The Week.

Confederacy , Looking to the future , however , a large and increasing supply of cotton might , under certain conditions , be obtained from India ; indeed , " if fche price suited , thafc cultivation adwittetl of almost indefinite increase . " He strongly recommended the establishment of European agencies , so as fco rescue the ryot from the grasp of the native usurers and middlemen , jle pointed out some of the more glaring anomalies in the existing system of internal government in India , and made a powerful

attack upon the constitution of the Indian Council—a body ivhich AA-as repeating the blunders of our old colonial policy . . We are sorry to learn from the Wiltshire papers that the disease of small-pox among sheep is not yet abated . Every precaution is taken to keep the infected sheep apart from the sound ones , but difficulty arises in knowing when the animals ' are infected , as there are many cases where the disease does not assume a virulent form , though ifc is equally contagious ^ as in the Avorst cases . The veterinary surgeons employed are indefatigable in their examination-of " the different flocks . A Court

of Common Council has been held , Avhen among other business the bridge at Blackfriars proposed by the London , Chatham , and Dover Railway was approved of , and a suggestion was made to appeal to the Government to induce the trustees of the British Museum to give up to the corporation that portion of the " Liber Cusfcumornm , " which was stolen from a book in the City Library a couple of centuries ago , and turned up unexpectedly the other day among the Cottonian MSS . in the British

Museum . -At a public meeting , held at Rochdale—the Mayor in the chair—resolutions were psssed expressing sympathy with Garibaldi , and urging her Majesty ' s Government to exert its influence wifch the Prench Government in favour of the liberation of Rome . Similar resolutions were adopted at a meeting held at South Shields , on Monday evening , under the presidency of Mr . Ingham , M . P . A sentence of penal servitude for life has been passed upon William Roupelllate M . P . for Lambeth .

, He ivas brought up at the Central Criminal Courfc yesterday , and begged to he allowed to plead guilty to the charges of forgery preferred against him . The plea was allowed , and before judgment AA-as passed upon him the prisoner addressed the court in a speech Avhich must increase the regrefc of every one that such a man should have stooped to crime . It ivas the brief outline of ivhafc Roupell himself called " a mistaken life . " The

details were , however , wanting , and they ivill probably never he supplied . A series of remarkable forgeries—resembling in some respects the frauds to which the ex-member for Lambeth has pleaded guilty—has just been brought to light . It appears that an accountant named Yeats , ivho Avas formerly a solicitor ' s clerk , became acquainted some years ago Avith tbe mode in which- the Lambeth property of Admiral Sir John West was managed . Acting upon this knowledge , he forged deeds

purporting to convey portions of the estate from Sir John West to himself , and upon these deeds he succeeded in raising money from solicitors and others , amounting , as far as has been hitherto ascertained , to upwards of £ 6000 . Oddly enough , this daring and adroit forger was detected in his career of villainy by his having affixed to a spurious deed a date subsequent to that on ivhich Sir John \ A / est died . A case rather unusual in its circumstances Avas tried on Tuesday before the Common Serjeant

. A reporter named Gray had drawn up an account ofthe death of Mrs . Phillips , the wife of a horse-dealer in tbe West-end , in sach a manner as to throiv on the husband fche allegation of having poisoned her . It appeared that tiro mother of the ieeease'i , a very excitable person , did entertain that suspicion , and openly accused her son-in-laiv of the crime . At an investigation subsequently held , however , the innocence of the husband find

the unfounded nature of the charges against him ivere fully established . Subsequently , Mr . Phillips brought a charge for libel against the reporter , which was tried yesterday , and the jury found a verdict of Guilty . Mr . Gray was fined £ 50 , and was ordered to be imprisoned until the fine AA-as paid . The great " Protestant demonstration" at Belfast , has given rise to an alarming state of things , in that tcAvrtThe town has

-. for several days been at the mercy of lawless mobs of fanatics of both colours . A large amount of property lws been destroyed , and the number of broken heads must be immense . The anxiety caused by the late robbery of Bank ° f England paper will be in some measure allayed by the declaration of the Governor , at the half-yearly meeting of proprietors , that the amount of the precious material purloined has heen "enormously" exaggerated . The loss incurred , he added , would be very inconsiderable . A farmer named Humphrey . "as been committed at the Boxford petty sessions , Suffolk , on the

charge of shooting at one of his nei ghbours with intent to murder . The evidence was circumstantial , and there was an attempt to prove an alibi , but ifc was nofc very satisfactory . His victim , though severely wounded , is likely to recover . Leopold Shocke , who has been remanded two or three times on a charge of defrauding the Tees Woollen Company and others of goods , has been brought up again at Guildhall , and committed for . trial During the examination of the prisoner , much blame was thrown

upon Messrs . A / enables , woollen drapers , who ifc was said had bought goods of Shocke , and a man named Cowen , afc much below their market value . At the hearing of the case , that matter was cleared up , and Messrs . Venables acquitted of all blame . TJie trial of Mrs . M'Lachlan for the murder of an acquaintance of hers , - a domestic servant in Glasgow , has taken place . It will be remembered that the only person in the house wifch the murdered womanon the niht of the crimewas an old man aboufc

, g , SO , who said he had heard no noise on thafc night , and made no inquiries when the servant did not make her appearance for two or three days , in consequence of ivhicl ) the old man was himself apprehended , though suspicions aftenvards settled upon the prisoner . Among the Avitnesses examined was the woman who worked for her , and who ivas able to tell Avhat dresses she had and what she had nofc before the murder took place , and who

also deposed to having taken several articles of dress and other property out of pawn for the prisoner on the days immediately folloiving the murder . The fact of her having money at thafc time so surprised the witness that she jocularly asked lier whom she had been robbing to procure it . The prisoner was found guilty . Not the least remarkable feature of the trial ivas the statement read on behalf of the prisoner , immediately before the Judge proceeded to pronounce sentence of death . The gist of this extraordinary document may be very briefly stated . M'Laclilaii asserts tbat she went to visit the deceased . Tessi «

M'Pherson , with whom she was acquainted , on the night of the 4 th of July . The old man Fleming and M'Pherson quarrelled , and M'Lachlan was sent out to get some whisky , in order that the dispute might he settled . On her return she found the door locked , but , on her knocking , it was opened by Fleming , and she then discovered that M'Pherson had been attacked and dreadfully injured by the old man . Fleming opposed every proposal made to send for a surgeon , but at length when ifc became

clear thafc M'Pherson was dying , M'Lachlan resolved to obtain medical assistance . On going to the door , however , she found it was locked , and that the key had been removed . She returned to the kitchen , and there saw Fleming butchering the dying ivoman Avith a cleaver . M'Lachlan and the old man then held a consultation , and the prisoner , alarmed for her OAVU safety , agreed to a plan proposed by the alleged murderer , for averting suspicion from both their heads . Such is the story told b

y M'Lachlan—a story which the Judge , however , at once denounced as obviously false from beginning to end . It is stated that a memorial ivill be presented to the Home Secretary , praying that the condemned convict ' s life may he spared . Crinoline sacrifices go on bravely . Two more are recorded . The landlady of a tavern in Wigmore-street , and a little girl at Hastings , have been burnt to death through their distended skirts catching fire . An inquest has been held on the body of

a boy named Henderson , who was unfortunately drowned when the scaffolding at the neiv Lambeth-bridge gave way , and some nine persons employed on the scaffold were precipitated into the river . They were all got out except this poor boy , and his body was only recovered the other day . The evidence showed thafc the death arose simply from accident , but a caution was given by the jury that scaffolds should always be tested before workmen were alloived upon them . The body of a young woman ,

rather genteely dressed , was washed ashore near Barnes , on Wednesday last , and an inquest ivas held on Thursday evening . There were some suspicious marks on her person , as if her death had been caused by violence . Her linen was marked " E . N . Pitts , " and it now appears she Avas a barmaid , who hud been discharged for intemperance , and AA-as also pregnant , and a letter in her pocket showed that she contemplated suicide . A suicide has been committed in Kensington Gardensunder very

distress-, ing circumstances . Charles Pritchard , an upholsterer , who had been an intemperate man , came at last to so loiv a position , thafc he was unable fco get any Avork . In this state he passed several days AA ifchout tasting food , and at last , in a state of starvation , procured a small quantity of oxalic acid , and poisoned himself . He was found by one of the park-keepers still alive , and was removed to an hospital where he died some days afterwards . An inquest was held on Tuesday at Christchurch on the body of