THE GARDENERS’ 
CHRONICLE. 15 
hours. An inquest has been held, and a verdict of Man- 
slaughter returned against 14 persons, who have been 
committed to Winchester gaol to take their trials at the 
next assizes, 
St. Asaph.—Public attention has lately been directed 
to the state of the Welsh bishoprics, by the contemplated 
union of the two dioceses of North Wales. It appears 
that the net value of the diocese of St. Asaph is 6,3014. ;° 
the net value of the diocese of Bangor is 4,464. In the 
former see are 143 parishes, in the latter 131 pavishes— 
making together 274 parishes, which is far below the 
average number of parishes in any English diocese, while 
in respect of population the inferiority is yet more strik- 
ing. In the diocese of St. Asaph there are 52 livings 
under 200/,, in the diocese of Bangor there are 61 livings 
under 200/.—of the former, 38, and of the latter, 26 are 
in the gift of the respective bishops, who are in many 
cases the impropriators of the great tithes, In the dio- 
cese of St. Asaph, the bishop is the impropriator of 13 
livings, the total revenue of which is 4,6687., and in the 
diocese of Bangor, the bishop is the impropriator of 7 
livings, the total revenue of which is 1,1207. From the 
former see, therefore, is required 932/., and from the lat- 
ter 280/., to raise the value of these livings to 200/. each. 
Warwick.—The excitement produced in the Western 
Districts of Warwickshire by the melancholy occurrence 
at Spernall, of which we gave the particulars in our last, 
has not subsided. At the inquest last week the evidence 
adduced merely substantiated the facts already published, 
and proved that the father of the young man, a respect- 
able farmer at Spernall, was the person against whom his 
anger was principally directed; that the deceased was 
acting as a special constable for the protection of Mr. 
Crowley, and that while deceased was approaching for the 
purpose of apprehending the son, the young man shot 
him dead in the presence of several witnesses, and in 
Open day. The jury returned a verdict of Wilful Mur- 
der against James Crowley, and a réward has since been 
offered for his apprehension. 
Winchester.—The Quarter Sessions of the county com- 
menced in this city on Tuesday, and were more numerously 
attended than, on any former occasion, no less than 124 
magistrates being present. The cause of this attendance 
was the election of a chief constable of the county police 
in the room of Capt. Robins, who had resigned. At the 
close of the poll the numbers were—for Capt. Harris, 64; 
for Capt. Morant, 57. The former gentleman was then 
declared duly elected. 
Windsor.—The last stone of the spire of the new Mili- 
tary Church, of which Prince Albert laid the foundation 
in April last, was fixed on Friday, and the arrangement of 
the interior is now in progress. The body of the church will 
be fitted up with open benches, without pews. In addition 
to the accommodation afforded to the Military, there will 
be about 1,000 sittings for the inhabitants of Windsor and 
Ciewer, The principal feature of this church is the tower. 
nearly 100 feet high, and surmounted by a spire, of Bath- 
Stone, rising 48 feet. The cost of the building will be 
about 10,0002.; nearly one half of which is already sub- 
scribed, Her Majesty and Prince Albert being large con- 
tributors. The building is designed by Mr. Blore, and 
when complete will form a striking object from the Castle 
and surrounding neighbourhood. 
Worcester.—The County Sessions commenced in this 
city on Monday, Mr. Pakington, M.P.,-in the chair. For 
Some time past considerable disapprobation has been ma- 
nifested throughout the county, on account of the alleged 
expense and general inefficiency of the Rural Police, but 
more especially on account of the great burdens imposed 
On the agricultural districts, as compared with those of the 
Manufacturing towns of the county. At the present meet. 
ing, acommittee appointed at the last sessions delivered 
their report on the propriety of re-organising the count 
police, The report stated that the committee had made 
inquiries as to the population of each parish in the county, 
and the number of paid constables appointed’ under the 
Parish Constables’ Act, commonly called Sir James Gra- 
ham’s Act, that they were not prepared to deny that some 
sinprovement had taken place, but they thought it vain to 
expect that’the main objects of a constabulary force would 
be secured by the operation of that act.  'Phe committee 
Tecommended that no reduction be made in the present 
Constabulary force. Several gentlemen then addressed 
the meeting on the subject, contending that the Parish 
Constables’ Act, if carried out with energy, would fully 
answer the purposes which the presént Government con- 
templated by the introduction of that measure. After a 
long and destltory discussion, it was resolved thatthe re- 
Port be received, and that a committee be appointed to 
obtain information with regard to the probable effect of 
the New Parish Constables’ Act, and to see how far it 
could be efficiently carried out in the county of Worces 
' 1s generally considered that the report of this commit. 
tee will be preliminary to the abolition of the Reral Po- 
lice force in July next, : 
“ork.—A meeting of the shareholders of the Yorkshire 
Agricultural and Comniercial Bank was held in this city, 
on Thursday, the 29th ult. Mr. Bl shard, the chairman, 
Stated that the whole of the original capital had been lost, 
and that the liabilities of the bank amounted to upwards 
of 179,0002, 
Share, in addition to the two calls of 1/. each lately 
Branted, should be made for the purpose of meeting the 
deficiency, and that the affairs of the company stould be 
Wound up as soon as possible. The greatest distress 
‘Prevails in this city and neighbourhood npon the subject ; 
and the details which have been made public show a case 
even worse than that of the Bank of Manchester. It 
appears that the Bank was projected in 1836, and started 
with a paid-up capital of 70,000. for the towns of York, 
Whitby, Driffield, Malton, Hull, Leeds, and Pocklington. 
The amounts since added make up a total capital of 
211,000/., all of which has been lost, and a heavy amount 
of liabilities remains to be met by the shareholders in ad- 
dition to their present loss. At the outset an error was 
committed which was enough to shake the stability of any 
provincial bank. The directors took the business of the 
Northern and Central Bank at Leeds, paid them 6,000/. 
for the good-will, and took accounts to the amount of 
80,0002, for which they paid down Bank of England 
notes. On this 80,0007. there has been a loss of about 
one-half. All the dividends, which have been regularly 
declared, are now said to have been paid out of capital, 
when in fact there was no dividend to declare. The effects 
of the failure will be severely felt by the agriculturists; 
and the Leeds Mercury observes that it is a painful 
feature of the case that many of the shareholders are 
widows and persons of small means, who, tempted by the 
success of two other banks in York, invested their money 
in this undertaking, and have lost everything. 
Railways.—The following are the returns of the prin- 
cipal railways for the past week : Newcastle and Carlisle 
8402, ; Liverpool and Manchester 3,698/.; Great West- 
ern 13,6917. ; South Western 5,516/.; Birmingham and 
Derby 1,3227.; Birmingham and Gl 1j719%; § 
= 
testimonial” of the esteem in which the labours of the 
ev. Mr. Mathew are held by all classes of the commu- 
nity. This document is signed by 2 dukes, 4 marquesses, 
11 earls, 3 viscounts, 4 barons, and by nearly 200 other 
names; comprising the leading gentry, merchants, and 
several clergymen of all religious persuasions. 
Limerick.—The temperance movement continues to 
meet with great success in all parts of the country. The 
Limerick Chronicle says‘ We are exceedingly happy to 
announce the gratifying fact of nota single drunken person 
being taken up by the police in the streets during the 
Christmas veek—an occurrence unprecedented in the 
annals of Limerick, and of which the friends of tem- 
perance should feel truly proud.’’ We learn also by the 
Cork papers that seven non-commissioned officers and 
three hundred privates of the 45th Regiment accepted the 
pledge of total abstinence last week from the Rey. T. 
Mathew, at his residence in that city. The Belfast pa- 
pers also mention a circumstance of the same kind. On 
Sunday last, being New Year’s Day, about 90 soldiers of 
the 54th Regiment, at present stationed in that town, 
adopted the total abstinence principle. Among these 
were several sergeants and corporals, who have determined, 
with about 400 of their comrades who have already 
taken the pledge, to commence the new year by abstaining 
entirely from all intoxicating drinks. 
Galway.—The inquest ‘on the sufferers by the late 
lancholy accident in the Catholic chapel of this town 
; 5 
Hull and Selby 882/.; Grand Junction 7,741/, ; Great 
North of England 1,3327.; Midland Counties 2,7182.; 
Manchester and Birmingham 2,4771.; Manchester and 
Leeds 3,9667.; North Midland 4,330/.; York and North 
Midland 1,7067. ; Blackwall 5692. ; Croydon 2227.; Brigh- 
ton 3,379. ; Eastern Counties 947/,; Greenwich 8254, ; 
Northern and Eastern 1,331/.; London and Birmingham 
16,886—The engine-driver and firemen on the North 
Midland line struck work on Saturday, the 24th ult., in 
consequence of a regulation by the directors, that the 
men should in future be paid only for the days on which 
they work, as is the practice on the Manchester and Leeds 
Railway. The directors took immediate steps to procure 
fresh hands, and a sufficient number of drivers from other 
lines have been engaged, so that the trains have continued 
to run without interruption.—On Sunday evening, an 
accident happened to the train on the Glasgow and Edin- 
burgh railway. When near the Polmont station, being 
the first west from Falkirk, the engine was obstructed by 
an empty truck, which some malicious person had drawn 
across the line, The collision shattered the truck to 
pieces, and threw the engine off the rails, upon some soft 
ground, into which it entered without sustaining any 
damage. The carriages, 5 or 6 in number, and containing 
from 25 to 30 passengers, kept the rails, and although 
the shock was severe, the passengers escaped without in- 
jury.—A young lad was brought before the Mayor of 
Reading last week, charged with having wilfully placed a 
piece of iron on one of the rails of the Great Western 
Railway, for the purpose of throwing 'the train off the 
line. The policeman on duty discovered the obstruction 
only a few moments before the passing of the train. If 
it had not been removed in time, the engine would proba- 
bly have been thrown down an embankment, 22 feet in 
depth. The prisoner, a farmer’s labourer, pleaded guilty 
to the charge, and was fined 5/., and in default of payment 
committed for 3 montbs.—We are informed by a corre- 
spondent that a serious accident occurred on Tuesday at 
North Shields, at the works now in progress for the form- 
ation of a street from the river to the terminus of the 
Shields and Newcastle Railway. Whilst the workmen 
were employed in. excavating the new road, a large body 
of earth unexpectedly fell from the face of the cutting, and 
buried five of the workmen, who were loading the carts. 
The men were soon dug out, when three of them were 
found to be quite dead ; while two others were seriously 
bruised, but hopes are entertained of their recovery. The 
foreman of the works was on the spot at the time, and 
narrowly escaped with his life. 
IRELAND. 
Dublin.—The proceedings of the Lord Chancellor in re- 
gard to the Irish magistracy, by removing from the commis- 
sion those whom he considers to show unfitness for the bench, 
continues to attract great attention. Since the removal of 
Lord Lucan and Mr. O’Mally, the Chancellor has super- 
seded Mr, Hugh Lawton in the commission of the peace, 
in consequence of his having, in strong and ungarded 
terms, entered a protest against the decision of two of his 
brother magistrates, in a case in which one of them was 
plaintiff. . This led to a long recriminatory correspond- 
ence, which was submitted ‘to the Lord Chancellor, who 
has ordered Mr. Lawton to be superseded, and an inquiry 
to be held into the conduct of Mr. Townsend.—A Mr. 
Egan, of Moate, formerly a director of the National 
Bank, has been charged with having conveyed away a 
parcel belonging to the company, which contained cash 
and securities to the amount of 3,000/. He affirms that 
the charge is the result of a conspiracy, and was only in- 
tended to draw away attention from the real delinquents. 
He will, however, have to take his trial upon the accusa+ 
tion. The following letter has been received by the 
managers of the National Bank, containing part of the 
stolen property, consisting of securities to the amount of 
1,200/. ; bank post bills to the amount of 500J. ; and 
letters of credit to the amount of 4501.; leaving the 
ambunt of cash retained by the thief, 1,770 The letter 
ran thus :—“ You have enclosed who I sent by a person 
I met here ; do not blame any j T left one in place 
of it.—Liverpool, ° requisition has been 
Pm J 
published in the Dublin papers convening a meeting, to 
be held in the Theatre Royal, on Thursday, the 26th inst.; 
fox the purpose Of taking steps to erect am, “enduring | 
was brought to a close on Friday, after a very long and 
minute investigation. The coroner, in summing up, said 
the evidence might be compressed into a very narrow 
compass. The same facts were detailed by the several 
witnesses examined, and, with few exceptions, they cor- 
roborated each other, and established beyond doubt that 
the cry of the gallery’s falling originated in the body of 
the chapel, under a gallery where it happened considerable 
confusion arose from the pressure occasioned by a vast 
crowd of persons collected on it; Some of those under- 
neath the gallery, through timidity and nervousness, 
dreaded an accident ; for which, it appears, there was no 
ground for apprehension, and labouring under that im- 
pression, innocently raised the cry—immediately caught 
up and echoed through the building—that the gallery was 
falling. He was glad that the case was so publicly in- 
vestigated—reports were set afloat and circulated, without 
the shadow of foundation, deeply affecting the character 
of a few individuals, differing in religion from the con- 
gregation assembled in the chapel on Christmas morning. 
It was but justice to the individuals alluded to by the 
reports to state, that it appeared in evidence, that their 
demeanour, while in the chapel, before the alarm was 
spread, was not only decorous, but that their conduct 
afterwards was praiseworthy. The jury returned a yer- 
dict, that the deaths of the persons killed on Christmas 
morning last were caused by the rush of the congregation 
to gain egress, on a cry being groundlessly raised, by 
some person or persons unknown, that the galleries were 
falling—and that the alarm was created without any 
malicious intent. Since the first accounts were pub- 
lished, four more persons have died ; making a total of 37, 
who perished by the catastrophe. 
SCOTLAND. 
Edinburgh.—Among the projected improvements upon 
the Palace and Park of Holyrood, public attention is now 
directed to the re-edification of the Chapel Royal, as a 
matter of the first consequence. Independently of its value 
as an example of Gothic architecture, this venerable ruin 
possesses a higher interest as the depository of the télics 
of theancient Scottish monarchs ; and the Edinburgh papers 
state that it has long been a reflection upon the country, 
that a structure devoted to such a purpose should be left 
in a state of neglect and desolation. ‘They state that the 
ate Government incurred some expense in procuring 
plans for its restoration, and that it would be most grati- 
fying to the national feeling that these or similar plans 
should be carried out, asa sequel to her Majesty’s late 
visit to Scotland.—In the High Court of Justiciary, 0m 
Saturday last, Alexander Mackenzie, cattle-dealer and 
farmer, at Drumhead, Forfarshire, was indicted on @ 
charge of assault, by means of loaded fire-arms, with 
intent to kill Mr. James Duff, a grazier, at Whitefield, 
Perthshire. The prisoner pleaded guilty, arid threw him- 
self on the mercy of the court. Sir James Ramsay, of 
Banff, stated that he had been his tenant for 20 shee and 
had the highest opinion of him previous Hes is event. 
The Rev. James Watt, and other respectable witnesses, 
The Lord Advocate said, on the 
te had given him power 
gave similar testimony. 
Id not be 
at, as Her 
ot 
t which 
have here standing at the bar a man who 
a respectable situation as a Scote —a fan 
gious, moral, and steady habits—a man who. se: 
have been kind to his relations, and just in his previous 
dealings ; and yet he has done that which has brot 
to stand at this bar to angwer to a charge whic 
sorry to Say, is one of the most atrocious th 
ever been compelled to listen to. He confess 
impossible to take his confession lower than that 
the words of the indictment, and the nature of e, 
show plainly that no lower confession could or would 
be taken off “his hands 3; he confesses, that from motives, 
if Hot of q maliguaut, yet ofa wretched and pordid 
