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A meeting of Dissenters, at which about two thousand persons were present, was held.at the Eastern Institution, in Commercial Road, on Monday—Sir Cul- ling Eardley Smith in the chair—to oppose the Maynooth grant. Several Dia. seining ministers were on the platform. The Chairman deplored Lord John Russell's betrayal of their cause in advocating the grant; and then he attacked Sir Robert Peel. He was astonished at the audacity of a man who, in the nine- teenth century, could dare to establish Popery in England. The fate of the edu- cation clauses of the Factory Bill might have taught Sir Robert Peel and Sir James Graham that it was a fearful thing to interfere with the religious feeling of the country: but it was evident that their object is to carry out the proposed measure before the country should have time to oppose it. But they were equally bold sad bad statesmen who thus turned their backs on their friends. History was not wanting in instances of a similar nature. They were attempting to re- establish Roman Catholicism in the land from which it had been rooted out; and it might be remembered that another statesman, deemed in his own times great- Lord-Bolingbroke—had tried the same experiment in Scotland, and given pre- cisely the same interval of one week for the people to express their opinions with regard to it, or rather to prevent their doing so. He had perished, an exile in a foreign land. Sir Robert Peel, should he persist in such a measure, would die an exile from the hearts of his countrymen, most righteously an exile from power. Neat, Mr. O'Connell was assailed. Sir Culling had the honour six years since of taking the chair at a meeting in London called together on the subject of church-rates: Mr. O'Connell was present, and said that he would never consent that money should be received from the Government for the support of his Church hi Ireland. He had but a short time ago sent him a copy of his words, but had no reply. Mr. O'Connell, when he used the expression alluded to, mimicked the attitude of a man engaged in devotion, at the same time endeavour- ing to insinuate his hand into his neighbour's pocket. Who would be the pick- pocket now, if they were compelled to support Popery in Ireland? Among other speakers was Mr. Charles Hindley. Some confusion arose in the body of the hall the speech of the Reverend Mr. Smith; who spoke in strong Iangnage of the evils which Popery had brought on Ireland: whereupon Mr. Redden, a Catholic gentleman from Ireland, who was on the platform, also attempted to address the meeting, contradicting the statements of the preceding-speaker. The Chairman decided that the meeting was one of Protestants, convened by them for an especial object, and that therefore Mr. Redden could only be allowed to speak as to dis- puted facts. Resolutions against all State payments for religion, and petitions against the particular grant, were adopted.

A meeting of "the Congregational Board of London,"-with the same Chairman and many of the same attendants, was held at Finsbury Chapel, on Tuesday. Sir Culling Smith stated that a deputation would wait .on Sir Robert Peel next day; and that the Committee were in communication with every ecclesiastical body in the kingdom.

On Tuesday, a numerous meeting was held at Stepney, at which several clergymen of the district took an active part. Meetings for the same purpose have subsequently been held at the King's Head Tavern, in the Poultry; the Guildhall Coffeehouse;Ebenezer Chapel, in Shadwell; and in Southwark.

The members of the Catholic Institute met, on Tuesday, at Freemason's Tavern. The Earl of Shrewsbury presided.: Dr. Griffiths, Vicar Apostolic of London, was there, with a great many of the Roman Catholic Prelates; Lord Stourton, with several of the Catholic aristocracy; but the attendance of the laity was scanty. The report stated, that owing to the rapid decline in the subscriptions to the In- stitute, and the discontinuance of the Branch Associations, the Committeehad en- tered into communication with the Bishops with a view to obtaining their advice as to the discontinuance of the Institute altogether, unless they should suggest such alteration as might tend to insure its efficiency. The Prelates unanimously recommended that the Institute should be continued under new regulations. It is to be conducted by a President, a Vice-President, Committee, (consisting of three clergymen and four laymen,) and a Secretary, who is to be a clergyman and ex-officio member of all Committees. According to the plan laid down, the pri- mary object of the Institute will be that of providing means of education for poor Roman Catholic children. All the speakers insisted upon the necessity of afford- Mg adequate means of instruction for the Catholic population. The Honourable Edward Petre earnestly conjured the Catholics of England not to look to the Go- vernment for any aid in their endeavours to instruct the Catholic children: he had good authority for saying that the Government would grant no assistance to- wards that object. The Reverend J. Lythgoe, Provincial of the Order of Jesuits, observed that the necessity for an organized association was never more apparent than at present, when the Government was disposed to do an act of justice, which Catholics received as an act of kindness, as an earnest of better feeling towards them: but even that concession had called forth expressions of the most ran- corous bigotry by the holy ones of Exeter Hall. The report was adopted.

The Anti-Corn-law League held a meeti Covent Garden Theatre, on

Wednesday; and the building was crowded. M George Wilson occupied the chair; and speeches were delivered byColonel Thompson, Mr. Cobden, and Mr. Fox. But the feature of the evening was the appearance of Mr. Houghton, of Broom Hall, Sunning Hill, Berkshire; a great agriculturist, and a convert to free trade. He was introduced by Mr. Cobden as farming 3,000 acres himself, and also having the management, either as proprietor or agent, of 100,000 acres. Mr. Houghton gave evidence before the Committee on Agricultural Distress in 1836, and has hitherto

been the persevering opponent of the League. In addressing the assemblage, Ire avowed his total coaversion. He alluded To the eignal failUre of each suocesarce Corn-law, especially its failure to secure the price it professed to guarantee. The result of his experience was, that it was impossible for any man, however clever, to control the seasons, or to settle what should be the price of the bread of man. While they were obliged to sell at 45s., under a system that promised them a price of at least 54a, it was, he considered, useless to talk of maintaining such a system; and he had therefore made up his mind to assist in trying whether the/ might not, by extending the commercial enterprise of the country, increase their own prosperity—be enabled to grow more wheat at home, and also find more per- sons to eat it. He was now conscientiously opposedto monopoly; but it was not to monopoly in corn alone, but also to monopoly in sugar and timber that he felt opposed. He felt he could not consistently ask for cheap sugar while cornwas protected, and he was also alive to the injury which he sustained in being obliged, if he were going to erect a house, to make use of timber that would soon

decay, because he could not go into the market where better timber was offered. The meeting adjourned, not to reassemble till after the Free-trade Bazaar in May.

A number of ladies desirous of aidiug the formation of the Free-trade Bazaar, to be established by the Anti-Corn-law League at Covent Garden Theatre in May, met at the Hanover Square Rooms on Friday, to hear addresses delivered by a deputation from the League, consisting of Mr. W. J. Fox and Mr. George Thompson. About two thousand ladies were present. Mr. Fox gave intimation

of some brilliant contributions to the bazaar. Fairy fingers had been at work

imitating the hues of Nature's best productions; giving the softness of texture and the harmony of colour that the Great Artist of the universe had bestowed upon the flowers of the field in all their richness and variety. The brightest hues of every bird that flew in the air had been transferred for their adornment. There were not only the fruits of persevering industry, but of industry combined with taste. Some of them, for the sake of the great cause, had bid the canvass

live and breathe to the admiring eyes of those who gazed upon those artistica productions. They had moulded forms not unworthy of being animated with the

breath of life. They had given truth its shrine in song, and to the songs pre- pared for the voice the enduring form of melody. Thought had been at work, putting forth its diversified powers; imagination, with all its gorgeous richness.. memory, with all its ample and vaned stores—the pen of the poet and the logi- cian were there united, and combined with the more ponderous efforts of industry in its toils, willing to bring its contributions also, and blending them all into one_ whole, soon to claim the attention of a gazing and admiring public, and showing what the power, the genius, the skill, the taste, the industry, the perseverance, and energy must be that could produce such a testimony as that which would' speedily be exhibited of the diversity of British industry, the fervour of British charity, of the skill, the combining and blending power of the women of Groat Britain compassionating the sorrows of suffering humanity." A cushion worked in worsted by a Mrs. Sykes of Devonport, and sent by Mr. Burnett of Covent Gar- den, was exhibited. It represented a cornucopia filled with flowers, and was beautifully executed.

The Drury Lane Theatrical Fund dinner was held at Freemason's Tavern on Wednesday. The Duke of Cambridge presided, and about two hundred gentle: men sat down to table. A list of subscriptions, early announced, amounted to. 7301.; but others are understood to have been subsequently handed in The eighteenth anniversary of the Printers Pension Society was celebrated on, Tuesday, by a public dinner at the London Tavern. Mr. Disraeli took the head of the table; round which sat some hundred and fifty gentlemen, chiefly master- printers. The Chairman made one of his most felicitous speeches. The Society grants about fifty pensions to infirm printers and their widows; small amounts, chiefly auxiliary: there are not fewer than 5,000 printers: in every charity the average of persons receiving pensions is calculated at 2 per cent on the numbers in the trade, but in the present instance the proportion is not per cent. Mr. Disraeli contrasted this result with the munificence displayed in other amities: to make a sufficient charity, the income should be raised from 900/. to 1,4001.; as amount sometimes subscribed at a single public dinner. He alluded to Guttem- berg, the inventor of printing, who made his art a mystery—to the vast progress of the art and its achievements; and asked what Guttemberg would have thought, had he been told that the professors of his art would be of all classes the least held in account and the most in want? The subscription of the evening amounted to 4001.; a larger sum than at any previous dinner.

The Commissioners appointed by the Bishop of London to investigate the charges against the Reverend Frederick Smith Monckton, Perpetual Curate of St. Peter's, West Hackney, met on Tuesday, and promulgated the following report to the Bishop—" That the evidence adduced in support of the charges of formes- tion, and of inking indecent liberties with divers women, was not sufficiently strong to justify farther proceedings; and that any further proceedings would not be warranted by justice, and that for that reason they reported that there was na further occasion for proceeding on those charges. 2. That there were not sof& cient grounds for further proceedings on the charge of drunkenness. 3. That the conduct of Mr. Monckton with regard to the females resident in his family, and. especially with regard to Sarah Huggins, was degrading to him as a clergyman of the Church of England, and had produced great scandal in the Church; and that conduct and misdemeanour having brought great scandal on the Church, was a sufficient ground for further proceedings against Mr. Monckton." The Commis- sion was then dissolved.

At the Central Criminal Court, on Tuesday, Robert Banister, lately a draper at Portsea, was tried for fraudulently obtaining goods. He had commenced bus- ness at Portsea when in an almost insolvent state, and in three months had ob- tained goods from various persons to the amount of 16,0001.; the greater part of these he sold at half their cost to Moses and Son, of the llinories, and to other parties ; and then he fled to Madeira. He was arrested at Funchal with 3,0001. in his possession; which was seized for the benefit of the creditors. He was found guilty, and sentenced to eighteen months' imprisonment with hard labour.

The trial of Thomas Rocker for the murder of James Delarne, at Hampstead, occupied the Court all yesterday. The court was thronged by spectators. Rocker, who preserved his confident air, pleaded " Not guilty" in a firm voice. The evidence was, with no material exception, the same as that produced at the preliminary examinations before the Magistrate and the Coroner. One additional witness was produced —William Satterthwaite, a shoemaker of Hampstead; who came up while Hacker was standing over the dead body with the Policeman Baldock. -He observed to }locker that the dead man resembled George Ward, a bootmaker; on which the other said, that could not be, for he had beautiful white hands, unlike a shoemaker's. Mr. Clarkson and Mr. Ballantine as counsel for the prisoner, cross-examined the witnesses on his behalf; but he preferred to address the Jury in person. Before he did so, Mr. Justice Coleridge said that if he was not quite prepared he might have a short time for con- sideration. He replied, "Thank you, my Lord, I should like just five minute; and so saying, he turned away and stepped lightly down stairs into the passage that runs between the prison and the dock. On hie reap ce, he maintained the same unconcerned and flighty manner that had mark his conduct throughout the trial. He advanced to the centre of the dock, holding in his hands three or four sheets of manuscript. He then folded his arms and stood for nearly a initiate perfectly cool and impassible, as if waiting for silence to be restored. The stained* of the papers showed that not a nerve trembled. In a clear tone, but with al mincing and somewhat laboured enunciation, he read rather a long defence, com- posed in a vulgarly romantic style. The two grand questioni, he said were—how his clothes came to be saturated with blood—and how he came into possession of Delarac's property. Delarue had often assisted him with money, so often that he was ashamed to own it; and therefore he told his relatives the story of his having bOrrowed some from Mrs. Edwards. The 121. was given him by Delarue on the morning of the murder. The watch and ring had been given him to get repaired and reset. He had often had valuable property of Delarue's in his pcesesmon- once a telescope worth seven or eight pounds. [His father afterwards confirmed that statement.] With respect to the bloody state of his clothes, he never would divulge the cause: it would be " fiendish and finite " to do so. A person in his devotedness to him, had offered to forswear himself to account for it; but de- clined. About a year ago, he imprudently introduced Delarue to a beautiful at Hampstead; to whom he himself was paying his addresses. itng girl Delarue seduced. The parents and brother were bent on revenes. Urged by them, Hecker wrote the note signed " Caroline," found in Do- lan:12's pocket, appointing an assignation: he walked towards the spot with the young lady's brother; but he waited at the Swiss Cottage Tavern, while the brother went on alone, to inset the seducer. Hearing a cry of " murder," he hurried to the place. The circumstances accounted for his agitation, when he " witnessed the result of that revenge, which had for its object, not death, but serious mutilation." He returned to the Swiss Tavern. His clothes were not bloody then; and the waiter observed that his hands were " white," but noticed no blood. " I hurried to the house of the perpetrator, who had flown there for refuge. I then took the whole upon myself, as I had iteen the principal cause of the tragedy. I immediately rushed from the house, and sought a slaughterhouse in Hampstead, and disfigured my clothes in a pool of blood which I found bandy. You see, gentlemen, I cannot account for the bloody state of my clothes without giving a reason for making them so—here is the difficulty." " I will not say any thing to acquit myself—that is at the best only dubious, and which is calculated

i to involve others in addition to myself. I cannot say more—my mind is almost bewildered." The reading of this extraordinary statement caused great astonish- ment in the court. Mr. Justice Coleridge carefully summed up; the Jury retired, and, after ten minutes deliberation, returned a verdict of " Guilty." Hecker smiled, slightly bowed to the Jury, and resumed his bold attitude and cool aspect. The age, Ids abilities, his crimes, and his miserable fate, pronounced sentence of Judie, moralizing on the youth of the convict, (lie is but twenty-two years of dea Preserving his firmness of demeanour to the last, the prisoner was led from the court.

Joseph Connor, the young man charged with the murder of Mary Brothers in St. Giles's, was examined at Bow Street Police-office on Saturday. The evidence was of the most disgusting character. It proved that the prisoner had an ill- feeling against the woman for an injury which he believed she had done to his health, and he had avowed his intention to be revenged. It was shown that he was the man who accompanied her to George Street; and in all points the case against him was clear and conclusive. It seems that his suspicion must have been a mistake. From a post mortem examination, it appears that the murderer inflicted no fewer than sixteen wounds on his victim; and one blow had been so violent as absolutely to cut through the arm-bone near the shoulder. Connor denied some of the statements against Min, and admitted others; but he made no

re defence. He was committed for trial.

The adjourned inquest was resumed on the same day. Little evidence was taken; the accused, notwithstanding Mr. Coroner Wakley's precautions to obtain possession of him, not being present: he had been committed by Mr. Jardine, the Bow Street Magistrate, without any opportunity being allowed for his appearance before the Jury. Both Coroner and Jury complained bitterly of this treatment, refused to hear witnesses to identity in Connors absence, and after a long discus- /don adjourned till Wednesday.

On Wednesday, Mr. Wakley applied to Mr. Baron Rolfe sitting in chambers for a writ of habeas co r, to be directed to the Sheriffs and the Governor of New- gate, to bring before him, the Coroner, and the Jury, Joseph Connor. The Judge said he had never heard of a habeas corpus being granted in such a case; he be- lieved the Judges had no power to grant it, and it was right they should not. He refused the application. ' The inquest was resumed the same evening. Mr. Wakley related to the Jury his unsuccessful application to Mr. Baron Rolfe; and read a letter which he had received from Sir James Graham; who thought the course adopted by the Police to have been quite regular, and said that he had no power to order the prisoner to be produced before the Jury. Mr. Wakley dwelt upon the necessity of bringing the subject before the Judges; and after some discussion, the Jury adjourned to the 30th April.

Mr. Willis, a bill-discounting agent, who was charged, last week, by Mr. Hearn, with stealing two bills of exchange, has been discharged out of custody by M

Mr. altby, the Magistrate at Marlborough Street Police-office, on the ground that he might have considered that he was merely obtaining back for Mr. Mytton bills which had been stolen from bin. The taking. might have been fraudulent and unlawful, so as to render Willis liable to an action of trespass or trover but the Magistrate could not deem it a larceny. The two bills which were obtained from Mr. Hearn were handed over to Mr. Mytton's solicitor.