Metropolis.

The Lady Mayoress gave a ball to upwards of' three hundred children, in the saloon of the Mansionhouse, on the evening of the 4th. Dissolving views were exhibited in the Egyptian Hall.

The City Commission of Sewers assembled at Guildhall on Tuesday; Mr. Deputy Peacock in the chair. The report of the Committee of Health on the subject of interments in the City was read. It stated that the At- torney-General and Mr. Turner were of opinion that the Commissioners have no power to prevent such interments; that the Lord Chancellor would not grant an injunction against them, or make rules (macerating them; and that they cannot be prevented without further powers from the Legisla- ture.

A reunion of the graduates of the University of London took place on Wednesday evening, in the Academical apartments of the College in Somerset House—the same in which the levees of the Royal So- eiety have been lately held Under the Presidency of the Earl of Reese. The University of London has now granted degrees for some years past, under the powers conferred upon it by royal charter; and the graduates having at length become a numerous body, Lord Burlington, the Chancel- lor, a short time since suggested to the Council his desire to assemble such of the members of the University as could conveniently attend at a ',thee, where he might have the gratification of meeting them. The suggestion was adopted: on Wednesday, about 600 guests assembled, and, with the graduates of the University and the heads of the collegiate bodies in connexion with it, partook of the Earl's hospitality. Lord Brougham and Viscount Mahon were present, and the Duke of Wellington was only pre- vented by the requirement of his attendance at Buckingham Palace.

The foundation-stone of a new Pauper Lunatic Asylum for the county of Middlesex was laid on Tuesday, by Prince Albeit, in the presence of a large assemblage of the county gentry. The Asylum will contain 1,000 patients—the same number with Hanwell ; the total number of pauper lunatics in the county being estimated at 2,400. The site is an elevated piece of ground in Colney Hatch, near to the works of the Great North- ern Railway, now in progress; it will be a building in the Italian style, 1,884 feet in length and 144 in depth, with a central dome 120 feet high. Mr. Retch, the Chairman of the Visiting Magistrates, presided; and in his ad- dress stated, that what were formerly the horrors of lunatic asylums will be totally unknown here.

"None but moral restraints will be imposed. The ray of reason's light, how- ever small, which it may please the Almighty to grant these poor sufferers, even in the worst phases of their malady, will here be tenderly cherished, while the non-restraint system—first carried out in its fullest extent at Hartwell, and which is at once the pride and boast of our Metropolitan county—will havegreater facili- ties afforded to it here, from the experience of the Committee, the talent of the architect, and the extent of the grounds; circumstances which, we trust, will enable us still further to develop its efficiency and its humanity, to draw the veil of oblivion over the melancholy times that are past, to avail ourselves of all the real improvements of the present day, and to look forward, under Divine blessing, to secure happier results in times to come."

The Marquis of Salisbury recalled attention to the great benefits which had resulted from the charity of Queen Adelaide, in the gift of a sum to form a fund for the assistance of recovered patients on their leaving the Hanwell institution; and announced that Queen Victoria had given a dona- tion to establish a similar fund at this institution: it will be called the " Vio- toria Fund," as the fund at Hanwell is called the Adelaide Fund.

More "May meetings" and associated anniversaries have been held this week,—by the British and Foreign School Society, the Protestant Asso- ciation, the London Missionary Society, the British Reformation Society, the Mendicity Society, the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Ani- mals, &c., with the festival of the Sous of the Clergy.

The income of the London Missionary Society for the past year was 54,5081.; and the expenditure, including 2,0001. towards a college at Calcutta, 67,2381.

The receipts at the festival of the Sons of the Clergy were 6171. The usual invitations to the dinner at Merchant Tailors' Hall were given.

At the meeting of the British and Foreign School Society, the Earl of Carlisle warned his auditors against jealousy towards any societies with kindred objects. There was room for them all, and opportunity fur all, while diverging in details, to converge in ends; the National Society, the Wesleyan Society, and the Ragged Schools, had each an appropriate sphere of peculiar usefulness. He stated that in the last year, grants of school materials have been made to 120 schools; 919 boy pupils, and 450 girl pupils, have been admitted to the school's; 175 students to the normal schools for young men, and 111 students to those for young femeles. New premises, for schools have been bought in Bristol The last year's receipts would have been deficient by 1,5001. but for a legacy and large donation;, they were but 11,7181:, including 1,0001. borrowed. The expenses were only 18,i/. short of that total.

The Mendicity Society has made a great change in its plan of action. The Marquis of Westminster, chairman, referred to the mass of applications which overwhelmed the society in January 1848; to the deaths of the society's officers from disease contracted in their official labours; and to the public alarm at the congregation of crowds of persons, many of them diseased, applying to the society's offices for relief. In January 1848, 22,296 persons received relief, of whom 21,578 were Irish. It was found that paupers were drawn from all parts, and that the local poor were suffering from the influx. A rule was adopted to relieve no person who had not resided six months. In consequence, the numbers relieved had fallen, in January 1849, to 2,127, of whom 1,175 only were Irish. A system of investigation into each case ispursued, with excellent effect. The system of begging-letters has been attacked, and considerably abated. Sir Ed- ward Cust opposed the new rule, and thought the reduction of cases from 22,000 to about 2,200-was by no means "a success." He would not subscribe another shilling till the old rule was restored, of relieving every destitute person that ap-

plied, whether coming from far or near. Several noblemen supported the pew rules, and they were generally approved of. The receipts for the past year were 5,4201., and the expenses 4,9541.

At the thirteenth anniversary of the Fistula Infirmary, it was announced that Mr. B. Bond Cabbell, (who was absent from illness,) on learning that the society could not meet with a suitable site for an intended new erection of their hospital, had offered them for the purpose a gift of land worth nearly 4,0001. in the parish of St. Andrew's Holborn. The new building will be named the St. Andrew's Hospital for Diseases of the Lower Intestines.

The half-yearly meeting of the shareholders of the Eastern Counties Railway Company was held on Thursday, at the London Tavern. The members of the Committee of Investigation were welcomed with hearty cheers; but the entry of the Board of Directors was the signal for an un. controlled exhibition of anger and contempt. Mr. George Waddington was the special mark of personal apostrophe, from hundreds of excited mouths; but with a dogged front he kept his position, and, after Mr. Cash and Mr. Meek had addressed the meeting, made a long explanatory and defensive speech. The language used in the charges against him may be judged by a sample from Mr. Meek. " Messrs. Hudson and Waddington came on too late to participate in the gene- ral appropriation of the Wisbeach allotment; but it was quite likely that when these shares had been fixed at 21. premium, they should feel some mortification at being excluded from participation in the profit which the other directors had pre- viously secured; but that this feeling should have led them, should have urged them, to lead the Wisbeach Company into the fraud of issuing fresh scrip after their bargain with us had been closed—and that, failing in this, it should have led them on to take 4,0001. of the money you had intrusted to them, and then to pay 2,0001. of your own money to your own bankers as pretended deposits on fic- titious scrip—is really incredible." (Great sensation and uproar.) Mr. Waddington stated as to this 2,0001., that' on the 25th June 1847, he and the Secretary were ordered out of the Board-room; a discussion occurred in their absence, about what he knew not; but a resolution was passed, and he and Mr. Hudson received the money: it was never after- wards brought before the Board, and he knew no more after than before; but both be and Mr. Hudson thought they were entitled to the money.

The meeting adopted with acclamation a string of resolutions expres- sing want of confidence in the Board of Directors, and affirming a number of propositions to carry out all the recommendations of the Investigation Committee, including the one to declare no dividend for the next half- year. On this step the Board of Directors unanimously tendered their resignations; promising, however, to act. ad interim. A numerous Com- mittee was appointed to select a new Board of Directors.

The appeal cases of Smith O'Brien versus the Queen, and M'Manue and others versus the Queen, in the House of Lords sitting on appeals, were argued on Thursday and Friday. The judgments of the Irish Court of Queen's Bench in all the cases were affirmed by the Law Lords and Judges, on hearing only the arguments of the counsel for the appellant prisoners.

In the case of Richards versus the Brighton Railway Company, a verdict for 1501. has been obtained on account of the loss of a dressing-case: the dressing- case had been taken into a first-class railway carriage by the plaintiff's invalid wife, and placed, under the seat occupied by her, left there at the end of the jour- ney—the porters saying, " Leave that to us"—and ultimately lost. On Monday, the Court of Common Pleas gave judgment on an application for a new trial, which had been made on the ground that no legal liability attaches to a railway company in respect of luggage remaining, in the special charge of the passenger, which is not in fact delivered to the,company at all. The Court refused a new trial, and so affirmed the verdict; Chief Justice Wilde thus clearly putting the law—" Taking a parcel into a carriage, openly and notoriously, was placing it within the custody and care of the company, and was quite sufficient to cast upon them the common law responsibility of carriers. That was quite different from a passenger's carrying things about his person: in such case the article was in no sense delivered to the carrier. If a person had a pocket-book with him in the carriage at the commencement of the journey, and at its termination he asked a porter to take care of it for him, the porter in such ease would not be the agent of the company, nor would the company be liable; for liability was the legal result of its being placed in the carriage in the ordinary way in which the company as- sented to receive parcels."

The Lord Chancellor has appointed Mr. Sergeant Herbert Jones to be Judge of the Clerkenwell County Court of Middlesex, in the room of the late Mr. Thomas Starkie, deceased.

At the Central Criminal Court, on Tuesday, Lydia Dixon, the young woman who has been so extensively plundering tradesmen of Richmond and Hammer- smith, was tried on two indictments fur robberies. In the first case, theprose- cuter could not swear positively that the goods found at her lodgings with his trade-mark on them had not been sold by him: so there was a verdict of ac- quittal. The second charge was clearly made out: a policeman saw the prisoner take a roll of huckaback from a shop-door and conceal it under her shawl; she wore a large apron like a pocket, well adapted to hide articles in. The counsel for the defence urged that his client was not responsible for her actions at the time of the robberies, as her mind had been affected by a brain-fever. Mrs. Jack son deposed that Mites Dixon had been " flighty" since the fever; and Mr. Betts, a surgeon, corroborated this: her conduct was " strange and eccentric." Ques- tioned by the Recorder, however, this gentleman would not go so far as to say that the prisoner was incapable of distinguishing between right and wrong—that she was under such a delusion as not to be aware that she was robbing people. The Recorder cautioned the Jury as to the reception of the defence set up. A verdict of " Guilty" was immediately returned; but sentence was deferred tilt next ses- sion, while inquiries should be made about the prisoner.

On Wednesday, Timoleon Vlasco pleaded "guilty " to two charges of stealing coins, from the British Museum and from General Fox. Mr. Clarkson urged on the prisoner's behalf, that his offences were not merely common thefts for pecu- niary gain—he seemed to have had a monomania for collecting eoi..s for their own sake; numbers of the coins found in his possession being really his own. Sell- tepee was postponed.

Yesterday he was sentenced to seven years' transportation; a fate which he heard with apparent unconcern.

At Marlborough Street Police Court, on Saturday, Mr. Richard Evans, an artist, was charged with assaulting Mr. John Prescott Knight, Secretary of the Royal Academy. Mr. Knight stated, that Mr. Evans had forwarded a

for picture the annual exhibition, but the Committee of the Academy had not accepted the picture for exhibition-; and' Mr. Knight fulfilled his duty by sending the circular information of the fact to Mr. Evans. On the same evening-, [no date is reported,] Mr. Evans called at the Academy, saw Mr. Knight, and re- marked that he had written a letter to bin. Mr. Knight denied this— he had only sent the usual circular. Mr. Evans replied, he wanted "110 shuffling," but a direct answer. Mr. Knight rejoined, he could not bandy words; and, reterring Mr. Evans to the clerk's office for information, he turned to leave the hall. Mr. Evans followed hhn, called him " ahuffler " and " scoundrel," and, struck at him with a stick; Mr. Knight was turning round as the blow fell, and received the blow OD his forehead: he was felled, and stunned. To a constable, who immediately appeared, Mr. Evans complained that Mr. Knight had called him " a dirty scoundrel"; but Mr. Knight now swore that he never used any offensive epithet whatever. Mr. Clarkson appeared for Mr. Knight, and Mr. Bod- kin for Mr. Evans; and it being agreed by the counsel that the case must go to the Quarter-Sessions, Mr. Evans gave bail to appear and take his trial.

At the Marylebone Police Court, on Monday, Mr. Charles Higgins was held to bail by Mr. Broughton, for assaulting his wife, a daughter of Sir Paul Jodrell: he was fined, and bound to keep the peace for six months.

James Locke and his three sons, the staff of the " Royal Belgrave Lying-in Institution," were again examined by the Marlborough Street Magistrate on Wed- nesday. Several gentlemen deposed that they had subscribed from seeing the Dutchess of Kent s name in the prospectus as patron; but her Royal Highness had withdrawn her support since 1843. On behalf of the accused, a camber of nurses and midwives testified that they had for the last fifteen years attended hundreds of women at the instance of the charity. Mr. Hardwick said, the case was an important one; and, that he might look over the whole of the evidence, he should not give his judgment till Saturday.

At Clerkenwell Police Court on Monday, Jackson was reexamined on the charge of burglariously robbing the St. Pancras Vestry-room, and was again remanded for a week. He was brought into court in a cab; his broken leg being scarcely healed.