The Week.

Sir . Gibson might embody in a Bill the objects which he had iu view . Mr . Ewart acceded to this suggestion , and the chairman was ordered to report progress . The House then went into committee on the Chief Rents ( Ireland ) Bill . Several of the clauses were agreed to with ame ( vlments . GENERAL HOME NEWS . —The heajth of London last week was as near an approach to the average mortality for the spring

season as it is perhaps possible to reach . The number of deaths was 1 , 307 , and of births 1 , 940 . The corrected average for the week amounts to deaths 1 , 321 , births 1 , 971 . The week was further remarkable in that there was not a single case of death from small-pox—a circumstance that has not happened before since the prevalence of that disease in the metropolis . Lord

Palmerston , we regret to learn , is once more laid up with the gout . Tho Channel squadron—which consists of the flagship Fdgar , the frigate Aurora , and the " iron -clads" Warrior , Defence , Hector , and Black Prince—is now anchored in the Downs , and all officers absent on leave have been ordered to join their ships with as little delay as possible . The two Austrian

frigates , Schicartzenberg and Padelski , left the Downs ou Saturday night , steering northwards , while their tender—a gunboat—is at Sheerness , undergoing some repairs . Several other Austrian ships , including the iron-clad , Don John of Austria , are daily expected at one of our ports . The annual meeting of the Association for the Revision of the Liturgy was held on

Tuesday at AVillis ' s Rooms , when the chairman , Lord Ebury , who is also a member of the Royal Commission recently ap . pointed on this subject , made the important statement that , though he was not at liberty to divulge what was doing in that Commission , he might state that the days and even the hours , of the Act of Uniformity were numbered . This statement was received with great satisfaction by tho meeting . Archdeacon

Sinclair has held his annual visitation and delivered his charge to tho clergy in the western portion of the diocese in St . Paul ' s Church , Covent-gardeu . The venerable archdeacon adverted i to such questions as an increase of the episcopate , the rights of clergymen in Convocation , and the , election ot bishops , which latter subject he said , though he did not think it required to be examined at present , might by and bye come to be of importance .

He also discussed the rights of the laity in the election both of bishops and presbyters , and their admission to Convocation . The South Middlesex Rifle Volunteers , under the command of Lord Radstock , were reviewed on Saturday afternoon by Col . M'Murdo , and went through an extended course of evolutions . The colonel , whose horse fell with him in the course of the

proceedings , though happily without causing him any injury , gave high praise to the regiment for the precision and accuracy of its movements , which , in some instances , he described to bo absolutely perfect . In conclusion , he adverted to tlle review on Easter Jlonday , and said the rough ground they then met with was the best ground on which to try volunteers , as that would

be the kind of ground on which , if ever their services were want-eel in earnest , they would be required to aet . There was a private view of the pictures in the Royal Academy on Saturday , in anticipation of the opening to the public on Monday . The exhibition is fully equal to the average of former years , though some of our great artists , engaged in other works ,

do not show this year . The celebrations of the Shakespeare tercentenary at Stratford , so far as the local committee made themselves responsible for them , have come to a close . It is satisfactory to know that the receipts from the various representations will cover all the expenditure , so that the managers will incur no pecuniary loss . The Poor-Law Board's statement this week shows a further reduction of pauperism , 4 , 250 having gone off the Guardians' relief lists , notwithstanding the

circumstance that some places have recently relieved more persons from the poor rates in consequence of the closing of local relief committees . Six unions are noticeable for the extent of decrease-. —Manchester , 666 ; Preston , 610 ; Ashton-under-Lyne , 510 ; Rochdale , 430 ; Bury , 290 ; and Chorlton , 290 paupers . Comparing Mr . Purdy's present return with previews ones we observe that the outdoor relief , which for the last week of

March amounted to £ 8 , 2 , 62 , is now reduced to £ 7 , 000 , and that nearly 2 , 000 able-bodied adults went off the rates last week , leaving , however , 32 , 510 still on the union lists . The pauperism of the district is now 120 , 000 ; or about 70 , 000 in excess of that wliich may be termed its normal amount . —Mr . Farnall ' s return , read at tho meeting of the Central Relief Committee ,

shows that in the cotton manufacturing districts , between 6 , 000 and 7 , 000 persons were struck off the parochial relief lists during the fortnight ending on the 23 rd ult . The ironmasters of the United Kingdom have held a meeting , and passed a series of resolutions wliich plainly enough intimate that they will no longer submit to the control which the

operative iron-workers' powerful Union seeks to exercise over both employer and employed . They disavow any desire to interfere ¦ with the right of the workmen to combine for any fair and legitimate object , hut they assert their firm determination to resist all attempts on the part of the men to " dictate to their employers the mode in which their work shall be conducted and

what workmen they shall employ ; " and with a view to maintain this principle , it was decided to form a committee representing all the iron-making districts . The "lock out" in the West Riding is still in force , and it is stated that some of tho ironmasters hope , by the introduction of the puddling machine , to overcome , to some extent at least , the difficulties of their present position . At the last meeting of the Court of

Aldermen considerable surprise was expressed by Mr . Alderman Hose , Mr . Alderman Copelanil , and other members , at the ignorance in which the Court had been kept of the progress of the Brokers' Rents and Bonds Bill in the House of Commons—a measure which would go far to emancipate the brokers in the City from the control ol the corporation . It was said that only those members who opposed the principle of the bill knew of its

existence and were called on to give evidence . The Remembrancer rose to give explanations , but it was thought better to have them in private . The inquiry into the loss of the steamship-City of New York on Daunt ' s Rock has terminated , the Court deciding that the disaster was caused by the default of Captain Kennedy , whose certificate has , therefore , been suspended for

eight months . A girl , named Bottomley , residing at Clifton , near Halifax , while playing on Sunday with a gun which she did not know to be loaded , shot her mother dead . This is a fresh and terrible instance of the folly of handling fire-arms as ir they were harmless toys . The trial respecting the validity of a YjUlma . de by Mr . Hutchinson who , having become a Roman

Catholic , left his property to the Brompton Oratory , and which was disputed by his brother-in-law , Mr . Alfred Smee , came to a close on Saturday . Sir Jamos Wilde gave judgment in favour of the validity oi tho will , and ordered the costs of the trial to be paid by the disputant . Mr . Smales , the ex-paymaster of the Inniskilling Dragoons , has been dragged to the ground by

the Jlhow court-martial . He has made his appearance in the London Bankruptcy Court , with liabilities estimated at about ; 63 , 000 . A true hill lias been returned by the grand jury in the Court of Queen ' s Bench against Jlr . Rumble for a breach of the Foreign Enlistment Act in the ease of the Pappahannoclc . AVe regret to learn that Sir Thomas Fitzgerald , Bart ., of Golden Hills , Tipperary , committed suicide by drowning in the River Suir on Wednesday last . Sir Thomas held a high position in