LOCAL ACTS—For amending and enlarging the powers of the act for erecting a County Hall and Courts of Assize; the New Cattle Market Act; Birmingham and Gloucester Railway Amendment Act, with powers to make branches to Worcester and Tewkesbury. 1838. IRISH Tithes and Corporations—Church Rates—Jamaica and the Negro Apprenticeship System, and the Canadas—formed the subjects of discussion in Parliament. In the year previous had commenced that series of deficits which contributed so much to the weakness and ultimate downfall of the Melbourne administration: for finance is, after all, the life-blood of a ministry. The Whigs could not, however, fairly be blamed for the state of the national exchequer, which, in truth, was the unavoidable consequence of the measures of former years. Immediately after the restriction of small notes, in the year 1829, the prices of merchandise and the amount of mercantile transactions rapidly declined; though as the seasons were unfavourable, speculators managed, by aid of the sliding scale, to keep up the price of corn till 1833, when it fell to less than 40s. a quarter. Speculation in the American trade gained for a time the appearance of prosperity; but on the failure of the United States Bank in 1836, affairs were brought to a crisis, and our manufacturers and merchants were plunged into extreme distress—trade was utterly stagnated—and when the scarcity of 1839 necessitated large importations of corn, and a drain of gold to pay for it, the Bank of England was well nigh brought into the peril of 1825. Consols averaged 93; wheat averaged 64s. 7d. JANUARY—The _Worcestershire Chronicle_ established by a joint stock company, at the head of which were some of the leading Reformers of the city and county. It was designed to supply a want, then beginning to be generally felt by this party, of an organ for the advocacy of their opinions, and the advancement of their interests through the medium of the press. The first number was published on the 3rd of January, 1838. In the year 1842 the concern passed into private hands, and was transferred to the present proprietors. JANUARY 22—Mr. Pakington made his Parliamentary _debût_ in a speech on Canadian affairs, which was very well received. JANUARY—Subscriptions at Evesham, Redditch, and Pershore, for the relief of the local poor during an inclement season. FEBRUARY—George Williams, Esq., surgeon, of Bewdley, nominated by Lord John Russell as a magistrate of that borough, and the Town Council thereof very indignant at not having been consulted. The Liberals afterwards _fêted_ Mr. Williams at a dinner at the George Inn.