The Week.

the Reg ister of Voters Bill and the Chancery Regulation Bill both passed through Committee . So also did the AVhipping Bill ( No . 2 ) , with the addition of an amendment moved by Mr . Stanley , providing that children shall only he punished with a birch . Heretofore , as the returns show , the cat has been freely used upon boys of tender years . The Turnpike Tolls Exemption

( Scotland ) Bill was thrown out ; and the Law of Property Amendment Bill was read a second time . GENERAL HOME NEWS . —The decrease in the rate of

mortality last week , as shown in the Registrar-General ' s report , is very remarkable . The number of deaths for the week "ivas 1271 , ivhich was lower than they have been in any week in the present year . In the first week of the present month the number was 1505 . The average for the last ten years was 1410 . It is satisfactory to find that the number of deaths from typhus

fully partakes in the general decrease . The births of 1805 children during the week falls as far below the average , which Is 1959 . At the late meeting of the British Association , the meteorological section determined to make certain experiments on the air by means of a balloon . The first of these took place at Wolverhampton on Saturday , and the Royal Cremorne

balloon , that has made several ascents from the Cremorne Gardens , being the largest balloon in England , was engaged fo the purpose . Unfortunately , ifc proved unairworthy . It was intended to ascend an elevation of five miles , but before the aeronauts rose one mile from the surface , the gas began to escape , and the machine came to the earth from sheer

inanition . It is thought , however , that the balloon can be sufficiently repaired to justify another attempt in the course of the next few days . On Saturday , the personal friends and professional admirers of Mr . Charles ICean , presented that gentleman with a magnificent table service of plate , as a " tribute to his genius as a great actor , and in recognition of his

unremitting efforts to improve the tone and elevate the character of the British stage . " There was a numerous attendance , and in the absence of the Duke of Newcastle , who was summoned to attend the Queen , the Chancellor of the Exchequer , in an eloquent speech , presented the testimonial to Mr . Kean , who , in a few

earnest and touching words , expressed his thanks . A meeting of maltsters has been held in the Corn Exchange Coffee-house , Mark-lane , to represent to the Government the grievances under which they lie under the new system of short credit , by which six weeks only is allowed between the assessment of the tax ancl the time for its payment . There was a general agreement in the condemnation of

the mode of levying the tax . A deputation was appointed to wait on the Chancellor of the Exchequer on the subject . An important deputation of gentlemen connected with the fire insurance offices have waited on the Lord Mayor to represent to him the danger arising to life ancl property from the way in which petroleum , or rock oil , now imported into this country in

large quantities , was stored in the neighbourhood of London . The oil , they represented , was extremely inflammable and explosive , igniting when flame was brought within an inch of it , even in alow temperature ; and as it would not mix with water , but floated on the surface , water would not extinguish the flames . Yet several thousand casks of this dangerous substance were stored

up in different wharves , without any extraordinary precautions . Tlie Lord Mayor intimated that he or any other of the metropolitan magistrates would have jurisdiction in case of apparent danger ; and he added that while they ought not to discourage , such a valuable product of nature , care should be taken so as to regulate its storing , that what Providence intended for a boon should not be a source of disaster . The Home Secretary has been busy dealing with the cases of the murderers that have been convicted in the present assizes . The boy Devereux , who stabbed the crimp in Whitechapel , and Hall , who

shot Lord Dillon's gamekeeper , having been previously respited , are now condemned to penal servitude for life . The mau Jones , who caused his wife ' s death near Merthyr Tydvil , by striking her with a spade in a fit of jealousy , has obtained a respite . AA e have another pretended confession of the Road murder . A man jumped into the Thames from the Waterloobridge , on Friday evening , leaving behind him an incoherent and wretchedly-spelled letterin which he alleges that he was

, " one wo don this awful murder . " The suicide is believed to have been insane , and the police attach no importance to his confession . Garotting is evidently on the increase . Another fatal case has come to the knowledge of the coroner . Two rough-looking fellows , it appears , attacked a man of 62 years of age , and the brutality of the robbers was such . that the man has died in the hospital . The use

of the knife is becoming alarmingly frequent in the streets of London . A young man was brought before the magistrate charged with stabbing two men . From the evidence ifc appeared that the provocation given was of the most trifling description , and , if one of the wounded men is to be believed , quite accidental ; but it sufficed to lead to a quarrel , when tl ¦ prisoner stabbed one man in the face , and on being pursued : nd

secured hy the other , he stabbed him also . The severity o- * t >« punishment which this offence is properly visited , appears to i , av . little effect in checking the cowardly practice . The man Thorley , who in February last murdered a young woman who had rejected his addresses , at Derby , has been sentenced to death at the Derby Assizes . At Brighton , a day or two ago , a young mannamed Belseymade a desperate attempt to shoot a

, , young woman to whom he was engaged , on the very day of their intended marriage . The motive thus far appears inexplicable . A suspicious death took place on Saturday night in a coffeeshop in Euston-street . A man and woman came to the place and engaged a bed for the night , but in the course of about na hour after they retired the woman aroused the landlord , and said the man was dying . Help was procured , but he was dead , from

disease of the heart , as proved on the Coroner ' s inquest . The actions against the London and Brighton Railway Company to recover compensation for injuries sustained in fche fatal collision which took place in the Clayton tunnel on the 25 th August ,

have commenced at Lewes . The first case heard was that of Mr . Swaysland and his wife , who sustained severe injuries by the accident . The company paid £ 700 into court , ancl the jury awarded an additional £ 300 . The grancl jury ignored the bill against Mr . Charles Legge , the Brighton station-master , and a verdict of nofc guilty was formally taken . Henry Cross , a solicitor , who was charged at the police court , a short time ago for fraudulently obtaining 50 ? from a lady to

. whom he was paying his addresses , under pretence of investing it in a more profitable manner , has been tried before Mr . Bodkin , at the Middlesex Sessions . The case was clearly proved against him , and some aspersions against the lady ' s character were not only disproved , but repudiated by the prisoner hlmseif , when he saw the case going against him , though it was shown that he hacl himself inserted these insinuations in the instructions to the

counsel who undertook his defence . He was found guilty , and sentenced to imprisonment for two years . The court-martial which has been sitting in Dublin , investigating the charges preferred against Captain Robertson , of the 4 th Dragoon Guards , has at length been brought to a close . The prisoner was charged , in the first place , with not having taken the proper steps to obtain satisfaction for an insult offered to him bColonel Dickson

y , in October , I 860 ; and , in the next place , with having alleged , as a reason why he wished to withdraw an application to he permitted to retire from the service , that he had submitted that application to the military authorities " entirely through intimidation . " The evidence which has been brought before the court has been of the most conflicting and extraordinary character , and , in all probability , some time will elapse before the "finding "

is made public——A case perfectly new in English law has been decided by A ice-Chancellor Page AVood . A gentleman devised certain legacies to the widow of a deceased relative of his , annexing the condition that if she married again she was to lose the benefit of his bequest . The lady did marry again ; ancl in answer to the trustees under will , who called on her to resign its benefitsshe pleaded bher counsel that the condition was

, y void , as it was against public policy so to restrain marriage . The Vice Chancellor , in giving judgment , remarked on the singular circumstance that this question had never before been raised in the courts . For a husband to annex such a condition to his will in the case of his own widow was a matter of every-day