Cht 331thunlio.

St. Thomas's Day falling on Sunday (tomorrow) thisyear, and Saturday being an inconvenient day for the municipal elections, the Lord Mayor has issued precepts for the election of the Common Councilmen and Ward Officers on Monday next.

At a meeting of the Sewers Commission, on Tuesday, a communication was read from the Dean and Chapter of St. Paul's, finally declining to enter into the subject of removing the railing round the Western area of the cathedral until measures be taken by the proper City authorities to enlarge the approaches to St. Paul's Churchyard, by removing the corner house on the South side of Ludgate Hill.

At a Special Court of the Metropolitan Commission of Sewers, it was resolved, after debate, that the services of Mr. John Phillips, the princi- pal Surveyor of the Commission, be discontinued. The resolution was not founded on distrust of Mr. Phillips's ability—that was acknowledged to be very high ; but on the antagonistic course which he has several times taken against his official masters.

Smithfield market—condemned to removal before another Christmas season comes round—had its last "great day" on Monday. The cattle- show was a scene of such crowding and confusion, that to "inspect or handle" the beasts was a wholly impossible thing. The supply of ani- mals, taking cattle and sheep together, was the greatest that the market has yet seen ; though not the greatest of particular classes. Last year, the cattle were 4250 and the sheep 18,208; this year, the cattle were 5470 and the sheep 27,900; "veal and pork" bearing this year about the same small fractional proportion to the whole as last year. The best beasts in the market were the small Scotch cattle : the superiority of these small cattle over the great Herefords, in the point of early maturity, was so great that their meat fetched a much higher price : "the big short-horn beasts met with a very indifferent sale, and realized only 3s. 8d. per stone ; whilst smaller animals, particularly the , Scotch, went off pretty briskly at 48. and 48. 2d., and in some ex- ' treme cases at 48. 4d." "Small Devons and Herefords made 4s. and 4s. 2d." The report of the Times states that "the return of the number of animals for payment of toll was 6710 cattle and 32,000 sheep," but the actual supply was much less—as is seen by the numbers already quoted : the discrepancy is said to arise from "the want of sufficient space in the market," which makes the salesmen "ask for more, room than they actually require." The business reports conclude with the sentence—" as the site of the market is to be removed, the sooner thenew place is selected the better."

The Grand Junction Canal Company last week made a trial of steam as a tractive power to move great loads at a slow rate over the portion of their canal between West Drayton and Paddington. Eight deeply-laden barges' holding a total quantity of 240 tons of bricks, were taken from West Drayton to London, at a rate of two-and-a-quarter miles an hour, by a steam-tug of eight-horse power. Not the least wave waa made, to injure the banks ; the barges steered perfectly well ; and two more barges might have been added to the load. The trial was deemed perfectly suc- cessful.

A deputation from one of the Kossuth meetings waited upon Lord Palmerston on Saturday—not again at the Foreign Office, but at his pri- vate residence in Carlton Terrace—to present the thanks of the meeting for his " strenuous and hi.ghminded exertions to procure the liberation of Louis Kossuth." The meeting had been attenda by Lord Dudley Stuart, Sir Benjamin Hall, and some other Members of Parliament ; but the present deputation consisted of Messieurs Nicholay, Soden, Michell, and some dozen other leading tradesmen. Lord Palmerston received the deputation with his usual courtesy, but simply tendered his acknowledg- ments for their good opinion.

Prizes were distributed last week by the Beiaehers of the Inner Temple to those students who have voluntarily attended the lectures. A Com- mittee of the Benchers examined the students on Wednesday and Thurs- day; and the prizes were given to the most deserving on Saturday. Mn-. Henry James, of the Middle Temple, obtained the first prize, twenty guineas' worth of books ; Mr. John D. Mayne, of the Inner Temple, the second prize, fifteen guineas' worth of books ; and Mr. Charles Smith, of the Middle Temple, the third prize, ten guineas' worth of books. The Treasurer also announced that the result of the examination in respect of all the other students was highly satisfactory.

The usual scholastic festivities of Founder's Day at the Charterhouse

School, on the 12th, went of successfully.. The annual oration was delivered by Mr. Lionel D. W. Dawson Danner; good speeches were made at the dinner, by Mr. Justice Cresswell, Sir George Turner„ Mr. Fox Mauls, and Sir Charles Eastlake. There was a great walking-match of ten miles for the championship of the kingdom, in Copenhagen Fields, last week. Nine of the best men in the country started, and each one honestly did his best : the consequence was an unparalleled performance. Spooner won the champion's belt by 150 yards, Westhall the second prize, and Old Smith the third prise. Newman and Heaver walked "their usual dead heat" for the fourth place. The first mile was done in 7 minutes 8 seconds; the second mile in 7 minutes 27 seconds ; the first seven miles in 5.5 minutes 57 seconds ; and the full ten miles in 1 hour 22 minutes 55 seconds.

A running-match of twenty miles was run against time by Menke, over the same ground, on Tuesday last. Manks was backed to do the twenty miles in 1 hour 68 minutes 30 seconds ; he accomplished his task with 42 seconds to spare, but fell into the anus of his backer at the finish. The find mile was done in 5 minute 56 seconds ; and the first ten miles in 56 minutes 56 seconds. Time had been backed at 6 to 4. • The December Sessions of the Central Criminal Court, began on Monday, with a prospect of light duty ; the Quarter-Sessions of Surrey and Middlesex now regularly disposing of some of that excess of business which formerly clogged the Court.

Charles Asplin was triad for perjury in an action before Baron Martin in Westminster Hall. This was one of the recent eases in which a plain- tiff was committed for false-swearing in his own cause. Avila is a coach- builder; he repaired some vehicles for Mr. Blackman, and sent in a bill of his charges. Blackman contended that the charges were a cheat, because the re- pairs were to be done under a verbal agreement at a sum named; and he swore to the terms of the verbal agreement made personally between him and Asplin. But Asplin swore that no special agreement had been made. The Jury believed Blackman : and the Judge committed the coachmaker Asplin for perjury, binding Blackman to prosecute him. At the present trial Mr. Parry admitted that his client, the prisoner, had "made some incorrect statements, but not more so than are usually made in cases of disputed ac- counts" : such a discrepancy of statements as had happened did not prove that either party had contemplated a wilful perjury. Several witnesses gave Asplin a high character. The Jury consulted a long time, and then retired to deliberate maturely in private ; after an absence of an hour, they returned with a verdict of "Not guilty."

Another of the recent committals for perjury in Westminster Hall had a different result. Boulden, a fruiterer in Albany Street, Regent's Park, had in December 1850 owed his landlord five quarters' rent. Paying his landlord the one quarter's rent due at December 1849, his landlord by mistake made out his receipt (among several others) as for the Christmas quarter of 1850. When the landlord discovered the mistake, Boulden declared that the receipt was right, and that he owed no rent. The landlord distrained, and Boulden brought an action against him for damages, which he supported by a number of statements on oath. The Jury disbelieved him, and Baron Platt committed him for perjury. The Jury impounded in the New Court on the indict- ment for perjury, last Thursday, had Boulden's falsehood clearly proved, and found a verdict of guilty. Sentence deferred.

In the Old Court, before the Recorder, Harriett Newman was tried for perjury in a criminal case. Harriett Newman is the young woman who in- dicted the young man Day for decoying her into a cab, by a false assigna- tion, for making her insensible and taking her to a disreputable house, and then for leaving her on a door-step, with a wounded person. Day was con- victed on her evidence, but the Secretary of State pardoned him. In the indictment now preferred against Harriett Newman for perjury, Day clearly proved an alibi; and he also proved that much of what Newman swore to was wilfully false; but great mystery still remained about her case. The Jury found a verdict of "Guilty" ; and the Recorder expressed his approba- tion; but sentence was deferred.

At the Middlesex Quarter-Sessions, the lady recently committed by a Magistrate for stealing pieces of soap from a shop at lioxton was acquitted by the Jury, after evidence given by her medical man that she is of a highly nervous temperament, and had since her confinement been subject to hal- lucinations—among others, to one specifically referring to the soap used by her household. The Judge also had suggested that women after confine- ment are frequently subject to singular and uncontrollable impulses.

An illustration of the rashness with which people will swear to identity has been given in the Westminster Police Court. A few days since, 'llomas White, an errand-boy, was charged with uttering a forged check for 46/. 10s. upon Messrs. Coutts and Co., to defraud Mr. Kirby, a cheesemonger at Bromp- ton. The boy presented the cheek to Mr. Kirby from his customer the Re- verend Mr. Bowdler, of Onslow Square, with a letter requesting change for it. Mr. Kirby accompanied the boy home, and found that the check was forged. But Mr. Arnold found that the boy bore so good a character, that he believed his story when he stated that a person who stood on Mr. Bowdler's door-step, and pretended to be his butler, had sent him on the errand as he passed the door. It was plain that the boy had been made the instrument of a swindler. He was about to be set at liberty, when Mrs. Faulkener, a butcher, stated that he had served her a precisely similar trick with a check drawn by a gentleman living in Spring Gardens. In the face of this second case, the boy's first explanation was disbelieved, and he was remanded in custody. On Thursday, a respectable man informed Mr. Arnold, that the case had attracted his notice in the newspapers, and that he believed the boy to be innocent : he had brought his own son to prove that he was the second boy, who passed the check on Mrs. Faulkener. Mrs. Faulkener was sent for, and refixamined without being told of what had transpired. She had no doubt at all that Thomas White was the boy who defrauded her : she swore to him again, and was the more certain when she heard his voice. The real boy was then put before her in the witness-box—Henry Hanker, son of a shoemaker at 93 Dean Street, Soho—a boy "younger than Thomas White, less than he, and as unlike him in complexion and appearance as any two persons could pos- sibly be." This second boy told how a man had tapped him on the shoulder in St. James's Park, and sent him on the errand ; and how, when he was returning with the money from Mrs. Faulkener, he met the man running down New Street without his hat, simulating the haste of a butler whose master VMS giving a party. Mrs. Faulkener, terribly abashed, acknowledged her mistake : she could "now see the difference" ; "it was only one sight she got of the boy" ; "she meant no wrong, and was sure it had disturbed her very much thinking about it." Mr. Arnold pointed out to her, with a severity that told the more heavily from his consideration of the woman's feelings, how nearly her rashness had lost poor Thomas White his character and his liberty ; for in all probability, if the respectable shoemaker had not seen the mistake in the newspapers, and with good feeling brought his son to eorrect it, Thomas White would have been convicted and trar coded for sonic years.

At the Thames Police Office, on Monday, Elizabeth Howell was proved to have stolen some baby-clothes ; and then to have pawned them on Sunday, at the house of David Barnett, "a Jew, formerly a clolly-shop keeper or un- licensed pawnbroker, and now a licensed pawnbroker, in the Back Road, St. George's-in-the-East." Nathan Solomona, a Jew boy, proved that "he ad- vanced sevenpence on the shoes and calico, on Sunday morning." Mr. Come—" You must give up the property to the witness, Suddaley. Your

conduct is very improper." Solomons—" We are only Jews." Mr. Corrie —" It is a very illegal thing to do, even if you are Jews." Soloinons—" We trade on Sundays, Sir : it is not our Sabbath. I bought the things. No ticket was made out." Mr. Corrie—" It is exceedingly improper." The thief was remanded.

A dissipated-looking old woman, named Mary Barry, was clearly proved before the Bow Street Magistrate, on Wednesday, to have skinned a number of cats alive, and to be getting her livina, by the sale of skins removed froin live animals. She was sent to prison for hard labour during three mouths.

Two thieves were caught in the act of carrying off a heavy load of copper and copper nails from a warehouse at 31untz's metal wharf, on the banks of the Regent's Canal, Limehouse, on Monday. The warehouse was broken into on Saturday night, and the property was removed to a corner of the wharf and covered over with drain-pipes. Policemen watched for the return of the thieves all day and night of Sunday, and rushed out upon two of them on Monday morning. One of them leaped into the canal; the other foug_ht desperately, and was overpowered with great difficulty. It was found that he was William Nixon, a well-knowu burglar, only nineteen years old. The fate of the other thief is a mystery ; he sank in the canal and did not rise again, and yet his body cannot be found.

Mr. Lacy, cabinetmaker, of Bull Court, High Street, Whitechapel, perished by a fire in his own house, on Monday evening. He was nearly eighty years old ; he had been out in the evening to see his daughter, and returned to his house at about eleven. Soon after he entered his house fire was seen to rise in the shop, and when the door was broken open the old man was heard cry- ing out, "Oh save ! for God's sake, save me!" but a body of dame inter- vened which could not be passed through, and he was burnt to death. After the fire was subdued, his charred remains were found on the floor of the workshop. It is supposed that he let a spark fall from his candle amongst some thin wood-shavings.

A great amount of property in the premises of Mr. Almond, army-ac- coutrement-maker, in Swan Yard, Long Acre, was destroyed by fire while the workmen were gone to breakfast on Monday.