Mutiny Bills read a first time.—Jewish Disabilities Bill read a
first time.

2nd.—Union of Benefices Bill withdrawn.—Maynooth: Mr.
Scholefield's amendment negatived.—Mutiny Bills read a
second time.

3rd.—Import Duties, Mr. Hume's resolution negatived.—
Mutiny Bills reported,—Judges' Exclusion Bill read a first
time.

4th.—Clergy Reserves Bill read a second time.—Examiner
in Chancery Bill passed.—Ways and Means.

7th.—Pilotage Bill brought in by Mr. Cardwell.—Mutiny
Bills passed.

8th.—Pilotage Bill read a first time.—Scotch Sheriff Courts,
leave given Mr. Crawfurd to bring in a Bill.—Assurance
Associations, and National Gallery, Committees appointed.

9th.—Great London Drainage Bill read a second time.

10th.—Attorneys' Certificates, leave given to bring in a
Bill.—Assaults on Women Bill read a first time.

11th.—Jewish Disabilities Bill read a second time.—Sheriff
Courts (Scotland) Bill read a first time.

14th.—Jewish Disabilities Bill considered in committee.

15th.—Reports of Election Committees.—Attorneys' Certificates
Bill withdrawn to be corrected.—Aggravated Assaults
Bill read a second time.

16th.—County Rates Bill considered in committee.—Attorneys'
Certificates Bill re-introduced.

17th.—Six Mile Bridge Affair, papers ordered on Mr. Napier's
motion.—Report of Norwich Election Committee.

18th.—Clergy Reserves considered in committee.— Adjournment
to the 4th of April.

The Chancellor of the Exchequer received on the
12th inst. a deputation of gentlemen connected with the
newspaper press, on the subject of the Advertisement
Duty. They were introduced by Mr. EWART, M.P.,
who submitted a number of objections to the tax, the
principal of which were the following: "1st. Because
it is a tax on knowledge, and falls with partiality on an
important portion of the press—the newspaper,
magazine, and periodical. All other means of advertising
escape the duty. 2nd. It is an unjust tax. It cannot
be equitably assessed or collected. The rich man pays
only 1s. 6d. to advertise the sale of an estate; the poor
man pays 1s. 6d. to advertise for employment. 3rd. It
falls heavily on particular classes of property, impeding
to an important extent advertisements in journals. In
America, any man who wishes to lend or to hire, to buy
or to sell, announces his wish without being subject to
any duty, for 1s. 4th. It acts most injuriously on
literary works striving at cheapness. The cost of advertising
sometimes amounts to more than the whole profit
of author and publisher on works which are successful.
5th. It is a tax which goes far to fetter the free extension
of the press, and prevents the circulation of a sound
and wholesome literature among working men. In
America there are 350 daily papers—in England there
are only ten. 8th. It is a tax that should be repealed,
because the public would derive the full benefit of the
repeal. In many cases a larger reduction than the duty
would be made by newspaper proprietors. 10th. The
small amount of revenue which it yields—about £150,000
per annum—renders it altogether unworthy of retention,
at the cost of a tithe of the hardship and injustice which
it inflicts,"—A conversation then ensued with reference
to the objectionable features of the tax, and its effect
upon short advertisements was especially pressed upon
the attention of the Chancellor. It was .shown that
four-fifths of the advertisements in the Times consisted
of such as did not exceed ten lines in length. The
object of the deputation was the total repeal of the tax,
but in answer to an inquiry from the Chancellor of the
Exchequer, it was admitted by the gentlemen present
that its reduction to 6d. would afford material relief to
the advertising public, and it was urged that, whilst in
a short time no loss of revenue would ensue from the
total repeal, owing to the compensating effect of increased
stamps and paper duty—the reduction of the duty to 6d.
would most probably be attended with an immediate
increase of revenue.

A meeting of merchants and traders in the City has
been held to promote the Reduction of the Tea-Duties.
Mr. Masterman, the city member, presided. The
meeting passed resolutions and adopted a memorial,
setting forth, that if the duties were reduced there
would be an increase of consumption which would
speedily repair any loss to the revenue, and an increase
in the exports of manufactures, as in most instances
trade with China is one of barter; showing, that while
in six years the consumption of tea in Great Britain has
increased only from 57,600,000 pounds to 65,000,000
pounds, in the United States where there is no duty it
has increased from 18,000,000 pounds to 34,300,000
pounds; and praying for a prompt and liberal revision
of the duties. The measure proposed in the speeches,
and seemingly concurred in by the meeting, was a
reduction of the duties to 1s. per pound; and ad valorem
duties were deprecated.

NARRATIVE OF LAW AND CRIME

A NUMBER of cases of Child Murder have been tried
at the assizes during this month. The two following are
the most remarkable. At Nottingham a young woman
named Mary Antliff was indicted for the murder of her
stepson, on the 1st of December last. She had been
married to the child's father only nine weeks before his
death; and it appeared that during the whole of that
time she had behaved with extreme cruelty to the child,
who was only two years and a half old at the time of his
death, as well as to two older children of her husband
by his former wife. It was sworn that she frequently
beat and shook the child severely; that she sometimes
threw him on the ground with violence, and even
kicked him across the floor; that she kept him immersed
in cold water for an hour together, although the child's
offence was really occasioned by the effects of teething;
that she stinted him in food, and turned him out into
the cold with insufficient clothing, so that a neighbour
sometimes took him in and warmed and fed him. On
one occasion when this was done some of the neighbours
examined the child's body and found it covered with
bruises: and about the same time, in reply to an
observation, that the child looked very weakly, the prisoner
replied that "it would not die; it had no die in it."
On the 1st of December the eldest child fetched one of
the neighbours to the prisoner's house, and there the
youngest was found on the prisoner's lap, dying; and
in about an hour it did die. A bad bruise was seen on
the forehead, and upon further examination others at
the back of the head and in various parts of the body;
and the prisoner, upon being asked how those on the
head were occasioned, answered, that she did not know.
The prisoner was found guilty of manslaughter, and
sentenced to be transported for life.—At the same place,
and on the same day, Mary Ann Parr, aged twenty-five,
was indicted for the Murder of her female child, at
Bingham, on the 3rd of December last. The prisoner,
who was a miserable-looking object, apparently almost
blind, and wearing a stolid, half idiotic expression of
countenance, at first pleaded "Guilty," but subsequently
she withdrew that plea. From the statements made by
several inmates of the Bingham Union Workhouse, it
appeared that the prisoner was received into that house
suffering from inflammation of the eyes; and that at
the end of November last, after she had been there some
time, she was delivered of a female child. She refused
to suckle it, although she was quite able to do so; and
when asked the reason, she said, "she wanted to go out
to work, and if she suckled it how was she to leave it?"
One witness had said to her, " The child will die," to
which she replied, "Let it die." Afterwards, however,
she was prevailed upon to suckle it for two or three
days, but on the 3rd of December the child was observed
nearly dead in her arms; and the witness, who noticed
it, said that it gave one gasp and then died. Two days
afterwards the prisoner said to one of the inmates of the
workhouse, "I've killed the baby;" and being asked
"how?" added, "I smothered it." At the coroner's
inquest she also made a statement of which the following
are the material parts:—I took the child to my breast
at first to suckle it. I then squeezed it against my
breast on purpose to take away its life; and when I
thought it was dead I was frightened. I was not
exactly sure that it was dead till my mistress came and
told me. I had no particular reason for not suckling
the child when I was told to do so, except that I thought
my hands would be at liberty again." The counsel for
the defence suggested that the only possible way of
accounting for the extraordinary circumstances of the