NARRATIVE OF POLITICS.

The Government have adopted the suggestions thrown
out so frequently, and from so many quarters, during
the discussion of the India Bill last session, to convert
the place of one of the Joint Secretaries of the Board of
Control into a permanent office. Hitherto the two joint
secretaryships of the board were parliamentary offices,
and the several secretaries went in and out of office with
each successive administration. But the necessity of
having a permanent officer of that rank has long been
felt, and it has now been determined to assimilate the
chief office for the government of India, to the offices of
the Secretaries of State in that particular. It is known
that of the two Under Secretaries of State in each
department of Home, Foreign, and Colonial affairs, one
is attached permanently to the office, without a seat in
parliament, and attends mainly to the legal and departmental
business; whilst the other is in parliament,
attends chiefly to the legislative business, and goes in
and out of office with the Ministry. Sir Thomas
Redington, K.C.B., is appointed to the permanent
secretaryship under the new arrangement.

A great meeting of the electors of Bristol was held on
the 16th inst. for the purpose of receiving a deputation
from the Ballot Society of London, and of petitioning
the House of Commons to introduce into any new
measure of reform a provision for taking the votes of
electors by Ballot. Mr. Joseph Coates, one of the
magistrates of the city, presided. The principal speaker
was Colonel Perronet Thomson. A petition to the
above effect was unanimously adopted.

It was announced on the 16th inst. that Viscount
Palmerston had resigned his office of Secretary of State
for the Home Department. His resignation, however,
has not been accepted, and he has, it is stated, been
prevailed upon to withdraw it.

A great meeting was held at Newcastle on the 12th
inst., convened by the mayor on a requisition of
inhabitants, to consider the propriety of petitioning her
Majesty to co-operate vigorously with France for the
Defence of the Ottoman Empire. The mayor was in
the chair. Two resolutions were unanimously adopted.
The first declared, that not only the cause of Turkey,
but that of European liberty and civilisation, is placed
in imminent peril by the unprovoked and unprincipled
aggressions of Russia. The second declared, that "the
exigency has now assumed a shape which renders it
indispensable that her Majesty should seek the advice of
her Parliament with as little delay as possible, in order
that the British nation may know the position in which
they stand with the aggressive power, Russia; and may
be called upon (a call to which we doubt not they will
cheerfully respond) to make such exertions and such
sacrifices as may be necessary to enable her Majesty at
once to cement her alliance with the French nation and
their Emperor, for the purpose of offering a consistent
and vigorous resistance to the policy and proceedings of
the Russian Government."

NARRATIVE OF LAW AND CRIME.

A DREADFUL Murder has been committed at Leighton
Buzzard. Abel Burrows, a married man of thirty-seven,
was the criminal; and a poor old woman, Charity
Glenister, seventy-six years of age, the victim of his
wanton ferocity. Burrows is a man of dissipated habits;
once an ardent follower of Primitive Methodism, and
accustomed to talk of sacred subjects under the influence
of drink; he had left his wife, and lived with another
woman. On Friday morning, the 25th ult., he went to
his father's cottage, where Charity lodged. Soon
afterwards Charity ran into a neighbour's house, pursued by
Burrows, armed with a large hammer of the kind used
by road-men to break stones. The door of the house
had been closed, but Burrows broke it open. Charity
ran up the stairs to an upper room: Burrows followed,
seized her by her gown, and struck her three times on
the head with the hammer, smashing her skull.
Burrows was subsequently apprehended by a constable.
He exclaimed that Charity had ruined him and his
mother—he was glad he had klled her. He was
committed to prison by the magistrates; and a coroner's
jury returned a verdict of wilful murder against him.
The murderer subsequently confessed his crime, and
said he had committed it because the woman had often
breathed the devil into his mother. He knew when she
was in the room because it always smelt of brimstone.
When he was told that the poor woman was dead, he
exclaimed exnltingly, "Ah, I am glad of that, it is a
very good thing; Glory to God—glory, glory, glory;
Hallelujah, Amen! '

A number of Actions against the Australian Royal
Mail Company were brought by passengers on board the
Melbourne steamer, on her recent voyage home from
Sydney, for damages in consequence of nonfulfilment
of contract with respect to accommodation. In one of
these actions, at the instance of Mr. G. Smith, the
trial began in the Court of Common Pleas on the 30th
ult. and closed on the 3rd inst. It appeared that
Mr. Smith had paid £42 10s. for a second-class passage;
but when he got on board, he was put into a berth in
the steerage, where there were fifty or sixty passengers;
that there was no sufficient accommodation for the
purposes of cleanliness or decency; and that the bread
and provisions were bad. The jury gave a verdict in his
favour, damages, £70. Some discussion then ensued
between the Court and the counsel about amalgamating
the other actions; and ultimately it was agreed, at the
suggestion of the Lord Chief Justice, that a verdict
should be taken in all the cases with £50 damages in
each, except in the cases of two married couples, in
which the damages should be £70 each.

The New Act on Betting-houses came into operation
on the 1st inst. A penalty of £100 is to be
enforced on the owner or occupier of a betting-house, or
six months' imprisonment, with or without hard labour;
and £50 on a person receiving money, on condition of
paying money in the event of any bet, or three months'
imprisonment, and money so received may be recovered.
A penalty of £30, or two months' imprisonment, may be
enforced on persons exhibiting placards, or advertising
betting-houses.

A Murderous Affray, arising out of an unpaid election
bill, has taken place at Moate, Westmeath. Peter
Kelly, a publican, who resides in Moate, holds an
extensive farm from Mr. Magan, M.P. Killy, during
the late election, was a warm supporter and agent of
Captain Magan, keeping oppn house for his voters and
mobsmen, for which service Kelly furnished a bill of £74.