The Press.
London, England, 1857-12-26 00:00:00

THE PRESS, DECEMBER 26,1857.

A PUBLIC MEETING was held at Rochdale on Par-
liamentary Reform last week. The mayor, R. T.
Heap, Esq., pursuant to a requisition signed by 490
burgesses of the borough, forty of whom were magis-
trates and members of the Town Council, convened
the meeting. The speakers were gentlemen of purely
local reputation. The following resolution was
adopted :

That it is the opinion of this meeting, that any bill which
her Majesty's Ministers may bring before Parliament to
amend our parliamentary representation ought to be
based on the following principles :—Manhood suffrage,
vote by ballot, a more equitable arrangement of electoral
districts, and the number of representatives to be assigned
thereto, a property qualification not to be required for
members of Parliament, and the duration of Parliament
not to exceed three years.

THE Hox. GEORGE BYNG, M.P., has signified his
intention to move, on the reassembling of Parlia-
ment, for some returns and accounts in relation to
the tollgates and bars round the metropolis, and
those parishes which now repair all their roads and
streets without any aid or assistance, but entirely out
of their local means; and also as to those parishes
who do not repair all their own roads, and whose
main roads are not maintained out of local rates,
but by the tolls collected at local gates and bars.
This information will be important, as showing
where lies the difficulty of clearing London of such
barriers. Though the city of London authorities
have abolished all their tolls, the gate in the City-
road is kept up in a neighbouring parish. Whilst
the principal parishes in the city of Westminster are
without toll-gates and maintain their own roads, the
turnpike-gate at Kensington is kept up in a West-
minster parish.
A POOR•RATE AND PAUPERISM RETURN, moved for by
Mr. E. Bouverie, M.P., gives some interesting par-
ticulars of pauperism. In England and Wales there
are 641 unions and 14,120 parishes, the area in acres
is 36,569,030, and the population in 1851 was
17,649.122. The industrial statistics show that there
were (at the date of the return) 9,816,597 persons
aged 21 years and upwards, and of these 31.0 per
cent. were engaged in mechanical arts, trade, and
domestic service, 16.1 in agriculture, 8.4 in manu-
facture, and 6.3 per cent. in mining woks. In the
metropolis there were 1,394,963 persons of 21 years
and upwards, and of these 47.6 per cent. were en-
gaged as artisans and servants, PI per cent. as
agriculturists, 6.0 as manufacturers, and 1.5 per cent.
as miners. The total number of paupers relieved
(in receipt of relief) on the last day of the first week
of October, 1857, was 804,578 (against 807,996 in
the corresponding week et 1856), and of these
111,494 were in-door paupers, and 693,084 out-door.
In the second week of October, 1857, there were
809,175 paupers receiving relief; in the third week
of October, 1857, 817,221, and on the last day of the
fourth week in October, 822,885. In the metropolis
on the last week of October there were 92,858 persons
receiving relief—namely, 27,972 in-doors and 64,931
out-of-doors.

(Elution

BUCKINGIIA,)ISiIIRE ELECTION.

Tss nomination took place on Thursday at the
County-hall, Aylesbury. Sir henry Verney, M.P.,
in proposing the Hon. C. C. Cavendish, endeavoured
to impress upon the electors the necessity of return-
ing a member who would support Lord Pal-
merston :—" If there was an individual in Europe,"
he said,—" he believed he might say in the world—
who had exerted himself successfully to promote
civil and religious liberty in every country to which
British influence extended, that individual was Lord
Palmerston. Those who were acquainted with the
Continent knew that there the name of Palmerston
was a host in itself—(laughter)—a name at which
the friends of despotism and bad government quaked
and groaned. They felt that Lord Palmerston was
the only man that despotism had to dread." (Cries
of Oh !oh!'")

Mr. CAVENDIBH, in his address to the electors,
repeated the usual claptrap about Lord Pal-
merston having brought the Russian war to a
" favourable termination ;" said he should give the
Governnient an energetic and independent support;
that be should vote for the admission of Jews to
Parliament, and :or the abolition of church rates, but
against the ballot. He could not say anything
about the Reform Bill until he knew what sort of
measure it was to be.

Captain HAMILTON said be came forward because
he bad been asked to contest the county on Conser-
vative principles. "It was not my wish to represent
the county; I never had that ambition, but if the
tenant farmers say 'We will have a candidate of our
own, and we choose Captain Hamilton,' Captain
Hamilton will poll the last man." With respect to
his opinions Captain Hamilton declared himself in
favour of the admission of Jews to Parliament,
against the abolition of church rates without a
Substitute, gad with respect to Aeforull ho preferred