Jbt Inttropolts.

A Court of Common Council was held on Thursday. A point of some Interest was brought under discussion as to the position the Corporation should assume in dealing with the Royal Commission appointed to inquire into the Smithfield and other City markets. At a previous meeting, the Common Council had authorized the Markets Improvement Committee to appoint a deputation of their number to wait upon the Commissioners: and this was done; Mr. Henry Lowman Taylor, the chairman, intimating to the Commissioners in answer to questions, that the Corporation would be ready to supply information on all matters of " fact " relative to the City mar- kets. Having done this, the Committee, before going further, thought it advisable to ask the opinion of the Council as to the propriety of continuing conferences by means of a deputation, and to request a rule for their guidance. In furtherance of these objects, the Markets Improvement Committee sub- mitted to the Common Council a report, recommending that the deputation should proceed on the principle of the " enlargement " of Smithfield, and that all the outlay required for such enlargement or the improvement of the approaches should be secured by act of Parliament and defrayed by new tolls; also that nothing decisive should be done without the previous consent of the Common Council. The discussion upon this report let loose all the arguments which had been urged on previous occasions for and against the removal of the market. With the exception, however, of Mr. Alderman Sidney and Mr. Blake, no member of Council spoke against the recommendations of the Committee. These two dissentients recommended resistance to the Commission, on the score of its legality. The Alderman considered it an usurpation of the Corporation rights as the guardians of the public interest. The Common Councillor inveighed against the Com- mission as a stretch of the Royal prerogative: to recognize it, would be as dangerous to public liberty as it would be to invest a Royal procla- mation with the weight of law. These constitutional doctrines, however, bad no effect upon the Common Council: the report was adopted, with only two dissentients, Mr. Alderman Sidney having previously left the Court.

A report was also adopted recommending a reduction of one-half on the fee charged in the Sheriffs Small Debt Court under the head of "general fund." At present this amounts to 5 per cent upon the debt sued for; henceforth the charge will be reduced to one-half.

The Smithfield Club cattle show at the Baker Street Bazaar last week, and "the great day" of sale at Smithfield on the Monday of this week, passed off with unusual satisfaction to the public. The show last week is described generally as "the truest and best exhibition ever witnessed the natural symmetry of the animals was less disguised than at any former show by preposterous obesity. Among the cattle, the Devonshire beasts were especially distinguished; among the pigs, the Berkshire breeds; and among the sheep, the South Downs. The Earl of Leicester and Lord Kin- naird were among the chief of the prize-winners. At the Monday show in Smithfield, the supply of beasts was large-5,758 head; and this abun- dance, with the addition of the mild weather, caused the beef trade to be very dull." The sheep were more numerous than last year-24,000; but the quality was not generally so good; consequently the "mutton trade was particularly heavy." The prices were "complained of by the sellers"; they were "very considerably lower for everything than on the great day of last year in particular, and even under those of 1844."

The Royal Agricultural Society of England held its half-yearly general meeting on Saturday, at its house in Hanover Square; the Duke of Rich- mond presiding, in the absence of the Marquis of Downslaire, the Pre- sident.

The report stated, that in the pest half-year the society has lost seven gover- nors and 307 members, and has gained two governors and 189 members. It now cotsista of 90 life governors, 173 annual governors, 607 life members, 4,499 an- nu.4npembers, and 19 honorary members ; total 5,888 members. The collecting pfaecppiis has been difficult. Many members have fallen into arrears, and witneittielowitladpsw their names from the society nor pay up the sums legally from them MI; 411 the various modes of inducing payment having failed, 4he Cenral( have resolved to compel it. Sir Frederick Thesiger and Mr. Warren sta,eingheea Consulted, they advise that the members cannot legally cease to be such except in the manner provided for in the by-laws; and that merely discos. tinning the subscription only disentitles to the privileges of the society, bat leaves the member liable for all arrears. The Coo il have directed notice to be sent to each member-owing arrears mom than two years over-due, that if he do not pay such arrears by the 1st of &Manny next, he will be sued for them in the Cow), Court of his district.

Mr. E. Wingate deprecated this extreme course: in the present state of the agricultural body a little more indulgenoe might be granted; the farmers of Lincolnshire would think it sharp practice if they were dragged Into the County Courts. The Duke of Richmond, Colonel Challones Chairman of the Finance Committee, Mr. J. V. Shelley, and others, justi: fled the course recommended, as the only alternative left. Applications had been made to some members as many as nine times, in vain; half the last applications did not receive the courtesy of an answer. The arrears have gone on since 1843, and amount to 6,5301.; and if now collected "they could invest 10,000/. in the Public Funds." The financial state- ment was adopted by the meeting. The last country meeting, at Norwich, was the first meeting of the society which has paid its own expenses; it realized "a profit of exactly tenpence." The next country meeting is to be at Exeter, and it will commence on the 15th July 1850.

The Public Baths and Washhouses erected by the parish of St. Moyle- bone were opened on Tuesday. The building immediately adjoins the Dis. trict County Court, in the New Road, opposite to Lisson Grove: it is a handsome erection, in the Italian style, uniform with the County Courts; and has cost about 20,0001. The accommodations of the establishment, it will be seen from the following description, are on a very large scale.

There are in all 107 baths; twenty-four of the first class and fifty-seven of the second for men; six of the first class and twenty of the second for women. The charges are, for shot bath 2d. and 6d., and for a cold bath ld and 3d., in each class respectively. In the second class the use of a towel and looking-glass are afforded; in the first two towels are furnished, with a looking-glass of large di- mensions, and the floor is covered with a mat. To each class is attached a vapour and cold shower-bath, which are novelties in such institutions. The bathe are divided by partitions seven feet high ; and the rooms for the different classes are spacious, airy, and well lighted from the roof. The apparatus is so contrived, that within a couple of minutes a bath may be emptied and prepared for a new occupant. The swimming-baths, which are also a novelty, are capacious and well lighted. Dressing-boxes are around two sides with accommodation varying ac- cording to the class. The first and second class swimming-baths contain severalty 20,000 gallons and 40,000 gallons of tepid water, which by a simple but effectual arrangement are constantly changing. The charges are 2d. and 4d. with use ef towels and drainers. The washboxises are not quite finished; but there are eighty. nine pairs of washing and boiling tubs, supplied with hot and cold water; each compartment is fift..d up with a drying chamber; the whole is enclosed six feet high, and arranged in two classes ; the charge for two hours' use being 3d. The ironing-room is provided with tables numbered to correspond with the compart. ments of the washing department, and plentifully supplied with hot irons. It is calculated that 5,000 persons a day can be accommodated in the whole establish- ment.

At the Nisi Prius sittings of the Court of Exchequer in Guildhall, on Tues- day and Wednesday, an action was tried at the instance of Messrs. Badcock, the bankers of Taunton, against the Great Western Railway Company, to recover the value of a box of gold and silver specie, worth 1,5001., which was lost on its jour- ney from London to Taunton, on the 10th January 1848. The money was sent as similar sums used to be sent by Messrs. Ransom and Co., the London agents of the Taunton bank, in a wooden box such as they had frequently sent before. The box was placed in a railway carriage, in a compartment which was between 3 "conductor's compartment" and a " passenger's compartment"; the conductor's compartment communicating with that in which the ',Maras placed by an open- ing made for the working of the wheel-brake, through Which a man might easily get; and the passenger's compartment being shut off from it by a thick board par- tition. On the journey, the box was under the (tare of Billing, a guard who sat in the conductor's compartment: at the end of the journey, it was found that the partition between the passenger's compartment had been broken through, the box forced open, and the money carried off. The guard Billing was ar- rested and examined: nothing was found which so directly criminated him that an indictment could be safely preferred, but the company discharged him under the impression that he was the robber. The present action was brought upon this ground; it being deemed that the Company were liable to pay if their servant had been the robber though they would not be liable to pity if a stranger had been the robber, because the parcel was not booked as a specie par- cel at the increased cost allowed them by their act of Parliament in such caste The Company set up the defence that a stranger had committed the robbery; and they had a model of the carriage made and brought into court to show how it might have been performed without the knowledge of the guard Billing. A witness, Coffin, got into this model, placed himself in the position the robber must have taken, and performed before the Jerry the feat of forcing open the strongly- clamped and nailed box in one minute and a half. The plaintiffs gave evidence of Billing's having commenced business and gone to expenses of some 4001.shortly after his discharge, although a poor man up to that date; evidence which the de- fendants rebutted by showing that 3001. had been lent Billing, and that he had 781. in the savings-bank at the time of his discharge. The Jury deliberated a long time in a separate chamber without agreement, and ultimately was dis- charged without giving a verdict, on account of one juryman's illness.

At the Central Criminal Court, on Wednesday, Henry Bathurst Monkhouse (aged twenty-eight years) was tried for firing a pistol at his father. The parti- culars of the case have been already related. On the cross-examination of Mr. /deckhouse the father, it was elicited that the prisoner had been sent to sea as common sailor though educated at a gentleman's school. Mr. Monkhonse said he apprenticed his son to learn the sea ; " brit !don't know what they made of horn. He had been in the Royal Navy himself: he had never been a common sailor. He and his son were not exactly on good terms," and he had lately refused to allow his son to sleep in his house, tall he should send "an apology for his conduct prior to going to sea the last time." In the defence, no attempt was made to deny the son's firing at his father; but it was suggested to the Jury that the young man was so drank and excited at the time that the count charging an intent to mur- der could not be maintained. Witnesses were called to prove the excessive quan- tity of drink he had taken and its effects upon him. The Jury gave a verdict of "Guilty" on the count charging an intent to do some grievous bodily harm; but recommended the culprit to mercy, on the ground that he was excited by drink. Mr. Justice Coleridge said, he could not allow such a recommendation to influence his judgment on the prisoner; and he passed sentence of transportation for fifteen years.

On Thursday, Hugh Swan, a draper, was tried for falsifying his account-books, and for fraudulently obtaining goods when he knew he was insolvent, not to use in his trade, but to raise money on them by selling them at less than cost price. This charge of misdemeanour was framed under the 5th and 6th Victoria, cap- 102; but that act having been repealed by the new Bankruptcy Law, and no revi- sion made for the retention of the clauses on which the prosecution rested, the Judges decided that the indictment could not be sustained, and directed an ac- quittal.

The same verdict was recorded in a second case, where one Lake was indicted under the same act of Parliament.

Three of the Chartist prisoners convicted at the Old Bailey in 1848—William Poole, Thomas Irons, and Thomas Herbert—were liberated by order of the Secre- tary of State, on Wednesday, four months before their sentences of eighteen months' imprisonment had expired. The liberation has been granted in considera- tion of their good conduct up to Wednesday, and their expressed contrition.

The inquiry respecting the forged cheek for 4901. presented at Child and Co.'s has terminated in the discharge from custody of George Clamp. It was proved that the young man had maintained an excellent character for years, and cir- cumstances came out tending to uphold his statement that a stranger had em- ployed him to present the check: there was an utter absence of proof that Clamp knew it was forged. With respect to the similarity of the 201. good check and the 490/. fraudulent one, Mr. Temple thought that the latter was a copy of the smaller draft. But Mr. Coyle, who received the 201. check, said it had not left his hands till he cashed it. So the affair still remains in an unsatisfactory state slosh Drake, the woman charged with the murder of her child Lewis, was re- ermined, at Marylebone Police-office, on Saturday. The court was crowded with carious spectators. The woman is described as of very unattractive person. Mrs. Johnson, wife of a policeman of Croydon, who had nursed the child about eighteen months, was examined. Sarah Drake was very much in arrear in her payments. She had the child baptized by a Roman Catholic priest, saying that its father was a Romanist. In November last, she wrote to Mrs. Johnson that she was going with a family to Madrid, and the child must become chargeable to the parish. This induced Mrs. Johnson to take the child to town, to trace out the mother in her place of service, and to leave the child there, in spite of the woman's entreaties: she also threatened to get a summons against her for the amount of the debt-9L 10s. Subsequentlyt Sarah Drake pretended that she had put the child with another nurse. Mrs. Johnson had seen the corpse at North Leverton; and she was certain of its identity. Several witnesses were called to prove the receipt of the box containing the body. Mr. Blagg, a surgeon of South Retford, stated that he had examined the corpse. There were marks on the head of blows inflicted by some blunt instrument, and the brain had been wounded by these blows: these violences were sufficient to have caused death. There was Is hand- kerchief tied tightly round the neck: the pressure would have been fatal without other violence. The prisoner was again remanded.

At Marlborough Street Police-office, on Tuesday, Mr. Lewis Joel, a jeweller and bill-discounter in Little Argyll Street, was charged with uttering a forged bill of exchange for 1,000/. The bill purported to be accepted by Mr. John Marcus Clements, a gentleman who had transactions with the prisoner. Mr. Clements disowned it. The bill was in Dublin; and to give time for its produc- tion here, the accused was remanded.

At Lambeth Police-office, on Tuesday, Anderson, Sinclair, and Fitzgerald, wore finally examined on charges of highway robbery with violence. Mr. Hall, a barrister of Lincoln's Inn, Mr. Davis, and Mr. Condon, had all been robbed in different localities—Lincoln's Inn Fields, Coram Street, and Wheeler's Fields, Kennington Common—with similar circumstances: some man seized the victim by the throat from behind; another struck him on the head with a "life-pre- server"; and then the gang of robbers rifled him. There were very suspicious circumstances against the accused, but the evidence was not strong enough: the peculiar and brutal nature of the attacks, at night, prevented the recognition of the ruffians by the gentlemen robbed. Against Fitzgerald, however, a charge of returning from transportation before the expiry of his term was preferred; and he was committed for trial on that. The Magistrate was obliged to discharge the others.

The two women charged with having robbed a lady of 270/. in an omnibus have been set at liberty, the Police having failed in discovering the person who was robbed: she regained possession of the money, and has never since made her ap- pearance.

Daniel Flynn and his wife Julia were charged at Guildhall Police-office, on Wednesday, with begging. They were attended by five children, and the whole tribe beset passengers. The case appeared to be a bad one, and Alderman Car- den sent the couple to prison. Daring the time they had been in custody, the children had been sent to the West London Union. They were presented in court with their heads shaved: a ring of hair which would appear outside a cap or bon- net was left, and that was all. The Alderman was indignant, and instantly held an inquiry. It was said that the children's heads had been shaved by the order of the Matron of the Workhouse. She was sent for, but a message came that she was indisposed : the barber, however, arrived, and Alderman Carden questioned him. It appears that it is quite customary to shave children's heads on their entering the Workhouse, on the plea of their being dirty and infested by vermin. The nurse sends the children to the barber; he is the judge of the necessity for shaving them; the matron gives the order in each case; the barber is paid six- pence for each shaving. Flynn's children were shaved just before they were sent to the Police-office, though they had passed the night at the Workhouse. Alder- man Carden condemned the practice, and said he would have a thorough inquiry. He ordered the matron, the nurse, and the barber, to attend next day.

On Thursday, Mrs. Thompson, the matron, appeared upon a summons for mis- behaviour. The case was further investigated. The policeman who had brought the children into court was understood to say that they were to remain in the house for fourteen days. Mr. Alderman Carden was rather disposed to view the matter as an assault upon the children ; but there might have been a misappre- hension, and he would not let his feelings carry him to a hasty conclusion. He hoped the publicity of this case would prevent any recurrence of such practices. He ordered the children to be properly cared for in the workhouse; and the in- vestigation closed.

Two women, inmates of Camberwell Workhouse, one a nurse in the infants' Ward, have been sent to prison for two months, by the Lambeth Magistrate, for selling meat which they should have distributed to the tanner children. They merely served out bread and milk to the children, without the mutton and other meat intended for them.

The long-adjourned inquest on the persons who perished by the firework ex- plosion at Berraondsey was concluded on Tuesday. The additional evidence cor- roborated that formerly given as to the cause of the accident: in the handing of a chair across the room a lamp was struck, a piece of burning wick fell among combustibles, and the explosion ensued. The verdict was "Accidental death,' With an expression of regret that the Police do not take sufficient steps to prevent the making and selling of fireworks in dwelling-houses, which is an illegal peas-

Au escape of gas having been perceived in the kitchen of Mr. Wlllson, a broker in Great Queen Street, he incautiously took a lighted candle near the leak; a Violent explosion ensued, tearing up the shop-floor, smashing windows, and doing touch other damage. Several persons were hurt, and it is teared a shopman has been blinded for life.

The festivity of a supper and ball, given last week by Mr. Watts, the late lessee of the Marylebone Theatre, to his dramatic corps, was marred by a sad accident. The entertainment took place on the stage. Miss Susan Roberts, a member of the corps de ballet, was standing near the foot-lights; part of her dress was wafted over one of the burners, and she was encompassed with flames. Her condition is thought to be hopeless.