The Week.

THE WEEK .

THE COUET . —Ifc is expected that the Court will leave Balmoral on the 22 nd ; that on the following day the Prince Consort will lay the foundation stones of the Industrial Museum and the New General Post Office , at Edinburgh ; and that on the 24 th the Royal party will leave the Scottish capital for London or Windsor . The Prince of AVales arrived at Balmoral on Monday . GENEBAL HOME NEWS . —The weekly return of mortality for the

metropolis has been issued , from which we are glad to find that the death rate continues low . The average of the last ten years , adjusted to the population , would give 1329 deaths ; the actual mortality is only 1108 . The birth rate is about 200 above the average . The Board of Trade returns for August , which have just been issued , show a further decline in the exports . In that month the exports were less by nearly £ 1 , 200 , 000 than in the same month of last year . In manufactured cotton goods the falling off is trifling ,

whilst under the head cotton yarns there is a decided increase compared "with August , 1860 . The International Exhibition to be opened next year is already an assured success , so far as the quantity of articles to be exhibited is concerned . So great has been the demand for space that the Commissioners officially announce in Tuesday's Gazette that no further applications can be entertained . The ancient ceremony of swearing in the sheriffs took place on Saturday in the Guildhall , and Mr . Cockerell and Mr . Twentyman took upon themselves the office . Sir H . Muggeridge has withdrawn from the contest for the mayoralty , the majority of the livery being evidently in favour of the re-election of the present

Lord Mayor . On Tuesday , according to custom , the various medical schools in and about the metropolis were opened for the winter season . The attendance was good , and the professors who were selected to deliver the introductory lectures in each of the schools severally took up and ably handled some important branch of medical science . The United States Consul at Liverpool has received a note from the American Legation , in London , intimating that persons leaving this country for the States must

pro vide themselves with passports . A memorial to Lord Russell , signed by many of the leading merchants of London , Manchester , Liverpool , and other important seats of commerce , and urging an Anglo-French intervention in Mexico , was placed in the hands of Mr . Layard on Monday . Lord Russell is at present in Scotland , and the document will he at once forwarded to him . A highly influential meeting was held at the Mansion House on AVednesday , to promote the movement for placing the metropolitan evening

classes for young men upon a collegiate footing , under the designation of tlie City of London College . The Lord Mayor presided . Resolutions in favour of the objects of the meeting were adopted , and subscriptions amounting to upwards of £ 1000 were announced . A meeting of noblemen and gentlemen connected with the County of AVilts , has been held at Salisbury , for the purpose of organising a movement to raise a memorial to the late Lord Herbert . The meeting was well attended , and an earnest desire was manifested by all the speakers to raise a monument , not alone worthy of the great man in whose honour it is to be erected , but also that it should be of such a character as he himself would have desired .

AA'itb this view it is proposed , not only to have a statue of the lamented statesman , as a personal memorial of him , erected in the chief town of his native county , but also to establish some institution in fche nature of a convalescent hospital , to be called the Herbert Hospital , the aim of which would—to use the words of the Bishop of Salisbury—¦ " most entirely express the feelings" of the departed nobleman . Armstrong guns are rapidly superseding the old smooth-bore ordnance . The gunboats at Chatham are being

armed with this weapon ; a number of 100 and 40 pounders have been ordered for the ships on the North America and AVest India stations ; and it has been determined to introduce Armstrongs of the heaviest metal on the fortifications of Sheerness and the entrance to the Medway . It is stated that the Stromboli and the Chanticleer will he sent out to reinforce the AVest India squadron , " with reference , most probably , to expected operations on the coast of Mexico . " At the Central Criminal Court , AVilliam

Maloney was tried for the murder of his wife in Westminster . The particulars of the horrid deed , and the singular circumstance of the act having been witnessed by a stranger , must be fresh in recollection . The perpetration of the crime was so sudden , and there was apparently so little to lead up to it , that the jury were unwilling to believe there could have been premeditation , and showed a disposition to reduce the charge to manslaughter . Theyhoweverreturned verdict of guiltof

, , a y the capital prime , but -with a recommendation to mercy . On AVednesday , in the AVestminster police-court , several declarations on the subject of the late murder were handed in to the magistrate for lussignaturo . The object of these declarations was to prove to the satisfaction ofthe Secretary of State that the evidence of Saunders , the principal witness forthe prosecution , was contradicted in several

points by the other witnesses . Mr . Arnold expressed Ins opinion that be had no power to comply with the request ; but , eventually , he said that if the authorities at the Home-office thought that he ought to receive the declarations he would do so . AVilliam Cogan was also tried at the Central Criminal Court for the murder of his wife in Newton-street , Holborn , London , under circumstances which will still he fresh in the minds of most of our readers . He was found guilty and sentenced to deathno hope being held out to

, him of the commutation of his sentence . Two horrible murders have taken place , both of them in the midland counties . At Bilston , on AVednesday morning , an old man of eccentric habits , who lived alone , was reputed to be wealthy and known to be of intemperate habits , was found strangled in his house , the crime having evidently been committed from motives of plunder , and probably by practised burglars . In the other case , which occurred afc Birmingham , an

unfortunate woman was killed by her paramour , who , from motives which are still unknown , cut her throat in a most barbarous manner with a pocket knife . He was at once arrested . Another murder has been perpetrated in Newcastle-on-Tyne , the victim being Mr . Mark Frater , an income-tax collector . It appears that some weeks ago this gentleman , in the discharge of his official duties , made a seizure on the premises of a man named Clarke for an unpaid dogtax . On Tuesday last Clarke met Mr . Frater in the street , and

instantly plunged a table-knife into his cheek and neck , causing almost immediate death . The assassin was at once arrested and taken before the magistrates , by whom he was remanded for a week . The boy who shot his fellow servant at Barnard Castle , and afterwards made his escape , has been apprehended and brought before the magistrates , who committed him on the charge of manslaughter . The boy's account of the matter is , that he only wanted to frighten the irland had no idea the gun was loaded . The

g , magistrates , however , resolved that he should tell his tale to a jury , and they refused bail for his liberation . -A sad colliery accident occurred in the coal mines on Lord Mostyn ' s property in Flintshire . An explosion of firedamp took place by which ten men and a boyall that were in the pit— -have perished . How the accident occurred is not known . The deadly gas did its work too effectually to leave any alive to tell the tale . A frightful accident occurred on the

afternoon of yesterday week , afc York . In that city there is in the course of being erected over the Ouse , a bridge constructed of four iron girders . One of these was being lowered into its place when it unaccountably turned over , and in doing so knocked the next

girder , which had been already fixed , out of its place , and this in its turn dislodged the next , so that a large portion of the structure , and the scaffolding employed in the work , were thrown down into the river , and with them all the workmen who were busy on the bridge . The deaths amount to five , and of these the bodies of two remain unrecovered . A great calamity has befallen Capesthorne Hall , in Cheshire , the seat of Mr . A . H . Davenport . A fire broke out near the top of the houseand before the engines could be'

-, pro cured from the neighbouring towns the flames had acquired such a hold that the stately mansion and most of its valuable furniture were destroyed . There was a poachers' riot a few evenings ago on Mr . Davenport ' s estate : there is a suspicious connection , in point of time at least , between the two events . FOEEIGN INTELLIGENCE . —The Monitewr of AVednesday published an Imperial decree dated 1 st October , ordering , in pursuance of

the commercial treaties wifch Great Britain and Belgium , the admission into France , through the ports of Marseilles , Nantes , Havre , Boulogne , Calais , and others named , and through the customhouses of Lille , Valenciennes , Lyons , & c , of every description of English or Belgian manufactured cotton or woollen yarns , and a variety of other articles . The attention of politicians and speculators in Paris seems to be divided between the King of Prussia's

approaching visit to Compiegne and the probable effects of deficiency of the French harvest on commercial and financial affairs . As for the King of Prussia's visit , Parisian politicians seem as unable as German journalists to satisfy themselves respecting its precise political import . A shocking accident on the Northern Railway has created a great sensation in Paris . It appears that the express train from Lille , on approaching the plain of St . Denis , came into violent collision with a train from Villiers le Cotteret

, which was twenty minutes behind time ; and so frightful was the shock that eight persons were killed on the spot , and a large number sustained serious injuries . -The semi-official journal of Madrid asserts thafc arrangements have been made for the King of Portugal ' s marriage to a Sardinian Princess . A formal diplomatic rupture between the governments of Queen Isabella and King Victor Emmanuel has been averted by the intervention of the French governmentwhich has proposed a compromise respecting the

de-, livery of the archives of the Neapolitan consulates . The King of Prussia's coronation at Konigsberg has been officially fixed for the Llth of October , and his " solemn entry" into Berlin for the 22 nd . His approaching visit to France has likewise at length been formally announced at Berlin , the Prmissische Zeitung declaring