The Lupracaun, Or Fairy Shoemaker.

Away tbe Moth flew . Buskins for a fairy prince * , Brogues for his son , — Pay me well , pay me well , When the job is done !" The rogue was mine , beyond a doubt .

I stared at him ; he stared at me ; " Servant , Sir ! " " Humph ! " says he , Ancl pull'd a snuff-box out . He took a long pinch , look'd better pleased , The queer little Lupracaun ; Offer'd the box with a whimsical grace , — Pouf ! he flung the dust in my face , Ancl while I sneezed , AVas gone !

Obituary.

Obituary .

BRO . MATTHEW DAWES . At bis residence , AVestbrook , Bolton , Lancashire , on the 19 th of December , 1860 , aged fifty-six years , Matthew Dawes , Esq ., F . S . A ., F . G-. S ., & c ; an eminent member of the Masonic body , holding the offices of Past Prov . G . S . AV . of East Lancashk-e , Prov . G . Commander of Knights Templar , Lancashire , Knight

Companionof the Chivalric Order of the Temple , ancl Sovereign Grancl Inspector-General of the 33 rd degree . AA'ith the morals ancl practice of a consistent Mason , this respected and lamented brother combined throughout his life the duties and manners of an accomplished Christian gentleman .

The Week.

THE WEEK .

THE COURT . —Her Majesty ancl Royal Family still continue at Windsor . On the 17 th , the third dramatic performance of the season took place . The pieces represented were Mr . Tom Taylor's ' Masks and Faces ; or , Before and Behind the Curtain , " ancl the comic drama of Mr . Charles Mathews , " My AVife ' s Mother . " GENEBAL HOME NEWS . — -To the interruption of work by the frost , and consequent deprivation of the usual means of subsistence experienced by the labouring classes , as well as to the effect

of the cold itself on constitutions predisposed to succumb to its influence , may be ascribed the greatly-increased amount of mortality in tbe metropolis last week . As shown by the official returns , the deaths during that period exceeded tbe normal number to the large extent of 585 , the actual number being 1926 . Happily the change in the weather has permitted the general resumption of out-door operations , so that a return to full employment , with a more genial temperaturemay be expected to bring about an

im-, provement in the state of the public health . The births registered in London last week were 1859—939 boys and 920 girls . In the City the deaths were 90 , ancl births 61 . There is no want of activity on the part of those pledged to procure the total abolition of the hop duties . On Saturday afternoon a meeting of influential land-owners and hop-growers was held in the Music Hall , Canterbury , for the promotion of this object . Sir Brook Brydges , M . P . for East Kentpresidedancl the following motions were agreed

, , to : — "That the total and immediate repeal of the hop duties is essential to the prosperity of the hop-growing districts , and is just both to hop-planters ancl the public ; that this meeting pledges itself to afford its energetic support , by subscriptions and otherwise , to the Central Association formed to obtain the repeal of the duties ; and that petitions should be got up for the same purpose , and distributed for signature in the various parishes . " — - —On Monday

evening a general meeting of the council ancl members of the Church Institution , consisting for the most part of lay representatives from the various dioceses of England and AA ' ales , was held at the Freemasons' Tavern , Great Queen-street ; Mr . Thomas Bell , F . R . S ., presided . A report from the executive committee was submitted by the secretary , in which certain resolutions on the subject of church rates were recorded , and a statement made of tbe kind of bill tbey woulcl be inciined to support in the event of the question coming in that form before Parliament . The report was unanimousl y adopted . Instructions have just been issued relative to a recent regulation by which the wills of living persons

may be deposited for safe keeping in the principal registry , Doctors ' - commons . Envelopes and the necessary forms are to be hacl on application . AVith regard to fees , £ 1 Is . is charged for receiving the will and giving a receipt ; 2 s . 6 cl . for a minute of the registry ; and 2 s . 6 a ! . for filing each affidavit . The chemists , who number about 1500 , are bestk'ring themselves to form an association for various objects connected with their interests as a body . AVith this view a meeting was held at the London Coffee-house , when it was agreed to

form a society , under the title of the United Society of Chemists and Druggists . It is proposed to establish a benevolent fund , x school for children , a system of early ancl Sunday closing , together with other schemes , ancl a committee is appointed to carry them out . Last week Mr . Robert Durne Mitchell , a retired naval surgeon , residing at Henley-on-Thames , was brought before the magistrates charged with having caused the death of his servant girl by starvation . The unfortunate young womanwhose name was Clarkehad

, , been removed to tbe workhouse , from her master ' s , in a state of extreme debility , where , notwithstanding every care , she soon expired of sheer exhaustion . At a coroner ' s inquest , subsequentlyheld on the body , the jury returned a verdict of manslaughter against Mr . Mitchell , guided to this result by tbe nature of the medical ancl other evidence . After a lengthened examination by the bench , the prisoner was committed fo rtrial at the ensuing Lent assizes . Bail to the amount of £ 100 was accepted for his

appearance . In the Court of Exchequer judgment has been given on two rules that hacl been argued on the preceding clay , involving question of some importance in affairs of bankruptcy . A bankrupt named Frcston had been arrested under certain circumstances , and the point raised was whether the commissioners have the power to withhold protection from bankrupts between the period of adjudication and the final examination . The Lorcl Chief Justice delivered it as the unanimous opinion of their lordships that the right of the

bankrupt to his protection does not arise from the act of the commissioner , but from the statutes , ancl the commissioner in reality has no power to take it away . -In the Bankruptcy Court a formal declaration of dividend has been made in the affairs of Leopold Reclpath , the transported official of the Great Northern Railway Company . The company having discharged claims of all other creditors , became sole claimants on the bankrupt ' s estate . Previous to this 9 s . in the pound had been realised , ancl now assets calculated to yield further 3 * . or 4 s . in the pound are reckoned upon . Two celebrated causes are at present before the courts for

proof of legitimacy— -one on the other side of the Channel , and the second in our own Court of Probate . That for the consideration of the Parisian tribunalsis tbe well-known claim ofthe American wife , nee Paterson , of Prince Jerome Bonaparte , and her son , the issue of that union , to a share of the property of the deceased Prince , but opposed on the ground of the nullification of the marriage by the First Napoleon . In our own Court of Probate Lavinia Jannetta Ryves , who was divorced from her husband in 1841 , has lodged a

petition claiming to be the heiress , through her mother , of the Duke of Cumberland , brother of George III . Some success has attended the petitioner's personal appeal in this matter so far , the Court having asked for additional evidence . Close to the London terminus of the London ancl North-AVestern Railway , a collision of an alarming character took place on the 18 th inst . Owing to the slippery state of the rails , a train which hacl left the station wasnotwithstanding every effortbrought to a complete stand-still

, , , and another train which followed after a few minutes' interval ran into it with considerable force . Several persons were injured by tbe shock , one gentleman severely ; but the carriages received so little damage that both trains were in a short time able to proceed on their journey . Another serious collision occurred near tbe AVigan station of the London and North-AVestern Railway between two passenger trains , on Tuesday morning . Several of the passengers are reported as seriously injured , but details are still wanting .

On Tuesday the adjourned coroner's inquest on the bodies of Sophia Lowe and Mary Jones , who lost their lives near the Moreton station of the Hereford ancl Shrewsbury Railway , on the 4 th inst ., was resumed at Hereford . These deaths resulted from the breaking of a wheel tire , by whicli the carriages were overturned in a dyke containing several feet of water . A verdict of Accidental Death was returned by the jury , who at the same time recommended the company to use a better quality of iron iu the

manufacture of the tires of wheels , ancl also to adopt some mode of communication between guards and drivers . FOREIGN INTELLIGENCE . —Count Persigny has refused M . OUivier's application to be allowed to establish a political journal in Paris . The Minister of War has issued an order to arm the whole of the French army with six-barrelled revolvers . The French Senate met on Tuesday . afternoon . The business appropriated to them was very simple . They were merely called on to adopt a senatus consullum for carrying out that part of the Emperor's programme of last November which allows their own debates and those of the