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A deputation from All Saints, Poplar, waited upon Sir Benjamin Hall on Wednesday, to present certain resolutions respecting the defective state of the drainage in that district, especially of the open sewer in North Street and King Street. The Commissioners of Sewers are re- sponsible, but the deputation desired the interference of the Board of Health to compel the Commissioners to give a more efficient drainage to the district. Sir Benjamin replied, that he had no control over the Com- missioners; that they were anxious to do all they could, but that they cannot do all they wish. It would be quite impossible, he added, to secure anything like a sanitary condition of the inhabitants of the Metropolis unless they attained three great objects,—first, that the Thames should be purified by the construction of intercepting sewers ; second, that every street should have a sewer run through it ; third, that the owner of every house should be compelled to make a drain from his house to that sewer, which drain should be properly trapped, thus abolishing all cesspools. The whole question of offensive trades must also come under consideration ; and, if those trades were to be permitted in the Metropolis, all the appliances that art and science could suggest must be enforced for the purpose of preventing the annoyances to which the public are at present exposed. Another and very important in- quiry must also be instituted when Parliament assemble, as to how far the Metropolitan Water Companies have complied with the engagements entered into in 1852.

Sir Benjamin begged the deputation to send in their suggestions, in order that the whole sanitary condition of the Metropolis might be con- sidered, before he drew the bill which he hoped to place on the table of the House of Commons in the first week of next session.

At a meeting of the City Court of Sewers, on Tuesday, Mr. Moss reported that "large quantities" of diseased meat had been exposed for sale in Newgate Market. Mr. Pocklington, one of the Inspectors, stated that a great quantity of meat which had never been killed by the knife had been brought to the market ; that he had seized it ; and in reply to doubts he declared that it is perfectly true "respectable men in London will offer such meat for human consumption." He was ordered to sum- mon all the offending parties in future.

The general report on the sanitary state of the City was good; indeed, it would appear that the City has suffered comparatively little from the cholera.

A deputation of bankers waited on Mr. Gladstone on Monday respect- ing some points in the Stamp Act. Mr. Gladstone informed them that the law was explicit that foreign bills falling due on and after the 11th October must be stamped ; but he explained that bankers may continue to give acknowledgments without receipt-stamps for money paid in or re- mitted by their customers, and to receive unstamped advices of similar payments from agents.

At the Middlesex Session., on Tuesday, the Grand Jury made a present- ment against Grand Juries in general. After citing a case in which the bones of some stolen mutton, carefully preserved, were produced before them, and taking that as an illustration of the general utility of Grand Juries, they remark—" In former times, no doubt, our fathers wisely instituted this tri- bunal to stand between the accused and a court of justice, to protect inno- cent persons from the painful ordeal of a trial who might have been com- mitted either from the ignorance of the Magistrate or from political causes when party spirit ran high. But by the intelligence of Magistrates of the present day, and through the powerful influence of the press, these causes are no longer in existence. The only utility we conceive we possess now is in respect to bills of indictment, which, being preferred entirely on ex-parte statements, we consider would be much better dealt, with by the Magistrates be considered as mere matter of form—an institution which has outlived ite utility."

At the same Sessions, on Wednesday, Andrew Hepburn, a respect- able-looking Scotcliman, was tried for disturbing a religious congregation.

upon the equitable principle le of much alteram partem ' when the accuser an will relieve us from being summoned to attend to business which may

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the aeoled are brought ifPace to face. We therefore irust that the Legisla- ture , Hepburn abhors Mormonism ; he not only lest:wee against it, but he has fr. quently disturbed the Latter Day Saints at their -devotions. The offence for which he was now tried was that of interrupting a preacher at a room in Stepney. The case was fully made out. The Mormon witnesses were cross- examined, to cast discredit on their tenets. .Mr. Marsden, the preacher who was interrupted, stated that plurality of wives ie not recognized "in En g.. land." Mr. Payne—"Is it not part of your belief that the Bishops of tte English or Protestant Church must come to Joseph Smith's Church, as the only true one, in order to be saved ? " Witness—"It is just as reasonable to believe that-as to believe that Joseph Smith's Church must come over to the Bishop's in order that they may be saved." The Mormons consider themselves to be "Protestant Dissenters." It was proved that the room was licensed as a place of worship for a sect of "Protestant Dissenters." For the defence, Mr. Payne argued that the Mormons have no right to claim the protection of the law as "Protestant Dissenters "; their doctrines being anti-Christian. The law never can be construed to protect in worship those who entertain the abominable Mormonist doctrines. In summing-up, however, Mr. Bodkin emphatically instructed the Jury, that the absurdity or otherwise of any particular doctrine had nothing to do with the case : if the Mormons were to be disturbed on the ground that they are not Christiana, what could prevent an over-zealous Christian from annoying the worshipers in a Jewish synagogue ? where would this end ? These Mor- mons obeyed the laws of the country ; they were legally at religious worship, The Jury pronounced a verdict of "Guilty." Mr. Bodkin merely held Mr. Hepburn to bail to come up for judgment if required : Mr. Hepburn had previously promised not to disturb the Mormons again.

Edward Lewis, a lad of seventeen, was convicted of participation in a garotte robbery, by which Mr. Sackie lost a watch and chain. It was a dramatic feature in the case, that a daughter of Mr. Sackie had gone astray with Lewis, though she had since been reclaimed ; and while living with him, Lewis had engaged in the robbery of her father—without knowing, apparently, that his victim was her father. Sentence, four years' penal servitude.

The Marylebone Magistrate has committed Anne Parker for attempting to drown one of her children in the canal of the Regent's Park. A Policeman came up in time to rescue the child, which was struggling in the water. The woman admits that she had intended to drown her second child, who was with her, and then to destroy herself. It seems that she came from Plais- tow : she said her husband, after beating her, had deserted his family. The mother and children exhibited great affection for each other. The children have been sent to the Marylebone Workhouse.

Thomas Dennis, an urchin about fourteen years old, is in custody for rob- bery and attempting to shoot a Policeman. He stole 51. from his mother, and absconded; a Policeman seized him in the Victoria Theatre; he imme- diately drew out a pistol and attempted to fire—it was loaded with powder and shot, capped, and cocked ; when disarmed of this, he produced a second loaded pistol. He said he had bought the pistols and ammunition to shoot his father !

Jane Harrington, a young married woman living in Southwark, has been committed for trial for murdering her infant, by administering a large dose of laudanum.

William Colbert, who was wounded in the chest by his wife throwing a knife at him, is dead; and Mrs. Colbert has been committed for man- slaughter. She entreated the Thames Police Magistrate to liberate her on bail, that she might attend her husband's funeral: but the Magistrate could not.

Three costermongers have been sent to prison by the Worship Street Ma- gistrate for a stupid and shameful hoax. In the middle of the night, they aroused Mr. Bentley, a chemist at Bethnal Green, and pretended that one of their number—who personated writhing on the ground as if in great agony —had been seized with cholera ; Mr. Bentley ran down to his shop in his night-dress, and opened the door ; whereupon the three blackguards set up a horse-laugh, dragged Mr. Bentley into the street, knocked him about, an ran off as two Policemen approached.

It would appear that wives are privileged incendiaries. Mrs. Eliza Wright, wife of a butcher at Clerkenwell, has set fire to her husband's house in revenge for his resentment at her drunken habits. Fortunately, the fire was soon put out. Mr. Tyrwhitt, the Clerkenwell Magistrate, stated that she could not legally be punished for setting her husband's house on fire ; but he sent her to prison in default of bail to keep the peace towards her hue-

In a case of uttering base coin, Alderman Farebrother has refused to be guided by the opinion—a very usual one—of "a gentleman from the Trea- sury," that there was "not sufficient evidence of a guilty. knowledge to jus- tify a prosecution." The Alderman committed George Lee for uttering a base crown-piece in Newgate Market : quoth Mr. Jarman, from the Solicitor to the Treasury, the expense of the prosecution will fall on the prosecutor: the prosecutor said he could not bear the expense : then, concluded the Alderman, "I will make you the prosecutor, and show the Legislature the gross injustice of paying a solicitor who refuses to protect the public." Samuel Allen, a Jew, has been remanded by the Bow Street Magistrate for obtaining on false pretences property worth nearly 1000/. He got pos- session of a house next door to the Police Court, and ordered large quantities of goods, on pretence that he had got a licence to open the house as a casino ; then lie carried off the goods. A large portion has been found.

A Norwegian gentleman named Saxold, recently arrived from New York, has shot himself at his lodgings in Nelson Square, Blackfriars Road. It is supposed that his mind had been depressed by apprehensions that his mo- ther had died in Norway, as she had not answered an application. for money which. he had sent to her.

"P." has sent a fifty-pound bank-note to the ,Marlborough Street Police- office, for the relief of any families who may ask for aid in consequence of the dreadful ravages of cholera in the neighbourhood of Golden Square. The crossing-sweepers of Belgravia are now one of the "institutions" of the country—appointed, dismissed, and badged by the authorities of the dis- trict. They are mostly old soldiers, and as they are often employed to post letters and the like, it was found necessary to exclude interlopers of ques- tionable character.

A. woman who had passed the night in Brixton Police-station complained to the Lambeth Magistrate of her sufferings from the dangerous effluvia in the station—it is built over a sewer, which was formerly a rivulet.

Messrs. Collmann and Stolterfoht, who were driven into bankruptcy by the forgeries of Ferdinand Pries, have paid no less than 128. 9d. in the pound to the their creditors : if anything can be recovered from the estate of Pries,

dividend will be increased.