'tbE Attropolis.
A Court of Common Council was held on Thursday, for the despatch of business. The joint committee on the Royal Exchange and Gresham Trusts brought up their report, recommending the purchase of a plot of ground at the corner of Cateaton Street and Basinghall Street, to erect a hall for the use of the Gresham Lecturers, instead of providing for their accommodation in the new Exchange. Mr. Richard Taylor moved as an amendment, that the lease of Crosby Hall for ninety-six years be purchased for the use of the Gresham Professors. The original report was affirmed, by 22 to 20. Reports on several improvements in the thoroughfares of the City represented that they could not be pro- ceeded with at present for want of funds. On the motion of Mr. Anderton, the City Lands Committee were instructed to report on the condition of burying-places within the City, and on the expediency of putting an end to the interment of the dead within its bounds.
Prince Albert laid the first stone of the Infant Orphan Asylum, near Wanstead, Epping Forest, on Saturday. The committee of manage- ment had resorted to an ingenious method of raising the necessary- funds : they proposed that twenty gentlemen should answer each for one hundred guineas to be laid on the first stone on the day of the cere- mony ; and that one hundred ladies should answer for five guineas each or upwards. The bait was so eagerly seized by the ladies, that the Committee have had to enlarge the vote from one hundred to two hundred, and from two hundred to four hundred ! A great number of persons were collected to witness the ceremony. Prince Albert arrived by a special train from Slough, attended by Lord Robert Grosvenor, Colonel Bouverie, and Mr. E. Anson. The other persons who assisted in the proceedings were the Bishop of London, the Lord Mayor, Sheriff Gibbs, Alderman Sir P. Carroll, Mr. George Byng and Colonel Wood, the Members for Middlesex, Mr. Masterman, the Member for London, and Mr. George Palmer, the Member for South Essex. The company assembled at the Eagle Tavern, and then went in procession to the ground. We quote the report of the Morning Chronicle- " The ceremony commenced by his Royal Highness putting various coins of the present reign, with the scrolls recording the nature of the charity, in a bottle, and depositing it, with a book, also descriptive of the charity, in an aperture of a large piece of Yorkshire stone. These he covered with a brass plate, containing the following superscriptions—' This first stone was laid by his Royal Highness Prince Albert, on Saturday the twenty-fourth of July, the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and forty-one. Scott and Moffat, architects.' The stone, which bore within a handsome shield the arms of her Majesty and Prince Albert, and which is the same as that used in the Houses of Parliament, was then lowered. The trowel used by his Royal High- ness was of silver ; and the mallet, square, and plumb were of pohshed oak, made from part of the ruins of the late Royal Exchange, and excited much admiration. These acts of his Royal Highness, which were performed with much care and solemnity, were followed by the loud cheers of the assemblage."
The Bishop of London then said a prayer, and a hymn was sung— "Here the most interesting part of the ceremony took place. Upwards of four hundred ladies favourable to the charity had undertaken, as has been already stated, to collect purses of not less than 5/. 58. each, and it was arranged that they should, on the occasion, place each of their purses on the top of the stone. This ceremony occupied some time; and each lady, after depositing the purse, passed his Royal Highness the Prince, who remained standing, bowing in the most courteous manner to each, the military band playing all the time. By this means nearly 3,0001. were collected. This sum, of course, was in addition to other large subscriptions from the gentlemen. Some of the ladies' purses, we understood, contained not less than 301. or 40L" Three cheers having been given for the Queen and Prince Albert, the procession returned to the inn; where a lunch was prepared. The Bishop of London, in the name of the Presidents and Committee of the Charity, returned thanks for Prince Albert's kindness and condescen- sion. The Prince replied—" My Lord Bishop and gentlemen. I assure you it affords me great pleasure to assist in the work of charity on the present occasion." The Prince then returned to Windsor. He looked well ; but it is observed- that "there was a thoughtful expression in his countenance during the whole of the proceedings."
The Conservative Committee of Broad Street and Cornhill held a dinner yesterday, at the London Tavern. Mr. Masterman and Mr. Lyall, the Tory Members for the City, and some leading politicians, were present. Mr. Hubbard took occasion to declare, on the part of the old Tory Free-traders of London, who had been charged with in- consistency in voting against Lord John Russell, "that they opposed Lord John Russell, not because his Ministry proposed the Budget, but because they had no confidence in him or in those with whom he acted."
The Lambeth Conservatives held a dinner at the Horns Tavern, Kennington Common, on Thursday ; Mr. James Goding in the chair. Among the company present were Mr. Kemble, M.P., Mr. Antrobus, M.P., Mr. Barry Baldwin, M.P., and Mr. Baldwin and Mr. Thomas Cabbell, the late candidates for Lambeth.
A public meeting was convened by some Poles, in the Archery Rooms, New Road, on Monday, to commemorate the death of four martyrs to Russian tyranny, executed at St. Petersburg in July 1826; Pertel, Bestuzey, Muraoieu, and Koehonski. Mr. Women, a member of the Polish Committee, was appointed to the chair. He stated, in French, the object of the meeting—
They had assembled to advocate the cause of liberty and humanity, violated in the persons whose names appeared before them. This was the cause not only of Poland, but France, Italy, Austria, and in short the whole world. The citizens of the Republic of Haiti, and all the republics in the world, were equally interested in the proceedings of that day. They had seen the patriotic Poles crushed by the power of Russia, but disdaining at the same time to crouch and lick the dust from the feet of Nicholas. Every man should feel the grandeur of the Polish revolution. The interest of humanity required the expression of Polish sentiments on this occasion. It was the democratic spirit which defeated tyranny in France : the liberal mind would at last triumph even amidst the snows of Siberia.
The other speakers were Mr. Morris, M. Linsternti, (a member of the republic of Hayti,) M. Benzowski, Signor Mazzini, (an Italian,) and a German gentleman. The following resolution was moved by Mr. Morris, seconded by M. Linsternti, and carried unanimously- " That the meeting, consisting of the Democrats of the various nations believing in the rights of nations, and the rights which belong to indviduals, had resolved to declare, and they did declare, that the memory of the four martyrs put to death by the Emperor Nicholas, in July 1826, is dear to every friend to liberty, whatever may be his country. That their cause was the cause of humanity, consequently the cause of all men. They declared that they did repudiate the doctrine of non-intervention."
The rate-payers of St. John Hackney are still quarrelling about a church-rate and the Churchwardens' accounts. It seems that after the Rector left the chair and the Vestry on the 1st July, the anti-rate party passed resolutions for postponing the questions before them for six months. A meeting was held on Thursday, to reconsider that resolu- tion; but after a great deal of discussion, the original resolution was affirmed. A poll was demanded.
The Master of the Rolls gave judgment yesterday on an information filed by the Attorney-General, at the instance of the Charity Commis- sioners, against the Warden and Fellows of Dulwich College, praying that a stricter administration and an extension of the charity attached to the foundation might be enforced. The Master observed with re- spect to the administration, that it was subject to the visitation of the Archbishop of Canterbury, and no opinion therefore need be pro- nounced upon it. On the other points the decision was against the in- formation ; which was dismissed accordingly.
Mr. Rangeley, an engineer, requested the aid of the Lord Mayor, at the Mansionhouse, on Monday, in preventing a fraud. Mr. James, the engineer, of Bodmin, had expended his patrimony in exertions to esta- blish railroads when they were not thought quite so practicable as they are at present. Since his death, some friends of his family have deter- mined to institute a subscription to present them with some valuable testimonial ; and on the strength of the report to that effect, some per- sons have been going round the country, without the sanction of the family, collecting money ; and they have already obtained a consider- able sum. The Lord Mayor thought that the publicity given to the matter would be the best preventive.
At Marylebone Police-Office, on Thursday, Eliza Maxwell, who had been remanded from the 12th instant, was finally examined, and com- mitted for trial, for stabbing her husband at a public-house, to-which she had followed him, in a fit of jealousy.
The Coroner for Westminster held an inquest, on Monday, on the body of Alexander Bremner, a private in the Scotch Fusileer Guards, quartered at St. George's Barracks, Charing Cross, who died from an injury inflicted on him by private James Bissett. Bremner and Bissett were on the 17th together in the barrack-room with a number of their fellow-soldiers, when Bremner inquired of his companions, and par- ticularly of Bissett, for a brush which he had lost ; but no one knew where it was. Afterwards, Bremner found the brush in Bissett's haver- sack ; and thinking it had been secreted there for a trick, he in return strewed the contents of the haversack on the ground. When Bissett returned to the room, he became very angry, and threatened Bremner that be would " do something for him." Shortly afterwards, he crossed the room towards Bremner, while the latter had one foot on a bench to clean his boot, and taking him by the throat he threw him to the earth, falling on him as he went down. Bremner's foot caught in a fender, and his head was dashed on the hearth-stone. He was taken up stunned and black in the face, and he lived only till the 22d. On a post mortem examination, it was found that death had been caused by an extensive fracture of the skull. Bissett and the other had usually been on good terms ; and the witnesses believed that Bissett's intent was only to throw his companion down, and not to injure him. The Jury found a verdict of " Accidental Death," but requested that Bissett might be censured for what they thought his " cowardly conduct to- wards a defenceless fellow-soldier." Colonel Aitchison, the Command- ing-officer of the regiment, was in attendance, and he said, " The Pay- master-sergeant of the company to which Bissett belongs will com- municate to his comrades your sentiments, which will probably draw down on him their censure, one of the greatest punishments he can receive."
Mr. Medhurst, the young man who was sentenced to three years' imprisonment in the Middlesex House of Correction, for stabbing a fellow pupil at Hayes, was released on Saturday ; the remaining term of his sentence having been remitted. His health has for some time suffered from an internal disease ; and the excitement arising from the affair in which Mr. Moreton Dyer was implicated has materially aggravated the symptoms ; so much so, that the worst results were an- ticipated if his confinement were protracted.
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