ice of agents employed by
the parties interested to get up signatures to petitions. The Committee
in the House of Lords had expressed themselves very strongly as to the
necessity of some law for preventing such abuses in future.--The
criminal tables for the year 1849 have been laid before Parliament. Of
the persons committed for trial during the year, 6786 were acquitted,
and 21,001 convicted. Of these convicted one in 318 was sentenced to
death, and one in 8 to transportation. There has been no execution since
1841 except for murder: of 19 persons convicted during the past year of
this offense 15 were executed, _five_ of whom were females.--The Royal
Agricultural Society held its annual meeting July 18th at Exeter. Mr.
LAWRENCE the American Minister at London, and Mr. RIVES the Minister at
Paris were both present and made eloquent speeches, upon the
agricultural state of England.--The boiler of the steamer Red Rover at
Bristol exploded July 22d, killing six persons and severely injuring
many others.--An explosion took place in the coal-pits belonging to Mr.
Sneden, near Airdrie on the 23d, by which _nineteen_ persons were
instantly killed. Only one man in the mine escaped; he saved his life by
throwing himself upon the ground the moment he heard the explosion. The
men were not provided with Davy safety-lamps.--At a meeting of the Royal
Humane Society a new invention of Lieutenant Halkett, of the Navy, was
introduced. It is a boat-cloak which may be worn, like a common cloak on
the shoulders, and may be inflated in three or four minutes by a bellows
and will then sustain six or eight persons--forming a kind of boat which
it is almost impossible to overturn. A trial was to be made of its
efficacy.--Sir Thomas Wilde has been made Lord Chancellor and raised to
the peerage by the title of Baron Truro of Bowes, in the County of
Middlesex.--Sir Robert Peel, Bart., has been returned to Parliament for
the borough of Tamworth made vacant by the death of his father. It is
stated that Sir Robert's last injunction was that his children should
not receive titles or pensions for any supposed services their father
might have rendered. This is in keeping with the severe simplicity of
his character and negatives conclusively the representations of those
who have charged his advocacy of measures designed to aid the poor, to
interested motives of selfish or family ambition. A subscription has
been set on foot for a testimonial to his memory