The Week.

that the writer says Mrs . M'Dermot is in a dying state from excitement and grief at the loss of her daughter . . A terrible accident occurred at Edinburg h on the afternoon of Friday , the 6 th inst . The Theatre Royal took fire , and burned so furiously that , though assistance was promptly rendered , the building was presently in flames and the place was gutted . Nor

did the mischief stop there ; for the high walls tottered and fell , killing several persons who were near them , and among others Mr . Lorimer , the Dean of Guild , whose office it is to exercise a supervision over the buildings of the city . The magistrates of Edinburgh have resolved to offer the testimony of a public funeral to the Dean of Guild . The authorities have

expressed their desire to become responsible for the funeral expenses of the other sufferers , and to give temporary relief to their families . The fate of Dean Lorimer is sadly similar to that which befel Mr . Braidwood , the chief of the London fire brigade , for it is supposed that Mr . Lorimer lost his life in a generous attempt to save another from the terrible fate which

. - overtook both . Mournful as is the loss , it is a matter of congratulation that the fire did not take place later , when we should probably have had to record a more fearful calamity . A melancholy accident occurred in the repairing shed of the Great Northern Railway Company ' s works at Peterborough on Saturday afternoon . An engine had been brought in for

repair , and the workmen were testing the boiler in the usual way , when it suddenly exploded , with fatal results . A man and a boy who were at work on it were killed on the spot ; another man has since died from the injuries he received , and there are others more or less severely wounded . It is supposed the accident was caused by the safety valve having been closed . The Coal Exchange in Thames-street had a narrow escape of being destroyed by fire on Wednesday . Owing , it is

supposed , to some defect in a flue , a fire broke out in the cooking department of the building , aud at one time had extended to the roof . Fortunately , assistance was at hand , and the flames were soon extinguished . There were two coroner ' s inquests appointed to be held over the victims of the Blackheath Tunnel collision . The main evidence is taken in the case of the five men who were killed in the tunnel , and which is held at

Blackheath ; the inquest on the men who died in hospital at AVoolwich is quite subsidiary . This Woolwich jury was summoned to meet on Tuesday , and it was a melancholy coincidence that while the jury were assembling a funeral procession passed the hall conveying the body of one of their number , who had died since their last meeting , to the grave . No evidence

was taken , and the inquest was again adjourned till the Blackheath inquiry be finished . A strange disclosure was made at an inquest on Monday , One clay last week the wife of a labourer gave birth to three children . Her husband , who is a Protestant , happened to be from home at the time ; and she requested the woman who was attending her to take the infants

at once to a Roman Catholic chapel for the purpose of being baptized . One of the children died before it could be removed from the chamber . The other two were wrapped up in a shawl and taken to the chapel , hut the exposure proved too much for one of them . It was found dead when the chapel was reached . The third child was still alive , and was duly " made a Christian

of . " The high sheriff of Essex has fixed Thursday , the 26 th inst . , for the execution of Kohl , tho Plaistow murderer . On Tuesday the convict was visited in Chelmsford Gaol by his wife and her mother . The interview was a painful one , and they took a final farewell of each other . The prisoner has also been visited , at bis own request , by Dr . Cappel , who , it will bo remembered , attended Mullev to the scaffold and received his confession . Kohl , we understand , still protests his

innocence-Mr . Milner Gibson has promised to consider a proposal , which has already met with the approval of the Attorney-General , — namely , to protect the inventions of working men displayed at industrial exhibitions by a special act of Parliament similar to that passed in reference to the inventions shown at the International Exhibition of 1862 . An interesting discussion on tbe

educational " conscience clause " took place at a meeting of the Worcester Archidiaconal Board , on Tuesday . Sir J . Pakington moved a resolution to the effect that the grants of the board should be made to the Church schools of the Archdeaconry , without considering the point whether the conscience clause was or was not acted upon . In some poor localities , he said , only one

national school existed , and the adoption of the course he recommended would be merely an act of justice to Dissenters . The doctrines of the Church of England were , and would continue to be , taught in all their schools ; and all he proposed was that the children of Dissenters should be allowed to enter the schools under the protection of the conscience clause . In the

discussion which followed , the motion was supported by the Bishop and opposed by Lord Lyttelton aud Lord Redesdale . It was ultimately rejected by a vote of 49 against 16 . A ease of some importance was decided by the Master of the Rolls on AVednesday . An application was made to him respecting the custody of a young child , the daughter of a

Roman Catholic father , who is dead , and a Protestant mother , who survives ; and it was not disguised that the paternal uncle , who claimed the custody , wished to educate the girl as a Roman Catholic , while the mother , who resisted his claim , would bring her up as a Protestant . Tbe Master of the Rolls as it was of great importance to a child to have the benefit of a mother ' s care , decided the case in her favour . F OEEIQ-H' INTEEEIG-EHCE . —The Archbishop of Besaneon is to

be included with his refractory confreres in the Government prosecution , for setting the authorities at defiance by reading the encyclical letter from his cathedral pulpit . The number of episcopal protests against the prohibition of the Minister of Public Worship has now reached 16 . The Archbishop of Paris has , it is said , written a mild protest to the Pope against the encyclical . France has suffered from the severe weather which

has been experienced here for some days past . At Havre several bathing establishments have been destroyed , and part of the bastions washed away by the sea . The Constitution-net , in an article on the revenue , attempts to show that the French army is now reduced to what M . Thiers considers its peace footing—that is , to 400 , 000 men . Russia would ajipear to be

following the laudable example set by Franco in the war department of the State estimates for 1865 . In the budget just prepared there is a reduction of 24 J million of roubles for the military purposes , and one of 4 J- million of roubles in tbe navy estimates . A statement appears in the columns of the Moniteur to the effect that nearly 90 , 000 men of the Italian

army have received their discharge , and more than 500 officers have been placed on half-pay . The Austrian Government has refused to assent to the reductions which the Finance Committee of the Reichsrath has recommended in the military estimates ; £ and we may presume that the Reichsrath will have to yield , and vote such sums as the Cabinet may think fit to

require . The Italian Government has intimated to tho bishops that tbe encyclical must , according to law , he submitted for the Royal exequatur , and that it reserves to itself the right of deciding on what portions of that document may or may not be suppressed , as contrary to the laws of the country . The Prussian Diet was opened on Saturday by King William in person , who delivered a speech in which he declared that the present organisation of the army has enabled him to carry on