tht 311ttrointio.

The City of Westminster has been somewhat behind with her meeting to support the Patriotic Fund. A fortnight ago, a meeting was convened in St. Martin's Hall, and the High Bailiff and the Bishop of London ap- peared on the platform ; but the space before them was vacant. Either the rain which fell that day, or business, or some other cause, kept the good folks of Westminster at home. The meeting was adjourned for a fortnight. This week, on Thursday, the High Bailiff was again at his post : in opening the proceedings, he stated that the Earl of Aberdeen could not attend because he was engaged at a Cabinet Council ; that the Duke of Buccleuch could not be present, but had sent 250Z ; and that he had received a pile of letters from noblemen and gentlemen assigning reasons for absence. In moving the first resolution, the Bishop of London, com- menting on the failure of the first and the comparatively scanty attendance at the present meeting, said he was sure it did not arise from the slightest want of sympathy with the great object they had met to promote. It ' must be remembered that many important persons upon whom they had reckoned were detained by official engagements ; whilst others, carrying on their business elsewhere, had already contributed to the fund. The Bishop used the war as the text for a religious discourse ; claiming the gratitude of the people for the special interposition which had been mani- fested in their favour. Ile alluded to the deep sympathy which the Queen has on all occasions expressed and evinced for those of her sub- jects who are now engaged in fighting our battles-

" I may, I think, without impropriety, state that I have been honoured with the sight of a private letter from her Majesty, in which her Majesty speaks in the most feeling manner both of the pride which she feels in the gallantry and self-devotion of her army and navy, and expresses her deep sorrow at the heavy losses which they have sustained." Sir John Shelley spoke with great warmth of his brother Member for the city of Westminster, that "gallant and brave old man," Sir De 'Amy Evans. The High Bailiff announced that the gentlemen and firms of Westminster had already subscribed 50001.; and he trusted the people would make it 60,0001.

At a Special Court of Aldermen, on Saturday, Alderman Sidney gave notice of his intention to ask the Lord Mayor to call a Special Court to consider the following motion-

" That a dutiful address be presented to her Majesty, praying that she will be graciously pleased to remove from her councils the Right Honourable

the Earl of Aberdeen, who is no longer entitled ta public confidence as the First Minister of the Crown and to place at the head of her Administration a constitutional adviser adver wheire opinions arc in unison with the people at this nations! crisis."

The general feeling seemed to be that the Lord Mayor should summon the Aldermen to consider the preliminary question whether they thought it desirable that a Special Court should be called far such a grave purpose.

The new Metropolitan Commission of Sewers held its first sitting on Wednesday ; when Mr. Jebb, the Chairman, entered into a detailed ex- planation of the doings of the late Commission, and their plans for the future. It was ordered that a detailed statement of the liabilities and resources of the Commission should be prepared by the Secretary ; and that the Lord Mayor Aldermen, and Commons of the City of London, should be informed of the opening of the Commission.

Wednesday was the twenty-fourth anniversary of the Polish revolution of 1830; and it was celebrated in a striking manner. Besides the usual meeting of the Polish exiles,—a meeting saddened by the loss of Lord Dudley Stuart,—there was an immense gathering in the evening at St. Martin's Hall, to hear a speech from Kossuth. Sir Joshua Walmsley occupied the chair. General Thompson, Mr. Seholefield, Mr. Bun- combe, Mr. W. J. Fox, and M. Mazzini, sent letters of sympathy, with apologies for absence. The only speakers besides the Hungarian exile were Mr. P. A. Taylor and Professor Newman. They moved and seconded a resolution, that unless the Western Powers recognize the nationality of Poland, the war, although just, will have been made in vain ; and denouncing the conduct of Austria, whose passiveness had enabled the Czar to murder the British troops in the Crimea. Pro- fessor Newman recommended a closer alliance with America; and re- marked, that if we bad with us the nationalities of Poland, Hungary, Sweden, Germany, and America, the war would be but the question of a day. Mr. Ernest Jones tried to speak ; but the meeting, impatient for Kossuth, would not hear him. Then the Magyar, bailed with plaudits loud and long, began to speak ; and the report of what he said fills four close columns of the morning papers. His oration abounded in passages of eloquence and power, and worked up rhetorically his well-known views, that the war, to be successful, and to result in a sound peace, must involve the cooperation of Poland and the restoration of Polish na- tionality.

He began with a tribute to the memory of Lord Dudley Stuart. Ile de- scribed British hearts as thrilling at the inquiry, whether the policy which presides over the war be a wise one ? whether the glorious dead, whom all bewail, have fallen "a sanguinary tribute to dire necessity," or "a wanton sacrifice immolated on the shrine of the errors of those who rule." "Can the aged mother, proud in her maternal joy yesterday, and childless today— can the fatherless orphan, standing like a broken reed—can the widow, cast upon public charity, (and 11,000 already they are)—ean the nation, maimed by the loss of the bravest and the beat of her sons—can they comfort them- selves with repeating the words Paulus lEmilius spoke, when from the fu- neral of both his sons he rode up in triumph to the Capitol? Can they say, I feel the ruin of my homestead consoled by the good fortune of the com- monwealth ?' " Was there not another course for carrying on the war, richer in results, and not so dreadful in sacrifice ? And when this question was asked, the pale spectre of assassinated Poland must have risen before the eyes of the questioners. "Poland makes the query . Eng- land has to answer "—not that assembly. As England's answer is, England's future will be. Turning to the Poles present, he poured forth eloquent words of sympathy and encouragement to them. "Many amongst you who were young when they last saw the sun rise over Poland's mountains and plains, have their hair whitened and their strength broken with age—with anguish, and with misery ; but the patriotic heart kept the freshness of its youth. It is young in love of Poland—young in aspirations for her freedom—young in hope, and youthfully fresh in de- termination to break Poland's chains. What a rich source of noble deeds patriotism must be that gave you strength so much to suffer, and never to despair ! You have given a noble example to all of us your younger brethren in the family of exiles." Poland may be called to batter a breach ; and for Hungary, he promised that she should stand by reviving Poland. Without Poland the war cannot be settled, except insufficiently. England has many vulnerable points; Russia has only Poland. England had pre- tended to blockade the trade of Russia, and had only succeeded in turning Russian commerce to Prussia. England had sacrificed everything to gain Austria ; who in return facilitates the enterprises of Russia, insults our allies, and counteracts our combinations. The Turkish army was paralyzed when its spirits were high-flowing with the victories of Silistria and Giurgevo ; and the depressed spirits of Russia are now restored.

He expatiated on Sebastopol, and censured the whole plan of the cam- paign ; premising that he bad studied the art of war in exile, as a warrant for his criticism. "Gentlemen, on the 5th of July, ten weeks before Eng- land embarked on that expedition, ill-advised as well as ill-prepared, I, in a speech the contents of which would have been well for Great Britain to mind, spoke these words at Glasgow— Not one out of five of your brave sons will see Albion again.' Of course I used the number figuratively, as indica- tive of a great loss. Now, it is a sad tale ; number your dead, your wounded, and your disabled—more than twenty thousand men out of thirty thousand are already lost. My sad anticipations are literally fulfilled ! And here at home—why, here the number of widows and orphans applying for support to patriotic charity anaoipats to eleven thousand. Such is the position, gentle- men." LHere, M. Kossuth said, be could stop, unless the meeting would permit him to go on "to England." Cries of Go on" resounded, and he went on.] Rendering "the modest tribute of his highest admiration to the heeoic army in the East "—declaring that we must go back centuries to find a battle like that at Inkerman, which "from the first in rank to the last, was a prodigy of valour, scarcely inferior to the miracle of Agincourt"— describing the Crimea, as "a battle-field richer in glory than in possible' re- sults, and richest in death "—he went on to criticize the whole conduct of the war. The gigantic armada in the Baltic has scarcely a laurel to rest upon its head ; Bomarsund was taken, a small matter ; but Sweden's cooperation was not got, because, as he had told them six months ago, it could only be got by calling Poland to life. The Allies have to thank Poland, which requires 300,000 (!) men to watch her, that they have not had to encounter 200,000 men in the Crimea. It was ab- surd to begin a war with Russia in the Crimea ; so supremely absurd that the Czar did not believe it until the landing of the Allies. It was wrong to go to Sebastopol, without holding Perekop and Kertch ; having gone to Se- bastopol, it was wrong to make the flank march, because by operating from the South the Russian communications were free. The battle of the Alma was fought on wrong principles ; the position should have been turned on the right by a march up the Alma, not stormed. But the chief error of the Allies was in going to the Crimea at all. "I am decidedly of the opinion, that if an attack on Sebastopol could not have been tried by a naval coup de main the very next day after the outrageous slaughter at Sinope, a systema- tic expedition to the Crimea ought to have been one of the last strokes, and by no means the first; in no case one which I would have undertaken to deal before I had, by successful victories in Bessarabia and around Odessa, driven the Russians back from the Black Sea, and perfectly isolated the Cri- mea from the rest of the Russian empire. Then taking my stand with the main body of my force in a convenient locality, somewhere above Odessa, (which, remember, might have been accomplished as circumstances were up to the half of September,) I certainly would have sent some thirty thousand men to take Sebastopol, who, heroes as they are, with a gallant, intelligent, and experienced chief at their head, as Lord Raglan is, would have done their work up to this day under such circumstances, and would have found Men- schikoff out off from every hope of relief, fighting at the best, but for military reputation, as General Chasse did at Antwerp. But in the meanwhile, I would have been perfectly content with knowing the Russian fleet was utterly paralyzed by the very presence of your vastly superior squadron in the Black Sea." Developing these views at greater length, M. Kossuth complained of the illiberal views of the Government in not organizing a brigade of Poles ; in not landing such Polish legion, with the 10,000 French sent to the Baltic, at Rigs; in not holding Kossuth, Mazzini, Ledru Rollin, in greater account —poor exiles, who tomorrow, like Bonaparte, may weigh the destinies of Europe in the hollow of their hand. He renewed his denunciations against our alliance with Austria; and finished with this peroration—" I really be- lieve, even now it would be better for you to shift the theatre of war, pro- vided it be not too late. Men who, 14,000 strong, have beaten 60,000 Rus- sians, can gain no more glory by the barren laurels gathered on the ruins of Sebastopol, than they have, and can nothing lose in their reputation by being despatched to triumph on a better field richer in results. And, oh ! what could be done with men like these on the right spot. To engage in a wrong direction may be an error—to persist in a wrong direction and sacri- fice life (and such life!) may look like a crime, the retribution of which may yet fall heavily on your heads. Shift the theatre of the war ; insist pe- remptorily on Austria's evacuating the Principalities, and on siding with or against you ; advise the Sultan to grant independence to the Roumains, and arm them. Enlist the Polish emigration—not in Turkey but here. Mind.where the weak point of Russia is, and strike there. And wherever a government is playing false to you, call on the nations it oppresses. These are your radical remedies : but remember, that while in matters of internal progress you may say,—by and bye we shall come to that,— in a war everything depends on moments. Opportunity lost is a campaign lost—may be, even more. Poland is your surest remedy even to- day ; but how much surer and easier would it have been six months ago. I do not speak from even patriotic egotism. This war, such as it is—and may it be carried on, as arranged, in the worst possible manner—is manifestly an indication of retributive Justice, slow but sure in its decrees. Much against the will of your Government, the freedom of Hungary is sure to come. It were sad for myself not to see the day ; but that is only a question of Indi- vidual happiness, not worth while to speak of. If I die today, I die sure of the fact that my dear Hungary will be free. I speak not from egotism, I speak as England's friend. Neither you, nor even Napoleon, can afford sufficient forces for that war there. He cannot say, like as you can, let us send our last soldier ; the police will do at home. He has many things to guard— Paris, France, Algiers, and watch to the North and M the South. You have not many men—he has too much of exigencies. I repeat my words of yore. Come what may—in this war, England stands more in need of Poland and of Hungary, than Poland and Hungary stand in need of England. With us, victory ; without us, defeat, or a disreputable, insufficient armistice. You remember the tale about the nine Sybillme hooka: Poland will be your Sybilline books. Three already are lost. Hasten to buy the remaining six, or else, like the Roman king of old, you shall have to pay the full price of all the nine for the last three. Mine is the advice, yours is the choice."

The cheering, frequent throughout the delivery of the speech, rose to a climax as the orator sat down.

At the Central Criminal Court, on Monday, Samuel Harrison was tried for inciting a boy to rob his master. The offence was peculiarly villanous. Alfred Tilly, a box of fourteen, had formerly been in some scrape, for which he had been imprisoned ; he afterwards got a place at Messrs. Griffiths and Company's, silk-dealers, in Bow Lane. Harrison knew the boy's history ; he waylaid him, and threatened to tell his employers of his imprisonment, unless Tilly would purloin some silk ; the boy succumbed, and frequently carried off silk, which Harrison bought at a ridiculously low price. At length the boy was detected; he made a full confession, and means were taken to entrap the receiver. He was convicted, and sentenced to eight years' penal servitude.

On Tuesday, Robert Kearney was convicted of embezzling small sums the property of the Eastern Counties Railway. He took advantage of his situa- tion as relieving clerk" at the Barking Road station, to issue the same tickets more than once, pocketing the money paid for the tickets which he did not cancel. He was sent to prison for eight months.

• On Wednesday, the Reverend Dr. Ferguson, a Roman Catholic priest, was tried for unlawfully solemnizing a marriage in his church at Fulham. He mairieda couple privately ; the certificate they had obtained from the regis- trar named another place for the marriage, and it should have been cele- brated there, and in the registrar's presence. The woman had been seduced, and was far advanced in pregnancy: the Judges believed that Dr. Fergu- son's motive for the secret marriage was to spare her shame. He was found guilty. Baron Alderson told him that if he had erred through ignorance he ought to be perfectly ready to'obey the law in future : the object of the pro- secution was to declare the law. Clergymen of the Church of England are no lees restricted than other ministers in the performance of marriages. Dr. Ferguson was merely held to bail in his own recognizannes to appear for judgment if called upon.

Julian Cromartie, the young man who has been personating officers in the Army, and uttering checks in their names, pleaded guilty. It was stated that he is the son of a West Indian planter, and had become acquainted with many officers at his father's table. The prisoner himself said he had held a Government appointment in India. Sentence, four years' penal ser- vitude.

On Thursday, James Lang, a young man, was convicted of setting fire to the printing-office of Mr. Farebrother, in Bow Street : a foreman slept in

the house. Lang had been discharged from Mr. Farebrother's service, and there was a dispute about wages. In revenge, he took an opportunity, very early in the morning, of firing a chest of drawers filled .with paper : for- tunately, the fire was discovered soon enough to save the place. Sentence, transportation for twenty years.

At the Middlesex Sessions, on Monday, Thomas Chiloott, a cab-driver, was convicted ef assaulting Isaac Smith, a poor old man with one hand, fbrmerly both a soldier and sailor, and now " Waterman " on a cab-rank. Apparently Without any particular motive for assailing him, Chiloott kicked the old man, laming him for life : he also bit the Policeman who arrested him. He was sentenced to two years' imprisonment. Mr. Mullens, a tobacconist of Fore Street, has been held to bail by Alder- man Challis on a very serious charge. A canister of gunpowder seems to have been thrown down a chimney of number 25 Fore Street ; it fell into the fire of the third. floor front room, exploded, and badly burnt a child, besides greatly damaging the room. Mr. Mullens lives at number 24. A servant at a house opposite declares that she saw him on the roof of his house directly after the explosion; soon after, he certainly was found on the roof by a Policeman. But Mr. Mullens declares that he ascended the roof after the explosion, with the view of ascertaining what had occurred. The whole affair is very mysterious at present. Alderman Challis yesterday dismissed the case, convinced that Mr. Mullens had nothing to do with the offence committed.

William John O'Connell, formerly clerk in the Scottish Australian Land Investment Company, has been committed by the Marlborough Street Ma- gistrate for forging and uttering a warrant for 411. 5s. While employed by the Company, he got possession of a warrant made out for Mr. Bromfield ; he forged Mr. Bromfield's name, and got the money of the Union Bank. A Policeman found him living iu luxury : he confessed the forgery, and that he had committed others of a similar kind.

During Sunday night, the shop of Mr. Barwise, watchmaker in St. Mar- tin's Lane, was entered by means of picklock keys, and property worth nearly WOO/. carried off.