26 MAY 1849, Page 5

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The Metropolitan Financial and Parliamentary Reform Association held its first public meeting on Tuesday, at the London Tavern in Bishopsgate Street; Sir Joshua Walmsley, M.P., in the chair. Mr. Osborne, Colonel Thompson, Mr. Anderson, and some balf-dozen other Members of Perlis-

• nieni, were preiirit (bid the "vast majority '-efi the very large audience is said to have belonged to the " Chartist section of the community." The chairman made an opening speech on the programme of the society,—such an extension of the suffrage as would confer a right to be registered as an elector upon every man of full age and not subject to any legal disability, who for twelve months should have occupied any tenement, or portion of a tenement, for which he should be rated, or should have claimed to be rated, for the relief of the poor; vote by ballot; triennial Parliaments; and a more equal apportionment of representatives and constituents. Mr. Elliot moved to transpose the words " Financial" and " Parliamentary" in the- title of the society; because he was quite convinced that until they had Parliamentary reform they could not hope to obtain financial reform. Mr. Osborne seconded the amendment—the more readily because the Counoil had already determined that agitation for Parliamentary reform should precede financial reform, as more urgently needed. "There was at present, he grieved to say, no such thing as a Popular party existing in the House of Commons. There were certainly true and good men in that House, but he grieved to say that among them sickness and disease had been busy. The great patriarch of reform, Mr. Hume—(Loud cheers)—he was sorry to say, was grievously ill; the two Members for Finsbury, those honest and inde- pendent men, were not able to take their seats; and the honourable Baronet for Marylebone, be understood, was also ill. There were great apathy and distrait among Reformers themselves; and he repeated, that at the present time there was no Popular party, no leader, and no Popular principles well expounded in the House of Commons. He, who was behind the scenes, knew that there was great difficulty on every occasion in scraping together the eighty Members who had been returned upon Liberal principles; and he did not hesitate to say that the eighty Members who voted with Mr. Cobden, if they had thought that the vote would have turned out the Government, would have stayed away rather than have voted at all. ("Hear, hear! ") Therefore he said, they :Mould never rest satisfied until they had applied that gentle pressure from without which had not only influenced individual Members, but even the Ministers of this country. He wished to speak of her Majesty's Ministers with all due considera- tion, but he would ask whether it was quite fair that a Government who had climbed to power by a popular cry, and who, as it were, had found their way into Buckingham Palace on the shoulders of Mr. Cobden and Mr. Bright, should have thrown cold water upon them and their party, and have made their Cabinet a sort of perquisite to the oligarchy which rules the country ? He had great re- spect for men of character and high station, but he thought it was owing to the middle classes that these things occurred. How was it that they could see no wisdom except in a lord, and no probity except in an vested gentleman ? The House of Commons had degenerated into a mere taxing-machine." He concluded with denunciation of the national extravagance,-80,0001. for a gate at Buck- ingham Palace! 180,0001. for diplomatic services, which could be efficiently done for a much less sum; and the like. The people should avail themselves of the powers left to them, amidst all the changes of modern times, by the forty-shilling franchise.

Mr. Clarke, a Chartist, expressed his willingness to cooperate with the Association in their endeavours to extend the franchise; although he was disappointed at the society not being disposed to dispense with a property qualification. In Scotland no such qualification was required, and why should not the same principle be adopted in England?

Mr. William Williams spoke in support of a resolution declaring the need of a new adjustment of the burden of taxation; and Mr. Heyworth argued for direct taxation. Resolutions in this sense, and in support of the other points advanced by the society, were voted unanimously. -Amon. the May Meetings and other charitable anniversaries of the week, have been those of the British and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society, the Bri- tish and Foreign Missionary Society, the Church-Building Society, the Magdalen Hospital, the Royal Naval School, the Institution for promoting Baths and Waithhouses for the Labouring Classes, the Ragged Schools in Amwell Street, Pentonville, and the General Theatrical Fund. The meeting of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, in St. PAW'S Cathedral, was the hundred-and-forty-eighth anniversary: there was a numerous attendance of bishops and nobles, and upwards of a hundred clergy- men in full canonicals. The total expenditure of the society during the three years 1845, '6, '7, WAS 190,812/., the total receipts only 184,0961.: the deficiency was supplied by sale of capital stock: the estimated expenditure for the next three years is 62,0001. There have been 413 missionaries connected with the society in the past year, and upwards of 300 divinity students. In the evening, the Lord Mayor and Lady Mayoress entertained at a banquet in the Mansionhotue a large assemblage of the Bishops and eminent clergy. At the British and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society, the policy of the Sugar Act of 1846 was denounced as heretofore; and the whole scheme of Indian immigra- tion into the West Indies was denoneced as a costly failure, attended with a mor- tality so frightful, and immoralities so degrading, as to involve all parties in dis- grace who have participated in it.. On the motion of Mr. A. Crummell, an Epis- copal clergyman from the United States, Mr. Joseph Sturge, Id. L'Instant of Hayti, and others, unanimous resolutions declared the personal duty of abstaining from slave latoirproduce, and the political duty of the S:ate to exclude such pro- duce from the British market.

The Church Buiiding Society had made grants amounting to 12,9101., towards building, rebuilding, or repairing 99 churches, within the year.

At the meeting of the General Theatrical Fund, ;the financial situation of the fund was thus summed up-For the year ending 21st February 1849, the re- ceipts, including balance in band and reserve fund, amounted to 4,600/. Os. 9d.; and the disbursements to 7261. 18.7d.

In the year 1839 the parish of Bethnal Green contained 80,000 inhabi- tants, and but two churches and three clergymen. A movement was originated to carry out a scheme of erecting and endowing ten churches with suitable parsonage-houses and schools. Nine of these churches have been erected and consecrated; three parsonage-houses have been built, and provision made for two more; and six schools have been built of capacity for the instruction of 6,000 children. Seventeen clergymen have been added to the parish. "The sites of three, the cost of two, and the endow- ment of one, were the offerings of private individuals." On Wednesday, the foundation-stone of the tenth of these projected churches was laid by the Earl of Harrowby, in the presence of seven bishops, upwards of a hundred clergymen, many noblemen, and a large general assemblage. The stone bore an inscription stating that the site of the church, house, and schools, was the gift of Mr. W. 0. Hammond, Lady Isabella Brydges, and Mrs. Harrison; and that the cost of edifices is defrayed by one indivi- dual, Mr. William Cotton. Lord Harrowby made a brief speech, and songs and prayers terminated the out-door ceremony. Immediately afterwards, 4,000 charity children, and half as many general spectators, repaired on invitation to a vast tea-party, given in a building lent by the Eastern Counties Railway; where again prelates and noblemen attended, and took , part in the proceedings.

. At the meeting of the Royal Agricultural Society of England the Mar- quis of Downshire was elected President for the ensuing year. The an- nual members now number 4,643; the receipts of last year were 6,8311., the expenses only 5,8881.; by selling 1,0001. stock, a loan from Messrs. Drummond has been paid off. The entries for the Norwich meeting on the 18th July next already far exceed the immense entries of the past year's show at York. The meeting of 1850 will be at Exeter.

• At Guildhall Police-office, on Wednesday, Mrs. Catherine Stolz, a ladylike per- son, was charged with a novel offence-commissioning a broker to buy stock, and then refusing to pay brokerage or principal. She directed Mr. William Barton to buy 1,0001, of railway shares; but she could not pay for them, nor the 37/. 18s. . expense and loss on the transaction. It appeared during the investigation, that the accused had practised the same senseless trick on many stock-brokers; AO that at length a placard was affixed in the Stock Exchange warning dealers against her. When asked her motive for such conduct, Mrs. Stale made a ramb- ling statement about money which was to come to her under the will of an an- cestor." The explanation was quite unsatisfactory; and she was remanded.

Constandine Asquith, an accomplished foreign rogue, was finally examined at the Mansionhouse on Thursday, on charges of fraud and forgery. He had ob- tained money from ship-brokers by representing himself as the master of a 'vessel, and had got advaaceis on foreign bills which turned out to be forgeries. Had not his frauds been. opportunely discovered, he would have been married on Thunichey to the daughter of a wine-merchant at Holbeach, though he has a wife and children at Stettin. The fellow behaved with most impudent but amusing . sang-froid, keeping the court in constant laughter. He was committed for trial