The Week.

hich they formed a part . " You are the means , " he said , " of being a toiver of strength to the throne , although no foreign ruler should have an opportunity of putting your value to the test . You are a security to the country of which you are so great an honour . " His lordship returned to town on the following evening . An agricultural meeting took place a few days ago at Leominster Herefordshire , at which the borough members ivere present , ' the dinner which followedaddressed the Mr

indat , company . . Hardy dwelt on the Lancashire distress , but reminded the meeting that even after allowing for that great evil , the people of Eng land were , as a whole , in a better condition at this moment than that of any other country in the world . His colleague 4 iv . lt on our enormous expense for armaments , and though he aid not wish the country to be left undefendedhe thought

, snore economy might be shown in preparing the defences . The report of the Select Committee which sat last session to consider the practicability of a uniform system of weights and measures has just been published , and contains recommendations jn favour of the decimal or metric system , suggesting that that system should be rendered legal , but not compulsory till the public mind is more familiarised with it . To facilitate that event

it is further recommended that Government should encourage the metric system as much as possible , requiring it to be taught in all schools receiving the Government grant , making it a feature in competitive examinations , placing it side by side with the common form in all official statistical tables , ancl abolishing all local and customary measures . They further recommend that the gramme should be used as a weiht for foreign letters

g and books at the Post-office . -A deputatiou was lately sent from Birmingham to inquire into the amount of distress in the cotton districts , and to see hoiv the funds raised in Birmingham for the relief of that distress might best be expended . That deputation has prepared a singularly clear and able report , which throivs much light on the present-condition of the unloyed operatives . They state that the number of the

unemp employed is daily increasing ; and it is estimated by those most competent to judge that in a short time the number of idle hands will amount to 300 , 000 , with a loss of wages to the extent of £ 150 , 000 a week . To maintain that large body through the winter it is calculated that about £ 100 , 000 a week ivill be necessary . HOAV that sum is to be raised is the problem . The deputation vindicate the Lancashire millowners as a class from the

charge of indifference to the sufferings of their workpeople that has been brought against them ; and with regard to the funds raised in Birmingham the deputation earnestly recommend that these should be placed under the charge of the Manchester Central Belief Committee . The ^ Sub-committee appointed by the Salford Central Belief Committee to report upon the best means of distributing relief has had an interview with Mr . Farnall , who recoommended that

relief should be given chiefly in kind , and that suitable mental or physical employment should be found , including sewing-rooms for girls , and large rooms , with fires , for men , where employment could be provided ancl instruction imparted during the winter months . He stated that the Guardians of the poor in Lancashire ivere now giving relief to 130 , 000 persons , at a cost of £ 8 , 000 per week . At the meeting ot the Manchester Executive Belief Committeeyesterdaythe Mayor announced that he had

, , received £ 5500 from the Victoria Belief Committee , Australia , for the relief of the Lancashire distress . The disease which has broken out among the sheep belonging to several great flockuiasfcers in Wiltshire has been examined into by Professor Symonds , veterinary surgeon in connection with the Eoyal Agricultural Society ; and at a meeting which he attended at Salisbury on Tuesday last he stated that the flocks which he had

examined in the immediate neighbourhood of that town were free from disease . It appears from other sources that the disease has been checked in its progress through the flocks of the county . A case which curiou-ly illustrates the dangers that beset unwary advertisers appears in police reports . A Mpeotable woman inserted in the neivspapers an application tor the situation of housekeeper . She was answered by a man , who stated

that he was about to open au hotel , and wanted a person to take charge of the household duties . Interviews to ™ ake arrangements were appointed ; and the intending hoteldeeper contrived to borrow from the poor woman at various ™ ies a silk umbrella , a gold watch , and ( for her ) a considerable wm of money , after which he disappeared . ' He was afterwards anght in his own trap . Another advertisement was inserted * "nether name , and the swindler again ansivered it . An rvieiv was again appointed , but this time he walked into

the arms of a policeman . ——A singular rumour was current in Liverpool on Saturday . When the Scotia left Neiv York , it was generally reported in that city that a large steamer or sailing vessel had heen ' seen on fire off Montauk "; and some ingenious persons coupled this rumour with the intelligence that , while the Persia had arrived out , nothing had been seen or heard of the Great Eastern , which left Liverpool on the same day . Although little credit was attached to the ' reported

disaster , about £ 6000 ivas " done " on the ship at Lloyds , on Saturday ancl Monday , at 10 guineas premium . As much as 20 guineas is said to have been asked , on Monday' It now appears that the vessel had met with an accident , though , happily , no outbreak of fire threatened to increase the difficulties ¦ Cf this unfortunate ship . She had struck on a rock , which pierced her " outer scale . " The damage done was considered to he so trifling that it was thought the repairs mihtif necessary

g , , be postponed with safety until after her return to Liverpool . The Lords of the Privy Council , exercising the poiver vested in them by law , have issued orders against the driving or removal of sheep or lambs to or from certain places in Wiltshire . They made other minor regulations to prevent the spread of have also the disease ; and the order is to subsist for three months . - —A dreadful accident , involving the loss of five lives , occurred at the Monkwearmouth Collieryon Saturday . The inquest

, on the unfortunate man who was killed hy the collision betiveen the - two railway excursion trains at Market Harborqugh , was brought to a conclusion on Saturday , when the jury brought in a verdict of manslaughter against the driver of the second train for disregard of the signals . At the same time they record their censure on the railway company for starting two trains Avithin so short a period of each other without giving them

sufficient break power to avoid a collision . The driver , Ezra Stubbs by name , was committed to prison on the coroner ' s warrant , for manslaughter . The coroner's inquest came to a close on Saturday on the Bradford tragedy , where a woman had drowned herself and two of her children in a water tank . The mother ancl the husband of the unfortunate woman were examined , and their evidence disclosed a large amount of domestic misery .-The jury returned a verdict olfelo de se against the mother , of which the coroner expressed his approbation , and in accordance

with it she was buried late on Saturday night without Christian rites . The bodies of the children were buried on the following day . A shocking affair took place on Monday night at Battersea . As a grocer in that village was putting up the shutters of his shop for the night , a man named George Kilsby , who was standing with his brother and sister-in-law-, left them , went up to the grocer , and fired a pistol at him . The shot took effect in side , and the man is in a very precarious condition . All the

party were taken into custody , but it does not appear that the relations of the assassin were aware of his intention till the shot was fired . It is said that jealousy was the motive of the crime . We noticed last week the murder of Mr . Stone , a fanner in Dorsetshire , by Mr . Fooks , a neighbouring farmer , ivho afterwards attempted , but unsuccessfully , to commit suicide . The jury , after hearing the evidence , returned a verdict of wilful murder against Fooks . It appears that the murderer and his

victim were not only neighbours , but cousins . An appalling calamity occurred at Liverpool on Monday morning . At an early hour a fire broke out at the Workhouse , and , sad to relate , twenty children perished in the dormitory . Two nurses and a grown-up girl were also either suffocated or burned to deathone of the former in a noble attempt to rescue some of the children . The church attached to the Workhouse was completely

destroyed . The origin of the fire is unknown . A terrible state of things is revealed by a sub-inspector of the Irish constabulary . A statement , which was deemed too improbable to be worthy of credit , appeared , a few clays ago , to the effect that Hayes , the murderer of Mr . Braddell , had been actually seen by two constables , who were obliged , by the hostile attitude of a sympathising peasantry , to withdraw without making any attempt to apprehend one of the most cold-blooded assassins that

even Tipperary has produced . The sub-inspector makes the case even worse than it originally appeared to be . It seems , according to his statement , that two officers in plain clothes came upon the notorious criminal , who , on the alarm being given , was at once surrounded by a body-guard of some forty ruffians . The officers retired " a short distance , " and having obtained the assistance of another " party of police , " readvanced , but Hayes was not to be seen . He had cleverly effected his escape , his retreat being covered by " a very large number of country people . " The reward offered for his capture has heen