The Week.

Minister try what statesmanship could do for Ireland . Mr . Roebuck and Mr . Horsman attacked Mr . Bright , and the debate was continued by Mr . Moore , Mr . Dillon , Sir John Gray , Mr . John Stuart Mill , and the O'Ddonoghue , and brought to a close by the Chancellor of the Exchequer . Tbe O'Donaghue persisted in dividing the House ivith this result that 364 voted for the bill and

six against it . The bill was rapidly put through its other stages , and passed . It was then sent to the House of Lords , where , after short speeches from Earl Russell and the Earl of Derby , it was passed . The House suspended its sittings until eleven o ' -elock , by which time ib was hoped the commission for giving the Royal assent to the measure ivould have arrived .

Owing to delays on the railway , however , the commission did not reach the house till half-past twelve on Sunday morning . The Commons were summoned , the Eoyal assent to the bill declared , and the measure became law . The House of Commons , after getting through the suspension of the Habeas Corpus Bill , put the Cattle Plague Bill through its remaining stagesand was sent to

, the House of Lords , there it was i * ead for a first time . Both Houses of Parliament were on Monday night , the 19 th inst , afScted with the cattle plague . In the House of Lords the bill of the Government to put down the pest was argued in committee , and passed that ordeal after much discussion without much alteration . In the House of Commons Mr . Hunt ' s bill ied most of the

occup evening . Almost every clause was subjected to close discussion and comment . Before the Cattle Plague Bill came on in the House of Commons Mr . Hughes had done good service by calling attention , in the case of one of the metropolitan railway schemes , to the necessity for making better provision for the dAvellings of the poorwhose houses may be destroyed bthese railways .

, y An interesting discussion folloived , and there seems to be some hope that the Lands Clauses Consolidation Act will be amended so as to bring about what is desired . Another matter which occupied the House of Commons for a few minutes early in the evening was a complaint by Mr . Mainwaring that the Queen was not in London

on Saturday to give her assent to the Habeas Corpus Suspension Bill . The Chancellor of the Exchequer , amidst the cheers of the House , briefly replied , when Mr . Darby Griffith wished to be informed lvhether , as the bill did not become laAv till Sunday morning , acts done under it would be legal . Sir George Grey quieted the fears of the hon . gentleman in this

respect by assuring him there was no reason why Parliament should nofc sit on Sundays . In the House of Lords , on Tuesday , the 20 th inst ., the Eoyal assent was given , by commission , to the Cattle Diseases Bill . The Earl of Derby called attention to the Order in Council with respect to the small-pox amongst sheep in Northamptonshire , and inquired how far that

disease had extended . —Earl Granville said that Government had only just heard of the revival of the smail-pox amongst sheep in Northamptonshire , and thafc the Order in Council was at once issued in the hope that it Avould be as successful as a similar order had been two months ago . Messages were received from the Queen asking the House to concur with the Commons in making suitable for the Princess

provision Helena on her approaching marriage with Prince Christian of Schleswig-Holstein , and for fche maintenance of Prince Alfred on his coming of age . These messages were ordered to be taken into consideration on the 20 th inst . The House of Commons sat shortly after twelve o ' clock on Thursday , the 2 Isfc inst New writs ivere issued for TivertonBreck

, - nock , North Lancashire , London , Sunderland , Ripon , and Leominster . Some of these vacancies ivere occasioned by death , others by the . recent appointments . Sir G . Grey , in reply to a question , expressed au opinion that a special service to implore the removal of the cattle plague would be more expedient than the apnointment of a day of humiliation , Sir Colman O'Loehlen moved

the second reading of his Juries in Criminal Cases Bill . After a discussion it was postponed until after fche decision in the Winsor case shall have been given . GENEIM HOME NEWS . —The weekly rate of mortality for the principal towns of the kingdom was last week 23 in the 1 , 000 , the total number of deaths being 3 , 301 . London was the lowest in its mortality , being five below

the average . Liverpool Avas 21 higher than Londonthafc is to say , the deaths were , in proportion to the population , very nearly double to what occurred in the metropolis . The actual number of deaths in London was 1 , 365 , which was 100 under the estimated average . The total number of births was 4 , 459 , of which 2 , 093 belong to Londonan increasethough not a large one

, , very , oyer the average . On the evening of the 15 fch an influential and numerously attended public meeting was held in Exeter Hall , under the auspices of the Freedmen ' s Aid Society , to celebrate the passage of the Constitutionel Amendment Act in the United States and the consequent legal abolition of slavery . The chair

was taken by Mr . Scott , the Chamberlain of London , and speeches appropriate to the occasion were delivered by Mr . Handel Cossham , the Rev . Newman Hall , Dr . Brock , Dr . Sandivith , of Ears , Mr . John Hodgkin , and other gentlemen . Ifc is fche intention of the society to open a fund for the relief of the distress in Jamaica . The appeals made by the various speakers on behalf of a close

union between England and . the United States were Avarmly applauded . Dr . Holbrook responded in the name of his fellow-countrymen . At the weekly meeting of the Metropolitan Board of Works held on fche loth inst . several members expressed their dissatisfaction Avith tho proposition that the City was to be ted from the rating of the metropolis in the Cattle

exemp Diseases Bill , and a deputation was appointed to wait on Sir George Grey on the subject . The utilisation of the sewage south of the Thames was then taken up , aud ifc Avas proposed that fresh advertisements for tenders on this point should be issued . To this an amendment was moved to refer the matter back to the Main

Drainage Committee , which was ultimately carried . The inquest on fche body of the young man who was alleged to have died from neglect and insufficient food while one of the crew of the ship Western Star was resumed . Several witnesses were examined , and in the end the jury returned a verdict that the deceased died from want of proper nourishment , and censured the

" gross neglect" of the captain of the ship . There is no longer any doubt that- Sir Charles Wood is going fco fche House of Lords . He will take his seat as Viscount Halifax . It was settled on Saturday , the 18 fck inst ., afc a meeting of the Yolunteer officers that fche usual Easter Monday review should be held this year at Brihton . -Ou Fridaythe 17 fch instMr . Richard

g , , Atkinson , an undergraduate at Cambridge , was rowing on the Cam , when by some means he fell into the water and Avas drowned . The same day a boat upset in crossing the Tare afc Yarmouth , and five men were drowned . - A deputation appointed by a meeting at Glasgow waited upon Earl Eussell on the 19 th inst . in reference fco the subject of Reform . Several members of Parliament and

some working mea made speeches , insisting that fche extension of the franchise should be to a rental and not a rating basis . Earl Eussell , in reply , expressed his firm conviction that it was a fallacy to suppose working men could , if they would , live in £ 10 houses . Any measure thafc might be introduced Avould not be founded upon what might have been done in other countries , such as

France or the United States . He gave the deputation pretty distinctly to understand thafc nothing in the way of a redistribution of seats would be attempted , but firmly delined to say further what would be the character of the Government bill . The Prince of Wales presided the other day at a meeting of the commissioners for the Paris Exhibition . —¦ —Mr . Robert Cooper , the proprietor of the Spiritual Times , was brought up at the Marylebone