The Week.

ness to accede to the application of the memorialists , and promised to communicate with Mr . Cowper on the subject . The annual conference of the Evangelical Alliance was opened afc JFreeinason's Hall on "Wednesday morning . In the absence of the Rev . AV . Arthur , Sir Culling Eardley presided . The hon . baronet expressed his conviction that the Alliance was accomplishing a

great work , instancing as a proof thereof the reforms they had been the means of effecting in the ecclesiastical laws of Sweden . He denounced the " Essays and Reviews , " and declared that some of the doctrines which they had advocated " laid the axe to the root of their common Christianity . " Extensive arrangements , he said , had been made to provide religious services for the foreigners who

would visit London during the Exhibition year . Another familiar form has passed away for ever from the House of Commons . Mr . T . Duncombe died ou AA ' ednesday , the 13 th inst . He was sixtyfive years of age . He entered the House of Commons as member for Hertford in 1826 , and afc once allied himself with the extreme Liberals—a political connection which he has ever since maintained .

In 1832 he lost his seat , but two years afterwards he was returned for Finsbury , ivhieh he represented from 1834 up to the period of his death . Mr . J . H . H . Foley , member for East Worcestershire , also died on Wednesday . Mr . Foley was a Liberal . A man was "brought up before the Southwark magistrate , on a charge of having murdered a man down in AA' orcestershire some eight years ago . It

turned out on inquiry that the man and his wife had a quarrel , and the latter , " in the heat of her passion , trumped up a charge against him , for which there appeared to have been some foundation , but for which he has been tried and acquitted . The magistrate at once discharged the prisoner , intimating pretty plainly that the police

had acted rashly m entertaining the charge at all . Ihomas Pinfold , who , in a wretched quarrel about a farthing , struch his wife such a severe blow that she died , was brought before the Lambeth magistrate , andcommitted to takehistrialona charge of manslaughter . A shocking case of a brother murdering his sister , 12 years of age , and for the most trifling cause , occurred in Drury-court , leading off the Strand , on Friday . Because the little girl did not

"bring him a key as quickly as he expected , the monster strangled her with a piece of rope . The wretched boy , who is only IS , was on Saturday examined before the magistrate at the Bow-street Policecourt , when he was committed for trial . From the evidence it appeared that the parents ofthe murderer and bis victim are of very dissipated habits , and that they were intoxicated when the horrible

deed was committed . The poor girl was the favourite of the parents , the boy being the son a former wife . The girl , it is said , wasoftenmade the instrument of thestep-mother ' siil-usage , and this acting on the unregulated and lawless habits of the boy , produced the tragedy which has startled all London . The coroner ' s jury returned a verdict of wilful murder , appending to ifc the remark that

the boy hacl been very badly treated at home . An inquest was held on Saturday in the hall of the Hanivell Lunatic Asylum , on one of the inmates there , who had previously been pronounced to . be so far recovered that his discharge from the asylum was about to be made out . The suicide was greatly facilitated through the lax arrangements at the asylum , were it seems to be the practice of the warders to allow the patients the table knives , and that without

any kind of superintendence . A man named Brown was on Friday brought before the magistrates afc Stoke-on-Trent , on the charge , of having attempted to murder his wife . He cut and stabbed her severely , but she fortunately managed to escape alive out of his hands , and appeared to give evidence against him with her face an < i head enveloped in bandages . The motive that urged him to this

act appears to have been a suspicion of his wife ' s infidelity It will be remembered AVm . Maloney was convicted as far back as the September sessions of the Central Criminal Court of the murder of his wife , but with a recommendation to mercy . He was respited soon afterwards during her Majesty ' s pleasure , and since then the prisoner has lain in the gaol of Newgate . The governor made enquiries the other day as to Jiis ultimate disposal , hut was

told that no decision had been come to . The prisoner adheres to his declaration that his wife , in a fit of passion , stabbed herself , and the jury might have been persuaded to take that view , but for the evidence of a man who swore he was a chance spectator of the crime . Ifc is believed that the hesitation at the Home Office arises on the point whether or not the testimony of that witness is to be

believed . On Saturday morning the officials of the Great Nor « them Railway were alarmed by the sudden fall of a bridge on their line , in the neighbourhood of Huntingdon . The mail train from the north had just crossed it , when the structure—the bricks , it is supposed , being loosened by the rain—gave way . The consequence is , that the railway , as one of the metropolitan arteries , was rendered

useless till the bridge can be re-built , and arrangements were made to send all the through traffic hy the London aud Noi-th-AVesfcern . The line has since heen reopened . The adjourned November-Sessions of the Middlesex Sessions commenced on Monday . There was nothing remarkable in the cases . On a prisoner being brought up to receive sentence for larceny , he took a piece of iron out of his pocket and threw it with all his force at the judge . Fortunately ifc

missed his worship , but made a deep indentation on his desk . The prisoner was immediately charged with assault , and inquiries will be instituted among the persons who had him in custody how he became possessed of such a dangerous missile . A case , which assumed very much the air of an attempt to overreach an East Indian , has been before the Court of Common Pleas . He came to this

country from Calcutta in search of a wife , and , from aught that appears iu evidence , he seems to have drawn a fair prize in the matrimonial lottery— -much better than might have been expected from the pai'ties into whose hands he , in the first instance , fell , and who wished to saddle him with debts for which he positively swore he had received no value , and given no promise . The jury believed

his story , and , in spite of the hard swearing on the other side , they found for the defendant . -A fearful crime was committed in Dublin on AVednesday .. A man , named Mollon , had an altercation with his sister-in-law , which resulted in his making a furious attack upon her , as well as upon his wife . Both women , however , after receiving considerable injury , succeeded in escaping from the house , when he rushed upon his two children and almost decapitated them . He is in custody .

FOREIGN INTELLIGENCE . —The French journals are still harping on M . Fould ' s programme , in default of any actual news of importance . The Consiitutionnel , however , makes two important statements—that M . Persigny has proposed to the Emperor a partial disarmament ; and that the latter will probably pay a visit to the Queen during the International Exhibition next year . The

primary elections , or choice of the persons who are to have votes for the return of members to Parliament , took place in Prussia ou AVednesday . The result in Berlin is decidedly in favour of the Liberals ; and telegrams received in the capital from the provinces seein to indicate a result generally similar throughout the country . In the sitting of the Federal Diet , at Frankfort , Prussia declared

against the offer of Hanover to build a certain number of gun boats for the defence of the northern coast , on the ground that it was a question exclusively for the Federal Diet , and called on that body to come to an early decision on her proposal for the creation of a Federal fleet . Accounts from Naples assert that the noted brigand chief Chiavone has vainly sought to reach a safe sanctuary

once more in the Papal States , and is flying before the Italian troops , which are in close pursuit of him . At the same time , however , we are told that Borges , whom the Naples journals not long since alleged to have heen defeated , captured , and shot , has made his appearance at the head of a body of 200 men in the province of Basilicata , and has already sacked two places .

Matters daily grow worse in Poland . The last news from AVarsaw says that owing to the military being continually insulted , and the regulations of martial law set at defiance , it was expected that the city would be placed under a special state of siege . The