The Week.

on Tuesday afternoon with presents of books , toys , aud plum pudding , for all tbe boys and girls of the Whippingbam Schools . Soon after half-past four o'clock Her Majesty entered the hall with their Royal Highnesses Princess Helena , Princess Louise , Prince Arthur , Prince Leopold , and Princess Beatrice , when tbe children , about one hundred in number , were introduced ,

and received their presents from Her Majesty and the Royal Family . The ladies and gentlemen in waiting were in attendance , and the Rev . G . Prothero , rector of Whippingbam ,-TMYS . Prothero , and their family , had the honour of being invited . GENERAL HOME NEWS . —The vestry of Marylebone has resolved to oppose a project for au underground railway from the

Baker-street station of the Metropolitan Railway to Oxfordstreet . A deputation of the inhabitants of York-place and Portman-square waited on tho vestry last week to ask that body to co-operate with them in opposing the bill . In the discussion which ensued the whole question of railway invasions was gone into . Finally , the court resolved to take action in accordance

with the prayers of the deputation . We regret to say that the number of lives sacrificed by the colliery explosion near Merthyr is probably above , instead of under , thirty . On Wednesday night , the 20 th inst ., there was a destructive Are at Crewe , which destroyed an entire range of stores belonging to the London and North Western Railway . The trial of

the Russian bank note forgers was continued on the 21 st inst . The jury found four out of the five guilty , and they were sentenced to varying but heavy terms of imprisonment . In the course of the case something like a dispute arose between Serjeant Ballantine and Mr . Justice Blackburn . The serjeant wished to sum up the evidence for the prosecution after the last witness had been called . The justice did not think such a course was necessary . Serjeant Ballantine , however , persisted that it was

his duty , m accordance with a recent Act , to sum up , and he did so . In charging the jury Mr . Justice Blackburn commented on the conduct of the serjeant , and said if it was to become a rule that counsel for the prosecution should sum up , even where there had been no new feature in the evidence , the criminal practice would be assimilated to that of nisi prius ,

and counsel would become fierce partisans . Sentence was passed on the 21 st inst . at'the Central Criminal Court on the two men , Jones and Merrick , who were convicted of assaulting Dr . Hunter . Jones was sentenced to two months ' imprisonment , and Merrick to a fine of £ 5 and to be imprisoned until it was paid . The trial of Forwood alias

Southey , the murderer of his wife and child at Ramsgate and of three children in a coffee-house in Holborn , has been brought to a close . The evidence was of considerable interest . Mr . Smith , for the defence , sought to prove that the prisoner was insane . The prison surgeon and other officials all expressed their opinion that he was perfectly sane . While the prison

surgeon was being examined the prisoner several times shrieked out . For the defence three medical men were called , who all expressed opinions that the prisoner was insane . On some points , however , they differed . One of them said he did not think the prisoner comprehended the nature of the present proceedings , while another thought

Southey knew perfectly well that he was being tried for murder . After a careful summing up the jury found the prisoner guilty , and he was sentenced to death . A wreck by which it is f . ared several lives have been lost has just occurred in the Mediterranean . The Borijsthenes steamer struck on a rock near Oran ancl went to pieces . About 200 of

her crew ancl passengers got upon Plane Island , but thirty persons are said to have been drowned . An action was tried in the Court of Queen ' s Bench on Saturday last , iu which Mr .

Swanborough , lessee of the Prince ' s Theatre , Birmingham , was the plaintiff , and Mr . Sothern ( Lord Dundreary ) was the defendant . The action sought to recover damages for a breach of contract . Mr . Sothern had agreed to play in the plaintiffs theatre for a certain number of nights , but when the time came , according to Mr . Swanborough ' s statement , the defendant

refused to play , on the ground that he had not been properly advertised . He also pleaded illness . He played one night , and refused to play move , declaring he was too ill ; but he left Birmingham two days before the expiration of the time for which he was engaged , and went to Dublin where he was to appear . Mr . Swanborough sued for damages on account of

the loss he sustained by the defendant's not playing at his theatre . The defence was that Mr . Sothern was too ill to play , aud medical evidence in proof of this was called . The jury returned a verdict for the plaintiff , with £ 50 damages . Rather an unusual defence was set up in a case at the Southwark Police-court on Saturday last . A young fellow was

charged with liaving obtained several watches from different firms by means of forged orders . He declared that he was innocent , and that the real culprit must have been his twin brother . Several of the witnesses identified him , but he persisted in declaring that they were wrong . Unfortunately for him he did not know where his twin brother was to be

found . It seems he really has such a twin brother , and that the likeness of one to the other is very striking . Both were brought up at tbe Worship-street Police-court on Wednesday , and remanded . On Saturday last a man named Elia Fernie was charged at the Mansion House with stabbing Mr . James Dornbusch . The prisoner had assailed Mr . Dornbusch in Gresham House and stabbed him several times . There seems to have been a feud between the two , and in

the court the prisoner complained bitterly of the prosecutor ' s conduct . Mr . Dornbusch was too much injured to be present , and the prisoner was remanded . On Sunday morning a man named Cook killed his wife at a village called Wideopen , near Newcastle-on-Tyne . They had been out marketing . Both got drunk , and on their way home Cook beat the woman , so that she died . On Sunday morning , too , a

man named M'Manus killed a poor fellow named Dowd at Manchester . They had quarrelled , and M'Manus stabbed Dowd in the groin so severely that he shortly afterwards died . The third affair took place in London . There was a great row on Sunday night in the Drummond-road , Bermondsey , in the course of which a man named Shee had his skull fractured so

severely that he will die . A man named Edward Miles is in custody , charged with having struck the fatal blow . A very suspicious death is reported to have taken place in a house , No . 5 , Morpeth-road , Victoria-park . A retired tradesman named Bromage and his wife lived there . They kept no servant , and Mrs . Bromage has been bedridden for several

months . On Sunday morning Mr . Bromage came out of his house and asked for assistance with his wife . Those who went into the house found the poor woman lying dead in the passage with her head resting on pillows at the foot of the stairs . There was blood in the passage which had flowed from wounds on the head of Mr . Bromage , whose story is , that on Saturday night he

went out and that two strangers accompanied him home . One of these men assaulted him . Afterwards he found that Mrs . Bromage had by some means got downstairs . Finding be could not get her upstairs again , he brought down pillows and wrapped her up in a blanket , and then went to bed himself . Next morning when he came downstairs he found her' dead . Tiie surgeon who examined the body says death has been causedby cold and exposure . The business will bo inquired into by the coroner .