respondent being a minor and a ward of the Court, the
sanction of the Lord Chancellor was necessary for the
carrying out of the agreement; and on the 12th instant
the Attorney–General stated in court the terms of the
compromise, and prayed his lordship's sanction. The
Lord Chancellor said, that having heard the terms
stated, he had no hesitation in saying that he thought
the arrangement was for the benefit of the minor.
Assuming that there was no other question before the
court in the matter, he was of opinion that it would be
for the benefit of the minor to have the compromise
carried into effect. The Attorney–General said, there was
no other question before the court in the case. The
Lord Chancellor—"My decision would be more
unfavourable to the minor than the terms proposed.
Supposing my opinion be unaffected by anything that may
occur, I think the compromise is one that it will be for
the benefit of the minor to carry into effect." The decree
in both cases was accordingly taken.

The action brought by Mr. Adrian John Hope against
the Count Aguado, to recover damages for Criminal
Conversation with Mrs. Hope, partly heard at the
sitting of the Court of Queen's Bench in December, was
terminated on the 14th inst. A vast number of witnesses
were examined on both sides; and the evidence
extracted from them was commented on at great length by
Sir Frederick Thesiger for the plaintiff, and by Attorney–
General Cockburn for the defendant. The witnesses
for the plaintiff spoke to the improprieties committed by
Count Aguado and Mrs. Hope at Paris, Havre, and
Folkestone. One alleged that he had frequently driven
Mrs. Hope to meet Count Aguado at No. 3, Rue
Monceaux, and at No. 20, Rue Labordais, near the Bois de
Boulogne; another, specifying the rooms inhabited by
the parties, said that he had witnessed the Count leave
Mrs. Hope's room early in the morning in Frascati's
Hotel at Havre; and a third, that, in 1850, she had
seen the Count and Mrs. Hope bathe together in the
sea. It was also alleged that during her stay at Folkestone,
Mrs. Hope received Count Aguado in her husband's
absence; that on one occasion, saying she was going to
London, she went really to France; and that on a
subsequent visit to Folkestone she engaged two rooms
connected with each other by folding doors, and occupied
one herself while the Count occupied the other. It was
also sworn that the door was found broken open, and
that the Count, while dressing, was seen to enter the
room, where the lady was dressing also. These allegations
were met by counter allegations, supported on
oath by witnesses—that Count Aguado never did hire a
room at 3, Rue Monceaux; that not he but his brother
hired the house in the Rue Labordais; that during his
stay at Frascati's the Count did not occupy the rooms
specified by the witnesses as the scenes of improper
familiarities; that Mrs. Hope could not swim, and
therefore could not have bathed with Count Aguado.
A respectable witness, Anne Rowse, however, deposed
that her mistress began to learn to swim in 1846. It was
stated that Mrs. Hope could not, as alleged by Mr. Howe,
have met the Count by appointment at Reigate in 1848,
because the Count was at that time in Italy. The
Count's valet deposed, that when his master occupied
the next room to that of Mrs. Hope at Folkestone in
1851, he did not quit him at all in the night, and the
Count was ill; and that the folding doors were not
opened. But this witness had previously deposed, in
his affidavit, that the doors had been opened, and that
he had passed through them. Several of the witnesses
were obviously unworthy of credit; but there was
nothing to shake the testimony of Ann Rowse, and she
deposed that one morning in the summer of 1846, Mr.
Hope having at the request of his wife gone out for a
walk, the children having been likewise sent out, and
Ann Rowse ordered down stairs, Count Aguado visited
Mrs. Hope in her bedroom. In defence of his client,
the Attorney–General dwelt much on the comparative
ages of the parties in 1846—the Count being only
twenty, and Mrs. Hope being twenty–eight; and he
argued that it was absurd to suppose she could have
been seduced by a mere boy. She was a lady fond
of pleasure and extravagance; her husband was retired,
fond of study, and penurious; hence arose irritation,
unhappiness, and strife. He read long and painful
extracts from Mr. Hope's affidavits, which, together
with those on the other side, showed that their married
life had long been interrupted by scenes of strife,
bickering, and blows. In summing up, Lord Campbell
went carefully over the evidence; and pointed out
several instances of concert and contrivance on the part
of Mrs. Hope to place herself in communication with
the Count,—such as the contrivances described by Ann
Rowse; the sending of Young from Folkestone to
Boulogne to fetch Count Aguado in the absence of Mr.
Hope; the secret–visit Mrs. Hope paid to Boulogne
when she gave out that she was going to London.
What could be the object of that concert, if it were not
to carry on illicit intercourse? The jury instantly gave
a verdict for the plaintiff—damages £200.

There have been serious Bread Riots in the East end
of London. On the 21st and 22nd, several hundred
dock labourers and other destitute persons, perambulated
the principal thoroughfares in procession, demanding
bread and money from the shopkeepers, whose premises
were forcibly entered and ransacked of their contents.
In several instances the tradesmen were subjected to
gross acts of violence, and the most daring robberies
committed in open daylight, and property to a considerable
amount carried away by the mob. The alarm was
so general that the shops were closed in High–street,
Whitechapel, Commercial–road– east, Stepney, and the
whole of the principal streets at the eastern portion of
the metropolis, where business was generally suspended.
A number of the rioters were arrested, and several of
the ringleaders have been committed to the house of
correction. There have been similar riots at Liverpool.

           NARRATIVE OF ACCIDENT AND
                        DISASTER.

A Destructive Fire broke out on the night of the 16th
inst., upon the premises of Messrs. Routledge, merchants
and sawyers, in Holland–street, Blackfriars–road. The
premises were entirely burnt down, and several adjoining
dwelling and warehouses were much damaged. The
loss is estimated at £150,000 Mr. Jackson, the son–in–
law of Superintendent Braidwood, a young man lately
married, perished in the flames.

A fatal Railway Accident happened on the 22nd
inst., on the joint line between Glasgow and Paisley,
about 10 o'clock in the morning. The trains which had
left Dumfries, Kilmarnock, and Ayr in the course of the
morning had formed a junction, and had arrived within
two miles of Glasgow, when a violent oscillation was
felt in the carriages, and some of them were thrown off
the line, but the train was ultimately brought to a
standstill, and at this time no one was injured. It was
found that the accident had been caused by the breaking
of an axle in a first–class carriage, which was
separated from the engine by a third–class and a luggage
van. The passengers all got out in safety, and clambered
up the bank, with the exception of those in a
third–class, which was three carriages from the end of
the train, and which had fallen upon the side from
which the door opened, the other door being locked.
The key, however, was ultimately obtained from the
guard, and the passengers were in the course of being
extricated, when the Greenock train came up at a rapid
pace and ran into the disabled carriages. The effects of
the collision were tremendous. The three empty carriages
behind from which the passengers had fortunately
escaped, were smashed to atoms, or doubled over each
other as if they had been boxes of paper. In the third–
class, already referred to, an elderly woman, belonging
to Kilmarnock, was killed on the spot; a young man
named Kerr, also from the same place, had his arm
broken. Mrs. Lennox, from Duntocher, received a
severe wound on the head, and had her ancle bruised;
and her son, a boy between eight and nine years of age,
had his thigh bone broken. Several other passengers
were hurt but not dangerously. The authorities are
investigating the case.

A man has been Frozen to Death near Rochester.
William Salmon, a married man with a large family,
had been drinking pretty freely at a public house. His
road home was across some open fields, where there was