The Week.

granted . A curious case has been argued in tbe Court , of a gentleman who has had an ornamental pond in his pleasure grounds at Lewisham drained dry by the sewage operations of the Metropolitan Board of AVorks , and who demands compensation for his loss . The Court took time to consider the judgment . A case , fortunately of rare—we believe it is of unpredented occurrence—in the annals of English journalism , was brought before the Court of Queen ' s Bench on Saturday .

Mr . Serjeant Glover was proprietor of the Morning Chronicle for a few years ; ancl he has brought an action against Count Persigny and M . Billattlt for payment of certain sums of money in remuneration for articles which Mr . Glover caused to be inserted in his journal at the request of the defendants . Glover ' s allegation is that he was engaged to the work by M . Billault , then a member of the French embassy , as agent for tbe Count de Persigny , then Minister of the Interior , who

also subsequently confirmed the engagement . Though Serjeant Glover commenced the action , there appears to have been some delay in proceeding with it , as the application was on Saturday made on the part of tbe defendants to compel the serjeant to go on with his action . A case was tried on Saturday in the Court of Common Pleas in ivhich Mr . Scott Russell , the well-known iron shipbuilder , sought to recover the sum of £ 10 , 400 from Viscount de Bandeira , as

representing the Portuguese Government , being part of a contract for building a ship of war for Portugal . The case hacl been tried before , and a verdict found for the plaintiff subject to certain special pleas reserved for argument by the Court . These were now considered and disposed of , and the judgment for the plaintiff confirmed Mr . Norris Taylor , the Registrar of the Rochdale Cemetery , was on Wednesday charged before the local magistrates with illegally

disinterring bodies , and removing them front one part of the burial-ground to another . After a good deal of evidence had been heard , the case was adjourned , and the defendantwho , on leaving tbe court , was hissed by a crowd— -was admitted to bail . AVilliam Crane , an attendant on the insane patients at Colney Hatch Asylum , was tried at the Middlesex Sessions On the charge of cruelly maltreating one of tbe patients there . The evidence went to establish some harsh conduct on the part

of the prisoner , but ifc also showed that he had been much irritated . The jury acquitted him , and the judge , who appeared to be scarcely prepared for the verdict , warned the prisoner on bis retiring to be more careful for the future . A most impudent case of garrotting has been brought before Mr . Paynter , at the AVestminster Police Court . A respectable lady was waiting with her husband and a friend , at the Knightsbridge end of Sloane-street , at a quarter before twelve on Saturday

night , for an omnibus . The party were a little straggled , bufc the friend was not more than two yards off , when a ruffian came by , seized the lady by tbe throat , wrenched a brooch out of her shawl , ancl tore the shawl itself off her shoulders . The lady screamed , and seized him ; so did the friend , and so did the husband when he came up ; but the blackguard bad his allies too ; and tbe issue might have been doubtful bad not a policeman made his appearance . The brooch , however , was

passed away to one of his comrades—probably to that one of them who attended at the police-court and offered to bail out the prisoner when the magistrate decided on remanding him . The last of the Hyde Park Garibaldi riots has been disposed of at the Central Criminal Court , when Pietro Ansoni , an Italian , was indicted for stabbing two persons with a knife on tbat memorable occasion . The jury found him guilty , but humanely recommended him to mercy on the ground of the

excitement he was in at the time , but the Recorder thought the offence could nofc be visited with a lighter punishment than four years penal servitude . G . Wilson , found guilty of housebreaking at AValworfch , was sentenced to 15 years penal servitude . Henry King has been tried for the murder of Sarah Anne Day . The prisoner and the deceased hacl lived together , but for some cause or other had separated . On the day when the alleged murder was committed King went to the house ivhere Day was

living and asked her to come back to him . She refused , and a struggle took place , in which she received a wound in the abdomen from a chisel carried by the prisoner . Counsel iu his behalf contended that the wound was aecidently inflicted , and the jury , taking that view of the case , acquitted the prisoner . ¦ A policemen has been murdered at Haleswoith , in Suffolk . His name is Ebenezer Tye . He went on duty on Monday night , and did nofc report himself at the station-house noxt morning . This caused search to be made for him , and bis body ,

with many bruises on it , was found in a shallow stream . It is supposed that he was murdered while endeavouring to apprehend a man of bad character . Two men aud a women are in custody , suspected of being concerned in the affair . Another policemen narrowly escaped being killed on Tuesday evening at the Lyceum Theatre . A young man named Graham , who , it seems , is insane , and had been under the treatment of Dr . Forbes AAluslow , was most reprebensibly allowed by his friends

to go to the theatre by himself . AVhile there he appears to have drunk brandy and water until he became completely maddened , when he attacked a policemen on duty in tbe pit and stabbed him . The prisioner was brought up at Bow-street Police-court and remanded . The policemen is likely to recover . Sir George Grey has refused an application , made an behalf of " old Fleming , " for another investigation into the Glasgow murder . The object of the application was to enable Mr .

Fleming to adduce evidence to test the truth of any statements which may have been made at the late enquiry tending to criminate him . Sir George says he has no power to order a judicial inquiry to be made into the guilt or innocence of any person not charged with an offence , and , under any circunttanccs , the law of Scotland does not permit a witness in as criminal trial—and Mr . Fleming gave evidence on trial of M'Ltchlan— -to be afterwards subjected to a prosecution in

respect of the matter of such trial . He states , however , tbat he was satisfied by the result of the late investigation by a Special Commissioner , that the ivhole facts of the case had not been submitted to tbe Jury who had convicted M'Lachlan ; but after all " the result of the inquiry was far from removing all uncertainty , nor could ifc be justly held to fix a share of the guilt on any other person , especially when such person was not represented at the inquiry . "

The inquest on the farmer's wife who was suspected to have died of poison in Ludwell , AViltshire , was resumed on Friday the 21 st . The additional evidence threw no new light on tbe case , and the jury returned a verdict" that the deceased died from poison , but there was no evidence to show by whom it was administered . " The inquest on the bodies of the six men who were killed by the fall of the arches on the Hammersmith Railway was resumed and finished on Saturday . Several scientific witnesses

were examined , and as one of the jurors expressed a wisli that some of the people at work at the time of the accident should be heard , one or two of tbe bricklayers were called , but their evidence did not materially affect tbe question . Tbe jury returned a verdict of accidental death , but expressed an opinion tbat sufficient attention was not given to the character of the soil on which the foundations were laid , and that the concrete afc base of fche pier was not sound . A fire of a very destructive nature

broke out on Thursday , the 20 th , in the premises of Messrs . Price and Co ., oil refiners , a little to the west of Blackfriars ' - bridge , and closely abutting on the river . The fire broke out in the oil n arehouse , and all tbe men being at work at the time some of the property was saved , but bearing little proportion to the vast amount of highly inflammable material that was in fche building . The fire-engines of course were afc once sent for , and among others several of the newlyrbuilfc steam fire-ines

eng were quickly on the spot . Ifc was a new and certainly an interesting sight to see these ponderous machines drawn by horses that bounded as if their load was a thing of nought , while the engine-men were busily engaged getting tbe steam up as they galloped along , so that they might be set to work at once on their arrival . Their efficiency was seen seen . Of course they could not at once contend with the tons of oil that were stored up in that inflammable magazine : the whole volume of the

Thames was insufficient for tbat purpose ; for cask after cask exploding , the oil ran clown the wharf in red lava streams , literally set the Thames on fire , and burnt up several barges that could not be got out of the way . But , notwithstanding , the fire was got under in an unusually short space of time , and extended but a little way beyond the premises themselves . Great fears were entertained for tbe safety of the City Gas AVorks , which are closely adjoining , but fortunately tbe wind was in the other

direction . AVe have not heard of any loss of life . The premises were on fire 17 years ago , with a like disastrous result . Another dreadful calamity is reported from the north . On Saturday morning an explosion occurred at the AValker Colliery , near Neweastle-on-Tyne , and it appears that sixteen men and boys were killed . The coal in one part of the ivorkings was also set on fire , but the flames were soon subdued . Ifc is probable that the loss of life ivould have been much greater , but from the circumstance that the colliers , who were working at some