The Week.

respecting the application of the Public Works Act to the cotton manufacturing districts . In his opinion there is no borough or parish within the district which is not in a position to be benefited by the Act ; and he believes that the whole sum which the Government is prepared to advance will be called for . A very shocking case of suicide , preceded by an attempt to murder , took place on Friday morning , the 21 st inst . A man

named Williamson , a dock labourer , and member of a rifle corps , "hacl been ont drinking all Thursday night . In the morning he came home and demanded more money from his wife , and , as she did not give him all he wanted , he attempted to cut her throat . She burst from him , however , and escaped from the house . An hour or two afterwards it was discovered that he ,

being left alone in the house , had shot himself through the head with his rifle . An inquest ou the body of the unhappy man was hold on . Saturday , tho jury deciding that the suicide was the result of delirium tremens , this terrible disease having its usual origin . Wigwell Hall , near Wirksworth , has been the scene of a dreadful tragedy . The grand-daughter of Captain Goodwin ,

one of the oldest magistrates in Derbyshire , was , on the evening of the 21 st instant , murdered by a young gentleman who had recently been paying his addresses to her . The murderer is Mr . George A'ictor Townley , of Manchester , a person of very respectable family connections . Miss Goodwin hacl thought proper to receive the attentions of another suitor , and on

learning this , Townley sought for and obtained an interview with her . Finding that she was still determined not to accept him lie drew a large clasp knife from his pocket , and stabbed her in the neck and shoulders . His victim died shortly afterwards , and Townley " deliberately gave himself into custody . " He has been committed for trial for wilful murder . The murder has created an immense excitement . In the locality where it took place that

feeling is greatly intensified by the fact that the grandfather of the young lady , with whom she was residing at the time of the dreadful tragedy , was the senior magistrate of the district of AYirksworth , and had greatly endeared himself to all classes by liis kindness of disposition . He is in his eighty-second year , and is one of the few survivors of Waterloo . A curious confession of an agrarian outrage has been made at Liverpool .

A man named Garratty has admitted himself to be the murderer of an Irish magistrate so far ago as 1845 . Surrounding circumstances load to a belief in the truth of the man ' s statement At tiie South Lancashire Assizes , a girl named Benyon , not more than seventeen years of age , was sentenced to death for child murder . Tho jury strongly recommended her to mercy ,

and the remarks of the learned judge in passing sentence give reason to think that the recommendation will not go unheeded The storm of thunder and lightning whicli broke over the metropolis on Tuesday did not pass without doing some injury . A flash struck the spire of the Roman Catholic Church at Deptford , and carried away the cross at the top , besides doing

considerable damage to the brickwork . It appears also that the storm was not without fatal effects . A young lady was killed incidentally by it , but rather through the excitement and alarm thrill by the lightning itself . A very serious accident happened on Saturday at tho works for the railway bridge over the Thames at Blackfriars . The waterways between tho places

where the supporting piers of the bridge are to be , are spanned by massive beams , along which the " traveller " for carrying materials runs . Shortly after three o ' clock on Saturday , as the " traveller " was being run over one of these spaces , the beams gave way and came crushing clown upon a barge below on which several men were working . Seven of the men wore thrown into the river . One of them has since died , and others of thorn were seriously hurt . An

Italian gentleman named Narni has been in London for some time displaying certain instruments of torture , which he said were in use in the Neapolitan prisons under the old regime , and he employed a lady to lecture upon them ancl explain their use . The exhibition , however , did not appear to meet the English taste , and the iiiih <_ 2 ) py gentlemen , oppressed it is thought with the want of means to meet his engagements ,

committed suicide on Saturday . A very curious action as to the copyright of a play was tried at the Croyden Assizes on Saturday . A dramatic author named Seman brought an action against the proprietor of the Royal Amphitheatre , at Liverpool , for having performed his play of Jessie Proton ; or , the Belief of Luclcnow , without permission . But when the trial came on

it was proved that Mr . Seman had no property in the play , which was , in fiict , the production of Mr . Boucicault . So clearly was this brought out that the counsel for the plaintiff elected to be non-suited ; and the judge observed the action ought never to have been brought . One of the strangest trials that has come before tho court at the present Croydon

Assizes was commenced on Tuesday . Mr . AVoolley , who lately resided at Campden House , Kensington , sued the Sun Fire Insurance office for a policy of £ 4000 , which he had effected on his mansion , that was burned down with all its contents last year . This sum of £ 1000 , however , is only one of several policies effected on the house , amounting in all to about £ 20 , 000 .

The Sun Office , along with other offices who had also insurances on the mansion , refused to pay on the two grounds—first , that the house and its contents were greatly over-insured , and next that the fire itself was wilful . The case is expected to last for several days . Sir John Burgoyne and several other persons of the first rank and position in society testified to the magnificence with which Campden House was furnished .

The Scotia has brought advices of the loss of the Georgia , a fine steamer belonging to a Liverpool firm , and only launched last autumn . She seems to have stranded off the coast of Nova Scotia . Tho loss is fortunately confined to the cargo , the value of which is estimated at £ 130 , 000 . The thirty-third meeting of the British Association was opened on Wednesday at Newcastle-upon-Tyne , under promising circumstances . The

President , Sir W . G . Armstrong , delivered a long inaugural address , in which he dwelt generally with many of the loading branches of science . Taking advantage of the nature of tho staple traffic of tho district in which the meeting was being hold , the President enlarged at considerable length on the question of coal supply . He said that though the entire quantity of coal might

be considered as practically inexhaustible , there was much cause for anxiety with regard to the supply which should hereafter be obtained in our own country . He computed the duration of our coalfields at little more than 200 years , and his estimate of the duration of the Newcastle district—if production should increase at the present ratio—is less than half that period . There are ,

however , immense coalfields abroad which will supply any deficiency at home . The President ' s observations on the mora recondite subjects of science , such as the dynamical theory of heat , the magnetism of the sun and the sun's spots , and some atmospheric phenomena , were of a highly interesting nature even to the unscientific .

FOREIGN INTELLIGENCE . —At the sitting of the Frankfort Congress on Saturday , the reply of the King of Prussia to the invitation borne by tho King of Saxony was read . The reply absolutely declined the invitation . Tho Congress has since adopted , with modifications , the article of the Austrian project of reform relating to the Directorate . This body will consist of six members , to be constituted thus—Austria , Prussia , and Bavaria , will each have one vote ; Saxony , Hanover , and Wurteni-