The Week.

assembly . He spoke iu jubilant tones of the influence Mr . Gladstone ' s reform speech was likely to exert upon the Liberal party . It had given to that party , he said , an immediate future ; it had drawn the line clearly , so that there could be no mistake between the true reformers and the Conservatives . The Custom House officials at the outports of tbe United Kingdom have

have received instructions not to admit any prizes captured by-German or Danish ships of war , and further , to prevent Danish or German vessels from being followed out of her Majesty ' s ports by hostile cruisers until the expiration of at least 24 hours . The 18 th Hants ( Basingstoke ) Rifle Corps has been disbanded for insubordination . It appears that the company , which

formed part of an administrative battalion , attended on Easter Monday to take part in the great review and sham fight at Guildford , The corps which formed the battalion to which the 18 th Hants belonged seem to have been very unequal in strength , and it was decided to break up one company in order to equalise the remainder . The Basingstoke Company was selected on the

ground that its commanding officer , Lieutenant Brooks , was the junior commanding officer of the battalion ; but upon Lieutenant Brooks calling upon his men to fall out and join the other corps , several members—claiming to be the spokesmen of their comrades—announced their determination not to obey the order . Lieutenant Brooks

at once resigned , and , the affair having been reported to the War Office , the corps has now been disbanded . Lord De Grey , in communicating with the Lord Lieutenant of the county on the subject , expresses his gratification at the fact that the officers and non-commissioned officers "took no part iii the insubordinate conduct of the rest of the members . " A ease of some nicety and considerable importance came before the Court of Error on Saturday . As far back as 1819 a widow lady died

without a will , leaving property to the extent of £ 20 , 000 . Her next-of-kin was in America , but she made no formal claim , nor her husband , nor her husband's son , till 1855 , when he took out letters of administration to the property . He obtained the whole sum , with the accumulations of interest , which iu that time bad nearly doubled the value of the original property . The Crown , which up to this time had held the property , then

put forth its claim for legacy duty upon two devolutions of tho property . The Court of Exchequer , before whom the case came , decided that only one legacy duty should be paid , but that it should be charged on tbe property at the time the letters of administration were first taken out . Both sides appealed against this decision , and the case was argued at great length

The Court gave judgment on Monday . The Court decided for the Crown on both these points . The question of the disposition of the property of Mr . Nuttall , recently decided in the Court of Queen ' s Bench , and known as the "Derby Will Case , " is likely to be resuscitated . During the progress of the trial it was thought that the discoveries of documents in odd

holes and corners were too numerous to be true ; but another , and perhaps stranger than any hitherto made , has just been effected . The " find " in the present instance consists of a bundle of testamentary papers , which had been concealed in the head-board of an old bed , and a sum of money , in gold and silver coin , contained in an old saucepan , built into a hole in

the wall of a cellar . Tlie documents have been brought to London from Matlock , with a view to further legal proceedings in this very singular case . A gentleman named Howard was found dead in his bed-room in the Pavilion Hotel , Brighton , on Monday morning . A coroner ' s inquest was held on tho following day , when it appeared probable that the deceased , while in the act of undressing , had been seized with an attack of indigestion , and the effort to relieve himself by vomiting brought

on apoplexy , which ended in death . The Jury returned a verdict in accordance with these facts . A Prussian sailor , or rather a ship carpenter , was brought before the Lord Mayor on Saturday , charged with conspiring with others , to scuttle the Prussian ship Alma , which had been repaired at considerable expense at Ramsgate , and which ivas said to have heavy liabilities upon her . The principal witness against him

was the mate of the vessel that took the crew from the wreck , who said the prisoner confessed to him that he liad bored fliignrholes in the ship ' s bottom , which were plugged up till a proper opportunity for sinking her occurred . A small section of the ship ' s side , under the water-mark , was also cut nearly through , so that it might be knocked out at any time . This was done

one day when the ship was in company with another near the Scilly Islands , and the Alma went down in ealm weather and a smooth sea . The prisoner was remanded for a week . The coroner's inquest on the body of the man Weston , who is said to have been killed by his wife in the New Cut , Lambeth , dsiclosed a new phase of the affair . Tlie witnesses who were examined

before the magistrate repeated what they had seen of the violence used by the woman on her husband . But the relatives , including the mother and brother of the prisoner and a daughter of the deceased said that no violence was used , that deceased was out of his mind , and that all the force used on him was to keep him in his bed . The surgeon , however , swore that the death

was caused by violent blows on tlie head from a blunt instrument . The inquiry was adjourned . The inquest on the lunatic who was killed by another lunatic , at Colney Hatch , a few days ago , has been concluded . The jm-y returned a verdict that ' tlie deceased was killed by a man named Hobbs while labouring under maniacal excitement , and they appended to their verdict sundry recommendations for the better care of

lunatics in the asylum . On Tuesday morning , a convict , under sentence of two years' imprisonment in tho House of Correction , Clerkonwell , made his escape by scaling the prison wall and dropping into I'arringdon-road . His movements , however , were observed by a Mr . Whiteman , a news agent iu the neighbourhood , who with much intrepidity pursued and recaptured the fellow , after a desperate resistance . The

two men Sargisson and Denton , charged witli the robbery and murder of John Cooper at Roche Abbey some weeks ago , have been brought before the sitting magistrates at Rotberham for final examination , and were committed for trial on the capital charge . On Tuesday the adjourned inquest on the body of John Coglan , who lost his life through injuries sustained in u

disturbance at a coffee-house on the 10 th inst ., was brought to a close . A verdict of manslaughter was returned against William Sims . The policeman named Lyons , who was so brutally treated at Willcnhall about a week ago , died in the police barracks there on Wednesday . There were six men concerned in the murderous assault , all of whom are in custody .

On Tuesday morning John Reilly , convicted of the murder of Nancy Laffy at the last Glasgow Circuit-Court , suffered thc extreme penalty of tho law in that city . He continued to assert his innocence to the last . FOBEI G-J rKTELT-lGEXCE . —In a speech made in the Legislative Body on Thursday week , one of tho Emperor Napoleon ' s

ministers , M . Rotiher , declared that the treaty of 1852 did not bind France to make war in defence of the integrity of the Danish monarchy , and observed that in upholding that treaty by force England would have easy victories at sea , while France would be obliged to march upon the Rhine , and traverse Germany , to reach Denmark . "If , " he added , " France could embark her treasure in such an enterprise , it is not to Denmark that we should have gone . AVe should rather have moved