ing away the pillars even in the very deepest collieries, Mr. Buddle took up the suggestion of subdividing the coal-field into minor districts, defended from each other by thick barriers of coal, and ventilated by distinct currents of air; so that in the event of a creep happening in one district, it was utterly prevented spreading beyond its decreed boundary. The advantages derived from this system were the procuration of nearly all the coal, uninjured by crush or creep, producing a great saving of expense, by curtailing the quantity of waste, or dead mine, otherwise requisite to be aired and travelled.

Underground steam-engines have, since 1800, become frequently applied to the raising of coals and water from the deep workings-sometimes placed near the shaft, but oftentimes many hundred yards in the interior. The principal difficulty attending their adoption, consists in supplying them with fresh air, without incommoding the other parts of the mine, and also of safely providing for the conveyance to the upcast pit of the hot smoke-the want of which has, in very many instances, produced the firing of the coal, and the most grievous consequences thereupon.

So far back as 1776, an underground engine was placed 80 fathoms down Saltom pit, at Whitehaven colliery, for the purpose of pumping water from the low level to the great seam.

Various improvements had taken place in the underground hand-pumps. The rag or chain pump had nearly disappeared, and was superseded either by common bucket-pumps, lifting one to another by means of wooden boxes, or the single forcing pump, wrought by lever, and fitted up with pipes. As an improvement upon this, in 1812, I introduced at Hebburn a double forcing pump, wrought by a fly.wheel.

Triple cranks, worked by horses, were also in common use at this period, for forcing water from the deep-workings.

The water in the deep collieries of the Tyne and Wear is uniformly salt, accompanied with various other admixtures. The water at St. Lawrence, near Newcastle, has been analyzed as follows:

Sulphate of Lime..

Chlorate of Calcium.....
Chlorate of Magnesia

Sulphate of Iron
Common Salt....

44.88

854-08

193.92

7.28

2938-24

4038:40

So highiy-impregnated is the mine-water of Birtley, Lambton, &c., that extensive salt-works are erected, and the produce brought into the market for sale.

GATESHEAD MECHANICS' INSTITUTE. THE annual meeting was held (by the kind permission of the Mayor) in the townhall, on Wednesday, December 20th, and was attended by a larger number than usual of the members and their friends. The walls were tastefully decorated with laurel, ivy, and other evergreens; and not only the vegetable, but also the mineral world, was tributary to the "decoration" of the hall-although in a fashion of which, having an antipathy to "cold iron," we are not violently enamoured.

The President of the Mechanics' Institute, WILLIAM HUTT, Esq., M.P., was warmly welcomed on entering the room, and taking his seat in the chair. In a few minutes, he rose to introduce the business of the evening, and spoke at considerable length, saying:-Ladies and Gentlemen, in some observations which I addressed to you some years ago, on the opening of this institution, I endeavoured to direct attention to the opportunities which it would afford, in public lectures, but more particularly in a good library, of forming a sort of secondary school. Now, this is a department of education of the highest importance, but almost universally neglected:-I mean, a definite instruction in those moral duties which we all owe to each other and to the whole community. Unless a knowledge of these things be spread over every class of society, there is, I fear, little security for individual good conduct and no permanent civilization for any country. Yet among us this essential branch of education has been of all others the least attended to. We send our children forth into the world with a general sense of right and wrong-with a few abstract notions of morality; but the specific application of thein-the right or the wrong of this or that particular position-is seldom inquired into, and never taught. They are told, indeed, Be just, be generous, be true. Who explains to them the conduct by which they are to discharge the duties of a just and generous master-of a true

and upright servant-of a conscientious and patriotic citizen? The word patriotism almost creates a smile. To talk of the moral laws of patriotism, seems almost as affected as to talk of the beauties of arithmetic. But, indeed, arithmetic has its beauties; and shall we suppose that patriotism-the love of country-the virtue which combines almost every other-has no rules, no principles, but may be safely left to the shifting of the political elements, and to be the guess.work creation of the passing hour! If we are to have a country-if we are to love it like rational beings-not for its sticks or its stones, not for any circumstances of soil or climate, but for the air of liberty which we breathe in it-for those institutions which are our swords and our shields-for those manners, minds, and character which make living country to man-then surely we are bound to know that which makes it worthy of our veneration-that which upholds its moral and intellectual greatnessthat by which the life of every citizen may be rendered conducive to the good of the community. (Applause.) Such knowledge, however-important as it certainly is-cannot be acquired without study and reflection. Many of the fundamental laws of society require to be well weighed and considered, before their value can be appreciated; and accordingly we find their value constantly the subject of dispute. The institution of private property-of the different ranks of society-of other laws not less essential to individual well-being and to the existence of the social community-are regarded with impatience and hostility by those who eannot see their importance to themselves. This hostility becomes more formidable to the best interests of our country, just in proportion as the parties who profess it are in possession of political influence and power. Now, it is a fact worth your observation, that the claim of the people to interfere in the management of public affairs, is gradually, though more or less rapidly, gaining ground in every country of the civilized world. It may not be equally apparent in all, but in all it is certainly hastening onwards. No one, in my opinion, should desire to prevent its progress, though every one must desire that political power should be accompanied in its progress with political intelligence. (Applause.) That which may justly excite alarm, is the condition of a people with whom the two qualities have not been united. To preach subordination to them, is a very idle expedient. Subordination, to men who think themselves aggrieved, sounds very like cowardice and slavery. They must be preached into a sense of the advantages which subordination insures to all the members of the social system. But the time to give such lessons, is not when their passions have been excited by political agitation, or their feelings irritated by disappointment. There is no delusion, in politics or in medicinethere is no quackery either-that will not impose itself, even on a strongly constituted mind, when that mind has been disordered by pain or fear. It is when the head is clear and the passions slumber-before the contagion of bad example has set in-it is before the mechanic has enlisted under the banners of a vicious combination-before the peasant has familiarized himself with deeds of midnight incendiarism-that we must teach the mischief and immorality of such proceedings. After that, the lesson will come too late. Mean and cowardly as is the crime of rick burning-a crime which does not even possess the merit of daring, of stern purpose, which often lends a false glitter to other acts of atrocity-we should make, I suspect, a great mistake, if we supposed that the offences which we read of are the acts of secret and solitary outcasts, who know that the mention of their crime would rouse against them the horror and avoidance of their fellows. It is impossible to mark the frequency of its occurrence in every part of the south of England, and to notice the sort of surly and vindictive satisfaction and listlessness with which the peasantry at times gather round these scenes of ruin, without perceiving that among them one of the most malignant and desolating deeds of villany has ceased to impart to their minds any sentiment of shame or of dread, nor without concluding that among themselves, in their own conclaves, it is seoetly encouraged and applauded. There is often something analogous to this moral obliquity in the proceedings of unions and other combinations. A very few years ago, two persons suffered the extreme penalty of the law, in consequence of having committed a cold-blooded murder at the instigation and by the hire of a trades union. The men who were hanged for the barbarous assassination of Mr. Ashton had no quarrel or enmity with him; but they perpetrated his

murder for the payment of £3 6s. 8d. a-piece; and the money was paid them by a trades-union which which they were connected. I know that this was an isolated case; I hope it will long remain so; but I also know that the ordinary proceedings of trades-unions are marked by tyranny, violence, and cruelty. I am not meaning to censure as criminal all sorts of tradesunions or class-associations of men for their advantage and protection. Self-defence is the first of all laws, and may occasionally render such organizations desirable; but self-defence and aggression are not to be confounded. Union for protection is a very different thing to union for attack. But it is an objection to the one, that it too frequently furnishes a rapid and insensible passage to the other. All combinations are at best dangerous things for a prudent man to meddle with. All must be governed by means of laws, and to these laws there must be conformity. The enforcement of obedience, and even the framing of the laws themselves, must before long tall into the hands of a few leaders; or, in other words, the whole body is placed under the government of the closest and most corrupt of corporations. A more complete sacrifice of personal freedom for freedom's sake, cannot be imagined. A sensible man will be very reluctant, for any occasion and for any purpose, to yield him a vassal to the caprices of another's will; and a true patriot will disdain it. He will not seek for independence through slavery: he will not sacrifice his country for his order or for his trade. While deposing one despotism, he will not set up another in its stead. (Applause.) I remember to have read a book which was published a few years ago, on the cha racter and effects of trades unions; and a most interesting and instructive volume it was. 'T'he author noticed the most remarkable" strikes" which had taken place at that time in Eng. land. He remarked on the object of the strikes, and on the results with which they had terminated. The facts which he adduced proved (which perhaps few persons who know the English character would have questioned) the zeal and courage and enduring resolution with which the working classes can act in concert, for the attainment of a common object. But it proved also, that they seldom distinguished, in these unhappy Struggles, between the attainable and the unattainable, between the just and the unjust; and he proved, most satisfactorily to to my mind, that none of them would have been undertaken by men who showed themselves capable of so high a temper of self-devotion, if they had only been possessed of some elementary knowledge of the rules which regulate the profits of capital and the wages of labour. Of course they almost universally failed. They hardly ever terminated in anything but complete failure-failure which it was melancholy to contemplate. In the great strike at Manchester, ten years ago, the workmen wasted £18,000 of their common fund in allowances-they lost in wages £78,000; and then they returned to their work, with. out having accomplished any one of the objects for which they had abandoned it. The same thing has just been acted over again at Staley bridge and at Ashton. Were our moral duties as citizens more clearly taught, I believe that such combinations would rarely be formed. Where redress was most needed, the labouring man would seek elsewhere, and by other means, to obtain it. He would be no party to a combination which interfered with property, and which placed restrictions on his personal freedom. (Applause.) But, in order to avoid vague generalities, let us take an individual case. Let us suppose the instance of a working man whose mind had been well trained and disciplined in his moral duties, and consider what would be his conduct in the world. He is a citizen :-well! he is prepared for his duties. He is obedient to the laws; but his obedience is not founded upon ignorance. Short-lived and precarious is the obedience of a fool; for it is at the mercy of every fallacy with which passion, or prejudice, or wickedness may assail it. He has informed himself of the laws and constitution of his country; but he has done so, not merely to rail at them. He probably perceives in both, matters capable of improvement; but he sees also much which he can honestly admire. He compares his condition with that of men in the generations which have have preceded him-with the present condition of men in lands less civilized than his own; and so far from repining at his position, every morning of his life, while acknowledging the mercies of Providence, he pours forth his thanks that he is born in such a country, and in the light and liberty of such an age. (Applause.) He knows the utility of general concord. He wishes to promote confidence, union, good-will, between all classes of society. But while he

never hesitates to offer to his superiors in station the manly deference of a gallant and generous spirit, he is not infected with that mawkish admiration of wealth and station, which sees nothing good in the useful and the simple, or respectable in his own rank and condition in life. No! his warmest sympathies are with the men of his order. Instead of treating their errors with derision or their ignorance with insult, be is the friend of schools, of mechanics' institutions, of every means by which he may correct the one and remove the other. He does justice to the warm-hearted affection-the patient honesty, the courage, and the truth, by which as a body the working classes are honourably distinguished (applause); and hating oppression in every shape and in every disguise, from whatever quarter it may proceed, he is the determined foe of that worst and most humiliating oppression, which, under pretence of serving the people, uses and abuses the people for its own selfish and ambitious purposes. (Applause.) He may suffer at times with the general vicissitude, but he will not lend himself to the madness of every new scheme for bettering his condition-he will not shout for every travelling demagogue whom ignorance, or disappointment, or hire, may lead to halloo him on against the institutions of his country. He will rarely unite in a strike or union. He has informed himself how price, and labour, and wages operate on each other. In his own affairs he knows how credit and interest enter into cost, and how a number of consumers may profitably unite together for a common purpose; he knows how small savings will accumulate by steady additions; and he has the spirit and the courage to act steadily up to the convictions of his knowledge and judgment. You will not see him purchasing at long credit even the necessaries of life; and least of all will you find him bartering, for the vanity and indulgence of an hour, the comfort and independence of future years. And while others, who perhaps started in the world with double his means, have never advanced or improved them at all, he is in the regular enjoyment of all that is really valuable in life, and has the proud consciousness of knowing that he owes it entirely to himself. (Applause.) Well may he walk with an erect head and a quiet eye. Well may he smile when, returning from his labour, he sees the evening sun lighting the humble roof of his beloved home. There is nothing beneath it to reproach him-not a heart there that will not bound as he enters it-not a sight which is not some testimonial of his duties well performed. He reaps the harvest as he has sown the seed:-neither God nor society have abandoned him. (Loud and prolonged applause.)

Mr. G. S. DIXON read the Report of he Committee. It announced with much gratification a "more favourable condition of the funds than at any former period of the existence of the institution." The number of members was stated to be 193. 40 new members had been elected during the year, but 56 had been erased from the roll. In this number, however, were included several persons who had long been in arrear with their subscriptions, and were therefore members only in name. There had been 5,306 issues of books since the annual meeting in 1842-being, with one exception, the largest number of issues in any one year since the institution was formed. The number of volumes added to the library was 50, in addition to periodicals. The introduction of newspapers had been attended with many advantages, and no drawback. A debating class had been established in connection with the institution, "and proved of much amusement and instruction to its members." The want of accommodation for the classes, and for business-meetings, under the same roof with the library, was a serious inconvenience, and ought, if possible, to be remedied. Lectures had been delivered during the year, by Mr. T. P. Barkas, on Phonography; and Drs. Embleton and Nicholson had kindly consented to lecture at their earliest possible convenience. In conclusion, the Committee expressed a hope that by the education of the people (a measure now largely occupying the public mind), mechanics' institutions would receive a great accession of members, and have their usefulness greatly extended.

Mr. Ald. BROCKETT, in moving the adoption of the Report, suggested to the members, as an easy means of enlarging and enriching the library, that each of them, on returning home, should look over his book-shelves, and pick out a volume for the institution. (Applause and laughter.)

Mr. SWINBURNE said he had much pleasure in seconding both the motion and the hint. (Laughter.)

The PRESIDENT, in putting the motion to the meeting, ob}

-323 18 4 £2 15 10

Mr. Ald. POLLOCK moved the adoption of the Treasurer's Report. Seconded by Mr. W. L. HARLE, and carried unanimously.

Mr. G. CRAWSHAY, jun., moved a vote of thanks to the Officers and Committee of the past year, and said, although not at present a member of the institution, it would not be his fault if he were not very soon elected. (Applause.) He would also be happy to act upon Mr. Brockett's hint, and send the institution a few books from his library. (Applause.) He had listened with much pleasure to the address of the President. In the opinion of that honourable gentleman, that the tendency of power was to the people, he entirely coincided, and also recognized the importance of popular education. But one great cause of the ignorance that prevailed, was the misery in which the people were unhappily plunged; and the cause of that misery was an important question for the consideration of every patriot and philanthropist. (Applause.) The removal of it would be the removal of one of the greatest barriers to the education of the masses. The friends, therefore, of popular enlightenment, should give their cordial sympathy and support to those who were struggling for the improvement of the physical condition of the people. (Applause.) Mr. Crawshay proceeded to express his warm approbation of Mechanics' Institutes; and to suggest that they should supply their members with light literature-as poetry and fiction-in addition to scientific works, and other volumes of facts.

Mr. JOSEPH PRICE seconded Mr. Crawshay's motion, and it was unanimously adopted, and acknowledged by the PRESIDENT.

Mr. BRADY suggested the abolition of the rule rendering members ineligible to the Committee, after three years' servitude, and moved a vote of thanks to Mr. James Clephan, for loans of newspapers to the reading-room. Seconded by Mr. JOHN FAWCETT, and carried.

Mr. CLEPHAN, after cordially thanking Mr. Brady and his seconder for their complimentary motion, and the meeting for the kind manner in which it had been received, proceeded to observe: Having been called upon, Mr. President, to rise in acknowledgment of the honour which has been conferred upon me, I may perhaps be permitted to say one or two words on the address with which you introduced the business of the evening. (Applause.) You spoke, Sir, of the trades-unions which are formed, from time to time, by the artisans of this country, and of the danger in which they continually stand (however praiseworthy their original design) of degenerating into engines of oppression and cruelty; and as I have had some experience of the practical working of these combinations, having been a member of one of them myself, I will briefly give you the benefit of that experience. (Applause.) Several years ago, I was a member of a society, formed at my own suggestion, for the relief of printers travelling in search of work, and who, in the town of which I am speaking, had previously to beg relief from office to office. The society confined itself, for some time, to the relief of unemployed printers. It afterwards extended the sphere of its operations. It undertook the regulation of wages, and other functions foreign to the objects contemplated at its origin; and in carrying out the new powers which it assumed,

it resorted to acts of which I could not conscientiously approve. It interfered, for instance, with the liberty of a printer who had originally been apprenticed to the business of a tailor, but which, being opposed to his tastes, he was led to abandon for a more congenial pursuit. Having had little experience, and that experience being acquired in manhood, when a trade is less readily learnt, he was not very expert at his new business, and worked for wages inferior to the ordinary rate of remuneration. This he had a perfect right to do, and no man could justly quarrel either with the manner in which he earned his bread, or the price at which he sold his skill and labour. I protested against the proceedings of the society; and my protest being unheeded, I ceased to be a member. The consequence was, that in an official circular, distributed throughout the length and breadth of the land, I was reported as a seceding member, and the ground of my secession was set forth in print. The charge against me was, that I maintained the right of every man to sell his labour at whatever price he chose to set upon it. (Applause and laughter.) I was amused, certainly, at the heinousness of the imputation, and had no reason to complain, either of the charge itself, or of the language in which it was clothed by my accusers. The members of the society were respectable working men, who had no disposition unnecessarily to annoy me; and after I left their union, we continued on the same friendly terms as before. 1 was only sorry that a body of workmen, in general so well-informed, should manifest so utter an ignorance, in my opinion, of the rights of Englishmen, as to deny the plain proposition in question. Trades-unions, Mr. President, undertake to fix a standard rate of wages-a rate below which no man must work, whose engagement is by the week. And yet, Sir, we all know that men differ very materially in aptness and skill. Some men will not be worth the standard wage-others will be worth much more. Is the employer to pay the interior workman more than his work is worth? If so, he will not employ him at all, if he can help himself, and the workman must go unhired-an injury which no trades-union has a right to inflict upon him. Workmen, of different degrees of skill, should be left to dispose of their services at the best prices which they can respectively obtain, just as tradesmen are left to charge a variety of prices for goods of differing qualities. Such is the principle which 1 advocated, and which the printers' union condemned. How far that condemnation was called for, is a question which I leave, with entire confidence, to the decision of this enlightened assembly. (Applause.)

Thanks were voted to the President by acclamation; and the Secretaries proceeded to cast up the voting-papers of the members, which had been handed in during the evening. The election was ascertained to have fallen on the following gentlemen:

PRESIDENT:-William Hutt, Esq., M.P., (36 votes). VICE-PRESIDENTS:-Ald. Brockett (36), Mr. Kell (33), Rev. J. Davies (31), Mr. H. Brady (30), Ald. Barras (29), Ald. Pollock (28), Mr. Swinburne (25), and Dr. White (9).

SECRETARIES:-Mr. G. S. Dixon (40) and Mr. John Fawcett (15). TREASURER: -Mr. Cornelius Garbutt (32).

COMMITTEE:-Messrs. James Clephan (38), J. F. Brett (31), G. Pringle (30), J. Hunter (29), John Robson (28), William Douglas (27), John Garbutt (24), G. M. Masterton (23), Joseph Clephan (21), Thomas Pringle (21), J. Brown (19), R. Young (19), Samuel Wilson (17), Charles Brown (15), D. D. Main (15), C. Calloway (13), R. Marshall (13), and B. Barkus (11).

Through some oversight-" what is everybody's business being nobody's business"-the meeting omitted to pass a vote of thanks to Mr. Hedley, the retiring Secretary-a gentleman whose industry has been unremitting, and who deserves (and, we believe, enjoys) the gratitude of every well-wisher of the institution.

p Nichol, A. (J.P.)
W. All Saints.
p Ormston, J.
p Parker, A.
p Sillick, J.
p Carr, J. T.
p Proctor, W. B.
Hall, Edward
E. All Saints.
Ridley, John

p Dunn, Thomas p Hunter, John
8. St. Andrew. p Lowrey, S.
p Weatherley, J.Dp Crawhall, J.

COUNCILLORS. p Gray, A. G. p Shield, Henry
St. Nicholas'.

St. John.
Cookson, Wm.
p Radford, J.
p Plues, Matthew
Charnley, E
p Brown, William
p Burre'l, I.

Westgate.

p Hawthorn, R.
p Finlay, James
p Bargate.George
Jesmond.

p Armstrong, W.
p Plummer, R.

p Turner, Henry

p Sanderson, F. p Turner, Wm.
p Nichol, John p Jobling, M. L. [Those marked p were present.]
THE Council met by adjournment on the 27th Dec., when Mr.
Ald. DUNN presented the Treasurer's bill of payments for the
quarter, amounting to £11,454 4s.-Received and passed.

Mr. Ald. DUNN announced that there were tour of Sir Thomas
White's loans available. [They will be disposed of at the next
meeting.]

Mr. ARMSTRONG, in the absence of Mr. Ald. Ridley (who is
seriously indisposed), presented a Report or two from the River
Committee.

Mr. HARLE presented a memorial from Mr. Matthias Dunn,
praying for permission to erect a steam hoisting apparatus at
Jarrow Quay, for shipping coals (as on the river Wear) in boxes
containing a chaldron each. The apparatus would not only
effect a saving of labour, but a preservation of the coals from
stealth and breakage. It would also tend to withstand the
competition of other ports, and preserve the general trade of the
river. Referred to the River Committee.

The MAYOR presented a Report from the High Level-Bridge
Committee as follows:-

We, the Committee appointed to inquire into and report upon the
several projects for crossing the river Tyne by means of a High Level
Bridge, have examined the three several plans and sections for bridges
at a high level, of which copies have been deposited with the Clerk of
the Peace, preparatory to applications to Parliament for powers to exe-
cute the works.

By the plan deposited by Mr. Hudson, the Chairman of the Newcastle
and Darlington Railway Company, and designed by essrs. Green, a
bridge of iron, having three piers in the bed of the river, is proposed to
be constructed at the distance of 200 feet to the west of the Tyne Bridge,
and at an elevation of 85 feet above high-water mark of spring tides, to
extend from the Castle-garth on the west side of the castle, to a point
situate on the east side of the dwelling-house formerly occupied by Mr.
Edinund Graham, and near to the Half-Moon-lane, in Gateshead.
There will be a carriage way 36 feet wide along this bridge, and a foot.
way. It is not proposed to lay a railway upon it. The approach to the
north end of this bridge is intended to be formed by a street commencing
from St. Nicholas' square, near the west entrance to St. Nicholas' church,
and passing across King-street and Castle-street on the west side of the
castle. Streets from the Half Moon-lane and Greene's Field will form
the approaches to the south end of the bridge.

The bridge designed by Mr. Dobson is an iron bridge, and may be made
applicable to a carriage-way and footway, and also a double line of rail-
way.
This bridge, which will likewise have three piers in the channel
of the river, and will be at an elevation of 110 feet above the level of
high-water mark of spring tides, will cross the river to the west of the
yard occupied by the Gas Company, near the west end of Pipewellgate,
and extend to the high ground near Messrs. Stephenson's manufactory,
in South-street, to the top of the bank above the yard occupied by the
Gas Company. It is proposed to form a railway station on the south
side of Neville-street, opposite to the house now used as the Carlisle
Railway Company's office, and to make a carriage-way which will
extend from Neville-street along the proposed bridge, and from the
south end thereof to the Half-Moon-lane, and to widen the Half Moon-
lane, so as to make a good approach from the High street of Gateshead.
The bridge projected by Mr. Grainger is proposed to be formed by a
series of metal arches, supported by metal columns resting upon the
piers of the present bridge, and continued from the north end of the
present bridge to the front of the Moothall, and from the south end of
the bridge to the high ground situate behind Mr. Henry Smith's shop,
at the east end of Pipewellgate. The bridge is designed to support an
ordinary carriage-road and two footways. It is not adapted to railway
purposes. A street or approach is proposed to be formed from the north
end of the bridge, which will branch round the east and west sides of the
Moothall, leaving that building in the centre of a circular plot of
ground, and will extend from thence by an arch across the Side, and
through St. Nicholas' churchyard to Mosley-street, opposite to the
entrance to Drury-lane. Another street is projected on the line of the
northern approach to the bridge, designed by Messrs. Green. The
approaches to the south end of the bridge will extend from the Half-
Moon-lane and Greene's Field.

The three projects are all of them proposed to be carried into effect by

joint-stock companies, which are to obtain a return for the capital
expended, by a toll levied on passengers, horses, and carriages using the
bridge.

In the opinion of the Committee, the bridge designed by Mr. Dobson,
the most western of the bridges, will form an excellent line of communi-
cation by railway between Newcastle-upon-Tyne and the railways on
the south side of the river Tyne, and also with the Newcastle and Car.
lisle Railway, and would terminate at a plot of open ground affording
ample space for a station; but owing to the distance at which this
bridge is placed from the principal streets in the centre of the town, it
does not present the facilities and advantages for a carriage road which
the two other designs which we have examined afford.

The two other plans to which we have adverted are nearly equal in
respect of the advantages and conveniences they afford to the public;
but with respect to the plan of Mr. Grainger, we think serious doubts
may be entertained whether the old bridge is strong enough to bear the
weight of the superstructure proposed to be placed upon it.

In considering the feasibility of any of the three plans proposed, it is
necessary to inquire how far parties can be found prepared to carry
them into effect. We have from Mr. Hudson the assurance of the New-
castle and Darlington Junction Railway Company that they will carry
out the plan designed by Messrs. Green. He adds, however, that he
expects from the Corporation the assistance of a free gift of the property
of the Corporation in the Castle-garth, which is touched by the line of
the approach to the bridge from the north, and a contribution of £5,000.
We have no assurance from any party for the execution of either of the
other projects.

Mr. Hudson having made a definite proposition to carry into effect a
plan which will obviously produce a great improvement in the approach
to the town from the south, we think it incumbent on the Council to
give to that plan all reasonable encouragement and support. We, there
fore, recommend to the Council to give up, without pecuniary considera-
tion, the property of the Corporation in the Castle-garth touched by the
line of approach to the bridge, and valued in its present state at £800,
under which gift the Company undertaking the execution of this work
will not only require the roadway passing through this property, but
also sites by the side of it. Out of this grant must be excepted two small
plots on the east side of the roadway, near the castle, which must be left
open. We think that the expectation of a contribution of £5,000 in
money from the Corporation is not a reasonable expectation; but we
recommend that the Council do, over and above the gift of the property
above recommended, take upon themselves the expense of flagging and
paving all or part of the roadway and footway of the approach to the
bridge from St. Nicholas'-square, or give to the Company some assistance
equivalent to such expense, on condition that this approach to the bridge
be executed in a satisfactory manner, and in conformity to the plan
deposited in the office of the Clerk of the Peace.

JOHN FIFE, Mayor.

A. L. POTTER.

THOMAS DUNN.
WILLIAM ARMSTRONG.
HENRY TURNER.
R. P. PHILIPSON.

The Report was received, and ordered to be printed. The
plans to lie at Mr. Armstrong's office.

On the motion of Mr. A. NICHOL, J.P., the special committee
on the hospital of St. Mary the Virgin was reäppointed.

Much miscellanous business was transacted, in the course of
which it appeared that Sir William Chaytor had been in treaty
with the Finance Committee for some of the old carvings in
the Mansion House, but that they could not come to terms.

LETTER to the FREEMEN of NEWCASTLE-UPON-
TYNE, on the PRESENT STATE of the REPRESENTATION of that
BOROUGH in the HOUSE OF COMMONS.-By WILLIAM LOCKEY
HARLE.-Newcastle: EMERSON CHARNLEY.-1843.

THIS is a remarkably sensible, spirited, and well-timed pub-
lication, addressed to the Freemen of Newcastle. We trust
that it will be generally read and candidly considered by that
body. It deserves their attention not less for the practical good
sense of its statements and admonitions than for the frank and
kindly spirit which pervades them. Perhaps, too, Mr. Harle's
letter might profitably engage the minds of other parties.
There has been, we think, too much haste and stiffness in the
demeanour of the Liberals towards the ancient electoral body
of the English boroughs. The offence which the latter natu-
rally took at the rough assaults made on their privileges, was
oftentimes very offensively returned. Rough words ensued.
And the consequence has eventually been, that two bodies of
men, who were for the most part honestly embarked in a com-
mon cause, and who were really engaged, neither of them in
any design at variance with the well-understood interests of the
other, have become gradually estranged, and, partly by a reci-
procity of petulance, and partly by the cunning machinations
of the enemies of both, have been persuaded to take up a position
of confirmed hostility to each other. Mr. Harle's purpose is to
bring this unhappy quarrel to an end. The new constituencies
complain that the Freemen resisted, and resented, by deserting