13 NOVEMBER 1852, Page 5

Inn 311rtropolio.

At a meeting of the Clergy of London, held in Sion College on Monday, it was resolved, on the motion of Dr. M°Caul, " That a report having been widely circulated that a majority of the clergy of the Church of England and Ireland are desirous that the Convocation now assembled should pro- ceed to business, the President and Fellows of Sion College beg to be per- mitted to state that they do not participate in that feeling, nor believe that under present circumstances such a course would be expedient." An amendment to adjourn proceedings sine die, moved by the Reverend Mr. Scott, was defeated.

Summoned by the committee of the Protestant Defence Association, a meeting, over which Lord Shaftesbury presided, was held on Wednesday, at the Freemasons' Tavern, to protest against the practice of auricular confession, and against the revival of Convocation in the Church of Eng- land. Among the notable persons present were the Earl of Cavan, the Reverend Lord Wriothesley Russell, the Reverend Montague Villiers, the Honourable Arthur Kinnaird, the Reverend Canon Stowell, Sir Harry Verney, Mr. J. C. Colquhoun, General Maitland, Sir George Pollock, Admiral Vernon Harcourt, Mr. John Thornton, and Mr. John Macgregor.

The main topics to which the speakers addressed themselves were the confessional, the Tractarians, Convocation, and the Bishops of the Church. In the opening of his speech, Lord Shaftesbury informed the meeting, that efforts had been made to bring the practices at Plymouth before either the Ecclesiastical or the Criminal Courts ; but they had been unsuccessful.

" A third attempt was made to bring the case before the Primate of Eng- land, the Archbishop of Canterbury ; and an appeal was made to his power to see how far he could put a prohibition upon the progress of these practices. But that great and worthy Prelate gave for answer, that he was wholly powerless, and that there was nothing left but to appeal to public opinion. (Cheers.) Therefore it is that to public opinion we have come ; and we make to it our appeal ; and we announce our determination never to de- sist, till, under the Almighty's blessing, we are heard and felt through the length and breadth of the empire." (Cheers.) Auricular confession was universally denounced, as immoral, and in- consistent with the doctrines of the Church of England. But in treat- ing of Convocation, while both Lord Shaftesbury and Sir Harry Verney agreed in heartily condemning that institution which was so justly ex- tinguished in 1717,—and in which the laity had no place,—yet both also agreed in the opinion that a form of church-government on reasonable and moderate terms, in which the laity of the Church should not only have a great but a dominant share, was well worthy of consideration. Besides attacking the Tractarians and Convocation, the Reverend Canon Stowell called upon the Bishops to come forward, one and all, and settle the confessional question. But the most remarkable point in his address was a recommendation that the people should take a part in the election of the Bishops. His proposal is, that upon the occurrence of a vacancy

in a diocese, every incumbent, acting,with his churchwardens, should-put_ down three names, with a veto on two of them to the Queen.

The Earl of Cavan briefly related that he had just returned from Flo- rence ; that although the deputation which waited on the Grand Duke to 'obtain the release of the Madiai had failed, Lord Roden had seen both the husband and wife. [This was purely an episode in the meeting.] The other speakers-dwelt on the two controversial subjects which the meeting was called to consider; and-resolations.objecting to the revival of Convoca- tion, and denouncing auricular confession, were adopted.

Lord. Brougham presided over a meeting of the Society for the Amend- ment of the Law,, on Monday ; the first of the session 1852-'3. Mr. Stewart, the Secretary, laid before the Society a return of reports made Al the Committees of the Society from 1844 to 1852 ; and stated the results which had followed their publication, whether by act of Parlia ment or otherwise. The return was arranged under five heads. The first was "the Law of Property." Six acts or sections of acts, wholly or par- tially embodying the recommendations of these reports, had been passed. Under the second head, "the Common Law," eight of the recommenda- tions of the Committees had become law. The third head was "Equity," and tlie views of the Society had been embodied in the Masters' Offices Act. Partially also the recommendations of the Criminal Law Committee had been adopted ; especially with reference to prison discipline and sum- mary punishment for larcenies. Under the miscellaneous head no re- 'commendations were reported as having been adopted by the Legislature. A paper on the Registry of Deeds, by Mr. Forsyth of Yorkshire, was read

by Mr. Cookson. Mr. Stewart said the paper was to give information on the subject on which. Mr. Henry Drummond, who is a. member of the Society, intends to move in the House of Commons for leave to bring in. a bill.

The following resolutions were thew-put and agreed to-

" 1, That the present state of the law relating to the transfer of land is highly. -unsatisfactory. 2. That a cheaper, simpler, more expeditious, and more ac- curate system, is exceedingly desirable. 3. That to effect this object, the transfer of land should, as far as possible, be assimilated to the transfer of stock. 4. That, in particular, purchasers and mortgagees should be relieved

from the necessity of inquiring into equitable interests iu land. 5. That the power to shorten the present practice as to titles to land should be conferred on.a competent tribunaL 6. That it is absolutely necessary to control, tax, and moderate more effectually than at present the expenses connected with the transfer of land."

On the second resolution Mr. Peacbey proposed an amendment, that all real property should be reduced to simple socage tenure. After a short discussion, this amendment was ordered to be taken into consider- ation at the next meeting.

A numerous meeting of Germans and other refugees was held on Tues- day, at the Freemasons' Tavern, to commemorate the shooting of Robert Blum under the ramparts of Vienna, in November 1848. Orations were delivered in German by Arnold Ruge, Oskar, Falke, and Johannes Rouge ; in English by Dr. Tausenau, the well-known leader of Vienna, and by Ingram Lockhart. The speechmaking was followed by a supper. Robert Blum, it will be remembered, was a Leipsic bookseller, and a noted leader of the Democratic party in the Frankfort Parliament He went to Vienna during the insurrection there, was seized by the troops under Prince Windischgratz, and summarily shot. His name is to the Ger- mans of the present day what that of Palm was to the Liberals of 1814.

Louis Kossuth appeared and spoke in public on Wednesday, for the first time since his return from America. The occasion was a meeting of the Society of the Friends of Italy, in the Music Hall at Store Street. On one side of the chairman, Mr. P. A. Taylor, sat Jos ph Mazzini, and on the other Kossuth. Mr. Robert Lowe M.P., Mr. Crawford M.P., Professor Newman, Mr. William Coningham, Mr. William H. Ashurst, and others, were on the platform. The speeches referred almost wholly to foreign matters. Mazzini stated, that since the executions at Siniga- glia forty-two people had been shot at Ancona. Kossuth spoke briefly, and reluctantly, on a call from the meeting. He had but one speech- -" Up, boys, and at them ! " and until he could utter that, he had done with oratory. Both the exiles were warmly received. When Kossuth sat down there were cries of "Lowe"; but the chairman, who had already committed himself to the dissolution of the meeting, did not take advantage-of the call.

At a special meeting of the Marylebone Vestry, on Wednesday, it was resolved, on the motion of Mr. Clement George, that a new parish burial- ground.should be provided under the provisions of the Metropolisdnter- ment Act of last session.

The nuisances created on the Grand Junction Canal at Paddington, by divers dust-contractors, seem for a time to have been put down by a parish prosecu- tion. In 1850, no fewer than five contractors were convicted at the Middle- sex Sessions ; but judgment was respited, to allow theta an opportunity to abate the nuisances. Since that time, Stapleton, one of the defendants, has been fined 3001. for continuing to poison the neighbourhood by accumu- lating on his wharf the refuse of Covent Garden Market. On Monday last the other contractors came up for judgment. Mr. Sergeant Adams stated that they now conducted their business in a way not to offend or hurt their neigh- bours; and he sentenced each to pay only the nominal fine of a shilling, but cautioned them to beware of offending in future.

The capital sentence passed on Cannon the sweep, for "attempting to mur- der" Policeman Dwyer, has been commuted to transportation for life.

The use of the old English weapon the fist seems to be going out of fashion. even among boys : two mere children are in custody for stabbing their bro- thers this week, in one case with fatal effect. Charles Baker ahoy of four- teen, living in Molyneux Street, Marylebone teased and struck his brother William, eleven years old ; William retaliated by throwing a knife at Charles; it entered the left lung, and the patient died soon after, in the hospital. William. Bonner, aged thirteen, wasiuterfered with by his brother. Johns two years older, as he was about to cut a loaf in his mother's absence ; William rushed at his brother with the knife, stabbed him under the ear, and inflicted a wound that is pronounced dangerous.

At the. Thames Police Office, on Monday, a charge of stealing brought under the Magistrate's notice a dreadful case of distress.. Frederick Crowe, aged twenty-five but looking forty, was charged with stealing a truck : he had pretended to hire the truck, and then tried to sell it for two shillings: He • did not deny the act, but pleaded that distress drove him to it,—he wanted to get food for his sick mother, his sister his wife and child, and himself, who were starving. When two police:- men went to arrest him, they were horrified at the condition in which they found the family ; they humanely purchased food and fuel for them, and in. dueed, the neighbours to subscribe for their relief. Crowe told the Magis- trate that he waa a bird-cage maker, but he could get no work at that nor anything else, except making canvassjackets ; for which he and the family received a miserable payment. Mr. Yardley was puzzled how to act; his humanity prompted him to relieve the prisoner and his family, yet he shrank from appearing to reward a theft : but after lecturing the offender, he ob- served that the owner of the truck no doubt had no desire to consign the miserable man to a prison, and discharged him. Mr. Yardley then directed the chief usher to inquire into the condition of the family. That officer gave this report.

" No. 1, Union Place, Stepney Green.— I found Alice Cracknell, who says she is forty- seven years of age, dressed in a petticoat ; the upper part of her body covered with canvass coats, which she was making. Her mind seemed much affected, and she appeared to be nearly starved to death. Her arms are like those of a child three years of age. Eliza Cracknell, the daughter of the above, dressed the same as the mother; a fine girl, aged sixteen years, suffering from illness and want of food. Harriet Crowe and child; the mother only eighteen years old, bad nothing but an old frock on, the only frock in the house. She also appeared to be suffering from her close confinement in a small and badly-ventilated room, and the want of food. In the room there was part of a bench, which is used as a table during the day, and a bed for the man Crowe at night. The three women and the man make jackets; and by 'working hard all day, and until two o'clock in the morning, and all day of Sun- day, they can earn 7s. per week. They all said they bad not tasted food since Friday morning, until the time that Police-Sergeant Smith went and gave them a few pence out of his own pocket, and a neighbour has given them some old clothes to cover the child. They- pay Is. ed. per week for the two rooms, about five feet wide and ten feet long each. One room has nothing in it at all. The man says he could make a living if he could get a-set of tools, which would coat about 21. lOs. He could make cages and sell about the streets.. The family have been relieved by the parish with one loaf and a pound of oatmeal. Found lying in one corner of the room the remains of a mattress or blanket, which. was the only thing in the roomexeept an old box used to sit upon."

The Magistrate directed that a pound should be appropriated from the poor-box for the relief of the family.

Miss Anne Campbell, who was once an inmate of Miss Sellon's establish- ment, but subsequently seceded, turned Roman Catholic, and published a pamphlet concerning Miss Sellon, was reexamined by.the Marylebone Ma- gistrate on Monday, on the charge of stealing. Mrs. Phillips's jewellery. Captain Sellon was present; A good deal of time was occupiedin a conver- sation about the publication of the letters found on the accused, in the daily papers last week —a publication which was censured as irregular and calcu- lated to injure the prisoner. It seems that young. Mr. Templemau, son of MM. Phillips's solicitor, received the letters from a policeman ; by "an error of judgment," aa. the Magistrate said,' he had allowed the reporter at the court to take copies of them, and that gentleman thought they. were of a na- ture that warranted their publication. The Magistrate seems to have absolved the reporter from blame. Mrs. Phillips was examined, and identified the jewels. Cross-examined, she said—" Iliad another set of jewels, which were given by roe to my youngest daughter. Miss Campbell, the prisoner, urged me to do so. She did not urge me to give the other two sets to my eldest daughters : they had behaved exceedingly ill." By her solicitor's advice, Miss.Campbell reserved her defence she was committed for trial, but liberated on bail.

Mr. Robert Henderson Robertson, a bill-broker of Berkeley Square and Lothbury, has been committed for trial by Alderman Carden, for stealing a 's' eery note for 3501., the property of Mr. John Milnes; and Robert Hills, clerk to Robertson, has been committed for aiding and abetting his employer, by holding /Dines while Robertson ran off with the bill : both the accused are admitted to bail. The note had been given by. Robertson to Manes in the course of some bill transactions ; at a meeting, Robertson got the note into his hands ; a personal struggle ensued ; Hills interfered, held down Mih' ies, and the bill-broker escaped with the note. His counsel ad- mitted that he had carried it off by stratagem " ' - but contended that the circumstances under which it had been obtained from him warranted his doing, so, though it certainly was not a legal mode of recovery.

The " gents " who annually amuse themselves and annoy other persons by creating disturbances at Jullien's concerto at Drury Lane Theatre, have received a salutary warning. On Monday night a number of these "fast" young men began their pranks, and carried them so far as to resist and as- sault the forbearing policemen. Three of the offenders were brought before the Bow Street Magistrate on Tuesday. Garden, a saddler, and Williams, a naval officer, were fined Si. each. Richard Kemp, said to be the son of a general, and who had seized a policeman by the throat, treated the matter very lightly—he had been drinking, and the constable collared him first. The Magistrate, Mr. Henry, sentenced this easy gentleman to.fourteen days' imprisonment.

The extensive premises of Messrs. Paton and Charles, soap-boilers, in High Street, Wapping, were destroyed by a fire which broke out at eleven o'clock on Saturday night.