Zbe _Metropolis.

On Saturday, the Lord Mayor, attended by the high City officers, waited upon Prince Albert for the purpose of requesting that his Royal Highness would do the citizens of London the honour of dining at the Mansionhonse on the day to be appointed for laying the first stone of the Royal Exchange ; a ceremony in which the Prince is to take the chief part. He accepted the invitation.

A Court of Common Council was held in the Guildhall, on Thurs- day. Thanks were voted to the late Lord Mayor, Alderman Johnson, for his remarkable hospitality and his incessant attention to the duties of the Chief Magistracy. It was resolved that the freedom of the City should be presented to the Duke of Cambridge in a gold box valued at one hundred guineas. Mr. Anderton moved the resolution, with an eulogy of the Duke ; of whom, said Mr. Anderton, George the Third declared that he had never given his father a moment's pain ; and the Duke was as much beloved in Hanover as in England. Mr. John Wood declared it to be a reflection on the City, that the Duke had not been presented with the freedom long ago. Some ordinary business occupied the remainder of the sitting.

The Committee of Spitalfields weavers, which was appointed last week at a meeting of the weavers residing in Spitalfields and Bethnal Green, to ascertain the extent of the distress existing in that district, has almost completed its labours. It has been ascertained that the dis- tress is greater than that which prevailed in the year 1826 in that dis- trict and throughout the country, when nearly 2,000,000/. was sub- scribed towards the relief of the starving population. There are above 30,000 persons employed in the silk-trade. Above half the weavers are out of work, while those who have any thing to do are little more than half employed; and the consequence is that the wages are ex- tremely low, while the superior workmen are forced to work at inferior manufactures. In many houses there are men who, with their wives and four or five children, have no more than 88. or 10s. a week to live upon. Several of the Committee have visited houses where families have been the whole day without food, and where children have cried themselves to sleep through hunger ; and there was also neither coal nor candle. In these instances, it mostly happens that the parties suf- fering are those who refrain from applying for parochial relief. It has been stated, that there are large funds (amounting with interest to about 30,0000 remaining of the sums collected in 1826, when the then Bishop of Chester was Chairman of the Committee to distribute the money ; and wishes are expressed that a portion of it should be given to the- distressed Spitalfields weavers.

Miss Burdett Comm has sent 50/. to the Lord Mayor, for the weavers' use.

The City Association for giving the Poor a Cheap Supply of Coals and Potatoes held its annual meeting on Wednesday, at the London Coffeehouse. Alderman T. Wilson having taken the chair, the report was read. From the 28th December 1840 to 27th March 1841, no less than 268,000 bushels of potatoes and 780 tons of coals had been distri- buted. The receipts, together with the balance in hand last year, amounted to 2,4441.; from which had been expended the sum of 1,8031.;. leaving a balance including a 400/. Exchequer Bill, of 641/. The re- port was adopted. A Committee for the ensuing year was appointed, consisting of the Lord Mayor, Alderman Gibbs, Alderman Kelly,. Alderman T. Wilson, and six other gentlemen. A considerable sum of money was subscribed in the room ; and intimation was given that the Ironmongers and other City Companies intended to contribute. Thanks having been voted to the chairman, the meeting separated.

A preliminary meeting was held by the inhabitants of Marylebone, in the Lecture-room, Marylebone Lane, on Wednesday evening, for the purpose of taking into consideration a repeal of the Window-tax. Resolutions were passed, declaring that the tax was, "from its continu- ance after twenty-six years of peace, most obnoxious, from its partiality most unjust, and from the recent surcharge (amounting in many in- stances from 50 to 100 per cent.) has become intolerable"; asserting that the depressed state of trade and the increasing demands of the poor made a great portion of the tradesmen in the parish unable to pay the tax, and that if it were enforced, numbers must be driven into the already overcrowded workhouse ; and calling upon the Wilier Metro- politan parishes to cooperate in seeking its repeal. One of the speakers, alluding to the prevalent distress, said that there were 2,000 more ap, plicants for medical relief in the parish than had ever been known before.

It appears from the reports of some proceedings on Tuesday, at the London Tavern, that the endeavour to get up a City meeting on the subject of Emigration was not very successful. The Lord Mayor re- fused to interfere in a matter which was understood to be under the immediate consideration of Government. Mr. Crawford, the gentle- man who seems to have taken the most active part in the promotion of the meeting, suffered it to wear the aspect of a benevolent ruse in favour of his distressed fellow-townsmen in Paisley : as a stranger, probably he was not aware that no project of the kind can succeed in the City without the guarantee of great City names. Even the person who was to be the chairman seems to have thought it needless to make his ap- pearance. However, Mr. Montgomery Martin's ever-ready activity supplied a substitute on the spot. Some resolutions which it was in- tended to submit to the general meeting, recommended a private sub- scription in aid of emigration • and to that the speech of Mr. Crawford seemed to tend. Mr. W. Clark preferred a national or parochial tax. Mr. Carpenter put the objections to such a course in a very strong ight- If it went forth that they were in favour of a Parliamentary or paro- chial tax to aid emigration, he thought it would defeat the object they had in view. A large and intelligent class already looked with suspicion and jealousy at emigration. They feared that it was a mere political ex- periment to diminish public discontent at home without having recourse to greater and more substantial measures of relief. The recommendation, therefore, of a national tax for this purpose, would excite prejudices, and call them into active operation, where otherwise there would be quiescence. There was no necessity for any such tax ; for were there not Crown lands belonging to the people of this country, held in trust by the Crown ? Upon these lands the public were ready to advance money to promote emigration. Let the matter be left there. Let them press upon the Government the necessity of adopting a scheme which would produce permanent relief to the home population, without dictating the imposition of an onerous tax upon the people.

Ultimately a resolution was adopted, appointing a committee to wait upon the Lord Mayor, in the hope of inducing him to reconsider his refusal to convene a public meeting, or if he still refused, to adopt such measures for the holding of a public meeting as they should deem advisable.

A number of Polish refugees celebrated the anniversary of the Revo- lution of 1830-1, on Tuesday last, by attending at Divine service in the German Catholic Chapel. Public meetings of the Poles afterwards took place ; in the afternoon in John Street, Oxford Street, and in the even- ing at the rooms of the Literary Association of the Friends of Poland, in Duke Street, St. James's.

At the Central Criminal Court, on Wednesday, Charles Wilcox was charged with stealing a book from the British Museum. Mr. Wilcox had been in the habit of reading at the Museum ; and he had been suspected of taking books. On the 23d October he was searched, and the book in question was found upon him. The defence was, that he had no intention of stealing it, but was taking it home for the purpose of reading, intending to return it. The Jury returned a verdict of "Not Guilty." Mr. Wilcox was then indicted for stealing from the library of the British Museum, two books—The Hunchback and The Baronet—which he had actually sold to a bookseller in Holborn. Though the prisoner pleaded "Not Guilty," the only de- fence was a challenge of proof. Witnesses were called, who said that the young man was most respectably connected, and had received a College education. He was found guilty, and sentenced to one year's imprisonment.

Four true bills for felony were returned by the Grand Jury, on Thursday, against Edward Beaumont Smith; and the trial was fixed to come on today, subject to any arrangement for postponing it which might be found convenient.

Job John Ward was charged with the murder of Timothy Easted, an infant. The evidence did not differ from that brought before the Police Court. The prisoner was convicted, and sentenced to death without hope of mercy. He buried his face in his hands and wept bitterly while sentence was passed ; and he was removed from the dock in a state of seeming unconsciousness.

At Union Hall, on Monday, Jane Graham who claimed a man named Beevor as her husband, and whose case has been before the Ma- gistrates several times attended with witnesses to prove his identity. Several were called, all of whom stated their belief that the man was not Graham. Mrs. Graham adhered to her conviction that Beevor had managed to conceal the marks of the smallpox, with which Graham was scarred ; and begged permission to apply soap and water, with which she came provided in order to detect the imposition. Beevor submitted to the test ; but although no marks appeared, Mrs. Graham said she was still convinced he was her husband. The Magistrate, however, was quite satisfied, and bound Mrs. Graham in the penalty of 201. to keep the peace.

Much damage was done in the Metropolis and the surrounding country, by the stormy weather at the beginning of the week. On Monday night, a new shop-front in Church Street, Borough, was blown into the street. Many stacks of chimnies have been thrown down, but with no fatal results. The low lands on the Surrey side of the river have been flooded. The river itself was violently agitated. A boat with two boys was upset on the river between Wandsworth and Putney, and one of the boys was drowned. Three men were overturned in a boat off Rotherhithe, but were all saved. Near Greenwich, a man was blown from the yard-arm of a coasting-vessel, but he sustained no injury be- yond a wetting. On Tuesday morning, near Deptford, as a barge laden with Russian deals was coming up the river, a great quantity of the timber was blown off into the water : a workman jumped out of the barge into a small boat, and was picking up the pieces of timber, which he had previously gathered together with an oar, when a heavy swell of the water upset the boat, and the man was drowned. During the night of Monday, a hundred barges, laden with coal, got loose from their moorings on the river, and sank. On Wednesday afternoon, the tide rose to a great and unusual height, and caused a considerable destruc- tion of property.

A fire took place on Saturday evening at the Royal College of Sur- geons, Lincoln's Inn Fields. It broke out in the lower story under the museum ; but it was effectually checked by nine o'clock, and did no serious damage. No one knows how it originated.

The official report on the late fire at the Tower, by the Committee of inquiry, was presented a few days ago by Colonel Peel, Surveyor General of the Ordnance, to the Master-General and the Board. It does not add much to the facts already known. The Commissioners of course were particularly anxious in their inquiries as to the origin of the fire. The witnesses' accounts, however, are so various, that it is im- possible to say even in what exact spot of the Bowyer Tower the flames broke out. A light was seen by some of the witnesses, before the fire, in the Round-Table Room ; one of them describes it to have been such as might have been caused by a person walking about with a lighted candle. Others say that the fire broke out before any light whatever was perceptible. The Commissioners reconcile the various statements, by supposing that some ignited substance had fallen from

the stove in the upper room, between the double floor, and had thus by producing a smouldering fire, caused the light described. There does not appear to be the slightest foundation for the notion that the fire was caused by an incendiary ; though from the easy access to the workshops from the line-wall, such an act might have been readily accomplished. The Commissioners consider the system of watching to be very defective, as the number of watchmen is small, and they are exhausted by the fatigue of daily labour before they go upon their beats. The arrangements for procuring water are imperfect : the tanks have hitherto been inspected only once in three months—which may account for their not being full on the night of the fire. The Com- missioners recommend an alteration in those matters.

A great many workmen began pulling down the ruins of Astley's Theatre on Tuesday. It is expected that the new theatre will be ready for opening on Easter Monday next

Messrs. Grissell and Peto are now supplied with a full complement of labourers at the works which were the scene of the strike. The stone- cutters of the Haytor Granite Company have refused to prepare stone for Grissell and Peto; but the latter have procured the requisite mate- rial elsewhere.