Zbe Vrobfttres.
There is a split among the Liberals of Manchester as to the proper can- didate for representing the borough. The Manchester Guardian announces a requisition calling on the Earl of Lincoln to come forward in opposition to Mr. Bright. The cause of this division among the Liberal party is said to be some " dissatisfaction " with Mr. Bright—about what, we do not learn. The Manchester Courier of Saturday last says, that in a few hours the requisition to Lord Lincoln received the signatures of a large number of the most respectable firms in Manchester; but other reports speak of this requisition as getting on but slowly. It is observed that out of 11,000 voters on the register, there will be some difficulty in getting 2,000; scarcely 1,000 names having been obtained up to Monday last. Mr. Bright has issued an address in order to set himself right with the electors; " feeling," he says, " that the character not of myself only, but of Mr. Cobden also, is at ;take"— " The charge may be briefly stated to be, that Mr. Cobden having no intention to continue in Parliament beyond the last session, had concurred in a scheme con- cocted in the rooms of the League, that I should be brought forward as a candi- date for Manchester; that circumstances arose which entirely changed Mr. Cob- den's position and views; and that I, from motives of personal ambition, stood in the way of his accepting the offer of the representation of the borough, and refused to release him from an implied engagement to me. " The true circumstances of the case are these. When it was first rumoured that Mr. Mark Philips intended to retire, Mr. Cobden suggested to me the proba- bility of my being asked to succeed him; declaring that, though his own name had been often mentioned, he would not under any conceivable circumstances be come a candidate himself. In answer to my objection to his decision, he urged that gratitude to the people of Stockport, his many pledges to them, and consi- derations of his own greater freedom and leisure to act upon great public ques- tions, if not burdened with the heavy private business inseparable from the repre- sentation of Manchester, all determined him to remain in his present position. I can honestly say that I have combated these views on many occasions, but with- out success.
" Daring Mr. Cobden's temporary residence in Wales, just before he left Eng- land, I received a very, pressing invitation to stand for the Stirling Burghs. Be- fore giving a reply, I wrote to Mr. Cobden on the subject of Manchester, inti- mating my feeling that circumstances had changed, and restating my opinion that he was the most natural representative of the borough; and urging him, if any change in his views had taken place, to let me know it privately, as a friend, and I would then accept the offer of sonic other constituency willing to accept my services. To this 3Ir. Cobden's reply was in exact conformity with his previous declarations; and afterwards, when I saw him in London, his statemnnt was most positive and emphatic to the same effect- ' I declare solemnly, that I have honestly and repeatedly pressed Mr. Cobden to accept the seat offered to him; and that it is my firm conviction that were Mr. Cobden here he would be the very foremost to contradict, in the most explicit manner, the unfoundedebargeswhich the Guardian of this morning has put forth.
" I feel now, however, that the contest, so far as I am concerned, is as nothing compared to its importance to your great and honoured constituency."
The agitators of the Short-time question have reached Leeds; where they had a numerous meeting, in the Music Hall, on Monday evening. 'The Reverend Dr. Hook, Vicar of Leeds, presided, and avowed a warm in- terest in the success of the movement. The,,principal speakers were Mr.
Cutler and Mr. Ferrand; whose orations were bare of novelty, consisting in great part of extracts. Much of what they said related to a past state of the factories, before legislative changes. Mr. Cutler, however, con- tended that those changes were brought about by the Short-time men; and Mr. Ferrand vindicated the use of violence— When be looked at his own neighbourhood, and thought how happy it used to be, and how miserable it now was; when he heard the poor people narrate how their clock and other furniture had been sold to pay rent, and not a bed left whereon to lie—his blood boiled in his veins: and when he spoke thus he was called a " violent " man. Ferrand, they said, was an honest fellow, but too violent. He would ask them one thing: Lord Ashley had been a calm, quiet, calculating, be- nevolent, and honest man; but his calmness, practised for fourteen years, brought him no nearer to the enactment of the Ten Hours Bill. His calmness had driven him from the House of Commons; and when he heard Sir James Graham, im- mediatelyprevious to the Easter week in 1842, when they carried the second reading of the Ten Hours Bill, implore Lord Ashley to postpone the measure until after Easter, that it might be "calmly" deliberated upon when Parliament again met—that a question of such vital importance should not be hastily ear- ned—and when he saw Lord Ashley, on the floor of the House, calmly acquiesce in that suggestion, he said, "his calmness" has sold the working men of Eng- land. Had Lord Ashley stood up in the House of Commons and said, " Wait till after Easter! no, not one hoar! I am the representative of millions; they have waited for twenty years, and they shall wait no longer "—had such been the language of Lord Ashley, he might have been called violent, but it would have led to victory. What had been the result? Daring the Easter recess were her Majesty's Ministers calm? were they deliberating upon the greatness of the ques- tion? No, the Tadpoles and Tapers were sending circulars throughout the country, and in " violent" language threatening Members of Parliament with the resignation of Ministers if they did not come up and vote against the third read lug of the bill. They compelled the House of Commons to stultify itself—to eat its own words—or, to use the language of Mr. Home, to vote that black was white. He might be "violent"—he would tell them another thing; he would be violent until redress was granted to the working meu. (Prolonged cheers.) A commercial report from Manchester says—" The Short-time system does not thrive. There has been some coquetting among the masters of Stayleybridge and Ashton; but they do not, and cannot, come to unani- mous terms. Some who had commenced short time have gone again on to full time; alleging that they were losing their hands."
At the dinner of the Taunton Agricultural Society, on Friday, Sir Thomas Lethbridge delivered a speech, in his hearty, homely way, which has pleased and amused people— Alluding to the prize-stock, he wished that agriculturists would not go farther in putting "too much fat upon lean bones." It does no good—it only indulges a fancy. The food wasted in getting up the fat is so much taken from the poor man. The money is sunk, for the sake of fat, which must be pulled off again before people can eat the meat. If they wanted to spend their money, let them raise wages. He had done it himself: Men can work when conscious of being well cared for; but is a man well used when paid 7s. or 8s. a week? The sort of premium he liked to see was one for putting comfort, respectability, and manly feeling, into the breasts and dWellings of the poor labourers. If they did not this, all their meetings went for nothing. He proposed to give to the farmer who, from the let of December 1846 to the 1st of December 1847, on his 'farm should employ the greatest number of labourers and servants at the highest rate of wages, without any reference to the size of the farm occupied, a purse of fifteen sovereigns. (Cheers, and some dissatisfaction.) An inexplicable murder has been committed at the village of Acton, near Sud- bury. A short time since, John Foster, a young man, married Catherine Morley, a girl of eighteen, with whom he had been acquainted for three years. The union seemed a happy one. One evening, three weeks after the marriage, Foster was seized with a violent illness, after partaking of tea, a dumpling, and potatoes; he endured great suffering, and died the next day. The wife bad not called in medical aid, but she had obtained two powders for him for a bowel-complaint. After the husband's death, suspicion did not at first attach to the woman. On the first day of the inquest, she gave evidence describing her husband's illness
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and death, in an apparently truthful manner. A /lost mortem examination of the body, however, brought to light the real cause of death—arsenic: the poison was found in the stomach; the viscera presented an inflamed appearance; and the symptoms of the illness as described by the witnesses corresponded with those resulting from the exhibition of the mineral. There was no evidence as to the purchase of arsenic by the wife, and no hint as to a motive for the murder of her husband: some portion of her evidence, however, was falsified by other testimony. The Jury returned a verdict of. V Wilfal murder" against Catherine Foster, and she has been committed for trial.
Smith, a carpet-weaver of Bridgenorth, has killed a girl who acted as drawer at his loom, by striking her with his fist, because she had offended him. A Coronet's Jury has returned a verdict of " Manslaughter " against the brute; while the Magistrates have committed him for trial on a charge of murder.
A number of men are in custody who formed part of the gang of robbers that entered Mr. Miller's house, near Preston, with the intention of robbing it. Some of the thieves fired at Miss Miller as she ran away from the house to raise an alarm.
The fireman of Mr. Hargreaves's coal-mine at Chorley, where an explosion oc- curred last week, is added to the list of victims; making a total of nine lives. An inquest has been held at Coppull. It appeared from the evidence, that the man who had charge of the pit to test the air in the morning bad employed a Davy lamp; and it would seem that the explosion was caused by some one having taken a light into a place before it was examined: but the statement is not clear. A verdict of "Accidental death" was returned. At the conclusion of the inquiry, the Coroner said, he observed the attention of the London newspapers had been directed to this melancholy accident, on account of females being in the mine, which was contrary to law. Now, he wished to know whether something could not be done to prevent them going down in disguise in this manner? Mr. Ellis, the manager of the pit—" There might be somebody to examine them." A Jury- man—" But who will examine them They will have them, do what you will: and if any one was sent to examine them, they would stick a pick into him directly. The women are fonder of working in the pits than anywhere else; and you cannot keep them out, because there they get good wages. They 'naturally' like it, though I don't think they should be employed there. When disguised, they are very bad to detect. A young woman used to pass our door from a pit at Blackrod; and I said one day to my wife, ' That's a clear young fellow'; but my daughter said, 'Nay, she's a wench.'" It appeared that this girl was one of the persons killed.
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