Vraniurial.

At Stamford, on Monday, Mr. Augustus Stafford delivered a lecture on the late campaigns in the East. In the course of his remarks he made a statement with respect to the great losses of the French.

On his way out to the Crimea in 18.55, a French officer on board the French transport in which he sailed gave him some statistics, which had been subsequently confirmed by many persons who had opportunities of testing their correctness. The officer told him that the French had lost be- tween July 1854 and July 185.5—slain in battle, left dead on the field, 12,000 ; died afterwards of wounds received in battle, 7000; sent home with loss of limb or broken in constitution, 25,000; died of disease, chiefly diar- rhea, cholera, and dysentery, 60,000 ;—total loss, about 105,000, exclusive of all who had been killed or died during the last seven months. " But," added the officer, " we do not put this in the newspapers ; we only report a loss of 20,000. You English know too much about your army ; we know too little."

The Assizes have produced some criminal cases worthy'of brief nails°. At Stafford, "Alice Grey" has been convicted of perjury, in the case of the two boys whom she accused of robbing her at Wolverhampton. Sen- tence, four years' penal servitude. The Grand Jury found true bills against Palmer for the murder of his wife and Mr. Cook, but ignored the bill which charged the murder of Wal- ter Palmer.

At Maidstone, Rose, a shipwright, was convicted of stealing pieces of copper the property of Mr. Pitcher, of Horthtleet. The case was a very bad one. Rose was engaged on some war-vessels for Government; he ought

to have driven copper bolts through the ships' sides, and fastened them on the inside with nuts ; instead of this, he broke the bolts short. drove the part attached to the head into the ships, and stole the fragments and the nuts : fortunately, a timely discovery was made, or the ships might have gone out in a weak state. The sentence was four years' penal servitude. Mr. Turner and Mr. Bedwell, army surgeons, charged with the man- slaughter of a soldier at Chatham—the first by nligently administering

laudanum instead of a black draught, and Mr. Bedwell by doing nothing. effectual for saving the man, as he thought he was in a fit—were acquitted, by direction of the Judge, who stopped the case : it appeared that neither gentleman was in fault.

At Nottingham, three mon were convicted of highway robbery. The re- markable fact in the ease was the evidence of Bourne, &lunatic. While the robbers were rifling their victim, Bourne came up ; they immediately de= camped, but not before Bourne had recognized two of them : since the rob- bery, Bourne had become insane, and ho was'brought from a lunatic asylum to give his testimony. He gave " a remarkably clear, calm, and graphic account of what he had seen" : "his demeanour in the witness-box would certainly not have given any one the idea that he had been brought from an asylum." The robbers were sentenced to transportation.

At. Bedford, Withers, the youth who stole nearly 10001. from Messrs. Bas- sett, bankers of Leighton Buzzard, his employers, pleaded guilty. II&

appears to have yielded to a sudden temptation, and counsel said. ho was

returning home to restore the bank-notes when he was arrested. The pro- secutors recommended him to mercy. Sentence, two years' imprisonment.

A Jury at Cambridge Assizes have awarded 2001. to Mrs. Hutchison' and: 4001. to her children, as compensation for the death of Mr. Hutelsition, a farmer, who was killed on the Eastern Counties Railway. The company- contended that they were not liable, as Hutchison was in an improper place—on a break-van : but it appeared that the station-master had given him leave : the disaster happened from the shock caused by an engine shunt- ing the train—there was no protection to the break, and Hutchison wr.s knocked of Mr. Justice Williams has fined Major Rice, High Sheriff of Carmarthen-- shire, 100/., for neglecting to provide the proper procession, a handsome car- riage and the rest,.customary for the entrance of Judges into assize-towns. Ilajor Rice was absent from illness ; but the Judge held that his own ab- sence should have made him the more careful that his Under-Sheriff pro-- vided the proper retinue.

Taceobi, one-of the soldiers of the German Legion, has been found dead, on Maker Heights, near Plymouth—his head beaten in with a atone. A verdict of "Wilful murder" has been returned against Hansen, another soldier of the corps, who had been drinking with the deceased. Jaccobi lad recently received a large sum of money—it was not found on the body.

Welland, an aged man, keeper of the Hastings Gaol, has been strangled by a prisoner, a young man of bad character named Murdock, who after- wards escaped from the prison. Murdock was arrested the same day, and now awaits his trial for the murder.

John Fowkea was executed at Leicester on Wednesday. He was recently convicted of shooting his illegitimate nephew, to whom he had an ill-will, because he feared the lad's grandfather would leave his property to him. The malefactor was convicted mainly on the evidence of his brother, Wil- liam ; who saw him at the window at night when he fired into the kitchen of old Fowkes's house. The convict admitted his guilt before he died, and said he meant to have killed both his nephew and his brother if he could have hit the two by one charge—some shots did strike William.

Another burglary is reported in Yorkshire, at the house of Mr. Dirties, Handsworth Quarries, near Sheffield : the eight ruffians engaged in it had crape over their faces, and were armed with heavy weapons.

The widow of the late Sir Francis Chantrey has been staying at the Pier Hotel, Brighton. One morning, Marian Daniels, a chambermaid, who had recently behaved strangely, attempted to stab Lady Chantrey with a cheese- knife ; Lady Chantrey's dress was cut, but her screams brought aid in time. The Magistrates have ordered an inquiry into the sanity of the chamber- maid.

William Lawton, the aged clerk of the Lichfield Bank who embezzled 73501., has been convicted at the Lichfield Quarter-Sessions, and sentenced to four years' penal servitude.

Numbers of millers have recently been fined for adulterating flour. The last reported case was at Rotherham - where Joseph Crossley was fined for putting gypsum into the cheaper (?) kind of flour.

The proceedings of the Coroner's inquest in the Leeds poisoning case were brought to an end on Monday. The only additional evidence was tendered by the medical gentlemen, Mr. Morley and Mr. Nunneley. It occurred to them to try whether the spirituous extract obtained from the contents of Mrs. Doves stomach possessed the poisonous properties of strychnine. To apply the test, they selected two rabbits, two mice, and a Guinea pig, and inoculated them with the substance obtained from the stomach. In each case the characteristic effects of poisoning by strychnine were produced. Two mice and one rabbit (lied within twelve minutes and fifty seconds after the introduction of the poison. The second rabbit lay for a time as if dead, but eventually recovered. The pig did not appear to suffer such severe spasms as the others, but was found dead and rigid the next day. Having received the document describing these experiments, the Coroner summed up the evidence with great power, clearness, and impartiality. The mar- shalling of the connected series of evidence—showing that Mrs. Dove died of strychnine, that her husband had strychnine in his possession, that the symptoms of poisoning by strychnine were immediately manifest after he had given his wife her medicine—led irresistibly to the verdict returned by the Jury, " That Harriet Dove has died from the effects of strychnine, wil- fully administered by her husband, William Dove," The Coroner—" That is a verdict of Wilful Murder against William Dove? " Foreman—" It is." The prisoner Dove was then formally committed to take his trial at the next York Assizes.