The Week.

who was convrcted of manslaughter in respect of the Staplehurst railway accident , has been sentenced to nine months ' imprisonment ; without hard labour . Two cases have just been tried at the Maidstone Assizes , which seem to show the unwillingness of juries to convict in capital cases . Thomas Jones has been recently tried for the murder of his child at Woolwich . It was proved thafc the child had been given to the

prisoner alive and well , and that ifc was found in the Thames dead and with a weight tied to it to prevent its floating . Other evidence was given which all tended to show that the prisoner was guilty of murder . In his defence it was urged that perhaps the child had died in a fit , and that he threw ¦ the body into the river to avoid the expense of burying it . So

confident was everyone in court that Jones must be found guilty that the black cap had been placed within reach of the judge to be put on when lie passed sentence . To the astonishment of everyone , the jury returned a verdict of not guilty . The prisoner was so much affected that he fell down in the dock insensible . The other case was tried the other clay

Emily Elizabeth Inglis was charged wifch the murder of her newly-born child . She and her husband lived apart—she residing with his sister near Gravesend . One day she was delivered of a child . Persons came to her assistance , and found the child in a basin deeply wounded . She avowed to one woman that she had stabbed the infant with a pair of scissors ,

and these , covered with blood , were found . The surgeon who was called in , said that the wounds might have been made with a pair of scissors , and he swore most distinctly that death had been caused by the wounds . He admitted , however , that some of the wounds might have been accidentally inflicted by a person using the scissors without proper knowledge . The jury seized on this fact , and acquitted the prisoner . Mrs . Cobden

has presented a bust of her illustrious husband to the Emperor Napoleon . The presentation was made through M . Michel Chevalier , and his Majesty has acknowledged fche gift in a graceful and feeling letter . The commission for the bust was given to the artist by tlie late Mr . Henry Christy . Several of the members of the Guild of Literature and Arfc visited on Saturday last , tho houses which the Guild has built upon land

the gift of Sir E . B . Lytton , near Stevenage . After the inspection the party went to Khebworth , whither they were invited by Sir E . B . Lytton . There a large number of ladies and gentlemen had mustered to meet them , and a . very pleasant afternoon was passed . Some very interesting experiments were made afc Wimbledon on Saturday last , wifch

Mr . Gale's invention for making gunpowder non-explosive . It is difficult to overrate the importance of this invention . The experiments show that it is perfectly successful , and there can be no doubt that ifc will , if generally adopted , remove all danger from our powder magazines . A woman named Charlotte Winsor was sentenced to death at

Exeter assizes for the murder of the illegitimate child of Mary Jane Harris . Winsor and Harris were put upon their trials at the previous assizes , but the jury were unable to agree upon a verdict . When the prisoners were brought up again , Harris Avas admitted to give evidence against the elder woman . Her statements are appalling . If she is to be believed , AVinsor

boasted of having put several illegitimate children to death iu consideration of sums of money paid to her by their mothers . Harris described , with horrible minuteness , the conversation with Winsor , aud subsequently tho murder of her own child , who Avas suffocated under a bed . Winsor was found guilty and sentenced to death , the judge bolding out no hope of mercy . There was a disastrous fire in Bethnal-green-road last Saturday morning . Ifc originated

on the premises of a cabinet-maker , and extended to the neighbouring workshops anel houses , occasioning a frightful destruction of property and deplorable scenes of distress . Professor Gamgee made some startling statements at the Marylebone Institute on Monday evening . A meeting of London cow-keepers was there held , anel the Professor addressed

them with respect to a disease which has broken out in the cowhouses of London . In many cases the whole of the stock have been carried off ; in others most of the animals have died or have had to be killed to prevent the disease spreading . Professor Gamgee says it is the Russian cattle plague , and adds that the infection has no doubt been brought to this country

by some foreign cattle . He declares there has not been a market held at Islington during the month of July at which diseased cattle havo not been sold . He does not believe the disease effects human beings . To prevent the recurrence of similar plagues he counsels the formation of a Cattle Disease Prevention Society which shall act along wifch tho Government

in dealing with all such matters , anel he strongly advises thafc there should be a special market for the sale of foreign cattle . His advice as to the formation of a society was at once taken . George Broomfield , who was sentenced to death for the murder of Mrs . Colborne , at Shirley , has been reprieved . Some extraordinary statements were made in "Vice-Chancellor

Kindersley's court , in reference to the AA erren Blacking Company , which was recently formed . An injunction was applied for on behalf of Mr . Robert Warren , to restrain the defendant from using tho name " Warren's Blacking Company . " Ifc was stated that they had bought of Mr . Grove for £ 15 , 000 a business carried on by him in a shed in a back yard , in Regent-street , Horseferry road , which business he had shortly before bought of his brother for

£ 200 . For the plaintiff ifc was contended that the company had no right whatever to the name . For the defendants it was contended that the object of tlie motion was simply to injure the company . The Vice-Chancellor urged that , insteael of an injunction , a decree should be applied for , and the case stands over till next term . A frightful explosion took place at the great Iron Shipbuilding Company ' s works afc Millwall on

Monday . A boiler burst anel severely injured three men , whose recovery is considered doubtful . The Aborigines Protection Society have memoralised tho Queen on the New Zealand question , praying a commission of inquiry might be despatched to the colony . Mr . Cardwell declines , on the ground that such a step would only lead fco further complications . Bufc the

dissensions between the Governor and his Ministers , and both these parties and the general , could not be more hopeless than they are at present . At the Croydon assizes on Tuesday Thomas Jarvis was tried upon a charge of cutting and wounding . Jarvis was a convict under twenty years' penal servitude . He was confined in the Woking convict prison , and one clay ,

Avithout the least provocation , stabbed a scripture reader who was conversing with him in his cell . The defence was a strange one . The prisoner did nofc deny the stabbing , but he declared that he had clone it in order that he might have an opportunity in open court of stating the cruelties which were practised in Woking prison on convicts . He made a long statement as to

these cruelties , and said there was no hope for the reformation of a man who was sent to this prison . He also made charges against individual officers of the gaol . The jury seemed to have believed his story in part , for they acquitted him of the major offence , and simply found him guilty of unlawfully wounding . Sentence ivas deferred . The clergy of London met on Wednesday in St . Sepulchre ' s Church to elect two proctors to represent them in convocation .