4t Vrnuirtro.

The Baltic fleet, it was publicly reported, would sail from Portsmouth on Tuesday a little after mid-day. Crowds of persons from all parts ga- thered together, and waited, undiscouraged by bad weather, until late in the afternoon ; but the fleet remained perfectly quiet, in consequence of counter orders. The fleet sailed on Wednesday ; when there were few to witness its departure.

From an early hour in the morning until noon the fleet was rendered invisible by a fog, which at that hour had but partially dispersed. It was not until a few minutes past one that the signal, " Prepare to weigh," was given ; followed shortly after by the signal, to " Weigh, and form order of sailing as most convenient." At two o'clock the general signal was made, to " Rendezvous in the Downs in case of parting company." Then the ships got under weigh.

" The first off was the Blenheim, under courses, topsails, and topgallant- sails ; the James Watt following closely in her wake under topsails and top-

gallantsails, and evidently having the closely of her ; at a wide interval came the Colossus and Hogue, the latter carrying fore and maintopmast and top- gallant studding-sails ; which example was followed by the other 60-gun block-ships. Generally, the ships carried royalt which the Blenheim was first to hoist ; and this she did when abreast of the Pylades. The Duke of Wellington, besides the flag of the Commander-in-chief, (at the mizen,) carried the broad pendant (blue) of the Captain of the Fleet at her main, although there were eight senior captains in sight. This, we believe, was a novelty ; but perhaps a good one in some respects, as showing an utter dis- regard of precedent and routine in the `regulations' relating to such mat- ters. The Port Admiral, Sir Thomas Cochrane, went out of harbour in the Vivid while the fleet was under way, and remained close to the Duke of Wellington for some time, eventually proceeding some way out with the Ships. Had not the weather been so hazy, the picture from the shore would have been magnificent ; but the first of the fleet was out of sight before any movement was known ashore. About half-past three, however, the mist i suddenly lifted, and a glimpse was then obtained of the fleet in full sail about six miles from port, between the Warner and the Nab. The last sig- nal seen was now made out, flying from the mast-head of the Duke, and was evidently in consequence of the wind falling light ; it was for the line- of-battle ships to Get up steam at low speed.' "

The ships which sailed were the following: they are placed here as they appeared from the shore standing toward the Nab.

Port Division.

Guns. Commanders. ,Starboard Division.

Gans. Commanders.

Magicienne ........

16 Fisher. Basilisk 6 Jenner.

Blenheim 60 Hall. James Watt 91 Elliot.

Colossus 80 Robinson. Hogue 60 Ramsay.

Duke of Wellington 131

(Flag.)

Edinburgh 58 Hewlett.

Gorgon 6 Crawford. Ciesar 91 Robb.

Cressy 81

Warren.

60

Warden.

Bulldog 6 Gordon. MI: 91 Mundy.

Majestic .... ...... 81 Hope. Exmouth 91 (Flag.)

Royal George 102 Codrington.

The Honourable H. Brand, who recently accepted office as a Junior Lord of the Treasury, was reelected for Lewes on Thursday, without opposition.

Mr. Price, one of the Members for Gloucester, belongs to a firm which constructed huts for the troops in the Crimea. In order that the pecu- niary part of the transaction might be legally carried out, it became necessary that Mr. Price should vacate his seat; and accordingly he accepted the Chiltern Hundreds. He went through the form of re- election on Saturday, and was returned without opposition. Steps had been taken to bring forward Sir Charles Napier ; but the Admiral de- clined to be an opponent of Mr. Price.

Two meetings have been held this week for the purpose of promoting the establishment of reformatory schools. At war wick, on Tuesday, there was a public meeting,—the High Sheriff in the chair ; and it was resolved that a county reformatory institution for boys should be esta- blished, under the Youthful Offenders Act, which provides that children whose parents are unable to pay for their maintenance shall be main- tained at the expense of the Treasury. Among the persons present were Lord Leigh, Lord Calthorpe, Mr. M. D. Hill, Mr. Adderley, Mr. Baker, and the Reverend Sydney Turner of Redhill.

At a meeting of Magistrates at the Easter Sessions for the West Ri,. ding of Yorkshire,—the Honourable Edwin Lascelles in the chair,—the following resolution, moved by Mr. Ingham M.P., and seconded by Mr. W. Ferrand, was carried unanimously.

" That in the opinion of this Court, it is desirable as early as possible to establish in the West Riding reformatory schools for the reception of all ju- venile offenders of both sexes ; but that, inasmuch as the recent act of Par- liament for the better reformation of juvenile offenders provides no public funds for that purpose, this Court directs the Clerk of the Peace to prepare a memorial, to be signed by its Chairman, and to be forwarded to the Secretary of State fur the Home Department, expressive of the difficulty and delay which this Court is apprehensive will arise, unless some other means than voluntary aid be provided for the establishment of these institutions ; and also representing, that the said act does not permit the Justices to commit juvenile offenders to any reformatory institution until they have undergone a certain term of imprisonment, which imprisonment, in the opinion of this Court, in most cases renders the offender a more difficult subject for reformation."

A case which has made some noise in the Northern Circuit, known as the " Hopwood Will Case," has occupied Mr. Justice Creaswell, at the Liverpool Assizes, several days this week ; the court being crowded with a " fashionable audience," lured by interest in the details of family jars, already partly disclosed in a pamphlet. The plaintiffs were the Earl of Derby and the Earl of Sefton, executors of the will of the late Mr. Hopwood of Hopwood Hall; the defendant was Captain Hopwood, the eldest son of the deceased. Property consisting of estates and a colliery, worth many thousands, is the prize in dispute, and the issue raised is the validity of the will. Mr. Hop- wood had made a will some years ago in favour of his eldest son; but in 1853 he disinherited Captain Hopwood, left the estates to his grandson, and augmented the legacies of his other children. The object of the plaintiffs was to prove that Mr. Hopwood was of sound mind when he made the will of 1853, and that Captain Hopwood's harsh and overbearing conduct was the cause of his disinheritance.

At the Kingston Assizee, on Tuesday, the case of Boyle versus Wiseman was tried afresh. It may be' recollected that the Reverend Mr. Boyle, a Roman Catholic priest, brought an action for libel against Cardinal Wiseman at the Guildford Assizes last summer; and that the Jury gave a verdict for the defendant. An application was made for a new trial, and granted, on the ground that the Chief Baron had refused to admit second-band evidence of the contents of a letter in which Cardinal Wiseman admitted the authorship of the libel ; and that Cardinal Wiseman could not be a witness, lest he should criminate himself. The origin of the offence was this. Mr. Boyle was the cu- rate of the Roman Catholic Church at Islington ; when Dr. Wiseman succeeded Dr. Griffiths as Bishop of the diocese, he dismissed Mr. Boyle, alleging want of zeal on his part, and the necessity for a change of system. Dr. Oakley, formerly of the Established Church, succeeded Mr. Boyle. In a reply to an article in the Arai de la Religion, the organ of the moderate party in Paris, the Univers, published a letter signed " N. Cardinal Wiseman," alleging that Mr. Boyle has been expelled from the order of the Jesuits ; that he had• shown so great a want of zeal in the discharge of his duties that his church was deserted ; that he had kept possession of the residence of the chapel after he had been dismissed; and that he had, by threats, induced his parishioners to remonstrate with the Bishop against his dismissal. No evi- dence was offered in support of these averments: but it was shown that Mr. Boyle had not been expelled from the Society of Jesus; that his church was not deserted ; and that he did not intimidate his congregation into signing a remonstrance to Dr. Wiseman. The Reverend Mr. Ivers, a Roman Ca- tholic priest at Kentish Town, holding his faculties direct from the Pope, deposed that he had read at Paris the letter in which Dr. Wiseman admitted the authorship of the libel. The letter was produced in court; but Mr. Ivers said that it had been altered since he saw it ; and the letter as pub- lished in the Univers was admitted as evidence. Mr. Baron Platt said that the letter was a libel ; and as no justification had been pleaded, the de- fendant thereby admitted that the charges were false. The Jury returned a verdict for the plaintiff, damages 10001. Cardinal Wiseman, who had been subpoenaed as a witness, but was not examined, sat on the bench throughout the trial.

The action known as the "gimlet case," tried last August, was tried again at the Liverpool Aesizes, before Mr. Cresswell and a Special Jury, on Monday and Tuesday. ID 1850, Mr. Lloyd Evans, a gentleman of fortune, married Mies Carrington, the daughter of a retired civil servant of the East India Company, resident at Cheltenham. The match was not a happy one; in a very short time Mrs. Evans refused to live with her husband, and the re- sult was a separate maintenance. For some time she lived with her mother ; much visited by an old friend of the family, Mr. Robinson, himself a married man. They rode and walked together frequently at Cheltenham, causing much gossip respecting the impropriety of their conduct. Mr. Evans heard these stories ; and he set Mr. Field, late a Police Inspector, to watch the lady and gentleman. Field went down to Cheltenham, and spied about there, watching Mrs. Evans and Mr. Robinson in and out of the house and in their walks and rides. In the summer he heard that Mrs. Evans had come up to London. Mr. Robinson also came to stay at his mother's. Field fol- lowed him, and found where Mrs. Evans was living. He then entered into an arrangement with the landlady for watching the conduct of her tenant. For this purpose he hired a woman named Grocott to be cook at Mrs. King's ; and he instructed Mrs. Grocott to bore holes through the drawingroom-door, with a gimlet, in such a way as to command a view of the sofa. At these holes, for two days, Grocott, the landlady, and another woman, watched ; and they swore that they saw the grossest improprieties committed by Mr. Robinson and Mrs. Evans. Other witnesses deposed to familiarities more or less cri- minal, committed before and after the marriage of Miss Evans. The Jury returned a verdict for the plaintiff, damages 5001. The characteristic of the trial is the position of Mr. Field. He explained, that he left the Police in 1852, and commenced "private business to make inquiries and detect frauds." He first agreed with the plaintiff's solicitor for a guinea a day and twelve shillings hotel-expenses ; but as the case might take some time it was settled that he should have fifteen shillings a

day and twelve shillings hotel expenses. In London his charge is seven- and-sixpence a day. In charging the Jury, Mr. Justice Cresswell asked, what would be thought of a man who should write on his door "spy to be hired at so much per day ? " It is shocking and revolting to see a man stand before the public and proclaim himself a hired spy by profession. But, fearing that he was departing from the gravity of the Bench, the Judge warned the Jury, that they must not let their feelings decide against their sober judgment on the evidence.

At a Petty-Sessions at Kingsolere, Hants, :Miss Emilie Frances Gordon, daughter of Sir Orford Gordon, was fined N. for torturing a pony very cruelly.

The Reverend George Dover, incumbent of St. Mary's Church, Kirkdale, died in his pulpit last Sunday morning. He had been absent for some weeks, indisposed ; on Sunday he intended to preach ; but while giving out the text, he lifted his hand to his eyes, staggered, and fell : a number of gentlemen hastened to his aid, but life had fled. The most painful excite- ment was produced among the congregation ; many women uttering loud screams.