The Week.

tion of the agricultural statistics of Great Britain would be advantageous . " After a good deal of discussion , Mr . Milner Gibson objected to the proposals of the member for Stirling . He was unable to see how a system of typical districts could work , and he was entirely opposed to the employment of the officers of the Ordnance Survey in collecting agricultural statistics . He , therefore , moved the previous question ; but on

a division the Government was defeated by a majority of 12 . •On AA ednesday , Mr . Lawson moved the second reading of the Intoxicating Liquors Bill . The subject was one upon which the House might with great propriety legislate , for it affected the public morality . It was beyond question that drunkenness was on the increase . Much of this , he contended , was owing

to places for the sale of-intoxicating liquors being set up iu complete disregard of the wants and wishes of the inhabitants of the districts . He did not propose to interfere with the magistrates' power to decide the number of licenses to he granted , but if two-thirds of the ratepayers of a district said they did not want the houses , then neither the magistrates

nor the Excise should be empowered to grant any licenses . The bill was purely permissive in its character , and he believed if passed it would promote that happiness , morality , and good order , which were the only foundation of the welfare of the country . Captain Jervis moved the rejection of the Bill . He did not think that two-thirds of any people had a

right to make the other third total abstainers . Drunkenness was decreasing , and the bill was unnecessary . Mr . Bright said the evil with which the hill proposed to deal was no doubt great . There were two modes of remedying it : the first , the improvement and instruction of the people ; the second , the special legislation of that House . He looked to the first as the permanent remedy . Among the upper class drunkenness was

much less frequent than it was fifty or sixty years ago ; yet they could get as much intoxicating liquors as they pleased . He did not believe that the present licensing system was satisfactory , and he thought that in many places the magistrates granted licenses too freely . This bill , however , proposed to give the ratepayers power not only to stop the issue of new licenses , but to deprive those who now held licenses of them .

Such a measure involved several millions of property , and he did not think the House would consent to it . He objected to a matter of the kind being decided by the votes of two-thirds of the ratepayers . He thought the bill might produce a most pernicious reaction , and having great sympathy with the temperance movement he did not wish for such a consummation .

Mr . Roebuck strongly opposed the bill , as did Mr . AV . Martin and Mr . Scourfield . Sir G . Grey also opposed the bill on the ground that it was impracticable . Mr . Buxton believed the measure , if carried , would prove futile as regarded drunkards and unjust to the sober part of the community . After some -further discussion the House divided , when the bill was rejected

hy 292 votes to 35 . GENERAL H OME NEWS . —The return of births and deaths in London for the week ending on Saturday last shows that the mortality was above the average of the last ten years . The average number of deaths for the twenty-second week of the year is 1 , 109 , but the deaths in London last week amounted to

1 213 , or 44 more than the estimated number . Measles have been on the increase for some weeks back , but fatal results from phthisis appear to he decreasing . One or two cases of deaths from typ hus fever are reported . Last week 1 , 193 children—. 919 boys and 974 girls—were born in the'metropolis , the average ii her for the corresponding week in each of the last ten yeara heing 1 , 830 . The increase in the number of births , therefore , covers more than the increase in the number of deaths during

the week . Lady Inglis , the widow of Sir John Inglis , who gallantly defended Lucknow during the Indian mutiny , has been awarded a pension of £ 500 out of the civil list . The Duke of Cambridge has issued a memorandum to the field officers of the recruiting districts , and also to the officers commanding regiments at home , directing them in the most urgent terms to use " increased exertion to maintain the establishment . "

Saturday being Speech Day at Eton , there was a largo assemblage of the friends of the scholars to listen to the speeches in hall , to see the review of the Eton College Rifle Corps by the Lord Lieutenant of the County of Bucks , to enjoy a dinner in college , to view the regatta , which was witnessed hy a great number of people , and to see the fireworks which were after

nightfall discharged from the Evot . The day was very pleasantly spent , and everything went off famously . The directors of the Southwark Bridge Company have made an offer to the Corporation of the City to open the bridge to the public on certain conditions and for a limited period ; or , what perhaps they would prefer , to sell it to the Corporation for £ 200 , 000 .

The proposal is under the consideration of a committee . ¦ The London , Chatham , and Dover Railway Company have bought the site of the Fleet Prison—which has lain waste for more than 20 years—for the sum of £ 60 , 000 . It is intended to erect on that spot the terminus of the London line . The celebrated Yelverton marriage case is now before the House of

Lords . It comes up in the form of an appeal by Major Yelverton from the judgment of the Court of Session in Scotland , which , it may be remembered , found that a legal marriage according to the Scotch form had taken place between the Major and Miss Longworth . In a case in tho Probate Court on Saturday a wife made an attempt to prove the substance of her husband's will . The facts were peculiar . A prisoner in one

of the convict gaols stated iu court that he had stolon the document , among other things , and saw it destroyed . There is a question whether the testator ' s mind was not affected by a railway accident which he had encountered ; and upon all the points which included some of a technical character , the Court reserved its decision . Hem ich Kolm , the ship's carpenter , charged with scuttling the ship Alma , was , on Saturday ,

committed for trial from the Mansion House , by Mr . Alderman Be 3 ley . The prisoner has made a formal statement , to which he has sworn , implicating the mate of the vessel , aud no doubt at the trial at Maidstone the facts will be thoroughly sifted . Caroline Boyd , who was apprehended at Brighton on a charge of attempting to murder her husband with a razor , was

again brought before the magistrates on Saturday for examination . It was shown that the woman had received most brutal treatment at the hands of her husband ; and he admitted that she had acted in self-defence . The prisoner was liberated . Another outbreak , or rather series of outbreaks , has occurred at the Mount St . Bernard Reformatory . The mutiny , although

not so serious as that of last year , was still alarming enough ., and it has been found necessary to place a guard of police in the building . ——At the Central Criminal Court Henry Simpson has been convicted of burglary and robbery under very aggravated circumstances , and sentenced to five years' penal servitude . George Haynes was tried for the manslaughter of

Mary Ann Hayes , his wife . The fatal act was committed during a drunken quarrel , and , from the circumstances of the case , tl . e prisoner was sentenced merely to one week ' s imprisonment Another case of manslaughter was also disposed of , the parties standing in the same relation to one another , but the husband being the victim in this instance . The accused was Sarah Weston , who was charged with causing the death of Stephen AVeston , in the New-cut . She was acquitted by the jury .