Literary Extracts.

a vision oi a penny top , a popgun roughly made from a "branch of alder-tree , a kite composed of a half-penny cane and a sheet of brown paper , a worsted ball wound upon an oldbarrelbung , and a teetotum . Again : the other evening I went to a party , and I had scarcely entered the house when my host ' s two boys carried me off into the garden to take my photograph . One , quite a little fellow , posed

me in the chair , instructed me to look at a certain spot , and warned me of that principle ofthe convex lens which has a tendency to enlarge feet and hands which are placed too much in advance of the rest of the body . The other boy , meanwhile , was in a dark room , playing with subtle chemicals of whose nature and properties his grandfather , the eminent chemist , had never even dreamed . In less

than five minutes these two youngsters had used one of the closests secrets of nature to fix my image on a piece of glass . It was as easy a feat for them as ifc was for me to lift up my top , while spinning , in a spoon or in the hollow of my hand When I was a boy , my stock of play literature consisted of some half-dozen sixpenny books , such as Jack the Giant Killer , Puss in Boots ,

4 he History of Cock Robin , and an abridgement of the Arabian Nights . I remember that I kept them locked up in a deal box , and was exceedingly chary of lending them , or even letting any one look afc them . But boys now-adays take in their monthly and weekly magazines , correspond with the editor , answers riddles and rebuses , contribute puzzles , and engage in chess tournaments by correspondence ; nay , they clnb subscriptions to JSIudie ' s , and read all the new sensation novel . ; as they appear . — All the Year Ilmiiul .

The Week.

THE WEEK .

THE COT ; ET . —The Prince and Princess of Wales arrived at Marlborough House on Sunday from Scotland . The Queen left Balmoral yesterday , am ! arrived afc Windsor this morning . The Prince and Princess of AA ' ales , accompanied by Prince Alfred , Princess Hilda of Aiihalf , and Prince John of Glucksburg-, went to Hor Majesty ' s Theatre on Monday evening ' . GEXERAV . I-IOMK XESVS-Tho death of L < m \ Palmerston has

provoked a universal expression of sorrow throughout the country . The Corporation of London is generally the first tb give audible voice to the public feeling on melancholy occasions like the present , and a special court has been held at the Guildhall under tho presidency of the Lord Mayor . On the motion of Mr . P . Maynard , the chairman of the principal corporation committee , a suitable resolution was passed . Earl Russell luis boon sent for hy Her Majestywho has

, requested him to reform the Administration , It is believed that for tho present the noble lord will continue to hold the Foreign Secretaryship together with the post of Prime Minister . It is stated that Mr . Justice Crompton has resigned his oflice on account of ill health . He was made jud . ro in 1 S 52 . Chief Justice Erie has had

a mil from his horse , but he has recovered from the shako which ho sustained . The prisoners Jounlain and Barthe , against whom ¦ various charges of i ' raud have been preferred , were finally committed for trial at the Mansion House yesterday week . A man named John Healey is in custody at AY ' arwick , charged on his own confession with the murder of a man at AAlgau about eighteen months ago . An old man named Barton was set upon by several

follows , who rohbed him , heat him , and then put him on a fire because he refused to say where he had more money . Healey says ho was ono of tea-ton ' s ^ assailants . He 1 ms been remanded . It seems there aro grave doubts whether the man Healey , who confessed at AVai-. vick complicity in the murder of aa old mau at AVigau , had really anything to do with it . The police at AVigan

believe the story to he a concoction got up hy Healey to induce the prison authorities to treat him more leniently . Au inquest has been held at the A estry Hail , Soho , on the body of Albert AVilliam Thresh , who committed suicide on tho ere of his marriage . He had not quarrelled with his intended bride , or with any one else ; his circumstances were good , and his motive for the rash act was totally inexplicable , It appeared that ho destroyed himself hy swallowing

a quantity of vitriol . The jury found that he committed suicide while suffering from temporary insanity . Lord Palmerston ' s wishes as to his funeral have been set aside , and he was buried in Westminster Abbey . . Earl Russell has , it is said , every reason to believe that the reorganisation of the Ministry under his leadership will he beset hy no difficulties . The necessary meeting of the Cabinet was to have been held on Thursday ; but , owing to the change in the

arrangements as to the funeral of Lord Palmerston , it was postponed to to-day . It is believed Earl Russell will be prepared with a list of the new Ministry for the approval of her Majesty . The remains of Vincent AVallaco were interred on Monday in Kensal-greon cemetery . Several of the friends of tho deceased wore present afc the funeral . ——Tbe Lord entertained Emma of Hawaii at banquet

Mayor Queen a at the Mansion-house on Monday evening . Hor Majesty was attended hy Lady Franklin and her suite . The proceedings were of an interesting character . A usually well-informed Liverpool contemporary emphatically contradicts tho report that Garibaldi is labouring under pecuniary difficulties . This correction , which appears to be made on authority , will relieve the minds of

multitudes of the General's friends and admirers in this country . At tho AA'cstminster Police-court , on Monday , a slaughterman aud his assistant were brought up to answer a charge of infringing the Privy Council Orders in respect to a cow afflicted with the cattle plague . Mr . F . Stanley , Government inspector , deposed that the cow in question was most unmistakably suffering from the plague . Mr . Cross , another Government inspector , was called for the

defence , and bo stated that he made a post-mortem examination of the cow , and there was not a trace pf disease in the animal . Another veterinary surgeon gave similar testimony , and the case was dismissed . The Cambridgeshire was run for on Tuesday afc Newmarket , iu the presence of the Prince of AA ales , Prince Alfred , and the Du ' . co of Cambridge . At the Central Criminal Court or . Tuesday Thomas AVood , late a cashier in the Dank of Loudon , who was charged with stealing upwards of £ 3 , 0 ( 10 from that establishment , was brought up for

judgment , and sentenced to five years' penal servitude . In the New Court the persons charged with fraud on the Birmingham Bank succeeded in an application for the postponment of tiieir ' triiil to next session . At the Lambeth Police-court on Tuesday a man was charged with committing bigamy twice . One wife is enough for an ordinary man at a time , hero is a fellow who is not content with less than three . He was sent for trial . Au extraordinary affair is

reported . A man named Mcdland , who has been a farm servant , went to spend the day at the house of bis former employer afc Moortowu , near Tavistock . Iu tbe evening , while ono of the daughters was blowing up the live , Mcdland shot her with a revolver , and then fired at the mother and two other daughters , finishing up with an attempt to cut his own throat with a butcher ' s knife . He is said to have divided small arteries and the windpipe in two places , but tho injuries

must have been slight , as on Monday , when he was brought before tho Tavistock magistrates , he was able to speak without much difficulty . He was committed for trial at the Exeter Assizes , and there will probably he a defence raised that ho was insane . AA orkmeii have begun to prepare the grave of Lord Palmerston iu AVestminster Abbey . lie is to he buried close to Pitt and Fox and other statesmen who have had graves hi the Abbey awarded to them . Avery

singular case was decided in the Clerkenwell County Court on Tuesday . A Mr . Lre'iiau bought of a Mr . Isaacs , a broker , for three shillings , a box which the latter had purchased at a sale . When Mr . Brumim came to examine the box at home he found in it a secret drawer , in which was a gild coin of tho reign of Charles I . in a state of good preservation , lie took the coin to Mr . Isaacs and showed it to him . Isaacs asked to be allowed to handle it , and this being

granted , refused to give it back to Mr . Brumaii , and claimed it as his property . Mr . Bruman thereupon sued him in the county court for the value ofthe coin , and the defence set up was that the coin had never been sold to the plaint !!!' . Tlie judge gave judgment for the plaintiff , and quoted a num her of precedents in support of his decision . . At AVovship-street Police-court a young Irishman , named Kelly was charged with being concerned in an assault upon the police . According to the evidence of 2-3 G G , the prisoner , when told ti