20th.—Patent Law Amendment Bill (No. 2), read a third time,
and passed.

22nd.—St. Albans Disfranchisement Bill read a second time.

House of Commons.—March 29th.—Edinburgh and Canongate
Annuity Tax Abolition Bill read a second time.—Mutiny Bill
passed through committee.

30th.—Wine Duties: Select Committee appointed—Mr. Berkeley's
motion for Vote by Ballot, negatived by 246 to 144.

April 1st.—British Subjects abroad: Mr. M. Milnes' motion
disposed of by the previous question.—Borough of Harwich, Sir
De L. Evans's motion for a Bribery Commission, negatived by
137 to 95.

2nd. Ministerial Explanations.—Writ issued for Harwich—
Repayment of Advances (Ireland) Bill read a second time.—
Protection of Inventions Bill passed through committee.—
Corrupt Practices at Elections Bill considered in committee.
—Militia Bill read a first time.

5th.—Ministerial Policy, Debate on Mr. Osborne's demand
for Explanations.—Caffre War Expenses. Vote in Supply—
Corrupt Practices at Elections Bill passed through committee.

6th.—County Courts Further Extension Bill, Amendments
considered in committee.—Corrupt Practices at Elections Bill
considered in committee. House adjourned to the 19th.

19th.—Grand Juries in London, leave given to the Attorney
General to bring in a Bill to Abolish.—Passengers Act Amendment
Bill, and Corrupt Practices at Elections Bill, considered
in committee. The Rev. Mr. Bennett: Mr. Horsman's motion lost
by the previous question.—Hungarian Refugees, Lord Dudley
Stuart's motion for Correspondence agreed to.

21st.—Irish Fisheries, Mr. Conolly's Bill withdrawn.—Parish
Constables Bill, and Enfranchisement of Copyholds Bill read a
second time.

22nd.—Taxes on Knowledge.—Debate on Mr. M. Gibson's
motion adjourned.

23rd.—Militia Bill.—Debate and second reading adjourned.

26th.—Militia Bill.—Second reading carried by 315 to 165.—
Loan Societies Bill read a third time and passed.—Highway
Rates Bill and Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction Bill, read a second
time.

The Goldsmiths' Company entertained her Majesty's
ministers on the 17th. The Earl of Derby made a
speech, in the course of which he illustrated, by reference
to the recent gold discoveries, his own success in
discovering a new crop of statesmen. "Hitherto," said
his lordship, "gold has been considered to be confined
to a very limited quarter, capable of very small extension,
and spread over a very small portion of the globe;
but suddenly, to the astonishment of the world, from
various distant regions, at one and the same time, it is
pouring in upon us with a profusion that is astonishing
all ranks and all classes, the effect of which it is difficult
to foresee, but of which it is not difficult to say that it
must work strange and extraordinary revolutions in the
system of society. But it is not only in regard to the
discovery of gold that new mines appear to be opened to
us. Within a very short time, as with regard to gold,
so there was (as it turns out) a popular delusion that the
field of statesmen and of the political metal was almost
as limited: it was supposed that the crop of statesmen
was one of very limited amount, for which, if you were
disposed to search, you must dig in certain favoured
localities, and confine yourself to searching for them
there. I am happy to think, gentlemen, that, to some
degree, I have been instrumental in dispelling that
illusion. A fortunate adventurer, as I was to consider
myself, honoured with the commission from her
Majesty to do the best that he could for her service, I
have ventured boldly to open a new mine; and I am
happy to say that, in the opinion of competent judges, so
far as it has yet been worked, the ore that has been
raised contains among it as large a proportion of sterling
metal, with as little admixture of dross, as any that was
ever drawn from the old and exclusive mines to which
we were formerly confined." This effusion was received
with "loud cheers and laughter."

NARRATIVE OF LAW AND CRIME.

A Dreadful Murder was committed in Lambeth on
the morning of the 3rd. A son killed his mother, and
then cut off her head. The murdered woman was Mrs.
Elizabeth Wheeler, a widow, of about the age of forty-
four, who resided in Durham Place, Kennington Road,
facing Bethlem Hospital for lunatics. The son who
killed her was Thomas Cathie Wheeler, twenty-eight
years of age, a young man who has been well educated,
and was a good linguist, who once filled a well-paid
situation in the Brazils under a mercantile firm, but has
been confined in a lunatic asylum twice, and lately has
been unable to do anything at all for his own living.
His mother was fondly attached to him, and wholly
supported him. The landlord of Mrs. Wheeler was Mr.
Toms, a carpet-bag manufacturer, who occupied the
ground-floor of the house in which she lived; and in a
floor above that occupied by her lodged Eliza Phillips,
who has known her for nearly thirty years. In the
examination of the criminal before the Lambeth Police-
Court, Eliza Phillips said, that, hearing a scuffling noise
in Mrs. Wheeler's room, followed by a heavy fall, she
ran up-stairs and tapped at the door, which was partly
opened by the prisoner, and hastily closed again in her
face. Fearing that something was the matter, she ran
down stairs, and called the landlord and landlady. Mrs.
Elizabeth Toms, the landlady, stated that she ran up-
stairs, found Mrs. Wheeler on the floor, saw blood, ran
down-stairs, and sent persons for a doctor and in pursuit
of the prisoner. She added—"Ever since I have been in
the house, I have observed something irregular in his
manner. Lately I observed that he was getting worse.
When he had his fits on him, he looked very pale and ill."
Mr. Hutchinson, surgeon, stated that when he came into
the room the body of the deceased was still warm; on the
table, which was spread with a cloth for dinner, was the
poor woman's head. On the floor was a pillow, bearing
marks as if a person had knelt on it to be unstained by the
blood on the floor. Mr. Toms stated that he followed and
overtook the prisoner, and gave him into the custody
of policeman Lockyer. Policeman Lockyer described
what passed after the arrest. The witness: I said to
him, he must consider himself in my custody, and go
with me to the station. He said, 'They have not let
me go far: I have been tormented for four or five years
by them.' I said, 'Do you mean to say that you have
killed your mother?' and he said, 'I have: I am sorry
for it.' I said, 'How came you to do it?' 'Well,' he
said, 'I have been tormented for four or five years.' I
asked him how he did it, and he said, 'She was coming
in at the door, and I knocked her down with the flat-iron,
and I found that that was not sufficient, and I then
took the carving-knife. She was very tough, and I then
struck her head off with the hatchet.' At the station-
house I found a knife in his coat pocket, and I asked
him what he was going to do with it, and he said, 'That
was for myself.' I understood that he was going to cut
his own throat. He said, 'you will find a letter on the
table, and take particular care of it.' That was before
he said anything about the knife. On going to the
house, I found several letters on the table, but I have
not had time to read them yet. I searched for the flat-
iron, and found it in a bundle of clothes lying by the
side of the body. There is blood on the iron.—The
prisoner: I spoke more respectfully than the man has
stated. I did not make a bravado of it. I spoke
sorrowfully, did I not?—The policeman: Yes, you
did.—The magistrate: I have already more than once
cautioned you as to what you say.—The prisoner: I am
quite prepared to go to the scaffold. I struck her with
the flat-iron, and blood must have blood; but I did not
bravado about it.—Eliza Phillips added this statement:
I saw him go out as if on an errand, and heard him
return. As he went up-stairs, he talked to himself; that
was usual with him, but he talked then louder than
usual. Mrs. Wheeler had come into my room at about
half-past or a quarter-past ten, and said she was so much
frightened of him that she would send him away on
Monday, as she could not bear it any longer; and that
she had an idea last night to send to the workhouse that
he might be taken there. She asked me if my little boy
would carry a letter to the post-office for her; and I said
he would. She said the letter was for her daughter,
who was at Tunbridge Wells. She told me that the
prisoner had been standing with a flat-iron in his hand
in the morning, and was muttering something that was
most awful. At the re-examination on the following
day, the prisoner was generally tranquil, but at times
his behaviour gave indications of his unhappy state. It
became still more evident that it had been known for a
long time that the prisoner's mind was affected, and that
latterly he was dangerous. A letter from Hertford