The Sun.
London, England, 1851-10-02 00:00:00

COURT CIRCULAR.

The Oxford University Commission had a meeting
yesterday, at the official residence of the First Lord
of the Treasury, in Downing-street. Present—The
Bishop of Norwich, the Dean of Carlisle, the Master
of Pembroke, the Rev. it G. Liddell, J. L. Dam-
pier, Esq., the Rev. Professor Powell, the Rev. G.
H. S. Johnson, and the Rev. A. P. Stanley (Secretary).
Dispatches were sent off yesterday from the Colonial
Office to the Governors of the West India Islands.

COLLIERY ACCIDENT.—On Saturday evening last
an accident occurre I at Nevell Colliery, near Osmondthorpe,
in the borough of Leads, by which one man lost his life and
another was so severely iejured that he is not expected to re-
cover. The colliery belonged to Mr. Farrell, and had been
recently sunk. It was about seventy- five yards deep, and
the works were so far completed that the bed of coal was ex-
pected to be worked in the course of a few doys. A man of
the name of Hopton, who had for a considerable time acted
as the steward at the colliery, having control of the works
both above and below, went into the pit along with a black-
smith, to affix a pipe to convey some water to some part of
the works. As these two men were in the act of ascending
the shaft of the pit in a sleep suspended by a rope worked
across a drum by a steam-engine, th 3 rope broke, and they
fell to the bottom, a distance of from forty to fifty yards.
Assistance was rendered as quickly as possible, and the bo-
dies of the two unfortunate men were brought to the bank,
but death in the course of an hour afterwards put an end to
the sufferings of Hopton, and the other man lies in a very
precarious state. Hopton, who was a very steady man, has
left a wife and six or seven children. There are different
rumours as to the cause of the accident. One is that the
rope slipped from the end of the drum, for want of an edge
to keep it in its place, and, coming in contact with the
spindle on which the drum revolved, was shifted until it
broke. Another is, that the rope was an old one and needed
repair. The coroner's inquest on the body of the deceased
stands adjourned from Monday to Thursday next, in order
that a Government inspector of coal mines may have au op-
portunity to be in attendance.
A PRECEDENT FOIL DIVIDING THE CHANCELLOR-
snip.—The Literary Gazette, in reviewing " The Judges of
England," by Edward Foss, says, " The most curious inci-
dent connected with the law in the reign of Edward IV.
was the existence of two chancellors acting at the same
time for many weeks, both recognized by royal authority.
Oa the strength of this precedent, Mr. Foss throws out the
suggestion In the question which at present perplexes
lawyers as well as Ministers of State, as to the most ex-
pedient division of the laborious duties now devolving on
the keepers of the Seal, who can tell whether this discovery
of an ancient authority may not suggest the division of
the title between two possessors, in the same manner that two
chief justices were formerly substituted for one chief juAi-
ciary ?' "

Mx. Hums, M.P., IN THE HIGHLANDS.—After
delivering himself of his well known "financial and poli-
tical statement" to the electors of the Angus burghs, the
veteran Member for Montrose proceeded along the east
coast of Scotland, and the shores of the Moray Firth, as far
as Redcastle, the picturesque seat of Mr. Henry Baillie, the
Member for the county of Inverness, where, together with
Miss Hume, he remained for a few days, and then returned
south. Redcastle being within a very short distance of
Inverness the town authorities took advantage of Mr.
Hume's proximity to request his acceptance of the freedom
of the burgh. The proposition was most favourably enter-
tained, and the ceremony took place on Saturday last, the
27th ult. The concourse of people was very considerable,
and " the youngest burgess" would seem to have been
much gratified. He spoke for upwards of an hour and a
hilt The main subject of the speech was Mr. Hume's
own career in Parliament, principally since the passing of
the Reform Bill. Tupics of interest in past times naturally
mixed themselves with the narrative. the probable merits
and demerits of the proposed new Reform Bill were canvassed
at considerable length, and the discourse was concluded with
the usual hope that the day was not far distant when Eng.
land could boast of triennial Parliaments, vote by ballot,
reduced expenditure, and reduced taxation, &c. It is some.
what singular that the honour of being made a free burgess
of Inverness should have fallen to the lot of Mr. Hume,
since only two years ago, when the late Sir Robert Peel
lived for about six weeks in the immediate neighbourhood,
no further notice was taken of the lamented statesman than
requesting him to lay the foundation-atone of a Jacobite
memorial to the rebels who fell at the battle of Culloden.

-----
THE LONDON Passs.—ln a speech delivered at
the dinner recently given at " the Cashel Banquet," the
Very Rev. Dean Burke thus complimented sundry of the
metropolitan journals, who must, of course, acutely feel the
castigation of the refined divine:—" The Times, the
Morning Post, the Morning Hcra:d, the Morning Adrertiser,
the Evening Sun, the Weekly Examiner, and a host of minor
journals are so many sluices that unceasingly pour forth
from the great and unfathomable reservoir of English bigotry
and anti-Catholic hate, all their filth and feculence against
us ; but whilst neir dirty discharges prove the depth and
fetidness of the source from which they flow, they cannot
reach or 'befoul their intended objects,_ I mean the Catholic
clergy." —( Great groaning for the English bigots.) And
again : —" We are denounced by the base and venal English
press, and represented to the English people as fiery agita-
tors, as noisy incendiaries, as man whose very existence is
incompatible with the peace of the country or even with
the rights of property in it."—(Groans for the lying London
Press.) Lord help us!