The Week.

inspection was of a highly satisfactory character . The works are making great progress , and there can be no doubt that when the line is completec * . it will afford very great facilities for those who have to travel between the City anel the AVest-enel . The cattle plague is now much decreased and seems likely soon to be extinct . The number of attacks reported for the week ending tlie 25 th ult . was 127 , against 101 in the previous week .

The disease broke out in twenty farms during the week . In the previous week thirty-three new outbreaks were recorded . AA e learn by telegraph that the Queen and Royal family arrived at Aboyne at noon on the 24 th ult . Tbe Archbishop of Canterbury has censecreated three colonial bishops . These were the Rev . Andrew Bum Suter , to the diocese of Nelson ,

New Zealand ; the Rev . Henry Lascelles Jenner , to the diocese of Dnnedin , New Zealand ; and the Rev . Samuel Robinson Waddelow , to the dioceses of Grafton and Armselale , New South AVales . At Great Yarmouth the inquiries of the commissioners are being directed to the bringing to light what the liberals did iu the way of bribery . Mr . Brogdeii , one of the

defeated candidates , has been examinee ] , anel stated that he spent £ 6 , 000 , ou the election , of which he estimates £ 5 , 700 were spent in bribery . Anel yet , with these things within the knowledge of every one , men like Mr . Laing cm be found declaring the condition of our representative system the best that can be hoped for . Tbe

clearances necessary for the carrying out of the Holborn Valley Improvements have , it appears , been the cause of a good deal of distress among the poor residents of the adjoining neighbourhood . It was only the other day that the action of the authorities caused a riot in a court off Holborn ; and last night the aggrieved parties assembled in the open air , in a place called Bleeding Heart-yard , Holborn , and protested in

rather strong language against thc wholesale evictions that have taken place . A letter was read from Mr . Torreus , M . P . for TTmsbury , sympathising with the poor people , and proffering his Parliamentary services in their behalf . There certainly appears to be very little doubt but that the luckless inhabitants of the lanes and courts in question are sad sufferers by the Holborn Valley Improvements . A curious case of libel was

heard on the 24 th ult . at the Mavlborough-street Police-court . John Alexander , a man who had been an in-patient at tire Middlesex Hospital , was charged with libelling Mary Ann Dean , a nurse in the hospital . He had made a statement to the medical officers of the institution in which he charged Dean with immoral conduct in the ward in which she was nurse . She . was

called at the police-court , and gave a complete denial to the charge . Eventually Alexander was committed for trial . The Bribery Commissioners at Yarmouth , Totnes , and Reigate , continue their tmstwoiTfy work . We bave got little move than the introductory chapters of the Totnes story , but they are sufficient to show the thoroughly debauched political bouclition

of the place . Reigate is "comparatively pure by the side of Totnes and Yarmouth . There is at least a pretence of work being done for sums paid iu the Surrey town ; but at the other places plain unblushing buying of votes is the rule . There was an execution at Manchester on tho 25 th ult ., the first that has taken place in that city since 1798 . The criminal

was Burrows , the young man who was found guilty at the last Manchester Assizes of the murder of an Irish labourer , employed by his father , who , it will he remembered was a farmer , living at Hopwood , near Rochdale . The unfortunate man never denied his guilt , and be appears to have been very penitent . No doubt from the rareness of such an occurrence in that part of the country the horrible performance was witnessed by close upon 40 , 000 persons . There was a very frightful

accident on the Great Eastern Railway , the 25 th ult ., near to Ely . The train was one which carries passengers at cheap rates from Peterborough to Yarmouth and Lowestoft . Near to Ely , while rounding a curve , the engine left the rails and ran down an embankment . The carriages were heaped upon eacli other in feaful disorder . The driver of the engine was killed , and several of the passengers wore much injured . ——

Early on the 26 th ult . a lire broke out on tbe premises of Messrs . Holland and Hamian , builders , of Duke-street , Bloomsbury . The premises were stored with great quantities of valueable materials , most of which were of a highly combustible nature . The fire spread to several houses and shops in the vicinity , and was not subdued until after burning for several hours . The damage done is very great . Birmingham

hasshown how much it is in earnest in respect to Reform . The scene witnessed in the great hardware town on the 27 th ult . was a stirring one even for chose who remember the old pre-Reform Bill enthusiasm . Not merely did the working men of Birmingham leave their work to be present at the proposed demonstration in favour of Reform , but the populous

district about sent in great contingents the out-door gathering , A procession was formed to Brook fields , where tho meeting was held , and thither flocked thousands upon thousands of earnest men , until it is estimated that nearly two hundred and fifty thousand persons had gathered at the appointed place . No less than ten stands had been erected , from each of which

speeches were delivered . Mr . Bright , M . P ., Mr . Scholefield .. M , P ., the Mayor of Birmingham , Alderman Sturge , Mr . Edmond Bcales , and other gentlemen were ou stanel No . 1 . The scene during the time the speeches were being delivered was one which will be long remembered . The proceedings were marked by the greatest earnestness , and the

resolutions passed were strong and outspoken for Reform . In the evening a meeting was held at the town-hall to present addresses to Mr . Bright and Mr . Scholefield . , The great building was densely crowded . The addresses warmly recogniieel the services of the two honourable gentlemen in the cause of Reform . That to Mr . Bright was eloquent in its description of the services the lion , gentleman had rendered .

Subsequently both Mr . Scholefield and Mr . Bright spoke . Mr . Bright pointed to the meetings of that day as affording , the strongest stimulus to renewed exertions in the Reform cause , and as aflording the most triumphant refutation of those who bad said the people were not in favour of Reform . Tho proceedings were altogether of the most enthusiastic

character . Mr . Edmond Beales , at Birmingham made a statement which , had it been made by any other man , Avould have been received with distrust . It was that , owing to his exertions in the cause of Reform , he was no longer revising barrister for Middlesex . Some rather serious rumours are afloat respecting tbe condition of the engine and driver

of the train which ran down au embankment of the Great Eastern Railway on the 25 th ult . with such damaging and fatal consequences . The engine appears to have had a very indifferent reputation . It is said that it has previously been the cause of killing a number of persons , and it is also stated that the driver , although a sober and well-conducted man , had habits of

driving which were not of the safest kind . All these matters will , of course , be thoroughly sifted at the inquest . Another man is in custody charged with complicity in the great stamp robbery at Manchester . This is Charles Leeson , the landlord of a beershop in the Kennington-road . The evidence against him is chiefly that of a commissionaire , who swears he saw Leeson in company with the man Batt already committed for trial on the clay when Batt went to the Stamp Office in