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A great meeting of English Catholics, to protest against the exclusion of their fellow-churchmen from the Jury in the State trial, was held at the Freemason's Tavern, on Wednesday. Nine Peers and about a hundred eminent members of the Catholic communion in England joined in the requisition for calling the meeting. Lord Camoys was appointed to the chair ; and he read a letter from the Earl of Shrewsbury, expressing hearty concurrence in the requisition. The Chairman stated, that the gross number of meetings on the subject in Ireland, up to the 23d Janu- ary, was 324; the Scotch Catholics, with Bishop Murdoch at their head, had also spoken out. Lord Camoys, carefully explaining that the ob- ject was not to sympathize with the Repeaters, but strictly limited to the professed purpose, energetically described, combined, anddenounced, the suspicious circumstances under which sixty-three Catholics had been omitted from the Dublin Sheriff's list, and eleven Catholics struck from the Jury-panel. The conduct of the Government was almost a confession that their only hope of obtaining a conviction was by placing men in the jury-box each of whom possessed the treble qualification of being Tory, Anti-Repealer, and Protestant. Such conduct might surprise the English Catholics ; it did not surprise him- " At the last general election, I raised my humble but most ineffectual voice in the way of advice to those English Catholics who, at that time, thought that there was no sort of difference or concern as to what party happened to be in power : they considered that the Tories who passed the Emancipation Act would never violate its provisions; and that, having had before them the ex- amples of their predecessors, of a better policy pursued in Ireland, it was utterly impossible to suppose that they would not take warning by it and act in ac- cordance with it. Besides, the Tories having themselves made such professions of acting towards Ireland with the most perfect equality of fairness and justice, it was thought that it was not a matter of the slightest consequence what party WAS in power. I ask, do you think so now ? (Cries of "No, no!") I think this last act of the Tories quite sufficient to convince the Catholics, that the warning which I gave them at the last general election was a sound one, and that the Tories are as unchanged and as unchangeable as regards the Catholics as they were in the palmy days of Protestant ascendancy." (Cheers.) Lord Camoys paid an emphatic tribute to Mr. O'Counell's exertions in the service of the Catholics. He was succeeded by the veteran Lord Stourton, who was not a whit less energetic : his first topic was the aspersion thrown on the Catholics, that they were not to be bound by their oaths ; an imputation which he indignantly refuted. Another speaker was Mr. Langdale, who asserted, on credible information which he had obtained from Dublin, that all the eleven excluded Catholics , were certainly not Repealers, and that none of them had taken an active part in the Repeal Association. Among the resolutions carried was the following- " That the officers of the Crown, in striking off every Catholic from the panel in a trial pending in the Court of Queen's Bench in Ireland, have raised, even in the court of justice itself, a well-grounded suspicion of a violation of this principle of the Etnancipation Act, and have thereby insulted our religion, and endangered our rights, by an implied imputation on the integrity of our oaths."

A memorial to the Queen, incorporating the protest, was carried una- nimously; and the meeting broke up with thanks to Lord Camoys for his conduct in the chair.

A meeting of Catholics and other friends of civil and religions liberty was held at Chelsea, on Monday ; and resolutions were passed, condemn- ing the conduct of Government in the suppression of the Clontarf meet- ing and the exclusion of Catholics from the Jury.

At a meeting in Union Chapel, Parish Street, Horselydown, on Monday,—Alderman Iltunphery presiding,—it was resolved to esta- blish day and Sunday schools in that extensive and populous district. There are 3,000 female children alone, within a quarter of a mile of the chapel, who are destitute of instruction.

A deputation of rate-payers waited upon the Marylebone Vestry on Saturday, with a memorial, complaining that the recently-established Western Refuge for the Hoaseless Poor, in Ogle Street, by causing as- semblages of destitute persons in the neighbourhood, seriously injured the tradespeople and letters of lodgings. With some opposition, a reso- lution was passed, that the Vestry apply to the Duke of Portland and his agent, urging upon them the necessity of putting down the esta- blishment.

At a central meeting of the Metropolitan Anti-Corn-law Association, on Monday, a plan was propounded for organizing Parliamentary Free- trade Registration Societies, in connexion with the Association, in each of the Metropolitan boroughs.

The third weekly meeting of the Anti-Corn-law League took place at Covent Garden Theatre, on Thursday. As usual, the theatre was much crowded.

In the Court of Bankruptcy, on Saturday, Mr. Charles Mathews, the comedian, was examined. On his schedule there appeared one hundred creditors, and debts to the amount of 8,111/. ; including 4,000/. debts re- newed after his last bankruptcy. The protection of the Court had staid thirty actions. He stated the weekly salary of himself and his wife (Madame Vestris) at 60?.: he proposed to retain 10/. for personal ex- penses, 10/. for wardrobe expenses, 5/. for a carriage, and 51. for ser- vants at the theatre ; in all 301. a week ; giving up 30/. a week to the creditors ; which Sir C. F. Williams thought a liberal offer. The case was adjourned to the 17th instant ; Mr. Mathews's protection being re- newed.

In the Court of Review, on Saturday, application was made upon pe- tition, that Mr. Van Sandau might be committed for contempt, under very strange circumstances. In a recent bankruptcy case, Mr. Van Sandau and his partner, Mr. Cunningham, were associated with Messrs. Turner and Hensman as joint solicitors. A disagreement arose, and Mr. Van Sandau accused the other firm of making unfair charges in their bill of costs. Steps were taken for a legal investigation ; which led to the discovery that Mr. King, a clerk to Messrs. Turner and Hensman, had made overcharges in their bill. The case -was now brought before the Court of Review ; Mr. Van Sandau alleging certain frauds, and seeking "to punish the guilty ": but the Judge, Sir James Knight Bruce, gave a decision adverse to the accuser. On this, Mr.

Van Sandau published a circular, in which he asserted the perpetration of fraud, accused Sir James Bruce of having " whitewashed ' Messrs. Turner and Hensman, and used generally such expressions as tended to imply that the Chief Judge and the Registrar of the Court of Re- view, and the Taxing-Master of the Court of Queen's Bench, con- spired to cast a veil over gross frauds. In consequence, Messrs. Turner and Hensman preferred a petition, praying that Mr. Van Sandan might be committed to the Queen's Prison, with costs, and might be struck off the rolls. The last part of the petition was waived, on a technical defect in the case ; but the rest of the prayer WU affirmed by Sir George Rose, who presided on Saturday.

In the Court of Queen's Bench, on Wednesday, William Henry King, Emily Anne Birch, and Augusta Birch, were tried on a singular charge of conspiracy. Emily Birch, a woman advanced in life, was the widow of a coachmaker in Great Queen Street, who died in 1836. After his death, she kept a lodging-house in Bedford Place ; and her sister-in- law, Augusta Birch, lived with her as a kind of housekeeper. Mr. King was an attorney in needy circumstances. He and Mrs. Birch had for some time been acquainted, and in 1836 she lent him 2001.; after which they appeared not to be on such good terms. la 1838, however, the ac- quaintance was renewed, and became very intimate. In 1841, they plotted the scheme for which they were now tried ; and in the latter months of that year and the beginning of 1842 it was carried into effect. Mrs. Birch ordered a great quantity of valuable goods, consisting of plate, jewellery, upholstery, pianofortes, wine. and other expensive things, worth in all 3,6001. In ordering the goods, she named a future though not very distant day for payment ; but in the interval, Mr. King put two executions in the house of Mrs. Birch, and seized all the goods ; one execution being at his own suit for 2,1851., and the other at the suit of Dorcas Phillips, for 500/ Phillips, who was a very poor lodginghouse-keeper near Whitechapel, had not since been found. The executions were expected to sweep off the whole of the goods ; but they proved to be more valuable; • and the surplus was carried off, in twelve large boxes, by Mr. King and Mrs. Birch, who went to live at Reading. Before leaving her house, they were employed for two or three days in destroying papers ; but, in their haste, some papers were only torn. They left a Sheriff's officer in possession ; after they went, however, a fiat in bankruptcy was issued, and a messenger took possession under the fiat. He rescued several papers, which disclosed the conspiracy. King's claim against Mrs. Birch was alleged to be for monies lent ; one loan, of 185/., being dated on the 25th April 1838 : at that time he had an execution in his own house for 35/. The defence was, that there was no evidence to prove the conspiracy ; that Mrs. Birch's difficulties arose from being disappointed in procuring a partner to support the expenses of her lodging-house ; that Miss Birch only acted as a servant in the affair; and that King, though a careless and unthrifty man, really possessed means, and actually lent money to others as well as to Mrs. Birch. King and Mrs. Birch were found guilty ; Miss Birch was ac- quitted. King, who did not appear to receive sentence, was condemned to eighteen months', Mrs. Birch to nine months' imprisonment.

In the Central Criminal Court, on Wednesday, Charles Edmunds, a painter, aged twenty-four, was tried for shooting at Matilda Potter. Mrs. Potter was a widow, who lived with her mother, the keeper of a coffee-shop in Bridge Street, Southwark : Edmunds paid his addresses to her, but her mother induced her to discard him. At a farewell visit, he attempted to fire a pistol at her : it only snapped. When taken from him, the touchhole was found to be clogged with rust. The de- fence was, that he only meant to frighten the obdurate lady : but he was convicted, and sentenced to fifteen years transportation.

It was announced in Court, that Lieutenant Duncan Trevor Grant would surrender to take his trial as accessory in the murder of Colonel Lynar Fawcett.

On Thursday, John Davis, alias Bligh, Henry Robinson, and George Hirt, were convicted of various burglaries on warehouses in the City, and sentenced, Hirt to ten years' transportation, and the others to trans- portation for life.

Part of the embankment round the excavation which has been made for the foundation of the Gresham Clubhouse, in Dove Court, Mansion- house, gave way on Saturday, burying four men. Two were got out unhurt ; one was extricated without serious injury, though much ex- hausted; the fourth was dead.

A fatal accident occurred at Messrs. Barclay and Perkins's brewery, on Wednesday. A vat, eighteen feet deep, was about to be cleansed ; a lighted candle was lowered into it, by Roberts, the foreman, to see that the carbonic acid gas was dispersed; and the light remaining un- extinguished, it appeared to be safe. Steadman, a labourer, descended, hastily returned to the ladder, nearly reached the top, and fell back senseless. Harris, a fellow-labourer, offered to go down ; but Roberts went himself, reached Steadman's body, and fell stupified. A third man was lowered by a rope ; but pulled up again, senseless. Means were taken to purify the air ; and in a few minutes the two bodies were taken out, but quite dead.