The Week.

the 5 th inst . Several witnesses we , ie examined , including Capt . Tyler , the Government inspector . The jury returned a verdict of accidental death , coupling ivith it a recommendation that a break van should bo attached to the last carriage of every passenger train . A parish contractor has been brought before Mr . Burcham , the Marylebone Police-court magistrate , charged

with having circulated forged bills of exchange , amounting iu the aggregate to £ 15 , 000 . The accused is a George Carnock , represented as being a contractor employing a large number of persons in the parish of St . Pancras . He had been for a number of years the principal contractor for the scavenging work of that parish , and had been until now a man of repute in the "

district . It appears that the accused has a brother named Thomas Carnock , a farmer residing at North Hyde , Middlesex , and that the prisoner had signed his name to bills of exchange for a large amount , of which not less than , € 5 , 000 worth had beeii dishonoured . One hill , purporting to be accepted by the country brother , amounted to £ 198 lis ., and other forged

acceptances , in all estimated at £ 15 , 000 , were said to have been perpetrated . The accused laid all the blame on his clerk . Ho was remanded . FOREIGN INTEW-IOENCE . —Austria and Prussia have come to an understanding with respect to the Elbe Duchies . Prussia takes over all tho responsibilities which Austria undertook iu

the Duchies , and promises to pay all the salaries and pensions Avhich Austria paid or bestowed . The ratification of the treaty of peace between the two Powers has taken place at Prague . The text of the treaty is to be published simultaneously at Berlin and Vienna . Both the Avar and the following peace negotiations have been got through with unprecedented rapidity . It is to be hoped that the peace will be lasting . Both Houses of the Bavarian Legislature have endorsed the

treaty of peace with Prussia . It is not easy to see how they could have done otherwise . A very significant motion has been brought forward in the Lower House . It urges a closer drawing together of Prussia and Bavaria . In all probability the Bavarians generally would not have heen sorry if they had been annexed even as Hanover has been annexed . Prussia ,

however , waits . The gossips on the Continent have got up a story now of a close alliance pending between France , Italy , and Austria , the object of which is assumed to he the curbing of Prussia . There are grave reasons for doubtiiiff whether any such alliance is even meditated . Italy and Austria have not yet coins to love one another very

warmly , and there is not much probability that Italy would readily turn against Prussia , which has helped her to all she has got in the late war . The rumours are kept up doubtless for alarmist purposes . Meanwhile Count Von Goltz has gone to Berlin for a short holiday , and we are assured that every difficulty in respect to Venetia is removed . The work of

retrenchment has begun in Austria . As might he expected , her finances are in no very satisfactory state . A large portion of the Imperial retinue has been dismissed , considerable reductions are to be made in the salaries of the chief Court functionaries , and the amount fixed for tho expenditure of the Court next year has been ordered by the Emperor to be

reduced from 7 , 500 , 00011 . to 5 , 000 , 00011 . A banquet in honour of the American embassy has been given at St . Petersburg by the Russian Emperor , at ivhich his Majesty drank " to the prosperity and consolidation of the United States . " The Monileur of the 1 st inst . tells us exactly vyhat is to he done with Venetia . Not content with giving the information editorially , it quotes the letter of the Emperor Napoleon to King Victor Emmanuel . The treaty respecting the cession

has been signed , and now the Austrian Commissioners Avill hand over the provinces to the French Commissioners , Avho , in turn , will require the authorities of tho province to take the opinion of the people by universal suffrage , as to what shall be their future . The Emperor says that by this act he finishes the programme which he sketched years ago , and

secures to Italy her freedom from the Alps to the Adriatic . The satisfactory thing is that Austria is out of Venetia .-M . Drouyn de Lhuys has resigned his post as French Minister for Foreign Affairs , and the Marquis de Moustier reigns in his stead . The Emperor does not let M . Drouyn de Lhuys go without bestowing something upon him . Napoleon writes

that he deeply regrets that circumstances oblige him to accept the resignation of M . Drouyn de Lhuys ; but in order to keep the benefit of his services he makes him a member of the Privy Council . AA e hear nothing of the cause of his resignation . In 1855 , M . Drouyn de Lhuys , who was then Foreign Minister , resigned his portfolio because ho was disappointed at

the result of the Vienna conferences Not impossibly dissatisfaction with the result of the recent negotiations and the recent war has caused him to retire again now . The Empress and the Prince Imperial left Paris on the 1 st inst ., for Biarritu , and it is believed that the Emperor will follow them . Count Rismark made rather a remarkable speech in the PrussiaiA

Chamber of Deputies . The Chamber Avas discussing the Indemnity Bill which was opposed by several members . Count Bismarck endavoured to show that there Avas very little real difference between the objects of the majority of the House and those of the Government . The most important questions now were those relating to foreign policy . The Austrian official press and the South German people were , he said , friendly to Prussia ; but , on the other hand , there was scarcely a single

European Power which had willingly aided in the establishment of the new unity of Germany . Then came a significant passage . The task of Prussia was not yet finished ; its accomplishment would require tbe combined exertions of the entire nation . At first sight it would seem that Count Bismarck is a little sore at the attitude of the European Power in respect

to Prussia . AA'h . it he means , we take it , is that the reorganisation of Germany is purely the act of Germany herself , and that she must not hold back until it is completed . There is fighting again in the Caucasus . The people have riseu , and on the 27 th July they drove the Russian garrison from , the town of Soukoum Kale . Reinforcements were brought

up , and the town was recaptured . The Invalide Susse assures us that the insurgents have sent delegates to the Russian commander stating their , ' readiniess to submit . This must be taken with a good deal of allowance . The Indemnity Bill has passed the Prussian Chamber of Deputies , and the peace between the Government and the

Parliament may now be considered complete . Count Von Eulenburg , Minister of the Interior , expressly declared that the measure was not to be regarded simply as an armistice between Government and people . Its adoption Avould be the preliminary of a real and lasting peace . There is reason to doubt whether everything will be quite as rose-coloured as it

now seems . As Count Bismarck said , there is much work yet to be done before the reorganisation of Germany is complete , and . in the process there may be many causes of difference between the Government and the Parliament . There are various rumours of a drawing together of Austria and Ital y , but as yet we have no confirmation of them . It has bean said that the negotiations for the conclusion of pence between the two Powers were nearly concluded ; but a Vienna journal says