tht alttruputio.
A deputation from the " London Committee appointed to promote the Amendment of the Law of Debtor and Creditor," and from the Chamber of Commerce, the Guardian Society, and Protection of Trade Society, of Manchester, waited on Lord John Russell on Saturday, to submit their views of the injurious effect on trade which would be produced by Mr. Fitzroy's bill for extending the jurisdiction of the County Courts, in its present form. The chief point urged was the objection to abolishing the concurrent jurisdiction of the Superior Courts with the County Courts in cases of debt owed by country tradesmen to the wholesale London houses, when the amount is between 201. and 501., as well as when it is under 201. Such a provision, they alleged, would be a. confiscation of thirty per cent of the credit debts owed by country dealers to metropolitan houses. Lord John Russell said, he felt the force of the objection; but the mea- sure having originated in the House of Commons, and not with the Go- Vernment, he recommended the deputation to lay their case before Mem- bers of the House.
The deputation then waited on Lord Brougham. Lord Brougham ex- pressed himself very strongly in favour of every measure calculated to cheapen justice, and to bring courts of justice within the reach of all classes ; and, as he understood this bill to have been drawn, he thought it would have that effect." The deputation went into the case, with the view of showing " that neither time nor money would be gained under the provisions of the bill, either to debtors or creditors ; that great injus- tice would be done to creditors; and that the indirect effect of the mea- sure would be so serious, if passed in its present crude and ill-digested shape, that important branches of trade would be paralyzed." Lord Brougham felt satisfied that the bill was in " a very different state to that which he understood it to be." If it passed the House of Commons this session, he would move that it should _he referred to a Select Committee of the House of Lords, where all its provisions and its bearings on trade would receive most ample consideration.
. Mr. Wakley, M.P. for Finsbury, has written to the Chairman of a meeting held to manifest discontent at the state of the representation of Finsbury ; acknowledging that he is not surprised at the existence of dis- content, but stating that it is his misfortune and not his fault that he is one of the causes of that feeling- " During thirteen years, a close attention to my Parliamentary duties ob- tained for me frequent expressions of approbation from my generous and indul- gent constituents. After a long, zealous, and anxious servitude, my health gave way, and the duties which I had to execute in Parliament remained undischarged by me from a powerful and irresistible necessity. In the last session, I could not attend the House of Commons at all ; in the present sea- Sion, my attendance has been both seldom and irregular. Illness alone, of a distressing kind, prevented me from speaking and voting against the detest- able Window-tax, when the motion for its repeal was last before the House." He feels that he has no moral right to continue as the representative if he cannot perform the duties confided to him, and he therefore places himself at their disposal. But the end of the session is rapidly approaching, and his re- signation now would be of little utility. "Permit me, therefore, with perfect frankness to stat* that if I were to be allowed to make choice of the course of proceeding at this juncture, I should prefer to remain in the honourable po- sition of your representative until the commencement of the next session of Parliament ; at which time, should my health not be sufficiently reestablished to enable me to resume my labours in the House of Commons, I shall, without hesitation and with the liveliest feelings of gratitude, restore to the patriotic and independent electors of Finsbury that honourable and dignified trust which I have so long cherished as the highest object of my ambition."
At the annual meeting of the Royal Agricultural Society of Rneland, on Wednesday, the Duke of Richmond was chosen President for the en- suing year : he excused his absence from the meeting on the ground of illness. The report explained, that the funds are in a highly satisfactory state : the arrears, of subscription, so long the source of trouble, and of Irregularity to the, income of the Society, have been brought under salu- tary control and placed in train for final settlement ; the Council have begun the most decisive measures in the County Courts " to bring the settlement of this Iong-contested question to a final issue." The Middle- sex summonses have been issued almost without exception to their suc- cess in gaining both the arrears and costs ' - and the summonses for other districts will be issued in prompt course. The Council have altered their plan of exhibitions, to make it harmonize with and subserve the interests of Prince Albert's Show of Industry : the show for 1851 will be a cattle- show in Hyde Park—as complete as possible an exhibition of breeding _stock : the implement show will be merged in Prince Albert's show, and not have a separate existence as part of the Society's show next year.
At the thirty-fourth anniversary of the Peace Society, on Tuesday, Mr. Secretary Richards said that the Society regards the Show of Industry by All Nations as a peace enterprise under another name : the Society only regrets that warlike weapons are to be exhibited, and has resolved to memorialize Prince Albert and the Royal Commissioners to exclude all instruments calculated for the destruction of human life.
The two hundredth anniversary of the enrolment of the Regiment of - Coldstream Guards was celebrated on Wednesday, by a grand banquet in the banqueting-room of St. James's Palace. Prince Albert had interested bimaelf especially in the celebration, and obtained from the Queen the Marked favour of the use of the palatial banqueting-room ; he was pre- vented from attending personally by the arrangements under which the Court left London for Osberne on Wednesday. Colonel Chaplin, the commanding-officer of the regiment, presided ; and the Duke of Cambridge, as its Colonel, sat at the head of a. long list of military men who have served in it and are now deemed honorary members; the Duke of Wel- lington, Mr. Fox /flank, M.P., Captain Lord George Manners, M.P., were among the guests : the party numbered altogether about a hun- dred and fifty. The papers give an historical note of the Coldstream corps; from which one learns that the Royal Regiment of Coldstream Guards is the oldest corps in the service, with the exception of the First Foot. The regiment owes its origin to the Commonwealth soldier General Monk, by whom it was raised in August 1650 ; five companies having been drafted by the Protector's authority from Hazelrigge's regiment, quartered at Newcastle, and five from Fenwick's, then garrisoned at Berwick. Thus formed, the regiment entered Scotland with the army under Cromwell, and did not return until General Monk, on the 1st of January 1659-60, quitted his head-quarters at Coldstream to restore Monarchy and bring back Charles the Second ; who, on his restoration, created Monk Duke of Albemarle, and converted his regiment into one of Royal Guards. Gumble, Monk's chaplain, writes—" This town hath given title to a small com- pany of men, whom God hath made the instruments of great things, and though poor, yet honest as ever corrupt nature produced into the world, by the no-dishonourable name of Coldstreamers." Few regiments have more distinguished themselves in war. Their tenacious bravery at Waterloo, when the farm of Hugomont was their point of honour, is now historical. Sir James Macdonald, who was at that time their Colonel, had the gra- tification of joining in the celebration on Wednesday as a Lieutenant- General. The speeches were convivial : the Chairman soldierly ; the Duke of Wellington emphatic, with well-weighed praise ; Mr. Fox Mauls complimentary, and contemptuous to the obscure and anonymous prints who detract from the proud position and distinction given to the body of her Majesty's faithful Guards. In the evening, the non-commissioned officers and privates of the regi- ment feasted, 1,400 strong, in the Portman Street barracks, under the shade of captured flags and banners and other trophies of war : Sergeant- Major Hurls presided, and discoursed on the historic deeds of the regiment from the time of its formation down to its latest feats in the field.
Vice-Chancellor Knight Bruce delivered judgment, on Wednesday, in the Agapemone case of Thomas versus Roberts ; an application made by a " near- est friend" on behalf of Mr. Thomas's infant, four years old, to restrain the father from recovering the control and education of the infant. The legal points of the decision arc contained in these passages. A " doubt " is first premised—" I doubt whether a man who, having been ordained a minister of religion as a Christian in a Christian community, has designedly and system- atically given up attending any place of worship—whatever his private feelings may be, and whatever hymns he may sing—ought in any condition of circumstances to be permitted in this country to have the guardianship or care of an English child, for whose maintenance and education there exist any other means of providing, though the child be his own." However, it was not necessary to decide this particular question, and the Vioe-Chancellor ex- pressed "no opinion on it." On the following doctrines no doubt was enter- tained—" I apprehend that in England a man *he holds the opinion that prayer, in the sense of entreaty and supplication to the Almighty, is no part of duty, but is superfluous—who considers, moreover, that there is not any day of the week which ought to be observed as a sabbath, as a day of pecu- liar rest, or as one of peculiar holiness, or in any manner distinct from other days—must be deemed to entertain opinions noxious to society, adverse to civilization, opposed to the usages of Christendom, contrary in the case of prayer at least to the express commands of the New Testament, and Ily, pernicious in the highest degree to any young person run- happy enough to be imbued with them. I say, in England. If this is a just view of such opinions, they must disqualify him who avows them and carries them into ractice, for the education, an in my judgment for the guardianship, of an ]dish child, whether his own son or the son of any other ; an observation, if liable to any exception or qualification, I appre- hend only liable to exception or qualification in the single and unlikely case of a moral certainty or high degree of probability existing that these opi- nions will not be commuieated to the child—that the child will escape the infection—that he will remain untainted. But these opinions are avowed by Mr. Thomas to be his. He carries them into practice. In such a case, see- ing that probably, or certainly as I have said, a sufficient provision for the maintenance and education of this boy is or will be made independently of his father's resources, it appears to me that, consistently with the law of England, as declared and enforced in the Court of Chancery since and before the time of Lord Eldon, as well as by him in more than one important case, I cannot decline interfering to avert from the country the infliction of such a citizen, and from the child such ruin temporarily and such spiritual peril as his father's threatened care must, I think, without a miracle, produce. I make an order therefore substantially, though not in words, such as is asked by the petition. Let it be referred to the Master to inquire whether there exists any provision for the maintenance and education of the infant during his minority, independently of any allowance or contribution from his father, and of what nature ; and if the Maste,r shall be of opinion in the affirmative, let him approve of some scheme for the maintenance of the petitioner, and appoint some proper person to act as-guardian to the petitioner, and approve of a proper scheme for his residence, maintenance, and education until fur- ther order ; and let the care and custody of the infant remain with the mo- ther and maternal grandmother, and let the father be restrained from re- moving or changing the custody of the petitioner or interfering with the same : and let all parties have liberty to apply to the Court as they may be advised."
At Lambeth Police Office, on Monday, Knight and Stark, the men sus- pected of complicity in the robbery at Clapham, were brought up for re- examination. The Police had hoped to capture a third man, and through him to connect these two with the offence ; but they failed, and could ax nothing on Knight and Stark. On the evening when the former was ar- rested, he had a complete set of housebreaking tools on his person : the Ma- gistrate held that this showed an intent to attempt a robbery, and he com- mitted this man to prison for three months. The other was discharged.
Three men have been fined this week, at different Police-offices, for cruelty to animals.
Mr. Henry Whittingham, a captain long in the service of the General Steam Navigation Company, has been killed at Bermondsey. In walking homeward, he slipped off Company kerb-stone, and fell into the carriage-way ; a heavily-laden waggon was passing at the moment, and the wheels went over Mr. Wbittingham's body.
Claremont has been in serious danger from fire, ascribed to the overheating of a flue. While a footman was preparing the tables in the dining-room, flames burst through the floor : the footman immediately closed the windows and doors, and raised an alarm ; hose were attached to cisterns of water, the flooring was torn up, and the fire was extinguished. It was found that the beams had been burnt almost through.
The gallery on the summit of the Dukeof York's column has been covered with a cage of iron bars, to prevent any more suicides from it.
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