6 JUNE 1846, Page 3

be iffietropolis.

'The twenty-first anniversary of the London Literary and Scientific In- stitution was celebrated on Monday, by a dinner, at the London Tavern; Mr. Grote, formerly Member for the City, and President of the Institution, in the chair. Mr. Monckton Milnes, M.P., Mr. Wyse, M.P., Mr. Samuel Jones Loyd, and many other friends of popular education, were present. Mr. Grote addressed the meeting in a luminous speech; embracing in its numerous topies the origin of the Institution, its objects, the difficulties it has had so encounter, the measure of success it has attained, the bearing of its objects upon commercial and professional pursuits, and its claims to an enlarged general support. The extracts we subjoin are taken from the Morning Chronicle.

"In the month of June 1825, at the time when our first meeting took place, I believe that no institution of this precise diameter, and intended for the same description of persons, yet existed in the United Kingdom. At that time the idea

as novel, and the scheme untried: it required a degree of openness and liberality of mina, then by no means common, to appretiate its usefulness; it required a certain degree of penetration, and, I will add, a certain measure of that valuable attribute called a hopeful temperament, to believe that, if useful, it was also prac- ticable. There were many who doubted whether, when the banner of instruction tad improvement was unfurled, there would be found any considerable body of volunteers from the eommereial and professional classes to flock to it: there were still more who doubted whether those volunteers who came would stay to uphold it—would accept a systematic organization, or would furnish out of their own number a body of managers willing and able to undertake laborious functions of

detail. • • • •

" Distributing our past life of twenty-one years into three periods of seven years each, our average number of members was, during the first of these periods, 728; during the second, 903; daring the third, 974; and we now number a total of 1,073 members. We possess a library, for reference and circulation, of between *000 and 10,000 volumes; we have spacious and convenient pismires, enlarged and remodelled—I might almost say rebuilt—by ourselves, though, in spite of the most eateful economy, at a very heavy cost; we can show a museum with various scientific accompaniments and instructive specimens, and a sufficient number of class-rooms for those classes which are formed among the members to prosecute some continuous branch of study. We can boast also—and this was fifteen years ago among the chief boasts—of our premises, an excellent and commodious lecture-room, built by ourselves, and paid for by our own money. This lecture- room was opened in 1829, in the fifth year of our existence, by an inaugural ad- dress, which the present Lord Chief Justice of England, then Mr. CommomSer- geant Denman, did us the honour to deliver. The room holds, with perfect con- venience, between 600 and 600 persons, and when first opened was amply suffi- cient for all our wants; but the increase in our numbers has now rendered it Inadequate to its purpose, and the just complaint of our members respecting the insufficiency of room and comfort on evenings of crowded attendance is one of the most pressing difficulties with which our institution has now to contend, and

which I hope it will be soon in a position to remove. • *

"In the record of the society's proceedings I find proofs of an assiduous culti- vation of those arts and tastes which, if they lie apart from the intellect properly 60 called, are yet of a character most in harmony with the intellectual man, and bend to awaken and develop the imaginative impulses of our nature. When I go through the list of the various lectures, I find that there is scarcely any subject, scientific, literary, philosophical, economical, historical, or connected with poetry and the arts, which has not been presented more or less extensively to the minds of the members. Bat, gentlemen, the lectures, though beneficial and indispens- able, are not the department of our institution which I look at with the greatest interest. The classes for ape il and continuous instruction on particular subjects, formed among the members themselves, under the auspices of the managing Com- mittee, are, in my mind, a circumstance yet more impressive and encouraging. In the lecture-room, let the talents of the lecturer be what they may, the minds of

the hearers are more passive than active: they hear and they feel, they receive wholesome nutriment, a part of which will doubtless remain with them; but they are, after all, only recipients—recipients of an impulse which comes upon them from without, and is to a great degree transient. It is otherwise with the classes meeting continuously for special, persevering, and laborious instruction; whether assisted and superintended, as many of them have been, by a paid master, pro- vided by the Committee, or formed without that assistance, where the Committee have net been able, with a due regard to the finances of the institution, to grant assistance, by the members themselves on the principle of mutual instruction. It Thin these class-rooms, gentlemen, that you see our institution in active and

living function. The library and the lecture-room do, indeed, furnish the-pre. vious helps; but it is in these class-rooms that you see the nutriment assinvatate,

the blood circulate, the muscle move. It is here that you witness that more gra- tifying phrenomenon—the adult man again putting himself to school; undergoing that self-imposed labour and training which, with reference to individuals, has in all ages been the great cause of eminence to those whom the world has ennobled, but which with reference to more numerous bodies stands as the imposing dis- tinction of our nineteenth century. •

"It is one of the circumstances of which I feel proud in the history of this institution, that it has been self-relying and self-supporting. It members have

proved this, as by their other conduct, so also by raising the large sum of money required for the repair and enlargement of their premises, through loans derived chiefly from individuals of their own number. But, gentlemen, the man that helps himself is the man that best deserves the help of others; and I will not scruple to maintain that this institution renders a service to the commercial and professional public of London, which entitles it to call for such help, even from those who may not feel induced to join it as members. I believe it to have a powerful claim on the approbation, countenance, and aid, of the merchants and bankers generally of this great city. To say nothing of that disinterested sym- pathy which ought to prevail, and which doubtless in most eases will prevail, be- tween the principal of an establishment and the younger men who serve as his auxiliaries, I do not hesitate to affirm that he has a positive interest in upholding

their morality, in enlarging their intelligence, in opening the most favourable

avenues (as far as he can do so without obtrusive interference) for the employ- ment and direction of their leisure hours. Speaking as one the best years of

whose life have been passed as principal of a banking-house, I contend emphatic- ally, that merchants and bankers will obey the call of interest as well as the call of duty, in seconding the voluntary efforts of our members, and in strengthening

the self-acquired position which our institution now occupies. * • *

" Well, gentlemen, I shall grant most fully, that with a commercial and pro- fessional public, habits of steady industry are the,first thing needful; but I shall

contend with equal strenuousness, that they are not the only thing needful. There are in the life of every commercial and professional man hours of leisure as well as hours of work. I wish, indeed, from the bottom of my heart, that the circumstances were such as to enable him to command still longer hours of lei-

sure, but that which he now enjoys is enough to make a considerable difference according as it is well or ill bestowed. Now, gentlemen there are many innocent

and agreeable ways of passing leisure; and I am the fast person to obtrude the

literary, the scientific, the recreative pursuits of our institution, upon any un- willing partaker. If a young man has testae of another kind, I wish him happy in his own way. Bat I do Bay, that if he chance to have a taste for literary or

scientific pursuits, or for mental recreations, it is of very great moment that the taste should not be stifled for want of nourishment, nor die out from the mere impossibility of gratification. Suppose him to come from that valuable and economical place of education now flourishing among us—the City of London School—or from any other good school elsewhere and to pass from thence into a counting-house, he will doubtless have treasured up a certain stock of acquired knowledge, and will, perhaps, have brought away a treasure hardly less valuable —the wish to acquire more knowledge. This is the exact Case with many a

young man when he first enters upon the threshhold of his commercial career;

for the fatal supposition, that what hag been learnt at school has been learnt only to be thrown aside or buried like the talent in a napkin, is a mistake, committed indeed by too many persons in every rank of life, but not committed by all. I do not hesitate to affirm, gentlemen, that to a young man with these dispositions our institution holds out the most effective support and the most propitious allure- ment which his situation admits. • * • "Gentlemen, I shall again remind you that this is our twenty-first birthday. Our season of youth is over, and we now pass into the period of maturity. We have taken rank, and are identified with the mind and intelligence of this great city: be it clam to act in a manner worthy of our age and our calling. To those —whether they be many or few I know not—who may still hold the ungenial prejudice that there is an inherent incompatibility between a day of industry in the counting-house and an evening of study in the lecture-room, the class-room, or the library, we must continue to present the best of all refutations, in the lives

and behaviour of our members. To those, on the other hand, whose sentiments

are more generous and exalted—who esteem an enlightened population a greater glory than splenaid edifices and immeasurable capital, and who account it an

honour to London to interweave the three& of literature and science with the staple of a commercial and pnifeseional life,—to those minds we offer ourselves with confidence as auxiliaries and instruments, prepared to justify our claim upon their fraternal sympathy."

The proposal to perpetuate the memory of the late Mrs. Fry by the erection of an institution for the reception and reformation of discharged prisoners, is meeting with much favour. At a Committee meeting held last week, the Honourable William Cowper signified the Queen's pleasure to become the patroness and to subseribe 50 guineas in aid of the funds. Prince Albert is to be one of the patrons, and gives a subscription of 25/. The Chevalier Bunsen stated that he had received the oommands of the King of Prussia to say, that in testimony of his regard for the memory of the deceased, and his approbation of the objects of the institution, his Ma- jesty should become a contributor.

The Marylebone Vestry held a special meeting on Saturday, to con- sider Sir Peter Laurie's motion on the subject of street advertising-vans.

The attendance was numerous. Iampening the ease, Sir Peter represented the advertising-van system as one of the greatest nuisances that had ever been inflicted on the inhabitants of London—

He took credit to himself for having brought under the notice of Mr. Fox Maul°, the Secretary of State, and suocooded in abolishing two other nuisances, namely, that of climbing-boys and the dog-cart nuisance. If for nothing else,

he thought those two acts were sufficient to hand his name down to posterity. (Cheers and laughter.) The nuisance he had now to complain of, and which he

was determined to put down if possible, was that of large boxes, reaching in some instances nearly as high as a second-fieor window, perambulating the streets of London covered with placards of miffing tradesmen, horrible murders, and penny concerts. These machines had become so fashionable that the pro-

prietors made vast sums of money by them. Why, he had ascertained that, a person living at Heaton got 25s. per week from the Britannia Saloon for exhibit- ing bills on his vans; and although the horses employed to draw them were so old that it would be difficult to make them travel at the rate of four miles per hour, he could not find enough of vans and horses for his business. Sir Peter Laurie concluded by moving the appointment of a deputation to wait upon the Secretary of State and urge the subject upon his attention.

Earl Manners seconded the resolution, and denounced the perambulating vans as an abomination.

Mr. Seilamons said, he had been so annoyed with these vans, that if he could find the owners' names he would prosecute every one of them. Mr. Pawlinson (the Magistrate) hoped the Vestry had too much good sense to pass the resolution of the worthy Knight. The law was at present sufficiently effective to put down the nuisance complained of. Mr. Bidgway agreed with Mr. Rawlinson, that the existing law was suf- ficient to destroy the nuisance. If the Police had the common sense to study the clauses of the Police Act, they wadi find it was their duty to abolish the nuisance.

Sir Peter Laurie defied Mr. Rawlinson, with the lower of the existing act, to punish the proprietors of these vans for obstructing the streets. Mr. Rswlinson replied, that he could by indictment.

Sir Peter Laurie—" Why, that is the very word I was assailed with when I tried to put down the monster swindle the West Middlesex Assurance Company." Every man in his senses must see that these vans are for gulling the public. If he caught them in the City, he would punish the proprietors to the utmost.

The motion was carried, with only four dissentients.

In consequence of the inquiry instituted at the General Post-office before Mr. Peacock, it is stated that preparations are being made in the Postmaster-General's office for an extensive series of alterations throughout the entire departments of the Inland and Letter-carriers' offices, both General and Metropolitan. As far as can be at present learned, the alterations will consist in a complete classification of the whole of the officers; the substitution of fixed scales of salary; the abolition of the "early delivery" in all walks, and the abandonment of the system of pay- ment by fees. It is also stated that the Directory will be purchased of the present owner, suitable compensation being allowed for the officer's outlay, which that gentleman has given in as follows—machinery, 1,5001.; types, 2,0001.; lease of premises, 100 guineas per annum for twenty years; expenses of editing, &c., forming a total of nearly 6,000/. per annum! It is said to be the determination of his Lordship to take off the bells from all the walks, and to compensate the men, so as to give the public the opportunity of posting at the receiving-houses and at the chief offices until the latest moment prior to the despatch consistent with the necessary regulations for the safety of the duty. It is not decided whether there will be an amalgamation of the General and London district offices at present; but it is most probable that eventually such will be the case. The delivery of general-post letters, it is said, will be extended in the afternoon, and other offices opened for the general facilitation of the duty. Some alteration is also to be made in the salaries of the junior clerks, and in those of the messengers of the Inland-office. The district letter-carriers and stampers have also, within the last few days, received the command of the Postmaster-General to prepare and send forward an exact detail of their salaries and emoluments.—G/obe.

On Monday, 52,000 passengers travelled by the Greenwich Railway; on Tues- day, 30,000; and on Wednesday, 19,000; altogether 101,000 persons—the greatest number that has ever travelled on that line at Whitsuntide.

A leopard-hunt took place at Wandsworth on Wednesday. The leopard escaped from a show at Wandsworth fair, and ran to the common; where a man noticed it, and thinking it was a dog he approached—only to take to his heels when he perceived his mistake. A mob assembled, and scoured the common: the stranger was eventually captured at Battersea by his keeper.

At the Secondaries Court, on Saturday, Mr. William Henry Ashurst, the music- teacher, sued Mr. Tomlin for damages for false imprisonment. Mr. Sergeant Wilkins stated the case for the plaintiff: no counsel appeared for the defendant. On the 6th of March, between ten and eleven o'clock, Mr. Ashurst was going to Tavistock Square in his carriage from the Hanover Square Rooms; and when turning out of Regent Street, at the corner of Oxford Street, Mr. Tomlin drove up at a rapid pace in a gig, and to avoid collision he was compelled to draw up his horse so tight that the shafts were broken. Mr. Tomlin got out of his gig, and though Mr. Ashurst gave his address, and several persons in the crowd said they knew him very well, called a Policeman, and gave him into custody on a charge of wilfully damaging his gig; and, although the constable also said he knew Mr. Ashurst as a highly respectable man Mr. Tomlin insisted on his being taken to the stationhouse. Mr. Ashurst refused to go unless actually taken into custody; which Mr. Tomlin, against the remonstrance of Mr. Ashurst and the people about, insisted on. He was then taken away, obliged to leave his two daughters in the carriage unprotected, and suffering from alarm. Mr. Ashurst was set at liberty when the Inspector heard the case. After hearing evidence of these facts, and the summing up of the Seconchn7, the Jury consulted for ten minutes, and gave a verdict for Si. Sergeant Wilkins "Do I understand right—Si.? " The Se- condary, "That is the amount, I believe." The Foreman, Yes: Si."

At the Bail Court, last week, Hulls, au attorney, applied for his discharge from arrest, on the ground that when taken into custody he was discharging his duty to certain clients at the Gloucester County Court. Ile contended, that, acting in such capacity, he was free from arrest, by the 7th and 8th Victoria. For the plaintiff it was urged, that he was not on the roll of the Court; which he should have been, or else prove that there was no roll in existence. Mr. Justice Wight- man delivered judgment on Monday—" I think the 'defendant in this case must be discharged,. The privilege claimed is not for himself, but for the protection of Ida clients; and there is quite enough shown on the affidavita in proving that he is an attorney on the rolls of Westminster, and actually practising at the time of his arrest in the County Court of Gloucestershire, to warrant his discharge; and without deciding the question of the necessity of his being upon the roll of the County Court, even if there were one, I think the rule for his discharge must be made absolute."

At the Blansionhouse,on Tuesday, Faulkner and Fabian, the two men charged with uttering forged scrip of the Buckinghamshire Railway, were brought up for reexamination. Mr. W. Harding, the secretary to the company, deposed to a guantity of scrip Which was produced being forged; though he had some difficulty in doing this, so skilfully were the forgeries executed, both in the printing and in the copy of his signature. The reporter says—" The difference between the copy produced and the genuine scrip was not perceptible to an ordinary observer; so that the witness appeared to test the quality of the documents by a comparison with the counterfoil." Mr. Moody, a lithographer, stated that he answered an advertisement, which appeared two months since, for a lithographic printer; he had an interview with Fabian and another person; what they needed, the working off of a number of impressions from plates was required to be done with great precaution: they promised to call upon him to speak further of the business; but they never came. Other witnesses described dealings with the prisoners by which the forged scrip was got into the market. The accused were remanded till Thursday, to be then committed for trial; Mr. Alderman Gibbs refusing to take bail.

At the Mansionhonse, on Wednesday, Florence Leary was charged with the extraordinary crime of scalding William Tuthill, to the great damage of his person. The men in a tap-room quarrelled; the prisoner knocked down Tuthill, dragged him to the fire-place, and turning the tap of a boiler, allowed the scalding water to pour upon hint for about half a minute! The ferocious Irishman is committed for trial.

On Thursday, Mr. Henry Sharpe, of the firm of Sharpe and Company, ware- housemen, Paternoster Lane, was charged with stealing a quantity Of French cambric and cambric handkerchiefs from Messrs. Lewis and James, of Gutter Lane. The case excited much interest, from the respectable rank of the accused. Mr. Sharpe was formerly in the service of Messrs. Lewis and James as traveller, and left them in February last. A little time after that, tbe'cambrie and hand- kerchiefs were missed from the warehouse. A fortnight since, the prisoner sold some cambric and handkerchiefs to Mr. Hayter, a warehouseman, at a very cheap rate. The goods, Mr. Lewis swore, were those stolen from his premises. Mr. Sharpe said-that he purchased them of a Frenchman, named St. Croix; but he could not show any invoice or receipt, nor did he know where St. Croix was to he found. Mr. Ballantine, for the accused, said it was absurd to suppose that a gentleman who maintained ao high a character, and to whom property to an

enormous amount was constantly intrusted, could be involved in the transaction dishonourably. Alderman Gibbs appointed Saturday for signing the depositions previously to sending the case to the Central Criminal Court, and took bail for the appearance of Mr. Sharpe at the Mansionhotuse, himself in 2001., and two sureties in 1001. each.

At the Thames Police-office, on Monday, Webster, an American seaman, was charged with exhibiting a Yankee propensity of a very unamiable kind. The man was drinking at a public-house on Saturday night, and quarrelled with several men, challenging them to fight, and boasting of what he could do; at length one of the men did fight with Webster, and the American got the worst of it.- then went into the tap-room; threatened a lame man, a brother to the one who had worsted him; and at last pulled out a " bowie-knife " from a sheath which was made fast to his waist, and attempted to stab the man—whose jacket VMS cut under the arm by the point of the knife. The prisoner excused himself on the ground that he was drunk: and, as usual, "his head had been affected by a wound." Ile was committed for trial.

It appears from a communication made to the Magistrate at the Thames Police- office, that Joseph Ady has been in the habit of victimizing people in the Colo-. flies as well as at home. Joseph is said to have had great success in duping the colonists. In one case, a Mr. Adamson, living at Barbadoes, had not only di- rected his Liverpool correspondent to pay Ady twenty shillings that he might obtain 1001., but absolutely sent a power of attorney to receive the money; and. when it was obtained, he desired that it should be presented to a daughter who was living in England ! The Liverpool gentleman knew rather too much of Joseph's ways to send the twenty shillings.

A distressing fire occurred in Cow Cross Street very early: on Monday morning. The house was a large one, and occupied by eight or nine poor fami- lies. The fire broke out in the first floor, and it spread rapidly. The inmates had the greatest difficulty in escaping, and one infant was so much burned that it is not expected to live. A subscription is to be got up for the sufferers.

During the sitting of a Quarterly Court of Freemasons, at Freemasons Hall, on Wednesday night, it was discovered that the gallery at the end of the hall was on fire. Water was immediately thrown upon the place; and on the arrival of firemen the flooring was pulled up, when the _joists and rafters were found to be smouldering. The fire was speedily extinguished : had it occurred in the night, the worst consequences would probably have resulted.

Three children have been killed by falling into an open sewer, near Howick Terrace, Pimlico. The sewer ran through a public thoroughfare; and there was no railing or other defence to prevent accidents, which have frequently occurred.

A woman named Sloman has been murdered at Shadwell, in a house where an illicit still was worked. She was found dead at the foot of the stairs, with several wounds on her head. The still had been removed from the house; a quantity of whisky had ran to waste on the floor-' and strong wash was found in tubs, with utensils lying about. It was rumoured that the deceased had been destroyed for threatening to give information to the Excise. Benjamin Gibbins, who lived with the woman, is in charge for the murder. His clothes were found spotted and daubed with blood. He declares that he was absent from home all the night during which the woman was killed; he could not get into the house, and therefore wan- dered about from one coffee-house or public-house to another, till the morning, when he got a ladder and entered his dwelling by a window; he than found Slo- man dead, and in moving the body he got the blood on his clothes. The prisoner has not accounted for his movements during the whole of the night.

Towny, a jobbing tailor, who lived in Widegate Street, Bishopsgate, has mur- dered his wife and destroyed himself. He was discovered hanging from the bed- stead: a paper pinned to his coat contained a declaration that he killed himself from dread of starvation, having been out of work for some time. The woman's body was found under the bed; the hands were tied together, and she had evi-s dently been strangled; she would shortly have become smother. It is said that Towny had applied for parochial assistance when his wife should be confined; but that the authorities-had refused to grant it, offering the workhouse instead.