29 NOVEMBER 1845, Page 2

lEbt Afftetropolts.

Lord John Russell's letter to his constituents was turned to immediate account in the City. The following requisition to the Lord Mayor is going round for signature—

"We, the undersigned, members of the Corporation, respectfully request your Lordship will call a special Court at your earliest convenience, to consider the propriety of petitioning her Majesty to take all such means as she may constitu- tionally possess for throwing open the ports of. the _United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland for the free importation of food." It is understood also that a meeting of the merchants and bankers, on the same subject, is to take place. The establishment of public baths and wash-houses for the poor at Glass house Street, London Docks, has now completed the first six months of its experiment; and during that period the warm baths, washAubs, and drying

apparatus have been used by 29,080 persons. The buildings on the site for the first model establishment, at Goulstone Square, Whitechapel, have been sold by auction, and are to be cleared away immediately. The foundation-stone is to be laid there on the 16th December.

A cenotaph at Abney Chapel, Stoke Newington, to the memory of Dr. Watts, author of the well-known Hymns, was "inaugurated" on Tuesday. The cenotaph stands in the cemetery, and is adorned with a statue of the Doctor, nine feet in height, of Portland atone.

In the Court of Queen's Bench, on Saturday, Mr. Humfrey moved, on behalf of Sir James South, for a rule to show cause why a criminal information should not be filed against Captain Grover. It was stated in the affidavit of Sir James South, that he had been a Fellow of the Royal Society for twenty-five years; in consequence of which, he was very desirous of protecting it. During the last few months, he bad noticed the initials " F.R.S. " attached to the names of several parties in railway advertisements, apparently with a view of giving those parties some importance: he had in consequence taken the trouble of making out a list of names, which he sent to the Times, in a letter signed " A Contn- besting Member of the Royal Society," and dated on the 18th September. Some of the persons named were mentioned as not really included in the list of the Royal Society. Captain Grover's name was among these; but it subsequently appeared that he did belong to the Society. The " Contributing Member," how- ever, still held up the use of the initials as improper. On the 12th October, Captain Grover wrote to Sir James South, stating that certain letters had ap- peared in a morning paper, in which his name had been held up to public obser- vation; in consequence of which, he thought it right to ask him to deny the authorship of the inculpatory letter. The following day, Sir James South replied, declining to answer the question. The correspondencegrew more angry;. until Captain Grover hinted, that it was only in a denial of the letter that Sir James could free himself from the imputation of being a "cowardly assassin." This was construed as leading to a breach of the peace, and Sir James claimed protection of the Court. Lord Denman thought that there had been great misconception on both sides. Sir James South had stepped beyond his province, and be had no right to make such observations as he had done on the Fellows of the Royal Society. On the other hand, Captain Grover was mistaken in assuming his charac ter to be affected, and he had used language which he must regret. But the Court did not think that there was anything in the case to authorize it to keep up an ill-considered dispute, where both parties were, to a certain extent, in the wrong. The application, therefore, was refused. In the Court of Queen's Bench, on Monday, counsel were heard on behalf of Henry Needham Scrope Shrapnell, who had pleaded guilty to four informations filed against him by the East India Company, for having written letters to General Willock and other Directors, promising certain rewards if they would exert their influence to obtain some situation for him in India. He had also written to the wives of the Directors, offering to pay them sums of money on the same account. The defendant, expressing his contrition, pleaded that he was labouring under acute mental distresi and excitement, occasioned by the loss of his father and the derangement of his affairs. The plaintiffs represented, that they had complied with the statute (49 Geo. III.) for keeping the administration of the Company pure; but they did not wish to press with severity on the defendant. He was sen- tenced by Mr. Justice Williams to four months' imprisonment in the prison of the Court.

The action commenced by Charles H. Russell against Mr. H. Hill, to recover 40,000/. and 20,000/. won on the turf, has been stopped on the payment of costs incurred; which were taxed at 101.4s.10d. This qui tam informer has since been captured and lodged in Whitecrass Street Gaol, for the costs of an action brought by him against Lord G. Bentinck and tried at Guildford Assizes.

At the Central Criminal Court, on Monday, Glazier, who was lately a porter on the Great Western Railway, was tried for stealing a dressing-case from a pas; senger in July 1848. The two witnesses against the prisoner, one of whom had been a porter on the Railway, and had been arrested for this robbery, gave such contradictory evidence that the accused was at once acquitted.

On Thursday, Edward Powell, son to the assistant-solicitor of the Mint, was tried for attempting to pass counterfeit sovereigns. It will be remembered that he offered them to a young milliner whom he had visited. " The facts were not disputed; but Mr. Powell often has official possession of bad money, and the de- fence was that he had made a mistake. Lord Denman summed up favourably; and the Jury, without retiring, pronounced a verdict of acquittal.

At the Mansionhonse, on Tuesday, Boll and Schmidt, the Norwegians charged with forging Norwegian bank-notes, were reexamined. Mr. Fangs, secretary to the branch bank at Christiana, identified the patterns which Boll had given to a workman for engraving fac-similes as parts of a bank-note. The prisoners were remanded; but merely to afford them a longer period to prepare their defence. Before this case was called on, Mr. Hobler, the solicitor, informed the Lord Mayor that no clue had yet. been obtained which could lead to the discovery of the persons who robbed Messrs. Rogers twelve months since. Not a note had ever been heard of.

At the Thames Police-office, on Wednesday, Gordon, the master, and Cult- mings, the chief mate of the ship Methesis, just arrived from Brazil, were accused em-treating Scott, an apprentice on board the vessel. The complainant's state- ment was corroborated by the evidence of a seaman and two lads. Scott had been beaten repeatedly, with great brutality, sent aloft in his shirt, and generally ill- need; when his back had been cut by the flogging; the master ordered the mate to pour vitriol on the wounds—and it was done ! The accused made no defence, aud were both held to bail to take their trial at the Central Criminal Court.

The reexamination of George Johnstone, the master of the Tory, which was to have taken place on Tuesday, has been postponed for a week, as the prisoner had not sufficiently recovered from an attack of erysipelas to attend on the day appointed.

A daring aeaaesination was perpetrated, on Thursday evening, in Peacock Street, Kennington Lane. Fitzgerald and M'Carthy, two labourers employed by Mr. Quen- nell, a builder, were returning home a little after five o'clock; they were met at a dark spot by a man who presented a pistol at Fitzgerald's breast, and shot him dead. lie murderer ran away, but was seized by two gentlemen. He is brother to Quennell, and had been employed by him, but was discharged last Saturday. It is said that he imputed his dismissal to Fitzgerald, and hence this revenge. Fitzgerald has left a widow and five children. Samuel Queenell, the assassin, was examined at Lambeth Police-office yesterday, and remanded till Monday.

A statement appeared in the Times, a few days ago, inculpating the conduct of the officers at the Royal Free Hospital. According to the story, two girls in the last stage of consumption were refused admittance, on the night of the 19th in- stant, on the plea that there was no vacancy; though three women labouring tinder a disreputable disease were afterwards admitted in the presence of the girls: they found an asylum at a public-house. where one of them has since died. A meeting of the Governors' Trustees, and Committee, was held at the Hospital an Thursday, to investigate the facts; and they appear to be as follows. -The income of the Hospital last year was 5,0721., the expenditure was 5,826/.; and the institution is 6,1000/. in debt, from affording its relief to an extent beyond its means. As many as five hundred applications are sometimes made in a day, so that it is impossible to admit all. Classification is necessary, and there are five wards: when the girls applied, all were full, except one, which is devoted to a particular class of complaints: the women who were admitted entered that ward. An offer was made to lodge the girls in the Union Workhouse, until there should be a vacancy in the Hospital, or to convey them to any of the other hospitals in a cab; but they refused both offers. A pint of good broth and a loaf of bread were given to each while they waited. Having received a statement of these facts, the meeting unanimously passed resolutions of confidence in the management of the Hospital, and of satisfaction with the explanation.

Two youths, brothers, have died in Middlesex Hospital of a horrible disease with which their brother and other members of the family have been afflicted. 'The symptoms were, fcetid discharges from the nostrils, mouth, and eyes, sore throat, constipation, swellings in the joints and behind the ear, from which latter there was a purulent discharge. The difficulty of breathing was so great that they could not speak; arid though their appetite was keen they were unable to swallow. The medical men do not know what the disease is; but they are of opinion that it originated in the foal air breathed by the sufferers at their home, in Whetstone Park Lincoln's Inn; a wretched neighbourhood, confined, crowded, and rendered donbiy unwholesome by the effluvia arising from a sewer beneath it. The house that the people lived in was damp; behind it also was a damp yard, in which pigs and fowls were kept. The Coroner's Jury which sat upon the two bodies returned a verdict, "That deceased died of a specific disease, produced by a specific poison, the name and character of which we do not know."

A correspondent of the Times, who signs himself" Clericus," and lives in Lin- coln's Inn l ields, suggests another as the probable cause of the malady. " Whet- stone Park is a long narrow mews chiefly, I believe, rented by cabmen. I have attended a sick person there several times, and the stench from the horses and stable-dung was overpowering. Is it not possible that a glandered horse might have inoculated Mrs. Lambert?"

The Registrar-General's return of mortality in the Metropolis for the week end- ing on Saturday last shows the following general results. The weekly averages for the autumnal season and the year are calculated on the deaths occurring in the five years of 1840-4, and are corrected for the increase of the population to The 'middle of the present year.

Number of Autumnal Annual deaths, average. average.

Zymotic (or Epidemic, Endemic, and Contagions) Diseases 201 ... 201 ... 184 Dropsy, Cancer, and other diseases of uncertain or variable seat 79 ... 109 ... 106 Diseases of the Brain, Spinal Marrow, Nerves, and Senses 141 ... 155 ... 159 Diseases of the Lungs, and of the other Organs of Respiration 294 ...

323 ...

292 Diseases of the Heart and Blood-vessels 31 ... 27 . . 24 Diseases of the Stomach, Liver, and other Organs of Digestion 60 ... 68 ... 71 Diseases of the Kidneys, &c

Childbirth, diseases of the 'Uterus, &e 6 ... 12 ... 10

Rheumatism, diseases of the Bones, Joints, elte

Diseases of the Skin, Cellular Tissue, &c.

Old Age 48 ... 74 ... 70 Violence, Privation, Cold, and Intemperance 25 ... 27 ... 26 Total (including unspecified causes) 909 ... 1,020 ... 963

The temperature of the thermometer ranged from 54.5° in the sun to 33.6° in the shade; the mean temperature by day being warmer than the average mean temperature by 3.0°. The mean direction of the wind was South-west.