The Week.

our power , hy friendly means , to stop the effusion of human blood . " There have been meetings at Bradford and Pontefract in aid of the distressed Lancashire operatives . At Bradford , Mr . AV . E . Forster , M . P ., was one of the speakers , and gave a very gloomy account of the prospects of the winter . Air . Monckton Milnes , M . P ., at Pontefract , spoke highly of the patient endurance of the operatives , urged active measures for their relief ; andwhile approving of what had been done by the

, Government , said still more must be done if the measures already taken should prove insufficient . Air . Parnall reported to the Executive Relief Committee , last week , that 176 , 483 persons are now receiving parochial relief in . 24 unions of the cotton districts , an increase of 7 , 845 as compared with the previous week . The London dep & t for contributions of clothing is now in working order , and we are lad to learn that the stockwhich in tho

g , first day or two amounted to 72 bundles , is being daily augmented . The United Kingdom Alliance held its annual meeting at Manchester , on AA ednesday . Sir Brooke Pechell was in the chair . The Free Trade Hall was so crowded that a second meeting was improvised in the Assembly-rooms . Above £ 2000 was raised in the room , and £ 222 was voted from the funds for the relief of the distress in Lancashire . The men who were

taken into custody for their share in the Birkenhead riots have been brought up at Chester . A good deal of evidence was gone into , and the prisoners were remanded to Saturday , to give time for the completion of the depositions , the magistrates announcing that they should commit the whole of the men for trial at the next Chester assizes . Sir George Grey has absolved the Birkenhead magistrates from all blame in the matter of the riots

. At the Middlesex sessions , a wretched woman named Burgess , who had been charged with an attempt on her own life , was brought up for judgment , when one of the barristers ( Air . Edward Besley ) suggested a doubt whether , under the new criminal code , the magistrates had jurisdiction over offences of this description . The suggestion was found to be so pertinent that the magistrates think it deserving of being made a case for

the Criminal Appeal Court ; but it is understood the prisoner will not suffer by the delay . The wife of a hawker named Jones died about a fortnight ago , when it was reported that her death was caused by the violence of her husband . A post-mortem

examination was made , and a coroner ' s inquest was held ; but though it was proved that the deceased and her husband did not live happily together , there was no evidence to show that he had caused her death , and the jury returned a verdict of death from natural causes . The inquest on the body of the engine driver who was killed on the London , Chatham , ancl Dover Railway a few days ago , has concluded . Th e evidence went to show that the line of rails had bulged out at that particular tand that

par , a key was wanting to bind one of the rails to the sleeper . The road had beeu reported on as in a defective state , but the repairs had been executed . It was stated , however , that at that part of the line the rails had a tendency to bulge out almost every day , and required great watchfulness . The jury returned a verdict of accidental death , but recorded their condemnation of a particular class of engine , which in their opinion was more

likely to cause the bulging out of the rails than others . At the Surrey Sessions , Evans James Jones and Stephen Roberts were found guilty of assaulting a police-constable , and sentenced , the former to six , ancl the latter to two months ' hard labour ; two Germans , found guilty of a robbery at a railway station , were sentenced to 18 months' hard labour ; and a woman , convicted of robbing a person of his watch iu a house

of ill-fame , was sentenced to four years' penal servitude . Constance or Catherine AA'ilson , the poisoner , was on Aionday executed in front of Newgate , in the presence of an immense crowd . AVilson showed great firmness , and protested her innocence to the last . Airs . Theresa Yelverton ' s appeal against the adverse decision of Lord Ardmillan will come on for hearing in the First Division of the Court of Session the 3 rd

on of next month . A Frenchman , described as a professor of languages , was charged , at the Hammersmith Police Court , on Saturday , with threatening to assassinate Prince Louis Lucien Bonaparte , the well-known philologist . The defendant , who said he was in misery at the time he wrote his alarming missive , expressed his deep regret for the act of which he had been guiltand the Prince having kindlwaived his claim to have

y , y him bound over with sureties , he was discharged upon entering into his own recognisances in the sum of £ 100 . A curious point of law has been raised at the Westminster Police Court . A man was charged with bigamy , and a second marriage was not disputed . But , as the prisoner ' s second " wife" was his

own niece , a girl of 17 , ancl as a niece is within the prohibited degrees , the question was raised whether a second marriage contracted under such circumstances could be held to constitute the offence of bigamy . The Alagistrate at first seemed disposed to hold that it could not , but on being referred to a case reported in " Archbold , " he found that " it was of no importance whether the second marriage was void or not for the purpose of prosecution for bigamy . " The prisoner was , therefore ,

committed for trial . A dreadful accident occurred at a colliery at AA'illenhall , near AVolverhampton , on Friday . Five men were being drawn up to the surface , when a heavy " skip " fell from the pit month , and coming into contact with the ascending cage , hurled four of its occupants to the bottom of the shaft . Death in each case must have been instantaneous . A poor old woman , an inmate of the St . Marylebone Almshouses , was on AA ednesday burnt to deaththe house in which she resided

, having been completely burnt . An inquest will , of course , be held , when it will be seen whether anyone was to blame for not rescuing her . The three men and two women who have figured so prominently in the police courts as members of that abominable swindle , — " the Richards' Estate Fund Association " — -have been committed for trial . A sixth person , who is said to have been the leader of the ganghas contrived to get out of

, the way . An inquest was held at Stepney on AA ' cdnesday on the death of a child which was said to have died from the effect of a narcotic administered as a cure for a cough . The mother of the child stated that she purchased the drug from a person named Timpson , who keeps a chemist's shop , and acts as a doctor , though it appears he holds no diploma ; and a medical man , who was called as a witness , stated that the narcotic

contained two poisons—opium and benzine—and that the child died from their effect . As the case assumed a somewhat serious aspect , the inquest was adjourned . The Aletropolitan Board of AVorks have just published their annual report , which is chiefly occupied with the main drainage . The northern highlevel sewer is completed and working . The mid level is about half completed . The low level was kept back till the question of the Thames embankment was decided ; it will now be proceeded with as part of that scheme , and the Strand and Fleetstreet will be avoided . The works on the south side are not in

such a forward state . A remarkable feature in the report is the accuracy of the estimated expenditure made by the engineer , as proved by the price for which the contractors have engaged to construct tbe works . The difference is slight in every case , hut generally it is in favour of the public . FOREIGN IXTELLIGEXCE . —The departure of the French Court for Compiegne has been postponed from this week , when it was to have taken place , until the beginning of next month . This

fact has given rise to various conjectures , and to reports that a Ministerial crisis still impends . The rumour was that Count Persigny and Al . Fould had submitted to the Emperor certain conditions relating to the Roman question on which alone they could retain their offices , and that failing to receive a satisfactory reply , they had determined upon resigning-. The Moniteur has published a short letter from the Emperor Napoleon to Al . Thouvenelthe late Alinister of Foreign Affairs . In this letter

, the Emperor says : —¦ " In the interest of the same policy of conciliation that you have so loyally forwarded , I have judged it necessary to replace you in the Jlinistry of Foreign Affairs ;" but he gives his discarded minister all the comfort that can be derived from an assurance that the imperial " esteem and confidence are in no ways impaired . " The diplomatic changes consequent upon M . Thouvenel ' s dismissal have likewise been

announced—AL de la Tour D'Auvergne replacing Al . de Lavalette at Rome , and Al . de Sartiges taking AL Benedetti's place at Turin . Al . Drouyn cle Lhuys has issued a diplomatic circular announcing his accession to the Foreign Office , iu which he says that the Emperor Napoleon ' s Italian policy , as expressed in the diplomatic correspondence recently published , has undergone no change whatever . The Emperor still feels the same sympathy for "the two causes upon which he has lavished ,

in equal measure , tokens of his solicitude . " Finally , M . de Lhuys declares that " The Emperor ' s government will continue to devote all its efforts to the work of conciliation undertaken in Italy by entering into it without discouragement , as without impatience , ancl with a full sense both of the difficulties to be encountered ancl of the magnitude of its task . " The Turin journals which support bhe Italian Ministry have apparently been instructed to put the best construction on M . Thouvenel ' s dismissal and M . Drouyn cle Lhuy's circular , and to profess a belief that the Emperor Napoleon ' s policy has un-