The Week.

friars road . The fire in the present case broke out just as the performance of the pantomime was drawing to a close on Monday night ; and from that circumstance probably the audience was considerably smaller than at an earlier part of the evening . Through the judicious counsels of the stage manager no panic took place , and the company retired in comparative order , and

with perfect safety . A few hours afterwards—so thorough was the work of destruction—nothing of the building remained save the blackened fagade and the smouldering ruins on the ground . It was in the ceiling that the fire was first observed , but from what cause has not yet been ascertained . A collision , happily not attended with loss of life , took place last week at East

Croydon , when an engine and tender standing on the line was run into by a goods ti-ein from tho South Eastern Company . The engine driver alone was hurt , and he only slightly , but the trucks and their contents were much damaged , and the traffic was to some extent delayed . A shocking case of attempted wife murder , followed by the suicide of the would-be murderer ,

occurred at Oldham , on Saturday . A machine joiner , named Whitehead , who from loss of work has lately been in a desponding state of mind , stabbed his wife in the face as she lay in bed after her confinement , and on the wife's nurse running into tho bedroom , the poor fellow drew the knife across his throat and shortly afterwards died . A painful fatality has also occurred

at Sowerby Bridge . Early on Friday morning , a fire broke out at a dwelling-house occupied hy a gentleman named AVood , who , with his family of about seven or eight persons , escaped with difficulty through the doors and windows . The servant , a young Irishwoman , named Manns , tried to escape through the front entrance , bub failed , and fell back into the flames . She was shortly afterwards recovered , and removed to the Halifax Infirmary , where she died a few hours after ber admission .

A man named Midgley was brought before the magistrates at Todniorden on a charge of cutting his wife ' s throat . There had been a quarrel on the previous night , aud the murder appeared to have been committed with a pocket knife . Her dress was torn and her hands were cut as if in the act of attempting to wrest the knife from her husband ' s hand . The case stands over for further evidence . A few days ago the body of a

child about twelvemonths' old was left at the Victoria station , and a post mortem examination led to the belief that a murder had been committed . Last week a young woman , said to be the mother of the child , was brought before the magistrates at Manchester , charged with the crime . The prisoner was re . manded . A serious accident occurred in AVestminster , on

Thursday week . About 500 people had assembled in a Roman Catholic School , to witness the drawing of a lottery , when the floor of the room suddenly gavo way , and from 80 to 100 men , women , and children were precipitated into the lower part of the building . A considerable proportion of these were very seriously injured , and one of them—the matron of the Millbank

Penitentiary—died on Monday from the effects of her wounds . During the heavy gale , on Monday morning , the Assaye , a large ship , from Bombay , with between G , 000 and 7 , 000 bales of cotton on board , was wrecked on , Ross Bay , near Gully Head —a point on the South Cork coast . The captain was drowned . It having been stated that the Propaganda at Rome is

about to consider the question whether Roman Catholics should still be permitted to send their sons to Oxford and Camhvido-e a meeting of Catholic laymen has been held in London for the purpose of memorialising the Sacred Congregation to abstain from " active interference" in the matter . The memorial haalready received ^ the ' signatures of Lord Castlerosse , Lord Norreys , Lord Camoys , Lord Dunraven , Mr . Monsel ! , Mr . J . Weld Blundell , and many other Roman Catholic laymen of

good social position . The emigration from Liverpool during the past month was about 50 per cent , below that of the corresponding period of 1864 . The Coroner ' s inquiry into the fatal railway collision at Chequerbent , near Bolton , terminated in a verdict of " accidental death ¦ " caused by the collision of two trains permitted to run in opposite directions upon , the same line of rails , through the omission or misunderstanding

of the signalman either at Daubhill Crossing or Hulton ' s Colliery siding . " The jury added that a double line of rails at this point of the Lcndon and -Sforth-AVestern system is "im peratively required for the public safety . " The inquest on the bodies of those killed in the Blackheath Tunnel has resulted in a verdict of manslaughter against the porter who turned on

the wrong signal , and against the guard of the ballast train who failed to notify the circumstance that his train had come to a stop in the tunnel . A young man , named Gray , made a desperate attack upon Jane Elliott , a girl of seventeen , in Mottram-street , Salford , on AA ednesday morning . It seems that Gray had been paying his addresses to the girl , but had

been rejected . This greatly irritated him , and , meeting her in the street , he stabbed her in the neck , and , knocking her down , inflicted other wounds upon her . He was disturbed in his murderous work and ran away , but was afterwards captured . Industrial Exhibitions are becoming common nowadays . Two were opened on Wednesday—one for the working classes

south of the river , at the Lambeth Baths ; the other confined to the narrower range of the operative coachmakers , at the Coach-maker ' s Hall , Noble street , City . Both were opened with considerable spirit , ancl each promises , in its own way , to be very successful . The Lambeth Exhibition , which is the second of the kind in that district , was attended at the opening hy the Bishop of AVinchester , the Hon . Arthur Kinnaird , and

several clergymen of the district . The Marquis of Lansdowne opened the Coachmakers' Exhibition . AVhite and Sutton , the captain and mate of the ship Snowdrop , were put on their trial on Wednesday on the charge of scuttling her . It will be remembered that the charge against the prisoners rests chiefly ou the evidence of the carpenter of the ship , a man named Craig , who said that the vessel was run upon a reef of rocks

in the Baltic , but as she did not leak he was sent down to bore holes iu her bottom , which he did , and the vessel filled and went down . For the prisoners witnesses were called to discredit Craig's testimony . The case was concluded on Thursday , and resulted in a verdict of acquittal . FOBEIGX INTELLIGENCE . — A meeting of the French Cabinet

and the Privy Council is about to be held , for the purpose of adopting measures to meet the epistolary and pamphlet assault , which has been made with such vigour by the episcopacy on the Government . The Prince Imperial gave a fete at the Tuileries to a deputation of the pupils of the colleges of Paris and Versailles . The Empress was present , and manifested the

greatest kindness to the young guests . In returning thanks , the young Prince said , " I drink to my young comrades , the children of France . " In reply to a remonstrance from her Majesty's Government against the oppressive proceedings oftlie French Governor of ISTew Caledonia in Lifu and the other islands of the Loyalty group , M . Drouyn de Lhuys has assured

Lord Cowley the most stringent orders had been sent to prevent a renewal of the occurrences complained of , and that , so far from there being any desire on the part of the Imperial Government to discourage the labours of Protestant missionaries in the Loyalty Islands , there was every disposition to foster and protect them . Letters from Rome report that the French Ambassador at the Papal Court has handed a note to Cardinal Antonelli , in which his Eminence is informed that as