The Week.

Grand Jury at the Salford Hundred quarter sessions , Mr . Milne , the chairman , pointed out that of the sixty-seven prisoners for trial only three could read and write well , while twenty-three could not read or Avrite at all . The learned gentleman strongly recommended the formation of a Prisoners ' Aid Society in this district . He referred to the reports of the

societies established in London , Birmingham , and elsewhere , showed that , though some of the prisoners again lapsed into crime , a very considerable per ceiitage availed themselves of the opportunity that was given to lead a respectable life . A railway accident , which fortunately was not attended with los 3 of life , took place on Monday in the neighbourhood of

the Barnes Station of the South-Western line . An uptrain from Kingston was about to pass to the rails of the clown loop line over a sharp curve . In making this curve the engine went off the line , dragging two of tho passenger carriages with it , and ran on , tearing up the permanent way , till the driving wheels were

embedded in the soil . The passengers were terribly frightened , but beyond the shaking none of them were hurt . The accident caused the line to be blocked up for some time . Three Bodies wore recovered from the Rochdale Canal in Gaythorn on Monday morning , and there seems reason for believing that a double attempt to rescue one has resulted in the death of the

three persons . The bodies are those of a man , a woman , and a child ; and the supposition is that the child having fallen into the water the woman attempted to rescue it , but , getting into danger herself , the man went to her assistance , and the three perished . The trial of the prisoners , Daily , Barker , Hartley , and Elizabeth JSloores , on the charge of having been concerned in the great robbery at the shop of Mr . Howard , jeweller , Manchester , has been held . Hartley and Moores Avere acquitted .

The two other prisoners were convicted and sentenced—Barkcr to fourteen years' and Daly to seven years' penal servitude . Some months ago a man named Davis , residing at Hatcham , was murdered , and the man charged with the murder , named Havelin , formerly a soldier in the Guards , absconded . He has been apprehended on the information of a soldier . An inquest has been held on the body of a man

named Coltson who Avas found drowned in one of the ponds on Clapham-common . The deceased had been a master bellhanger in Clapham , and finding that he was not able to attend to his business as before , he became desponding , and there was no moral doubt that while in that state he committed suicide . The jury , however , returned an open verdict , as there was no

legal evidence to show how he came into the water . A fatal accident occurred on the river , between Battersea and Putney , on Friday , the 7 th inst . Some young men had gone up in a light wherry to witness the exercise of the University boats ' crews , and when in the act of shifting rowers , one of the young men , who was standing up , toppled into the river . In the

attempt to rescue him the boat itself upset , and before any of of tho other boats , with which the river was studded , could come to their assistance , two of the crew , who were brothers and clung to each other , sank , and were drowned . An inquest was held ' on Saturday on the body of a man named Perry , who hanged himself in his cell in Newgate , where he was

taken on the charge of having robbed his employers . The suicide was committed in a very ingenious way , betraying much deliberation and forethought . The jury returned a verdict of ' Suicide while of unsound mind . " —Another inquest was held the same day at Millbank Prison on the body of a prisoner who was under sentence of penal servitude for life . The doceased had succeeded , after several deliberate attempts , in committing suicide . Verdict , Felo de se . An inquest was held

on the same day on the bodies of two men who Avere killed by an explosion of steam in , a workshop at St . Luke's . It appeared that two second-hand engines were being put up on the premises , and when one of them Avas erected it Avas set to work j the steam-pipe which was intended to connect the two being stopped up with a wood plug . This was not sufficiently

secured , as on Wednesday afternoon the plug was forced out , and the two men were so scalded that they only survived a few hours in great agony . A third man was also scalded , but he - managed to crawl to the engine and shut off the steam . The jury returned a verdict of accidental death , but censured the practice of working engines with plugs that were not fastened

with clasps or bolts . A serious fire and explosion took place on Tuesday morning in Suffolk-street , Borough , by which a great many persons were more or less injured . Messrs . Tilleard have an oil and drysaltery warehouse at this place , and one of the firm was engaged in the cellar pumping up some benzoin oil , when a cry of fire was raised , and flames burst out

in the premises , and explosion after explosion , to the number of four or five , took place , by which the house was shaken down , the slates , beams , & c , were sent flying over the streets , and nothing but the four hare walls were left standing . Several of the inmate on the premises , and a great number of passengers in the street sustained injuries of a more or less severe

character . The men and women charged with being concerned in tho City burglaries were put upon their trial at the Central Criminal Court on Wednesday . The particular case gone into was that of breaking into Mr . Walker ' s shop in Cornhill . Geoffrey pleaded guilty to receiving some of the goods . After the evidence the Recorder ordered the female prisoners to be acquitted and discharged from custody . Sentence upon them was deferred until the other cases were gone into . A man

named Samuelson has been committed for trial on a charge of stealing bank notes to the value of £ 750 from the Bank of England . Samuelson has been for many years a porter at the Bank . Last October one of the tellers in the Bank left a number of notes in his case on his desk for a few minutes . When he returned they Avere gone . The prisoner , one of the Bank porters , who was in the room , was questioned as to them , but he denied

all knowledge of their whereabouts . Within the last few days it was found that he had been dealing with some of the notes at Hull , and he Avas apprehended with the remainder of the notes in his possession . FOREIGN IxiELLiOEireE . —The Emperor Napoleon , as we learn by a telegram from Paris , has ordered a bust of Mr .

Cobden to be placed in * the Museum at Versailles . —A very long debate took place in the Corps Legislatif on Friday , the 7 th inst ., on an amendment proposing the abolition of the punishment of death , which , though very eloquently supported by M . Jules Favre , was negatived by a large majority . On Saturday tho question of compulsory education was debated ,

when the Government promised to introduce a measure which , while not enforcing either compulsory or gratuitous education , would concede such improvements as might bo found necessary . On the religious questions an amendment was brought forward in the Chambers on Saturday by the Opposition , in which was urged the necessity for some guarantee to secure liberty of

conscience and a free discussion of religious and philosophic il questions . During the debate on Monday M . Jules Favre dre it attention to the foreign policy of the-Government . He spoke of Mexico , Italy , Denmark , and Poland , and declared that none of the pending questions affecting these countries had been settled . Italy awaited her unity , and Poland her reconstitution , while Mexico remained in a deplorable condition . He complained of the policy of the Government in regard to Den-