Zbr Metropolis.

The Morning Post states, that on Saturday a meeting of Protectionisk Peers, to the number of forty-nine, was held at the Clarendon. The Duke of Richmond was in the chair; and apology was made for the unavoidable absence of nineteen others.

" The Duke of Richmond, having explained the occasion on which their Lord- ships were assembled, was followed by Lord Stanley; who was received with an enthusiasm that was continued through the whole of the speech, in which the noble Lord declared his earnest support of the principle of protection, and his fixed intention by all the means in his power to oppose the bill that had just passed the Commons. " Lord Beaumont, Lord Redesdale, Lord Colchester, and Lord Ashburton, seve- rally addressed the meeting in the same sense; and the result was an unanimous resolution to lose no opportunity that might offer for securing the defeat of the scheme proposed by Sir Robert Peel." The same journal, in speaking of the arrangements adopted in the House of Lords for giving effect to the opposition, says-

" The Earl of Malmesbury and the Earl of Winton have undertaken that necessary and important branch of party business, the collecting of the votes and opinions of those Peers whose cooperation may be, aflbrded in the carrying out of Protectionist policy; and they will be in possession of all the information as to details of intended proceedings, which is so necessary for giving prompt and effi- cient action to party combination."

The Protectionists held two great meetings on Thursday, at Willis's Rooms; the up-stairs meeting presided over by the Duke of Richmond, and the down-stairs by the Duke of Buckingham. This arrangement was rendered necessary by the great numbers which sought admission. The assemblage had been called together by the Central Agricultural Protec- tion Society; and consisted for the most part of delegates of the tenant- farmer class, sent up from the various counties. Among the notables were the two Dukes already mentioned, the Marquis of Worcester, Lord Beaumont, Lord Sondes, Lord Southampton, the Marquis of Salisbury, Earl Somers, Earl of Malmesbury, Marquis of Granby, Earl of Stradbroke, Lord Newport, Viscount Strangford, Viscount Campden, Earl of Egmont, Earl of Sheffield, Lord Redesdale, Earl of March, Lord H. Lennox, Lord E. Hill, Lord George Bentinck, Mr. Disraeli, Mr. Stafford O'Brien, Mr. William Miles, Mr. Yorke, and other Protectionist members of the House of Commons. The same resolutions were proposed and adopted in both rooms. The cheer- ing elicited by Anti-Ministerial and Anti-Free-trade sentiments is spoken of as "tremendous" and "deafening"—which of course it was. The resolu- tions stated, that the meeting had been convened to refute the unfounded assertion that the opinions of the tenant-farmers of England had undergone a change on the subject of free trade: a sincere hope is expressed that the Lords will not allow themselves to be deluded by such representations: this farmers of England rely with implicit confidence that the Lords will mject the Government measure, and thus afford the country an opportunity of expressing an opinion through the medium of a new election. A petition to the House of Lords embodying these views was adopted. The speeches of the tenant-farmers were of the same caste as those which the first promul- gation of the Ministerial measures gave rise to at the provincial Protection meetings. Denunciations of Sir Robert Peel, prognostications of ruin to farmers and labourers, and disasters to all interests, constituted the staple. Lord George Bentinek called upon the farmers of England, to exert them- selves--

• " You must really fight the battle, because all depends on you. I call upon yeas to stand true to yourselves, and to vote again as yoa have voted in 1841. I we not what may happen in the House of Lords. My belief is that the House of Lords will so mangle and mutilate the bill that the House of Commons can. not pass it, and therefore you are the parties who must decide the question."

The Duke of Richmond made proclamation of Lord Stanley as leader of the Protection phalanx in the House of Lords: he would stand bail for the honesty of Lord Stanley. Mr. Disraeli assured the farmers he was not daunted by their position, although he knew its difficulties- " I give you the same advice which my noble friend has given yen: we meet for no idle work; we meet to become better acquainted with each other- and we send you into your respective counties to circulate the news, that therigh your leaders in London fight a difficult battle, still they have this advantage, that they have faith in their cause.'

The first stone of a new wing to the University College Hospital was laid on Wednesday, by Lord Brougham. The building will add fifty beds

Ire the Hospital, and afford facilities for adopting improved arrangements lbr the admission and classification of special cases of disease. The Mar- quis of Northampton, Sir Edward Ryan, Sir L L Goldsmid, Treasurer of the University, Mr. Marshall, M.P., the Bishop of Norwich, Mr. Thornely, RP., Mr. E. Romilly, the members of the Council, the Professors, and Mr. Ainger, the architect, witnessed the ceremony. The Bishop of Norwich offered up an impressive prayer. In the a/maroon there was a dinner at the London Tavern; Lord Brougham presiding. Dwarkemeath Tagore and some of the Hindoo students were among the company. The Chair- man indulged in a philippic at the want of support experienced by the University from London citizens--- "He would say of his fellow citizens that they had wholly disappointed hint. He expected that when they found a university close at hand at which their Whine would be taught for 20/. a year each, and allowed to remain under their fathers' roof all the time, they would send them there, instead of sending them to be corrupted at Oxford or Cambridge. He did not say there neeessarily was cor- ruption at Oxford or Cambridge, but there was greater security for them against corruption in their fathers' houses. He thought the plan would receive the ap- proval of his fellow clamps, and that they would send their children to that school; but no such thing. He wished to use no harsh or offensive expression, but he thought there was exhibited on the part of those persons a great deal of City vulgarity. He used the expression from the bottom of his heart, having tried to find another expression which would figure what he meant to convey. He could find no words that would express his meaning at all but 'vulgarity,' and City vulgarity.' He did not state this Row for the first time, for he said it almost every time that he went to the University. He had constantly repeated the observation, and he believed with little effect. Instead of sending all their sons there for 201. each, to learn science and languages, classical literature, the belles lettres, natural philosophy, and mathematics, without which no man could be said to have an education—he would not say for a gentleman, but for a respect- able tradesman—instead of doing this, they made up a purse of 3001. or 4001., pinching themselves very often to send one son—leaving the others to work and rust—to send one son to Oxford or Cambridge, simply because they found Lords and Bishops there."

The evening's subscription in aid of the huiliiing-fund amounted to 1,6131. The presentation of the piece of tapestry, wrought by the ladies of Po- land as a gift to Lord Dudley Stuart, in testimony of gratitude for his Lordship's unwearied exertions iu behalf of their exiled countrymen, was presented at the public dinner at Willis's Rooms on Saturday. The testimonial is twenty-five feet long by twenty; the ground is a dark-blue, surrounded with an arabesque border in orange; and an inscription in the Polish language runs along the upper part, the translation of which is- " The sisters of the exiles to their protector." The arms of the kingdom of Poland occupy the centre of the tapestry; beneath which are the escutcheons of the twenty-seven ancient provinces of Poland and Li- thuania. Lord Morpeth occupied the chair; there was a stroug muster of Members of Parliament; and many of the Polish refugees were also present. The testimonial was presented by Count Valerian Kresinski.

At the close of their labours at the Central Criminal Court on Monday, tube Grand Jury made the following presentment- " The Grand Jury respectfully present at the chase of their duties, the solemn conviction forced on them by their recentinvestigations, that there is something fundamentally defective in legislation both as regards the decrease of crime and the reclamation of criminals. The instances of a second conviction coining before them have been numerous; and it would appear to them as though our jurispra- deuce had it in view that a citizen once charged with guilt should never cease to he a criminal: Jiggered by the unnecessarily heavy expellees of his defence—subs aseted during his confinement to association with characters the most depraved— and forced on the world, at the close of his confinement, without limey or repute— the accused is made for the rest of his life a criminal by profession. In the case of the young this is still more deplorable, and is complicated with grievances which the public share. The Grand Jury, among many similar instances, have bad before them the case of Thomas Miller, No. 34, Middlesex, a child of eight years of age, for stealing lead to the value of — with al:WESSI, conviction: reed the case of two boys, of the age of sixteen, No. fla Middlesex, for stealing an the value of one shilling, with a former conviction against one of teem for stealing to the value of sixpence. The irrationality of movieg the complicated and costly machinery of law for the legal punishment (arid for such acts) of chil- dren, neglected and untaught, forcibly impressed itself on the minds of the Grand Jury; and, while expressing their surprise and regret that the Magistrates of police courts cannot make similar cases to these matters of summary Jurisdic- tion, they would earnestly invite attention to the necessity of some general meta anre for removing children, charged with such trivial offences, after their release from the depraving circumstances that must insure their repeated and continued 2lielnee in our law courts in the character of criminals. The Grand Jury le.ait is not out of the sphere of their duties to suggest the importunee of doing something which, by diffusing information, and improving the reasoning power of our poorer population, may remove from our calendar numerous crimes which now owe their cavil solely to ignorance; and they feel convinced, while an improved agency of this kiu , using _public means rather for the prevention than the detection and punishment of crime, merits support both as humane and efficient, it shall as strongly appeal to public consideration on the ground of a jets dloious and great economy.

A complaint against Dr. Reid's system of ventilating the Court was preferred OA Monday by the Jury at the Old Bailey. They had suffered most seriously from the currents of cord air that were thrown into their box; one or two of them tied taken severe colds, and all had been very much inconvenienced. The Recorder agreed with the Jury that the system was very unsatisfactory: when he sat in the Court for any time, he bad found his legs and feet completely benumbed; and hardly a session passed without his taking a severe cold. At the Thames Police-office, en Wednesday, Mr. lease Paddle, master of the lealsells Blyth, was fined U., under the new Merchant Seamen's Act, for not pro- viding his crew with lime-juice and sugar daily after they bad been fed on salt provisions for ten days.

At Worship Street Police-office, on Saturday, Charles Giles was charged with uttering forged post-offiee money-orders. It appeared from the evidence that the prisoner obtained two orders from a post-office for 4s. each; he altered them to 61. 4.., and than attempted to pass them with the intent of getting a large portioa of change; in one case he bought a quantity of goods, and in another be offered to pay an account M a tradesman: in neither instance did the roguery succeed. The accused was committed for trial.

Joseph Ady, who finds fortunes for every one " on receipt of twenty shilling'," has got into trouble again. He was charged at the Thames Police-office, on Thursday, with fraudulently obtaining sixty postage-stamps from Mr. Samuel Smith Hill, under pretence of affording him information " to his advantage." The pro- secutor had been cautious enough to obtain a regular receipt from Ady before he sent him the stamps: the advantageous information was never forthcoming. The investigation was a very mirthful affair, the various documents written by the prisoner being so full of cool impudence. He was remanded for a week; the Magistrate, Mr. Broderip, stating that he should commit him for trial; but he made that delay in order that other dupes might appear against Ady if they ekes*.

It having been found that the sailor who got into the gardens of Buckingham Palace last week is really what he represented himself to be, a deserter from a man-of, war at Portsmouth, he has hew handed over to the naval authorities.

A singular discovery has beat made at the Camden static,* of the Birmingham Railway. About fear years ago, Messrs. Chaplin stud Home, the railway carriers, received at their warehouse, in Liverpool, a large square box or packing-case, addressed to a Dr. Hunter, residing ia landau. 'The carriage was duly paid, sad the box in regular course brought up by one, of the goods-trains to town. After repeated search, however, " Dr. Hunter " could red be feud; and the package, after being advertised, was removed back to the depot belonging to Messrs. Chap- lin and Horne, at Camden Town. A few days since, the case came under notice, and was opened: it was found to contain three corpses !—the bodies of a man, A woman, and a child, ail dried and shrivelled. Mr. Coroner Wakley directed that a surgiml examination of them should be made. No information could be ob. tained at Liver., .l respecting the parties who forwarded the boa. From the ap.

pearance of the 'es, and their being packed in grass and Indian matting, they are supposed to be those of American Indians.

A eurious circumstance occurred in the Court of Bankruptcy on Saturday, iu an opposition to a country bankrupt. The solicitor to the assignees was unable to leave Southampton, but sent up the grounds of opposition through the medium of the electric telegraph. It was reduced into writing at the Nine Elms station, and forwarded by express to Mr. Smith, of Sergeant's Inn; who attended before the Commissioner and read the communication; at consequence of which the case was adjourned.