persons lost their lives , but it is to be hoped that the new law to amend the inspection of coal mines, with a view to the safety of those employed therein, and which came into operation on the lst of January last, may have the effect of lessening those fearful casualties.

It does not come within the object the Editor had in view in re-publishing this work, to notice the questions of political or municipal interest which have agitated the borough, but he may be allowed to saythat of late years the inhabitants generally have proved true to the principles of commercial freedom and social and political progress. The war in which we have recently been engaged, but which late events lead us to hope may be brought to a speedy termination, was at once recognised as a struggle between absolutism and progress, and on this account received their warmest sympathy, and the contributions to the Patriotic Fund in the town and neighbourhood, reached the munificent sum of £3394 7s. 9d., deducting expenses.

In consequence of a dissolution of parliament by the Derby government in 1852, a general election took place on the 7th of July in that year. The members proposed for Oldham were, Mr. John Duncuft, Mr. John M. Cobbett, and Mr. W. J. Fox; and, on this occasion, the friends of Mr. Cobbett coalescing with Mr. Duncuft, the result was that Mr. Fox was unseated. The mayor, James Lees, Esq., was the returning officer, and his declaration at the close shewed that the numbers polled were - for Mr. Cobbett, 947; for Mr. Duncuft, 869; and for Mr. Fox, 777. Mr. Duncuft did not long survive this honour, for in the course of the same month he was taken suddenly ill, and expired on the 27th. This occasioned a new election, when Mr. Fox was again put in nomination by his friends, and the Conservatives brought forward Mr. James Heald, a Wesleyan, and formerly the representative of Stockport, as their candidate. The election tool; place in the month of

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