At a meeting of the Common Council, on Thursday, pieces
of plate, voted by the Corporation, were presented to the Sheriffs of last year. The Lord Mayor and Sheriffs delivered speeches on the occasion.
A meeting, to petition Parliament for the repeal of the Poor-law, was held on Tuesday, at the Freemason's Tavern. It was but thinly attended. Earl Stanhope was in the chair ; and the principal speakers were Mr. Oastler, the Reverend Mr. Dewdney of Portsea, and Mr. Walter. The speeches contained the usual exaggerated statements of the cruelry of the Poor-law, and the danger of enforcing it. Mr. Oastler's speech was extremely violent. Mr. Vincent, an operative, spoke at a some length ; but as his remarks were in "a very bad tone," the fastidious reporter of the Times abstained from giving them. Mr. Vincent, it appears, argued that Universal Suffrage was a necessary preliminary to the repeal of the Poor-law ; and as it would have been troublesome to any gentleman in the room to controvert this position, it
was deemed expedient to put Mr. Vincent down by noise and cla- mour. Resolutions were passed for the establishment of a Metropo- litan Association for the Repeal of the Poor law ; with Earl Stanhope for Chairman, Mr. Fielden for Deputy Chairman, and Mr. Walter treasurer.
A number of gentlemen, including Mr. John Abel Smith, Mr. Agile*, Mr. Liddell, Mr. Handley, Colonel Sibthorpe and Mr. Ingham, assembled on Wednesday, at the British Coffeehouse, Cock- spur Street, to make arrangements for protecting the lessees of Church property from any measure injurious to their interests, which might be introduced into Parliament. Mr. Ingham said that extensive inquiry ought to be made before Church property was meddled with— As it had stood in its present shape three centuries, it would be well to show the nature of the tenure, the amount of fine paid for it, and the outlay that had been made. It would be also important to ascertain the extent of the improve- ments made, sari if any manufactories were built on it. In South Shields, on ground enfranchised under the Corporation, glassworks were raised at the cost of 120,0001., where before a single brick was not to be seen. If any alteration was made in ecclesiastical leases, he hoped the Parliamentary Committee would take as a precedent either the Municipal Corporation or the Irish Church Tern- poralities Bill. He highly approved of the appointment of a Committee. Dr. Lupton had called on the Church to protect itself; and lie would call on the lessees of the Church to do the same, remembering that the family of the aged Bishop of Ely obtained from him, when sinking under years, leases advantageous to themselves,
A Committee was appointed to attend to the interests of the trustees.
The twenty-fifth anniversary of the London Orphan Asylum was celebrated by a dinner at the City of London Tavern, on Wednesday ;
the Duke of Cambridge in the chair. After dinner, the children main- tained at the Asylum, 336 in number, were brought into the room : their appearance exhibited health and cleanliness.
From a re _port of the state of the Marylebone Savings Bank, read at a meeting of the trustees on Thursday, it appears that, during the last Year, 2,797 new accounts had been opened. On the 20th of Novem- ber last, there were 9,947 deposit accounts open, the balances of 4,4343 of which averaged only IL Is. la each. The amount of funds in- vested is 164,3091.
A correspondent of the Times states, that notwithstanding all the fine talk about reducing the admission-fees to public buildings, on Tuesday last he paid 6s., the old lee, for himself and son to see the armoury at the Tower : the Yeoman said that no alteration whatever had been made.
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