TOE Ifletropolis.
A special meeting of the Court of Commissioners of Sewers was held at Guildhall on Tuesday, to consider a motion by Sir Peter Laurie on the subject of wood-paving. He moved, " That it is the opinion of the Court that the wood-pavement in the Poultry is dangerous and incon- venient to the public, and ought to be at once taken up and replaced with granite-paving." He said, a strong point in favour of his motion was, that Mr. Prosser, the Secretary to the Metropolitan Wood-paving Company, had admitted that wood-paving was unsuitable unless pitched and' sanded over. Among other arguments, he stated that the Re- corder, Sheriff Pilcber, and others, make a circuit through streets paved with granite, in order to avoid the wood; and he asserted that it would take 24,000,0001. to pave London with wood. Mr. R. L. Jones moved " the previous question " ; and after a debate, the amendment was carried, by a large majority.
The hearing of Income-tax appeals for the City of London closed at Basinghall Street on Tuesday. The last batch of appeals was made by the professional residents of Sergeants Inn ; who, as might have been expected,' were victorious. The Board of Commissioners had sat to hear the City appeals for three months.
Judgment was delivered by the Lord Chancellor on Saturday in the case of the Queen versus Lord Canterbury ; who had presented a peti- tion to the Crown requesting compensation for damage done to his fur- niture, books, and other property, by the fire which destroyed the two Houses of Parliament ; and the case came before the Lord Chancellor on' deriaurrer by the Attorney-General. The Lord Chancellor quoted passages from various law authorities, which showed, that if a fire occurred through the negligence of the owner of a house, and the Property of another _was injured, the owner was liable ; but not if the fire happened by the conduct of a stranger. If the accident were in- evitable, the party was not liable ; and the owner was also exempt if the cause of fire were beyond his control. In the present case, the fire occurred in the time of a previous Sovereign ; so that if even he were liable, the present Sovereign would not be so. Further, the subordi- nate servants through whose negligence the fire occurred were ap- pointed, not by the Crown, but by the Commissioners of Woods and Forests. The Lord Chancellor held that the demurrer must be allowed.
At the Court of Queen's Bench, on Saturday, Lord Denman gave judgment in the case of Badger and Cartwright, two Magistrates of Dudley in Staffordshire, before whom Arthur George O'Neil, a Chartist preacher, was brought up on a charge of seditious practices, in August last. O'Neil was required to find two sureties of 1001. :each for his appearance to take his trial ; and two persons properly qualified were tendered to-the Magistrates as his bail, but were refused, on the ground that thei had attended Chartist meetings. The two Magistrates as- signed no Other reasons, though they stated that they had other rea- sons. "Al'itale-foi. a criminal information was then filed against the two Magistrates for refusing to take bail ; and in the discussion on showing cause against it, the alarming and disturbed state of the neighbourhood at the time ,was pleaded by them in extenuation of their conduct. Lord Denman considered the conduct of the Magistrates reprehensible, and such as to justify the application ; but, inasmuch as they acted solely with a view to the preservation of the peace, be discharged the rule, but ordered them to pay the costs.
Cannell, the hero of the tragi-comedy at the Auction Mart Tavern, was finally examined at the Mansionhouse on Saturday. The evidence of Jones, the kitchen-maid, which had been produced on his behalf to show that a close familiarity had subsisted between him and Mrs. Magimi; was now partly contradicted. Henry Chapman, a Police con- stable, repeated what Connell had said to him after he was appre- hended
. Among other things, he exclaimed, " I can't think where my senses could be, to shoot a woman whom I loved, and who had been so kind to me" ; adding at the same time, " She was very obstinate, and would not let me fasten the gate." On the same occasion, too, he said, " She was fastening the door of the cellar when 1 drew the pistol and shot her. She fell down, and I instantly threw the pistol from my hand and cut my own throat with the knife "; which was afterwards found, wet with blood.
He told nothing to the Policeman about the familiarity with Mrs. Magnus ; unless he alluded to it in the remark that he would not say any thing as to the provocation until he knew the fate of the woman. Cannell was committed for trial.
At Marylebone Police-office, on Monday, a lady waited on Mr. Raw- linson to ask advice : she was the mother of a young lady whom the inveigler of governesses recently exposed by the limes had endea- voured to entrap. „The Magistrate advised her to lay the facts before the editor of that paper, and she accordingly made a statement to the reporter. About twelve-months back, the lady advertised in the Times for a situa- tion for her daughter ; and she received a note purporting to be from Mrs. Dalton, inviting the young lady to an interview at a house in Marlborough Square, Chelsea. The young lady went, but accompanied by her mother ; and saw both Mr. and Mrs. Dalton. The gentleman invited them to dinner, to meet a Mr. Meves, before whom he wished the young lady to play on the pianoforte. They met, not Mr. Meves, with whom the mother had been acquainted, but a young gentleman named St. Felix ; who took an opportunity of telling the mother, " that Mr. Dalton was a madman, but that he was not so much mad as vicious ; and-that it wag .not a fit place for her daughter to be in "; adding, how- ever, that Mrs. Dalton was a respectable woman. A strange scene en- sued—
"Mr. St. Felix was beginning to play and sing, when, just at the moment, Mr. Dalton rushed in in a very great passion, swearing that be would have no strangers in his house, and that his piano should not be played upOn.' Mr. St. Felix, addressing him, said, How dare you ask respectable women here to insult them ? ' when he directly screamed and called Murder!' and Police ! he ran out of the room, and shut himself up in the kitchen ; and my daughter, owing to the fright into which she had been thrown, went into hysterics. Al; soon as she recovered she and I left the house."
Last week the lady advertised again ; and her advertisement was an- swered by a note, inviting further particulars, to be addressed to Mrs. Dalton, care of Mr. Martin, solicitor, 45, London Street, Fitzroy Square : and on Sunday last, between nine and tea at night, Mr. Dalton called in person on the young lady's mother. Telling him that she knew him, she desired him to leave the house ; which he did. He is of middle height, between forty-five and fifty years of age, " shabby genteel " in dress, and rheumatic in gait.
Two more of those cases which it is as difficult as it is odious to re- port have occurred at the Police-offices. In one, an elderly person who calls himself Simpson, but who has been said to be a Baronet, a " Sir F—," and Stacey, butler to Sir Frederick Roe, have been committed from Marlborough Street Police-office for trial at the Central Criminal Court.
Mr. Joshua Jones Ashley, a member of the Junior United Service and several other clubs, and formerly one of the members of the firm of Ashley and Son, the bankers and army-agents of Regent Street, was charged at Marlborough Street, on Thursday, with stealing plate from the club ; and he was remanded for a week.
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