Efit ifiretropolis.
On Christmas Day, the festivities of the Metropolitan Workhouses were observed with suitable generosity. Roast beef and plum-pudding in weighty rations, extra beer, tea, and sugar, for the ablebodied, with comforts of snuff and tobacco for the aged, and the treat of apples and oranges for the children, seem to have been uniformly allowed. The daily papers report a gratifying state of things- " There is a vast decrease in pauperism, with about two exceptions, in every parish in the Metropolis; amounting in the aggregate to about 5,000 persons. It also appeared that there are from 80,000 to 100,000 in the Metropolis who are depend- ent on parochial bounty for their Christmas-day dinner. It must be remarked that the number of persons in the workhouses on Christmas-day must not be taken as a criterion of the number usually therein; the inclemency of the wea- ther and the certainty of a Christmas dinner being a strong incentive to persons to claim parochial relief."
The shareholders of the South-western Railway, assembled in special meeting on Saturday, agreed to a volunteer proposition of their Directors to appoint a Committee for inquiring into charges of maladministration lately made against the board. The general tone of the debate was very favour- able to the Directors. Towards the end of the proceedings, Mr. Chaplin, the Chairman of the Company, announced his conversion to the principle of a Government audit: " My mind," he said, " has undergone a complete change upon the subject "; and the announcement was received with " loud cheers."
The Palace Court closes its nnhononred existence on Monday next No writs have been issued since the 1st of August last, but a good deal of business has been transacted in the conrt under the Small Debts Act. The last counsel admitted to plead in the court was Mr. Best, the Member for Kidderminster; who gave about 2,0001. for the office. The records of the court will be transferred to the keeping of the Master of the Rolls.
In the Court of Common Pleas at Guildhall, on Friday, Mrs. Dakin, as the ad- ministratrix of her late husband, was plaintiff in an action against Brown and another, to recover 5,0001. damages on account of her husband's death through the explosion of the coffee-roasting apparatus erected by Messrs. Brown. The plaintiffs evidence was not fully gone into, but it seemed to disclose that the cy- rmder which exploded and killed Mr. Dakin was so badly cast as to be defective. The case was compromised: a verdict for 8001. was agreed to--5001. for Mrs. Dakin, and 1501. each for Mr. Dakin's two daughters.
In the Bankruptcy Court, at the last examination of Lot Pulbrook, a grocer, the bankrupt was asked if he had made no profits while in business. He replied, "Not a penny ": he sold his tea and sugar under prime cost—not to undersell his neighbours, for they sold as cheap as he; on the sale of ten hogsheads of sugar he lost 681. The balance-sheet was correct, and the bankrupt was passed, At the Manaionhonse, on Wednesday, the three men charged with forging Russian bank-notes were again examined. A number of engravers gave addi- tions' evidence, increasing the strength of the case: ajourneyman of Mr. Feger's, the winter, fully corroborated his master's testimony; he too was sworn to hasten the engraving and printing in preference to everything else; once when he was tired, one of the prisoners worked the printing-preen. They were remanded, for the arrival of Russian witnesses..
Sarah Drake was finally, examined by tba Marylebone Magistrate on Saturday No new evidence was given; but the depositions were made out in proper form and she was committed for tried.. She has already suffered intensely in her naiad' and medical men expect that her agonies will produce dangerous bodily disease: The Magistrate was so affected. by the shocking circumstances of the case that he shed tears oftener than once.
At the Lambeth Police-office, on Thursday, 'Robert Pile and Frederick James Darner Cape, respectable-looking young men, were charged with issuing fraudu- lent advertisements announcing that they had ready for delivery, " on receipt of six postage-stamps," a certain printed report of the "names of promoters, sob. scribers," &c., towards Prince Albert's Exposition of Industry and Arts; together with "printed instructions to those who are desirous of cooperating with the Committee." They pleaded that one Miller had employed them, and that they were 'just going to the Society of Arts with information- of their suspicion that something was wrong. They were remanded.
At the Marlborough Street Police-office, on Thursday, Louis Joel, jeweller and bill-discounter, was reexamined on the charge of forging the name of Mr.John Marcus Clements, of the Thirteenth Light Dragoons, to a bill for 1,0001. Ms Clements denied that the signature was his, or that he ever accepted a bill to that amount, or ever accepted a blank bill to any amount. A charge was also preferred of having fraudulently obtained valuable securities from Lieutenant Garland, of the Eleventh Hussars. The "securities" were a double series of bills of exchange for one consideration; it having been pretended that one series were wrongly drawn and had been destroyed. The prisoner was remanded till next Tuesday.
Another warrant has been issued against Joseph Ady, for a sum of 121.10& freshly accrued to the Postmaster-General for returned letters.
Twenty-five of the operatives of the steam-engine factory at Woolwich Dock. yard are to be dismissed today. By the use of Nasmyth's hammers the same amount of -work is done by fewer hands. Actual experiment has proved that four men working with these hammers could save each a pound a day to the Government.
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