Li IHrU3IUUL
The cholera continues to abate in the Metropolis; but the ratio of de- crease last week was not so great as had been anticipated. The Registrar- General's return, however, is of a cheerful cast. "The cholera is slowly retreating from London ; but it destroyed last week 1284 lives, and 190 persons died from the allied disease, diarrheas. "The deaths from all causes in the three weeks ending September 23d have been 3413, 2836, and 2504, including the 2050, 1549, and 1284 deaths from cholera.
"The deaths by cholera in the ten weeks of this eruption have been 8953. The eruption of 1849 broke out earlier, and by the same date, nearly, had destroyed 12,664 of the inhabitants of London. "The Board of Health fights under the same disadvantages in London as a War Minister would if he could only oppose the invasion of an active -enemy by the force which every parish and public company would vote and consent to bring into the field ; yet we may hope, now that the local machinery is, under due supervision, set in motion, and judicious precautions are issued, to see the mortality decline at an accelerated rate."
The parish authorities of Bermondsey, ruling over a district the very hot- bed of offensive trades and fatal disease, seem to do what they can to better the condition of the parish. They have summoned 450 persons for nui- sances, which they have caused to be abated or removed ; and on Wednesday they made a move of importance not only to their neighbours and them- selves but to all travelling on the railway to London Bridge terminus. The South-Eastern Railway have let some of the arches of their line to persons who carry on most noisome processes in them : not only are the residents annoyed or poisoned by the effluvia, but the railway-passengers suffer from them during the tedious process of ticket-collecting. Three cases were brought before the Southwark Magistrate, and the renters of the arches only escaped fines by promising to cease immediately their unhealthy operations.
Mr. Yardley, the Thames Police Magistrate, does not believe that he has the power under the Nuisances Removal Act to close a manufactory on the ground that some process carried on within it is a nuisance. Mr. Stone, so-
lar to the Guardians of St. George's in the East, sought to prevent Messrs. Knight and Son, soap and candle makers, from boiling bones in York Place, Old Gravel Lane ; alleging that the stench was dangerous to the neighbours. Mr. Yardley and Mr. Stone had a long discussion on the powers of the Ma-
ri;isitra te : Mr. Yardley remarked, that if he could close the factory of Messrs. ght his powers exceeded those of any court of law, even those of the -Court of Chancery. Eventually, the case was ordered to stand over, that Messrs. Knight and the Guardians might endeavour to come to some arrange- ment.
The Reverend Hugh Pollard Willoughby, who fired a pistol at Mr. Gif- lard in the Central Criminal Court, was reexamined at Guildhall Police {ace on Saturday. His behaviour denoted a disordered mind. He refused to allow Mr. Clarkson to conduct his case, because that barrister had told him his enmity to Mr. Giffard was "all a delusion." The prisoner inter- rogated the witnesses himself. At the close of Mr. Giffard's evidence de- scribing the attack on him and the nature of the hurts he sustained, the prisoner cross-examined him. "Mr. Humphreys is your father-hi-law ?" Mr. Giffard—" He is." Defendant—" Are you aware that he was my legal adviser in 1849, when I was summoned before a magistrate for a breach of the peace ?" Mr. Giffard—" I do not know it : I have heard of it." De- fendant—" Did you not use my name in the course of a trial at Cardiff ?" -Mr. Giffard—" I did not : I never heard your name before." Defendant- " Did you not raise your-arm whilst addressing the Court at Cardiff towards me in an offensive manner, whilst examining a witness named Pase,all ?" Alderman Carden—" That is a matter with which we have nothing to do." Defendant—" I mention it to show that I had provocation. The ball in one pistol was not-screwed down, but in the other it was, which-was in- tended for another person." He then went on to deny that there was any blood on Mr. Giffard's face ; but as he said there was, he supposed he must believe him. At the close of the evidence, Mr. Willoughby said he did not wish to offer any defence. He was committed. Mr. Clarkson informed Sir Robert Carden that the prisoner's friends would reserve any proceedings for Ins defence till the trial.
It is supposed that the Police have got hold of some of a gang of burglars who have recently_ committed many robberies in London and Brighton. 'Two young men, Hurst and Iden, were first arrested for burglary ; the :Marylebone Magistrate sent them to prison on remand ; two women visited them ; the Police followed these women ; and Mary Madden and Mary Lee were captured in different houses, with valuable property supposed to be the -fruits of the burglaries committed by the men.
In February last year, the Lord Mayor issued a warrant for the-arrest of Joseph Farrell, a clerk in the Bank of England, who had taken advantage of 'his position to forge a number of dividend-warrants, the money for which was obtained by some other 'person ; Farrell escaped for a time, but has at length been apprehended, and committed. A true bill was found against him by the Grand Jury a year ago.
Mr. John Norton, Vestry Clerk of St. Ann's, Limehouse, has absconded, leaving large deficiencies in the parish-funds.
A female smuggler has been caught in the Queen's Prison. Margaret Spenning, an elderly woman, not a prisoner, was noted for her regular at- tendance at the prison chapel : last Sunday she was searched, and four quarts of gin in a bladder was found upon her person. Of late spirits had ' been introduced into the prison in considerable quantities.
The extensive sail-manufactory of Messrs. Laing and Shand, at Shad Thames, klorselydovrn, was destroyed by a fire which broke out on Sunday night. A number of barges that were lying aground off the place were (saved from the flames by piling mud round them.
George Wilson, a workman, has been killed, and Mr. Edmonds, a con- 'tractor, very badly hurt, by the fall of a wall which had been shaken by an -explosion of gunpowder at the Paddington terminus. Some of the old works *bore are in course of removal, as the station is advanced nearer to London.
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