ejected from his stomach contained arsenic; and the large pill was composed of arsenic, opium, and another ingredient. Two chemists and a woman proved that the prisoner had several times bought arsenic, on pretences which other witnesses proved to have been false. After a variety of minor evidence, the case for the prosecution closed. Mr. Hurst, who had volunteered to act for theprisoner on her daughter's beg- ging that she might have counsel, rested his defence mainly on the absence of any strong motive for the crimes imputed: the money obtained from the club would be nearly swallowed up by the burial-expenses. After an absence of ten minutes, the Jury found a verdict of " Guilty.' Sentence of death was passed ; which the prisoner heard almost unmoved.
At Warwick Assizes, yesterday week, Mary Ball, a woman of thirty-one, was tried for the murder of her husband, at Nuneaton. The couple had been mar- ried twelve years, and had had six children, only one of whom survives. Lat- terly, they had differences respecting a young man of whom the husband was
fealous. Ball died suddenly, exhibiting the symptoms of poison; and arsenic was ound in the body. It was proved that the prisoner had bought arsenic, and she gave discrepant accounts as to the mode in which she had disposed of it. She had been heard to threaten her husband ; and after his death her expressions were of a nature to strengthen the suspicions against her. The Jury deliberated for a long time, and then found her "Guilty." She was sentenced to be hanged.
John Ward, the man who shot his mother, was hanged at Lincoln yesterday week. He had confessed his guilt to the Chaplain some days before, and on the scaffold he repeated the confession to the Sheriff.
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