The Week.

tered in the eleven towns during the week was 2 , 658 , or at the average rate of 21 in every thousand persons living . Salford this time stands highest in the list of mortality , having attained the height of 34 . London is the lowest , except Bristol , and is only 20 , or 4 below the average number . Of the total number 1 , 182 deaths occurred in London , which was 140 under the ten years' average , the great decrease being in

the case of diarrhoea . The total number of births was 3 , 889 , of which 1 , 973 took place in London , which was 62 above the average . On the 2 nd of August , when the Great Fasten had arrived Avithin 600 miles of her destination , the cable parted while it was being hauled in to repair a fault . A grapnel Avas then lowered to recover the cable , and on the

following day it was hooked and raised 1 , 200 yards from the bottom of the sea , when the rope to which the grapnel was attached gave Avay , and 2 , 800 yards of it were lost . On the 7 th the cable was again lifted , but from a similar cause the attempt Avas again unsuccessful . A third and fourth effort to raise the cable Avere made , both of which

were unsuccessful , purely in consequence of the weakness of tho rope and the grapnel . The stock of rope being now exhausted , the Great Eastern Avas compelled to return to obtain stronger tackle . The place where the end of the cable is expected to be found Avas marked by a buoy with a flag and ball . Deeply regretting as Ave do the temporary failure of this

great international enterprise , it is extremely reassuring to know that the cable has not been hopelessly lost , and that , although it now lies in the bed of the Atlantic , it was only the want of tackle possessing greater strength which prevented its immediate recovery , and the probable remedy of the defects which stopped insulation . The public will now feel renewed confidence in an ultimately successful result . ——The

Lords of the Privy Council have written a letter to the Commissioners of Customs , directing them strictly to execute the instructions of the Minute of Jul y 28 th , prohibiting tho importation of diseased foreign cattle at any of the ports of the United Kingdom . At a meeting held on the 17 th inst ., at the Mansion-house , under the presidency of

the Lord Mayor , Mr . Gibbons , the chairman of the Markets Committee , made a long statement on the subject of the cattle disease , chiefly exculpatory of his department . The report says that in the discussion which followed practical conclusions seemed carefully to be avoided , but a committee Avas appointed to inquire and report . The first step known to English

usages in dealing with a subject interesting to the community has been taken in respect of the apprehended advent of the cholera . The Social Science Association on the 17 th inst . called a meeting to consider . Medical officers of health , members of the Epidemiological Society , parochial clergy , and others regarded as social leaders in their various circles , attended .

Many speeches were made , many plans propounded , and prevention and cure were discussed . But after several truisms had been uttered which it did not require a meeting to endorse , nothing better was done than to recommend strict cleanliness as a preventive measure . As to the method of cure , allopathists and homceopathists

are at variance . We have a brief account of a hot-blooded murder on board an Italian ship , the Eleanor , lying off Deal . There is nothing strange jbout it . Two sailors quarrelled about a trifle , of course , as sailors Avill do ; and one , in the heat of passion , drawing his kuife , stabbed the other to death . This is murder by English law , and the punishment death ; but

how different is this criminalit y from that of Pritchard's or Soutbey ' s deeds ! Some foolish fellows , calling themselves Fenians , made a demonstration at Scarva , in the County Down ,

the other day . A ragged regiment , probably not much different from that of the immortal Falstaff , marched through several towns , with insignia . It is said they were attacked by the Orangemen , and no wonder ; but a body of constabulary accompanied them , whether to prevent them from doing mischief or to protect them seems doubtful . No lives were lost . All this

seems very curious . The idea of Fenians appearing in the County of Down is very much as if a phantom troop of Stuart cavaliers A \ -ere now to appear at Staines to win back the crown of England to the old Scotch regal race . A mysterious firs broke out on the lSth inst . in lvensal Green Cemetery . Smoke and flames were seen to issue from the catacombs in the

uucousecrated part of the cemetery , and the firemen were at a loss to discover where the fire had its origin . It was after some difficulty found to be in vault 16 , and the engines being applied , the fire was extinguished , but not before a great number of coffins , some of them lead , were destroyed and melted , and shocking havoc done . The cause of the fire still remains unaccounted for . The Birmingham papers record the death of

Mr . James Lloyd , of Showell Green , Moseley , the well-known banker of Birmingham . The cattle disease continues to absorb the attention of the agriculturalists and breeders throughout the country , and meetings are every day held to concert measures of prevention . It does not appear that the malady is spreading , but this activity is a very wholesome sign of the

vig ilance of those more immediately interested . A destructive fire occurred on Saturday morning last at Walworth , by which the premises of Messrs . Gore and Izard timber merchants and packing-case makers , have been destroyed . As the premises were situated in a densely populated locality , tho utmost anxiety was felt for the safety of the houses in the

neighbourhood , the poor people being obliged to remove their furniture , which was much damaged . The houses , by the exertions of the firemen and of several hundred labourers Avho cheerfully assisted were saved . An award given by a commission appointed by the Bishop of Worcester to inquire into certain charges of adultery and lewdness preferred against the Rev . F . W . Bichings , incumbent of Atherstone ,

Warwickshire , deserves notice . The award acquits Mr . Bichings of those two grave charges , to the best of the judgment of the commissioners ; but they add that his conduct in continuing to see the lady implicated , contrary to the will , and provoking the disapproval of her husband , was highly unbecoming , and calculated to bring scandal on the Church , and strangely

inconsistent with Mr . Riching ' s profession as a member of the Church . When we add that the commission was exclusively composed of clergymen , the full weight of this censure may be estimated . -There has been a shocking double murder at Battley , West Hiding of Yorkshire , caused by a sort of brutal , blind jealousy , in its way much like the passion which led

Townley to kill his sweetheart . The murderer , Eli Sykes , is a volunteer , and on Saturday , at a drill , with a gala , his sweetheart , a Miss Brook , danced with , another young man . Sykes brooded over it , and that evening went to the young Avoman ' s house and killed both her and her mother in a very brutal determined manner , with his bayonet .

He made a feeble attempt to kill himself , but failed . The Lord . Mayor and the reporters were mystified on Tuesday much to their inconvenience . It Avas announced that a meetiug , adjourned from one on a former day , would be held at the Mansion House to consider the cattle disease , but for half an hour after the appointed time nobody was present but his

lordship and the reporters . It was ultimately discovered that the meeting was being held at Guildhall , and that it was private . Hereupon two queries suggest themselves : why lvas not the