a rate of two shillings in the pound was proposed in the
Braintree Vestry. The Dissenters moved an amendment,
condemning church-rates in general, and refusing
that rate in particular. The amendment was carried by
a large majority. It was then asked whether any
amendment was proposed as to the amount of the rate,
and no answer was given. The rate was then produced
and signed by the Vicar, the Churchwardens, and
several ratepayers; the mover of the amendment, Mr.
S. Courtauld, protesting. The question as to the validity
of a rate thus made has been decided both negatively and
affirmatively in several courts, and now it came before
the House of Lords on an appeal in error against the
judgment of the Court of Exchequer, which had
sustained the rate. The House of Lords reversed the
judgment of the court below, on the ground that the rate
was made by the minority against the will of the
majority.

At the Central Criminal Court, on the 17th, Edouard
Raynaud, a Frenchman, was tried for a misdemeanour,
in having solicited the Prince de Joinville to join in a
Conspiracy to Assassinate the Emperor of the French.
The prince proved that the prisoner had written him
letters to that effect. The defence was, that the prisoner's
object was merely to extort money from the prince; and
as it appeared that this was really the case, the prisoner
was acquitted.

At the Westminster County Court, on the 18th inst.,
Messrs. Thrupp, coach-builders, brought a claim against
the Hon. Mr. Norton, the police magistrate, for £49. 10s.,
the balance of a bill for Repairing a Carriage belonging
to the Hon. Mrs. Norton. That lady was called as a
witness, and stated that Mr. Norton had agreed to pay
her an allowance of £500 a year after they had separated
in 1836; but that it had not been paid since 1852: hence
her debts to tradespeople. A long and painful discussion
ensued, in which the domestic differences of Mr. and
Mrs. Norton were introduced; but they had no bearing
on the merits of the question before the court; and the
judge nonsuited the plaintiffs on the simple ground that
during the years over which the debt extended, Mrs.
Norton had regularly received her allowance from her
husband.

At the Hammersmith Police Court, on the 22nd, Mary
Ann Shadwell, a girl of sixteen, was charged with
Stealing Articles belonging to "the Home," at
Shepherd's Bush. On the 29th ult. the prisoner and another
young girl about the same age were admitted into the
"Home," an establishment entirely supported by Miss
Burdett Coutts, for the reformation of young females,
from the House of Detention Clerkenwell, where they
had been under remand for felony. On Saturday
morning, the 6th inst., the prisoner and the other girl
were found to be missing; and upon a search being
made the larder window, which had been closed the
previous evening, was discovered to be open. The
private parlour of Mrs. Morson, the superintendent, was
found to be in a terrible state of confusion, and everything
in the apartment appeared to have been upset.
A number of articles were missed from the room, including
a crimson table cover which had been taken off the
table in the centre of the room, two scent bottles with
silver tops, two pairs of scissors, two thimbles, &c., and
from the kitchen they missed seven metal spoons. From
their bed-room they had carried off five cotton dresses,
two merino dresses, two shawls, a suit of under clothing
each, and other articles. The prisoner was apprehended
in Covent-garden Market on Tuesday evening last,
and on being searched at the station in Hammersmith
she was found wearing three of the missing dresses, and
also some of the other things which she had stolen from
the establishment. The other girl had not been found.
The inmates of the "Home" are at full liberty to quit
the establishment whenever they think proper, by giving
notice, and upon leaving the "Home" they have to
change their clothing belonging to Miss Coutts and to
resume their own wearing apparel. The prisoner, nor
her companion, had given any such notice to quit the
"Home," and they had absconded in the clothing
furnished to them by the establishment. The girl was
committed for trial.

At the Middlesex Sessions, on the 22nd inst., Thomas
Thompson, a Begging-Letter Impostor, who had been
committed as an incorrigible rogue and sent to the
sessions to be dealt with accordingly, was sentenced to
one year's imprisonment with hard labour. It appeared
that he wrote to Lord Grey in the name of J. W. Brandling,
stating that he was a junior member of the family of
the Brandlings, of Gosforth, and that he was in great
distress, and his lordship sent him a post-office order for
£2. Persons carrying on these fraudulent practices almost
invariably made use of letters they received from the
parties they applied to, to enable them the better to
impose upon and defraud others; and in this case the
prisoner, after he had got Lord Grey's letter made an
application to Lord Palmerston, enclosing Lord Grey's
letter, to show that his case had already received Lord
Grey's favourable consideration, this application being
also in the name of Brandling; but it happened that the
letter was opened by Mr. Grey, Lord Palmerston's
private secretary, who was himself distantly related to
the Brandling family, and he at once was aware of the
falsehood of the representations contained in the
application, and the letter was at once remitted to the
Mendicity Society, and the result was the prisoner's
apprehension. It also appeared that he had been
convicted several times of similar practices, having made
applications to the late Queen Dowager, the Duke of
Portland, the Duchess of Sutherland, and many other
persons of distinction.

Mr. W. H. Phillips, the inventor and patentee of the
machine for extinguishing fires called the "Fire
Annihilator," was charged at the Mansion-house, on
the 23rd inst., with having made a Disturbance in
The Offices of The Fire Annihilator Company and
Assaulted the Secretary. The charge was proved by
a policeman and the secretary. It appeared that
Mr. Phillips, who had ceased to be superintendent
two years ago, came into the office, took possession of
the secretary's desk, tore up some papers, and broke one
of the windows. The defendant said he had acted under
circumstances of great excitement, when he went into
the office. He was the patentee of the "Fire Annihilator
Invention" and he held a large number of shares in the
association established to carry it into effect. Finding,
however, that certain reports were in circulation calculated
to injure the company, he had ceased to have any
interest in the patent. He went into the offices he
admitted, as he considered he had a right so to do, and
he had torn up some of the prospectuses which
represented his connexion with the company as patentee;
but so far from having committed an assault upon any
one, he had actually endeavoured to save himself from
an expected assault by breaking the window in the hope
of alarming some persons in the street. He thought
that sort of hint would be better than any other, and he
therefore gave it. The Lord Mayor called upon Mr.
Phillips to enter into his own recognisances in the sum
of £60 to keep the peace for six months. [Mr. Phillips
has written to the newspapers to correct an inaccuracy
in the police-report. He states that he did not say that
he had ceased to have any interest in the patent; the
fact being that he is the largest shareholder in the
company.]

NARRATIVE OF ACCIDENT AND
DISASTER.

A Female Aeronaut has been Killed in France. On
the 20th instant, a young woman named Emma Verdier
ascended by herself in a balloon at Mount-de-Marsan.
The balloon rose most evenly, and, as the weather was
perfectly calm, no apprehensions were entertained of
any accident. The next day, however, it was ascertained
that the young woman had fallen to the ground in
about two hours and a half after the time of the ascent,
at Montesquieu, a village sixty miles distant, and was
killed on the spot. Some haymakers were startled at
seeing a white body fall to the earth a short distance
from them. They found it to be the body of a young
woman dressed in white. She had fallen head foremost,
and her skull was split open. At no great distance was
to be seen the anchor of the balloon fixed in an oak, a
long piece of rope being attached to the iron. The