The Week.

Government a confirmation or denial of the statement which has appeared in the public journals , that afc the meeting of the Conference on Saturday a threat was held out thafc if the Danes attempted to renew the blockade , German privateers would be sent out to prey upon Danish commerce . Lord Palmerston was asked whether hostilities would be renewed on Monday next if the Conference should arrive at no satisfactory decision , and he

was further called upon to explain Lord Russell ' s statement in fche House of Lords , on Friday night , thafc the fleet was ready for any service . Wifch reference to the first of these pomtsfche threat to issue letters of marque—the noble lord declined to reveal the " secrets" of the Conference . The second question he answered by stating that hostilities would of course be

resumed if no agreement were come to before Sunday ; and he explained Lord Russell ' s announcement by saying that his noble friend in speaking of the efficient state of tho fleet had no intention of pointing to any particularservice which our naval forces , if called upon , wero in readiness to undertake . He added , in reply to a question from Mr . Bright , thafc the Government were

anxiously everting themselves to revert the resumption of hostilities . —The other business was of but little importance . On Tuesday , Mr . Whiteside carried , by a majority of one , a motion for referring the Irish Chancery Bill to a Select Committee . —Mr . Berkeley moved a resolution to the effect that as the measures hitherto adopted for preventing bribery and

intimidation afc elections had failed , a fair trial should be given to the ballot . Mr . J . Locke seconded the motion , which was opposed by Lord Palmerston . On a division , the resolution was thrown out by a majority of 89 , the numbers being 123 for and 212 against . On Wednesday , Mr . 0 ' Hagau complained that the motion on the previous clay , that the chairman should leave the chair , when the House was in committee on the Court

cf Chancery ( Ireland ) Bill , had been carried by surprise . He moved that the House should go into committee again on the bill . Mr . Whiteside contended thafc the division on the ¦ previous day was fatal to the bill . The Speaker , however , held that ifc was not , and after some further discussion the motion was agreed to . —On the motion for going into committee on the Joint Stock Companies ( Voting Papers ) Bill , Mr . E .

Crauford moved thafc fche bill be committed thafc clay three months . Mr . D . Griffith opposed the amendment , and ifc was withdrawn . On clause 1 , Mr . Peacock moved that the chairman leave the chair . This motion was carried by 76 votes to 49 . — Sir J . Hay moved the second reading of the Bank of England ( Scotland ) Bill , the object of which was to make Bank of

England notes a legal tender in Scotland . The bill would materially facilitate commercial transactions in Scotland . Mr . Finlay moved the rejection of the bill . The Chancellor of the Exchequer hoped it would be withdrawn . The subject required careful consideration , which it would receive at the hands of the Government , but legislation must be gradual . After some

further discussion the bill was withdrawn . GENERAL HOME NEWS . —The mortality of London is again running high . The deaths last week amounted to 1296 , which was 123 above the ten years' average . Tho most prevalent cause of disease appears to be measles , which was fatal last week in 85 cases . There were 1778 children born—fche average

number would be 1836 . A shocking domestic tragedy has just been enacted in Liverpool . The wife of a dock labourer named Henderson , who had been recently discharged from the lunatic ward of the workhouse , apparently seized with a sudden frenzy , cat the throats of two of her children with a . common table knife , and afterwards put an end to her own existence in the same manner . One of the children is expected to survive . The whole transaction was but the work of an instant , ancl done as fche

family lay together all m one bed . Intelligence has been received of fche burning of a fine New York river steamboat off Esop ' s Island , with fche loss of , ifc is believed , forty or fifty pas < sengers . The fire originated through the explosion of a lamp . The pauperism of the cotton manufacturing districts decreased last week by 1 , 910 . Ashton-under-Lyne Union by 270 ; Chorlton Union by 250 ; Manchester by 390 ; aud Rochdale Union

by 330 , On the other hand , there was increase in fche Stockport Union of 240 paupers . The outdoor relief amounted to £ 5 , 436 , or £ 164 less than it was in the second week of the present month . Nearly 800 of the adult able-bodied went off the relief lists ; leaving the large number , looking to the season and the improving circumstances of the district , of 13 , 000

still dependent on the poor rate . With a view to meet a possible increase of distress next winter , the Central Relief Committee has decided to request Mr . Villiers to apply to Parliament for a further sum of half a million , to be applied , if necessary , in the execution of public works in the cotton manufaeturinsr districts . A review of London and Midland Counties

volunteers took place on Wednesday afc Stowe Park , the seat of the Duke of Buckingham and Chandos . The reviewing officer was Colonel M'Murdo . The affair was one of the most successful events of the kind which have yet taken place . The ceremony of laying the first stone of the internal cornice of the new roof at Guildhall has been performed by the architect in the presence of the Commissioners appointed to

superintend the improvements which are now being effected in that venerable edifice . The original roof will , as far as is possible , be reproduced in the new one . One of the most interesting yacht races thafc has ever occurred was begun on Saturday ancl finished between five and six o ' clock on Sunday afternoon . Ifc was a race from Gravesend to Ryde ,

in the Isle of Wight . Eight vessels started , and after an exciting race of a day and a quarter , in which , as may be imagined , there was a good many changes of position , the race was won by Sir J . Dunbar's Madcap . A most numerously attended meeting was held on Wednesday , at the Freemasons' Hall , in reference to the extension of the franchise . Mr . Edmund

Beales occupied the chair , the resolutions declared against the present state of the representation of the people , and demanded manhood suffrage . Ifc was further resolved to commence at once an organised movement to carry out the objects of the resolutions . Mr . W . Smith O'Brien , so well known in connection with the last Irish rebellion , for participation in which he was sentenced to transportation for life , but received a free pardon ,

died on Thursday , the I 6 th , at Bangor , after a brief illness . An important series of gunnery experiments has just been made at Shoeburyness . The object was to test the resisting powers of a fcargefc representing a section of the iron-clad Lord Warden , now building , ancl in the same trials to determine the comparative penetrating powers of the Somerset and Frederick

gun , and of fche Armstrong and Anderson guns . The first represents guns of the same weight—6 i tous each , but the Frederick is of smaller bore than the other . The other guns are both of 3001 b . weight , but the Anderson gun is likewise of smaller bore than the Armstrong . The result of the trials , which were of great interest , was the target , though in its

principal parfcs 42 | inches thick , was knocked all to pieces , and with respect to fche guns , the large bore guns were found to be superior to their small bore competitors . The annual meeting of the Soldiers' Daughters' Home was hold oil Saturday last . In the theatre of the United Service Institution , Groat Scotland-yard . The girls were brought from fche institution afc Hampsteacl in vans , and were ranged round the room . The Duke of Wellington presided , and a very fashionable company