The Vestrymen of St. Pancras met on Monday, to perform
the pain- ful duty of balloting out forty of their immaculate body, as required by the New Vestries' Act. The parish will shortly elect forty rate- payers to fill the place of the Select.
The anniversary of St. Anne's Charity Schools was celebrated on Wednesday, at the London Tavern. The chair was filled by the Marquis of Clanricarde ; who evinced his interest in its success by a contribution of twenty-five guineas. The whole contributions exceeded 9001.
On Thursday, the Prayer and Homily Book Society. held its nine- teenth anniversary meeting; Lord Bexley in the chair. It was very thinly attended. From the report, it appeared that during the last year the Society has distributed 11,753 Prayer-books and 67,38.5 Ho- milies; and since its foundation, 208,673 Prayer-books and 1,155,62.5 Homilies. The receipts of the year amounted to 2,1711. I9s. 4d., and the disbursements to 2,208/. 14s. Sd.
The Bible Society held their annual meeting yesterday, in Exeter Hall ; Lord Bexley in the chair. The meeting was excessively crowded. The chief novelty was an apology proffered by the Honour- able and Reverend Gerard Noel, who on the part of himself and his brother, expressed his deep regret at their momentary separation from it, and their full and deliberately formed conviction that the Committee, whose firmness and wisdom preserved the institution from wreck, was deserving of the fullest confidence and the highest respect of all its members. These gentlemen left the British and Foreign Bible Society for the Trinitarian, when the latter was established by Lord Roden and Mr. Gordon.
The fourteenth anniversary meeting of the Mendicity Society took place on Saturday, at the Freemasons' Tavern; Earl Grosvenor in the chair. From the annual report, in the past year assistance had been granted to upwards of 1,200 persons ; the expenditure of the last year was 5,397/., the receipts 3,927/., and the deficiency made up by the sale of stock, of which only 8001. now remains. This sum, with an expected legacy of 300/., is all that can be relied upon at present for meeting the exigencies of the coming year.
The Vauxhall Bridge Company held their annual meeting on Thursday, at the George and Vulture, Lombard Street. The receipt of tolls, it seems, had been greater by 86/. than during the previous year; to balance which, Mr. Ewbank, the clerk, had run away, car- rying 700/. or 800/. of the Company's money with him. A Mr. Martin was chosen clerk, after a somewhat singular objection of a proprietor— that he had seven children!
The anniversary meeting of the Horticultural Society was held on Tuesday at the Society's house in Regent Street, for the election of officers, and other business. A machine for sowing upon a large scale, sent by Lord Vernon, was exhibited, and appeared to excite some in- terest, from the cheapness and simplicity of its construction. A great variety of beautiful flowers, and two or three peculiarly, fine vegetables, were also exhibited, and their several properties and characteristics described by the Secretary. After the ordinary business of the day had concluded, a long conversation arose as to the expediency of giving a fete this year at the gardens at Chiswick. The Chairman stated, that the Council had not come to any positive decision; but he be- lieved the feeling was, that the present time was not suited for a public entertainment of that description. He added, that the Council would consider, whether a fête on a more restricted plan, or an exhibition, might not take place in the gardens.
A meeting of the Zoological Society took place on Monday, at the Theatre, Albemarle Street; Lord Stanley was in the chair. The re- port of the state of the Society stated, that the gross amount of the in- come of the last year was 17,662/., being an increase over the preceding year of 1,857/. In 1827, the receipts were 4,0791.; in 1828, 11,5151.; in 1829, 13,99I1. ; in 1830, 15,806/. ; and in 1831, they amounted to 17,662/. The number of visitors to the gardens, in 1830, was 224,745, and during the past year was 258,936: the income derived from this source during the former period was 9,773E, and during the latter 11,425/. There had been 320 fellows admitted since the last meeting; making the present total number of fellows 2,074, after deducting 45 deaths, and 15 resignations.
The good effected by the Society for the Relief of Persons Impri- soned for Small Debts surpasses all that could be imagined. No fewer than 2,080 persons were liberated by their means in the course of *e last year alone.-71mes. [Flow much of the evil which it redresses does the Society indirectly cause ? Were there not in the ease of small debts a prospect held out, in the existence of such a society, of an ob- durate and avaricious creditor's obtaining payment provided he employed "the utmost rigour of the law" for that purpose, many of those wham the Society relieves would never have been imprisoned. The Society is composed of many influential individuals ; and would they only join together in demanding from the Legislature the abolition of imprison- ment in any case for sums below 51.,—the sole evil of which abolition would be to impose a little more care and a little more vigilance on shopkeepers,—they would effect far more good than by their present course of labour.]
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