Vrtruputio.
The projected meeting of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, to devise means for sending out clergymen to adminis- ter spiritual aid to our soldiers in the East, was held on Tuesday, at their rooms in Pall Mall. The Bishop of London presided; Mr. Beres- ford Hope, the Reverend George Gleig, Chaplain-General of the Forces, and Major Powys, welt the chief speakers. The practical business of the meeting consisted in the adoption of a report from the standing com- mittee, stating that it had been determined to send out as many clergy- men as the funds placed at the disposal of the Society might admit, in order to meet the wants which the Government cannot supply. It was also resolved that a separate fund should be raised for the purpose, and a committee was appointed to manage it. The Chaplain-General of the Forces said that he was authorized to state, that whatever amount the Society might allow out of its funds to the clergymen sent out, Govern- ment would give as much ; that a free passage out would be provided for each clergyman ; and that he would have the same rank, rations, and quarters, as though he had been a Chaplain of the Staff. ,Mr. Beres- ford Hope suggested the appointment of some Chaplain as Bishop at the seat of war, or that the Bishop of New Zealand might go out in that capacity.
At a meeting of the Court of Common Council, on Thursday, it was resolved, on the motion of Mr. Wood, to grant 2000/. in aid of the Patriotic Fund. An amendment was moved to reduce the sum to 10001.; but the original motion, after a good deal of debate, was carried by a large majority.
Money is coming in from all quarters. The proprietors of Astley's Amphitheatre and the Polytechnic Institution have both given the pro- ceeds of a night's performance ; and today the Crystal Palace Company give a grand musical entertainment, in which the band of the French Guides, the Emperor's private band, will take part—the proceeds to go to the Patriotic Fund.
Last Saturday was the forty-ninth anniversary of the battle of Trafal- gar; and the Royal Navy Club celebrated it by a dinner at the Thatched House Tavern in St. James's Street. There were present fifty-one flag- officers, commanders, and captains; Earl Nelson was the guest ; the chairman was Captain Hood, a former Midshipman of the Achille the seventh ship of Collinewood's line ; and his supporters were Captain Douglas and Captain Dennys, also Midshipmen of the Achille on the 21st October 1805. In proposing the memory of Nelson, the chairman confined himself almost entirely to the hero's last exploit; and the toast was drunk in silence.
The Registrar-General's report continues to furnish evidence of the-de- cline of the epidemic. The deaths last week, from cholera, were 163 in number; in the preceding week they were 249. In like manner, the deaths from diarrhoea have fallen from 106 to 83. On the general health of the Metropolis the report observes- " The deaths registered in London, which id the first two weeks of Octo- ber were 1532 and 1394, declined in the week that ended last Saturday to 1321. In the ten weeks of the years 1844-'53, corresponding to last week, the average number was 942; which being raised in proportion to the in- crease of population becomes 1036. About 300 persons died last week more than could be estimated from the experience of former years at the middle of October."
Mr. Whately, QC., an arbitrator appointed by the Court of Exchequer, was engaged on Tuesday and Wednesday, in hearing a ease of defamatory libel instituted by the Reverend Dr. Tidman, Foreign Secretary of the Lon- don Missionary Society, against the Reverend Robert Ainslie. The libel was contained in statements made by Mr. Ainslie against Dr. Tidman, in defence of the Reverend Ebenezer Davies a person who was expelled from the Board of the London Mission in 1852. This Mr. Davies was charged with immoral conduct. It appears that in 1839 he was sent as a missionary to Berbice, and that while there he was charged with improper intimacy with two coloured women, both of which charges failed to be proved. After his re- turn to England, in 1848, similar reports got abroad, regarding his de- meanour to a young lady at Greenwich, and prejudicial to his moral character; and a new charge became public. Mr. Davies had visited England in 1845, and during his stay he made a tour in the country. While at Wellingborough, he is alleged to have written a letter to his wife of the most indecent cha- racter. By some inadvertence this letteris said to have been dropped on the „tear if the waiting-room of the London Mission House, and to have been ilaaup by Mr. Stacey, one of the clerks; read, copied, attested, and tir_forwerded to Mrs. Davies. In 1850 there was an inquiry, by committee, in the eo,buiSict of Mr. Davies in relation to the Berbice scandals, and to theaievt eeper of Mr. Davies's relations with women. Dr; Tidman was to sgre *Om elommittee ; but 'before he did so he was informed of the Wel- ' gbi leiter, the authorship of which Davies neither admitted nor r Mauch entreaty, and looking to the mode in which Stacey • ted with the contents of the letter, Dr. Tidunui consented ntion it; and, on the urgent appeal of Davies, he consented to • committee. The result was, that Mr. Davies was acquitted of
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the Berbice accusations, but was recorarcesnded_to leave the metropolis, on account of his indiscretion. The witnereeareitupined were Mr. Samuel Morley, Mr. Eusebius Smith, and Dr, Tidman: the inquiry stands adjourned .until.tbia day. ' • • At theCentraltkintinal Court, tin Wednesday, Joseph Windle Cole, formerly a merchant in the City, was triad for obtaining 10;0601. by false pretences. Cole had been the habit ofnbtaining large advanoesef money from Messrs. Laing and C.o., on the security of 'warrants for goods : most of these transac- tions seem to have been bona fide, but latterly he strayed from the right path. In July last year, he obtained 10,000/. from Messrs. Laing and Co., depositing what purported to be warrants for tin, and apelter, stated to be in the warehouse of one Maltby, in Southwark: in fact, this tin and speller never existed, none bad been deposited at Maltby's, and be must have given fraudulent warrants in collusion with Cole : Maltby has absconded, and thus avoided being indicted with Cole for conspiracy. For a long time Messrs. Laing and Co. believed the warrants to be correct; as soon assuapicion arose, and inquiry was made, the fraud was quickly. apparent. Cole had tin de- posited in a warehouse near Maltby's, but that he disposed of. The Jury immediately returned a verdict of "Guilty." There were-other indictments, but they were not proceeded with.
Next day, the Chief Baron, after enlarging on the peculiar enormity of the offence in a person of Cole's standing, passed the aeverest,sentence in his power—four years' penal servitude.
The Reverend Hugh Pollard Willoughby, who fired a pistol at Mr. Gif- fard, a barrister, in the Central Criminal Court, was found "Not guilty," on the ground of insanity. Mr. Willoughby insisted on defending himself. Professional evidence of his insanity was given by Dr. Forbes Winslow, and Mr. M'aftwdo, the-surgeon of Newgate. He is to be kept in custody during her Majesty's pleasure.
At the Middlesex Sessions, on Monday, George Williams, a young MEM but an old offender, pleaded guilty to stealing two 'trucks. He had been sentenced to transportation in 1850 for stealing trucks ; on the :5th August last he was discharged from Woolwich, with a ticket-of-leave and 4/. 178. The Assistant-Judge—"And here you are, in October, stealing trucks again, the same offence you were convioted of before. Such are the effects of this wondrous system, that since January this year the committals have ex- ceeded by 600 the number of committals in the corresponding period of last year. 'The Court is determined to sentence to transportation all prisoners who are convicted after havingat ticket-of-leave ; for, 'whether it be right or wrong that such should be the system, it is quite clear that with respect to a man who so uses his ticket-of-leave, it- he sheer idleness to show
him any further leniency." The Aesiatant-udge accordingly sentenced the
prisoner to feurteen years' transportation : but that sentence was afterwards changed to eight years' penal servitude' it being fonnd that a recent net of Parliament has altered the punishment for such offences as On Tuesday, Thomas Johnson, a ticket-of-leave convict, and-two youths, were convicted 'of stealing a watch from the person of Mr. Lord. Sentence on Johnson, fourteen years" transportation.
There were two prosecutions against men for assaults on girls : one ease broke down, and in the other the 'verdict was "Not guilty.' It appeared that in each ease the-prosecutors were the Associate Institute for the Pro- tection of Women, arid that the society had taken tip the affairs without any one asking them to dose. The Assistant-Judge condemned this practice, by which the society obtained vests without having had any right to interfere. No man would be eafeirom accusations by the vilest of women if such pro- ceedings were tolerated. The Associate Institute were placiug,themselves in the same plantain as a man who was recently -prosecuted-for obtaining costs in a case where no instructions to prosecute had been given. The Judge refused to allow the costs in the present cases. Next day, Mr. Parry, standing counsel to the Institute, asked the Assist- ant-Judge to reconsider his decision; and took the opportunity to lecture the Judge in an unwarrantable manner, threatening to apply to the Home Seeretary for the costs if they were still refused. Of course there was an exciting forensic scene' and the Judge persisted in his first decision. Mr. Payne pronounced Mr. Parry's display to be "a discredit to the bar."
A dreadful tragedy has been acted at Bethnal Green. Louisa Garret, an elderly widow, and Mary Ann Rands, her daughter, kept a school in Essex Street ; latterly the scholars had become few, and the women were known to be in very straitened circumstances. In consequence of their not appearing on Saturday morning, a neighbour entered the house by a window ; heiound the daughter stretched on the floor of a lower room with her, throat cut; she was yet alive, but never revived sufficiently to be able to speak, and she died next morning. Mrs. Garret's body was fottnd in an upper room, lyinton the floor' in a night-dress, with marks of strangulation on the neck. The bedding denoted that there had been a struggle.
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