At the Kennington-lane Police Station yesterday afternoon Inspector William Chamberlain, of the Criminal Investigation Department, was presented with a gold chronometer and chain by the officers and men of the L Division. Mr. Chamberlain, who is retiring after a service of upwards of twenty-eight years, is a well-known detective officer, and has been engaged upon some of the most notorious criminal cases of the last quarter of a century. He has received a larger number of awards and commendations from judges, magistrates, and commissioners of police than any other officer in the force. The presentation was made by his late superintendent, Mr. Brannan.

EDUCATION OR STARVATION. - The following further subscriptions have been received on behalf of Isaac Twist: Theodor Levy (Hamburg), £5; Coleman and Co., £1; M. R., 10s.; A Sympathiser, 5s.

Mr. Gent-Davis will to-morrow ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if the reason given by Mr. James Monro, C.B., for resigning the Assistant-Commissionership of Police was that under the system pursued by the Chief Commissioner he could no longer be responsible for the administration of the Criminal Investigation Department, and if the papers on the subject can be laid upon the table.

PARLIAMENTARY BUSINESS. - To-day the House of Commons will meet at three o'clock, when the principal business will be the further consideration, in Committee of Supply, of the Civil Service Estimates. Lord Charles Beresford will inquire of the Secretary for War as to the results of recent trials of high explosives. Mr. Atherley-Jones will ask the Home Secretary whether his attention has been called to an article by the Chief Commissioner of Metropolitan Police, published in Murray's Magazine of this month, in which the Commissioner discusses the management and discipline of the police under his control, and makes disparaging remarks upon members of the late Government; and whether it is in accordance with the usage and discipline of the Civil Service that a salaried official should be permitted publicly to discuss matters relating to his department, and disparage the conduct of ex-Ministers of the Crown; and, if not, whether he has seen fit to take any action in the matter.

WIFE MURDER. - Yesterday morning Superintendent Spence, of Pickering, in the North Riding of Yorkshire, received information to the effect that a Mrs. Pennock, wife of James Pennock, a North-Eastern Railway employé, residing at the Black Bull Old Station, near Pickering, had been murdered. Mrs. Pennock retired to bed at the usual hour on Tuesday evening, and nothing unusual was heard by the family during the night. About seven o'clock yesterday morning, after the father had left the house, one of the children went to the mother's bed-room and was horrified to find the mother lying on the bed with the clothes saturated with blood. Her head was very much cut, and life appeared to be extinct. Dr. Robertson, who was called, however, states that the woman breathed after he arrived, but expired shortly afterwards. The crime, it is believed, was committed by the husband, an axe stained with blood being found in the house. Pennock has been missing since the tragedy, and the police are searching for him. There are four children. The man is well known in the district as a local preacher.