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Thursday was Lord Mayor's Day ; and the sun shone brightly upon the show. Alderman Magnay was sworn into office at the Guildhall on the day before ; and on Thursday he was presented, as usual, at the Court of Exchequer. The procession, with the customary display of state-carriages, City-officers in uniform, and men in armour, left the Mansionhouse at half-past twelve o'clock. The novelty was, that the procession made a detour to exhibit itself to the new Lord Mayor's constituents of Vintry Ward ; the civic Magistrate taking water at Southwark Bridge. The City barge conveying his Lordship was accom- panied by six others, carrying various civic officers, and the Goldsmiths, Stationers, Fishmongers, Wax-chandlers, and Ironmongers Companies. Landing at Westminster Bridge, the Lord Mayor walked in procession to the Court of Exchequer ; where he was presented to the Chief Baron by the Recorder. Mr. Recorder Law explained, with the neat and eulogistic style peculiar to him, who the Lord Mayor is; and closed his address with some warm compliments to the late Lord Mayor's ad- ministration of the City business and hospitalities. The Barons were invited to the inauguration-dinner ; and then the qty dignitaries visited the other Courts, to invite the Judges. The procession returned by water to London Bridge; where the land forces again joined it ; and at the corner of Farringdon Street, the Foreign Ministers, the Queen's Ministers, and other distinguished guests, fell into the line.

The banquet at the Guildhall vied with any in magnificence : the

bill as long and luxurious as ever ; the wines, we are told

ng reporter, were better. Among the guests were— Sir Robert Peel, (loudly cheered on his arrival,) James Graham, Mr. W. E. Gladstone, and other f the Ambassadors ; Chief Justice Tindal and Attorney-General and several lawyers, including orney-General of Massachusetts ; the City Mem- hn Russell; and a multitude of Members, Alder-

men, City-officers, and other gentlemen. The speeches were more complimentary than novel or striking.

A Court of Aldermen was held on Saturday. Alderman Copeland moved for an account of the animal expeases incurred by the City of London at the Central Criminal Court. The City had been obliged to pay the expenses of the celebrated Welsh case, which amounted to 1,500/, or 1,600/. ; and now it would have to pay the expenses of Mr. Zulueta's trial, which would probably be 1,600/. or 1,700/. It was too bad that

such enormous cost should fall upon those who had nothing whatever to do with the charge, the prosecution, or the defence. Alderman Fare- brother seconded the motion ; which was carried unanimously. Alder- man Wilson moved that copies of Mr. Hailey's report of the scrutiny in Bread Street Ward, published by Mr. Butterworth, be purchased for each Alderman ; remarking, that in several of the decisions the law had been stretched. The Recorder denied that assertion, and advised the Court not to agree to the proposition, as the report was unauthorized, and made by a person not legally educated. After a good deal of discus- sion, the question was adjourned to the next court-day.

A Court of Common Council was held on Tuesday, to receive the report of a Committee on the reform of London Corporation. Mr. Wire, the Chairman of the Committee, stated that the report contained a broad and sweeping measure of reform of every department of the representative system in the City ; and would, if Parliament permitted the adoption of the plan proposed, establish a snore perfect system of sound local representation than was to be found in any institution extant He should propose that the report be printed, and a copy sent to every member of the Court, in order to a discussion of the great principles it sought to establish. As the basis of the reformed fran- chise, the report recommends— "I. That the right of voting for Aldermen and Common Councilmen in the City shall be extended to all occupiers of property in the City who pay the sewers, consolidated, and police rates; upon the ground that those, and those only, who pay local assessments, should have a voice in choosing those who impose and spend them. "2. That the right of voting for Lord Mayor, Sheriffs, Chamberlain, and Auditors, shall in like manner be extended to the same class of electors, with the addition of the Liverymen in the Parliamentary register."

The Committee further recommend, that elections for Lord Mayor, Sheriffs, and Chamberlain, should all take place in one day, in the same manner that Members of Parliament are chosen under the Reform Bill ; and that the Ward elections of Aldermen and Common Councilmen should also take place in one day ; as that would be the best means of avoiding corruption and expense. Scrutinies, as a further source of expense, to be abolished ; and the municipal electors roll to be to all intents and purposes final and conclusive of the right to vote. They propose to substitute for oaths at the poll, declarations of identity, &c. ; and a false declaration to be made punishable as a misdemeanour. They recommend a more equal division of the wards, not with mathe- matical precision, as that would be impracticable, but by dividing three or four of the largest into two each ; and as vacancies occur for the smaller ones, their representation to be transferred to the newly divided wards. One of these small wards is that of Bridge-without, formerly consisting of the houses on London Bridge, but now having no con- stituency I The report urged careful and deliberate discussion of these propositions ; the boldness of which seemed to surprise the Court ; and Mr. Wire's motion was agreed to without discussion.

The parishioners of St. Stephen's Walbrook had an adjourned meeting on Wednesday. Mr. Rock was called to the chair ; and he stated that he had filed a bill in Chancery, which would compel Alderman Gibbs to answer the demand of the parishioners in a month at furthest. A vote of censure on Alderman Gibbs was moved and seconded ; but Mr. Horsier having stated that the Churchwarden's accounts would be printed and distributed to the parishioners in a week or so, the motion was postponed, and the meeting adjourned, to give the Alderman an opportunity of redeeming that promise.

There is a rumour that Alderman Gibbs's friends will persuade him to resign his Alderman's gown for Walbrook Ward ; and Mr. Flight, Mr. Travers, and Mr. Pilcher, are already named as candidates to suc- ceed him. Also, it is said that the inhabitants mean to put forward, on next St. Thomas's Day, as a candidate for the Common Council, Mr. Rock, Alderman Gibbs's energetic opponent.

The friends of Mr. Pattison gave a dinner on Tuesday, at the Three Tans Tavern, St. Margaret's Hill, to celebrate his return for the City. The Chairman was Mr. W. Hawes. In returning thanks when his health was drunk, Mr. Pattison made some slight allusion to his future course in the House of Commons— He had received some letters from members of the late Government ; and his answer to them had been, that be sincerely trusted that he should be able to give his future support to Lord John Russell : his feelings were with Lord John Russell; but Lord John Russell must alter his ways in order to secure his support. (Cheers.) He looked upon the suggestion of finality as nonsense. If a principle of finality were to prevail, there would be no improvement in mechanics. He trusted that Lord John Russell would see that, in asserting that principle, he had fallen into a mistake. As he had already assured them, he should be for measures, not men; and he should go into the House of Com- mons unfettered in every way, except by an anxiety to do his duty.

The annual dinner to celebrate the acquittal of Horne Tooke and the other members of the Corresponding Society was held on Monday, the forty-ninth anniversary of that event, at Radley's Hotel. Mr. W. J. Fox was in the chair, and the company mustered about a hundred and fifty in all. The first toast was "The Sovereignty of the People"; followed by "The Queen." Then came—" Purity of trial by Jury ; and the three Juries who, in 1794, acquitted Hardy, Tooke, and Thel- wall "; in introducing which, the Chairman made some startling obser- vations on the office of a jury— In the institutions and laws which governed society, there now and then came in a small and often an unguarded atom of common sense, which went far to correct the evil and the unjust operation of the laws. Such, in the his- tory of this country, was the institution of the trial by jury. The taking of twelve men indiscriminately to sit in judgment on any one brought before them had nothing to recommend it at first eight as the beat expedient for ar- riving at the facts in any particular case, or getting at the truth in any com- plicated question. Nor, perhaps, was it. But whatever defect at might have, at was invaluable in certain circumstances, by introducing abody tbstaid some- times defy the law, and honestly interpose. It had saved those who were op- pressed by every hostility, and which but for this institution would have been abandoned to their miserable destiny. Its virtue was that it corrected the laws. Unless the juries of this country had even gone the length of breaking their oaths to declare according to the evidence—unless they had defined both the fact and what the law was—was it to be supposed that capital punishments would ever have been restricted as they had been ? or that the sanguinary enactments which disfigured our statute-book would ever have been corrected to the extent they had been ? or that this progressive improvement would have taken place, unless jury after jury had refused to give a verdict of guilty in cases of forgery, or had declared persons guilty of stealing under 40s. property which was worth 101.? There a little wrong had wrung out a great right ; and in political cases, where the judges und the lawyers were so apt to follow the opinions of the day—where wealth was often arrayed against poverty— where power was opposed to the feeble, and corruption to improvement—in poli- tical cases, he asked what safety was there for those who led the march of sound principles, except by an appeal beyond lawyers to persons like those honest men who interfered in the hour of trial, and had more than once averted a de- luge of tyranny and oppicssion from overflowing this country ? Such were the men who had tried the case they were that day commemorating.

The company having drunk to the memory of the Corresponding Society, thanks were returned by Mr. Galloway and Dr. W. Hodgson. Of Dr. Hodgson, (who was present and sustained his old opinions with energy,)1the Chairman stated that he was born in 1745, and he was im- prisoned for sedition in 1792. Mr. Parry, proposing the memory of Erskine and Gibbs, who gave their gratuitous services to defend Hardy, Tooke. and Thelwall, remarked that the same contest which was carried on in England in 1794 was now waged in Ireland ; and as they gloried in the triumph of the men of 1794, so now they wished O'Connell "God speed, and a happy deliverance." After a few more toasts, the company separated.

There has been another judicial decision arising out of the late Mr. James Wood's will. He bequeathed to the Gloucester Corporation two sums-140,000/. and 60,0001.; but that part of his will was so obscurely worded, that the executors declared the bequests "void for uncertainty "; whereupon the Corporation filed a bill in Chancery. On Saturday last, Vice-Chancellor Wigram sustained the objection to the bequests, and dismissed the bill ; leaving the question of costs to stand over, in antici- pation of an appeal from his judgment.

At Lambeth Street Police-office, on Saturday, Michael Hayfield, a -wire-weaver, aged thirty-nine, was charged with attempting to kill his BM Having been paralyzed in his right side, Hayfield had been in Aldgate Workhouse since June : in the interval, his wife had sup- ported their two children ; she shared a room with a Mrs. Humble ; and there Hayfield was received when he issued from the Workhouse on the 7th October. In the course of the day, he borrowed a penknife to mend pens ; and with that at night cut the throat of his second son, and then his own. The screams of the women drew a Policeman to the place ; Hayfield was taken care of until his own wound was healed, and then brought up at the Police-office. He was committed for trial. The child's wounds are healed, but it is not expected to survive.