The Week.

The hon . gentleman did not impugn the decision of the Aidershot Court , but the fact , he said , still remained that Liliey was illegally confined for several months , and that he died during that imprisonment . No one was held responsible for this ; but the public at large felt that in the administration of the army justice was sacrificed to what was termed the maintenance of authority . Mr . C P . Grenfell seconded tbe motion for the

production of papers . Lord Lovaine warmly defended Colonel Crawley , and General Peel—who condemned the manner in -which the War Office had managed this affair , and the manner in which the court-martial at Aldershot was conducted—moved , ns an amendment , that it was inexpedient to produce the documents asked for by the member for Andover . A

long discussion followed , iu which Lord Hartington , Sir ¦ J . Fergtisso ' n , Lord Hotham , and other members took part . Ultimately , General Peel ' s amendment was agreed to . On Wednesday , Mr . Dodson moved the second reading of a hill providing for the abolition of the subscriptions now required of persons taking M . A . and other degrees at Oxford .

Mr . Neate seconded the motion , which was opposed by Sir W . Heathcote , one of the members for the University . The hon . baronet contended that the result of such a measure ivould be to dissociate the governing body of tbe University from the Church of England ; and , in order if possible to prevent such a state of things , he moved that the bill be read a second time

that day six months . Mr . Selwyn , Mr . Newdegate , Mr . Walpole , Mr . Walter , and Sir S . Northcote , opposed the bill , while Mr . Gladstone , Sir George Grey , Lord R . Montagu , Mr . { Joschen , Mr . Scully , Mr . Buxton , and Mr . Grant Duff , supported the motion for the second reading . Mr . Gladstone , however , while warning his colleague in the representation of the University , of the danger of "indiscriminate resistance" to

change , urged that divinity degrees should be protected by a test , and also that the governing body should not be thrown open to graduates , " irrespectively of religious differences . " There had evidently been a sharp " whip" on this occasion , for the division list shows that 400 members voted . The second reading was carried by a majority of 22 , —a result which was

received with " considerable cheering . "—Several other bills were advanced a stage . GENERAL HOME NEWS . —The mortality in the metropolitan district fell upwards of a hundred last week from the number in the week preceding , but it is still considerably above the average . Taking the average of the last ten years , and making

allowance for the increase in population , the present return exhibits an excess of 215 over the amount usually presented in an early week in March . In the same period there were 1 , 962 children born ; the corrected average for the ten years gives 2 , 076 . The Archbishop of Canterbury has deemed it necessary to explain that he assented to the reversal of Dr .

Lushington ' s judgment on the subject of "eternal punishment , " in the case of the Rev . H . B . Wilson , on technical grounds only . In the opinion of his grace , the eternity of punishment and the eternity of blessedness " must both stand or fall together ;" and he maintains that the Church of England " holds both doctrines clearly and decidedly . " At a meeting of the

Common Council there was a unanimous expression of opinion against the railway invasion with which the City was threatened . The recent report of the joint parliamentary committee was not considered by them to go far enough , and it was remitted to a speciitl committee to use every exertion to obtain the postponement of all the schemes for another year . The report of a committee was brought up stating that a sum of £ 257 , 000 , -which had come to the corporation from the sale of their Metropolitan Railway shares—the clear profit of which

amounted to £ 57 , 000—had been invested in Consols in order to pay off a debt of £ 350 , 000 , which they had borrowed from the Bank of England , and which was to be repaid in ten years . Moved by the urgency of the deputations which have waited on him , Sir George Grey decided on respiting the man Hall , convicted of the murder of his wife under circumstances of great provocation . Another chapter has been added to the story

of the guns by some interesting experiments at Shoeburyness . Sir William Armstrong's 600-pounder was fired with a solid steel spherical shot and a charge of 901 b . of powder against an iron plate eleven inches thick , at a distance of 200 yards . It only succeeded in penetrating the plate to a depth of about four and a half inches . The result disappointed the expectations of

Sir William Armstrong and his friends , who anticipated that it would have gone through not only the eleven-inch plate , but the wood and iron backing behind , and they attribute the failure to the mode in which the target was set up . Sir Rowland Hill retires from the Post-office on his full salary of £ 2 , 000 a year . This fact is announced in a Treasury minute ,

in which " ray Lords " state that in this case the great public services of Sir Rowland demand a departure from the usual scale of superannuation allowances . Mr . John Tilley , assistant secretary , succeeds Sir Rowland Hill . At the Northamptonshire Assizes a man named Ball , who was charged with the murder of a girl 14 years ago , was on the list of the

prisoners ; but the counsel for the prosecution stated that the evidence , though grave , was too imperfect to go to trial upon . He proposed , therefore , to abandon the case for the present , and if further evidence appeared—and some additional evidence had already appeared—the prisoner could be again apprehended . The counsel for the prisoner objected to this course , but the Judge intimated that it would be best for the prisoner's own

interests . In the end the case was formally abandoned and the prisoner was removed from the dock . Between eleven and twelve o ' clock on Friday night , the embankment of a large reservoir at Bradfield—a place some seven miles to the northwest of Sheffield—gave way , and the immense body of water thus liberated burst with resistless force upon the hamlets and villages beneath . At a place called Owlerfcon , the

torrent joined the river Don , which rose to a fearful height , and overflowed its banks for miles along its course . Up to Tuesday evening , 188 bodies had been found , and of these 132 had been identified . At a public meeting held at Sheffield—at which Lord Fitzwilliam and Lord Wharncliffe were present—a Committee was appointed to organise measures for the relief of the

sufferers by the inundation . £ 7 , 000 was subscribed , in addition to the £ 5 , 000 raised at the meeting held on the previous day . A telegram was received from the Prince of Wales , announcing the intention of His Royal Highness to subscribe to the fund . A sad accident occurred in an ironstone mine near Chesterfield on Tuesday afternoon . The pump which was used to

carry off the water in the mine broke at the time when there happened to be an unusual flow of water , probably caused by the recent heavy rains , and in a short time the mine was flooded , and tho water began to rise in the shaft . At least fourteen persons are known to be drowned , and it is feared there are several more . Six men charged with enlisting for service on

board the Federal corvette , Kearsage , at Queenstown , pleaded guilty at the Cork assizes , on Monday , but were at once set at liberty on entering into their own recognisances to appear for judgment when called upon . On Monday morning , the Clyde —swollen by the rains and the melting of the snow in the upland districts of Lanarkshire—overflowed its hanks at various points . The inmates of one house were surprised while in bed hy an irruption of water , and three of them—a woman and two