Ste AltIttropelis.

Mr. Robert Walter Carden was unanimously elected, on Thursday, as Alderman for Dowgate Ward, in the room of Alderman John Johnson, de- ceased.

On Plough Monday—the first day of this week—a Petty Sessions was held according to old custom at Guildhall, for the purpose of receiving the presentments and returns of the several Wards. The Inquest of St. Bride's presented an encroachment by the City Gas Company; and received the assurance of the Lord Mayor that the matter should be sharply inquired into. The Inquests of St. Dunstan, Aldgate, and several other Wards, presented the cases of numerous persons who still refused, though presented in preceding years, to take up their freedom: the Lord Mayor said the matter was under consideration, and was surrounded with legal difficulties. The Inquest of Aldersgate complained of the intolerable nuisance proceed"- ing from a whalebone manufactory in Aldersgate Buildings: the Lord Mayor promised that the subject should be promptly " taken up."

The cattle-market which was established some years since at Islington in hopes of superseding the great Smithfield nuisance, but which failed for want of patronage from graziers and butchers, has been formally reopened, under the encouragement of increased advantages given to its site by the formation of railways, and the favourable opinion of the public in a sana- tory point of view. The new market is situated on the right-hand side of the Lower Road, Islington, rather more than a mile from the Angel Inn. On the completion of a junction railway now in progress, from Blackwell to the Eastern end of the West Middlesex Railway, the market will be placed in immediate contact with all the great Metropolitan railways on the North bank of the Thames. The space for lairage and the accommodation for slaughtering cattle and for storing meat are very ample. The lairage area alone covers fifteen acres, and would easily and healthily accommo- date twice the number of beasts and sheep that can be shown at Smith- field. Abundance of water is supplied by artesian wells. The attendance of buyers on Tuesday last was large; and the comparatively small show of stock was quickly bought up. The market-days are Tuesday and Thurs- day, for cattle, sheep, and pigs; and Wednesday for horses, hay, and straw.

The numbers of those who have bathed at the model bath and wash- house establishment in Goulston Square, Whiteehapel, to the 30th Decem- ber 1848, are—first-class, warm, at 6d. each, 15,914; first-class, cold, at 3d. each, 1,832; second-class, warm, at 2d. each, 53,617; and second-class, cold, at ld. each, 9,466; total, 80,829. Not one-fifth of the full accom- modation which the building will afford has been brought into use. The works are proceeded with as the funds at the disposal of the Committee permit, and additions to those funds will be a serviceable contribution to-. wards the welfare of the poorer classes.

The Horning Chronicle reports " an important movement in connexion with the restoration and preservation of Church principles," commenced by the holding of a numerous meeting of London incumbents and bene- ficed clergymen of various dioceses, together with many influential laymen, at Mr. Luruley's rooms, Chancery Lane- " One great design of the new movement would be to effect (when it could be done securely) the extinction of all Church societies; measures being taken by means of offerings to enable the Church to do her own work without such ex- ternal aid. They had, it was stated, to charge upon the existing societies, that they had prevented the Bishop of London from carrying out to its legitimate extent the principle of offerings' in the Metropolitan diocese. Turning to one of these societies, the Curates' Aid Fund, it might be unhesitatingly affirmed, that wherever its operations extended, additional Dissenting meeting- houses were erected ; a circumstance attributable to the fact that the great principles of the Church were lost sight of." . . . . But " the energies of Churchmen being concentered, the Church might provide for her own exteusion, the education of the people, missions to the heathen, &c., without the intervention of irresponsible societies." . . . . " The desirableness of publishing a series of papers similar in character to, but taking higher ground than the Oxford Tracts, was brought under consideration; and the question was unanimously decided in the affirmative. These papers are to strive for the development of the parochial system in all its integrity; to treat occasionally on subjects connected with dogmatic theology; to contend for the restoration of ancient discipline; and to discuss such other matters as might be demanded by the necessities of the Church. The subjects for the first nine papers were agreed upon. In answer to a question, the gentleman who was appointed general editor of the papers stated, that those who formed the society need be under no apprehension with respect to any animadversion which might be cast upon the proposed tracts." . . . "A resolution was proposed constituting the society, and providing for the contemplated objects. Two London clergymen, and a beneficed clergyman from a neighbouring diocese, were appointed a com- mittee to conduct the preliminary proceedings, and a layman was elected honorary secretary. The meeting then adjourned for a month."

A meeting was held at Willis's Rooms, on Thursday, " to consider the condition of the unprecedented number of mechanics now thrown out of employ," and to " devise means of employing the poor, and diminishing the privations and sufferings of the labouring classes." Mr. Francis Smedley, High Bailiff of Westminster, presided. Mr. Charles Lushington, Member for Westminster, made a speech in favour of financial reform; and though he was somewhat interrupted, his topics and treatment of them seemed very agreeable to the meeting. He proposed a resolution which recommended the multiplication of such institutions as the St. Bernard Hospice. Some angry feeling was aroused by the indiscreetly aristocratic tone of the Reverend Samuel Jones; who deprecated Montagnardism, and rejected with scorn the advice of Chartists. Mr. Campbell in a sensible speech, and Mr. Kydd in an anti-" Cobden-and-Co." speech, opposed small charitable palliatives, and moved resolutions in favour of " home colonies to be esta- blished by Government." Mr. Charles Cochrane supported his panacea of street-cleaning orderlies for London and the country; and Mr. Thomas T. a'Beckett suggested that mach good might be done by supplying a number of men with brushes and blacking, wherewithal to clean passengers' shoes, as is the use on the Continent. Ultimately, the last resolutions in favour of " colonies " and " orderlies " were adopted.

The Spitalfields silk-weavers held a meeting in Bethnal Green on Sa- turday evening, for the purpose of agitating the question of protection to their manufacture. Mr. Gross presided.

Mr. Appleing stated, that the prospects of the weavers were worse than they appeared at the last meeting, instead of better, as he had then lead his fellow workmen to expect. Several houses had even farther reduced their already low wages; and wages were now lowered to an extent never before known. Many of

the firms had struggled long for the purpose of maintaining prices, in the hope that something would be done for the' e• but now, finding that it was not possible to sustain the competition to which they had been subjected, those mas- ters bad been compelled gradually to lower their prices to the present starvation rate of pay. They could no longer afford to spend their own capital in suppoi tang the operative without an equivalent and remunerative return for anch outlay. Nor was it right that they should do so. Certainly not: they ought to have a fair return for their outlay, upon the same principle as the operative, who was en- titled to a "fair day's wages for a fair day's work." He regretted to say that there were many of the principals in the trade who made it their business to un- dersell the respectable houses ; and one case had come under his notice to which he thought it to be his duty to allude. It was the case of a parasol-manufac- turer, who had got something of a fanciful character which he wished to intro- duce. At first this master paid a very good price for the work, and the men were of course satisfied. This manufacturer employed not less than fifteen looms; but as soon as the thing began to take, up started another party within three months afterwards ; and by offering lower wages to the workmen out of employ, he secured the principal part of the trade, because he obtained it through the cheaper price at which he offered the goods. What was the effect of this upon the operatives? Why, that they were deprived of their work, unless they chose to submit to the low rate of full three-halfpence per yard less upon the weaving. When the men remonstrated, what was the answer? This—that it was of no use their applying to him, as the master was compelled, for his own sake, to lower his price to meet the competition.

From the period of the repeal of the Spitalfields Act even to this day, the evils have continued to increase, and the misery of all classes connected with the trade to accumulate. When that act was in operation, something like a bond of bro- therhood existed; and in those days the men were few and far between who would not do anything they could do to uphold the interests of their employers. Since then, the spirit of competition had come in, and it was now cutting up every so- cial and moral principle both root and branch. The manufacturer was plundered by it of his capital, and the workman of his work and his wages. There could not be two opinions as to the fact that the system was completely ruining both. Nor did it end here, for the tradesman also suffered; for the want of money on the part of the artisan was always followed by a want of demand for goods of all descriptions, and in that neighbourhood they had evidence that such had been the fact.

Several other speeches, of similar import, were made; and the report of the Committee appointed to procure statistical matter on the position of the trade was read and approved of. It appeared that the general reduction lately proposed and now going on was from 25 to 30 per cent of the pay.

Mr. Wakley has commenced an inquest on the bodies of some of the children belonging to the Holborn Union who were removed early in the week from the Tooting Asylum to the Royal Free Hospital in Gray's Inn Road. Several wit- nesses were examined, but the principal evidence hitherto adduced consists of a report prepared by Mr. Grainger, a Medical Inspector under the Board of Health, and Member of the Council of the Royal College of Surgeons.

In this document, Mr. Grainger describes the Tooting establishment as he found it on Friday the 5th instant. On entering the sick wards there was a sense of closeness, oppression, and foulness of air, far exceeding anything he had ever met with in any hospital—and he is a Professor in St. Thomas's HospitaL In one room eighteen feet by sixteen, and eight high, were nine beds, containing sixteen girls. In three rooms, including the preceding as the largest, were forty girls ill with cholera. In another room there were eighteen beds nearly touching each other, containing forty-five boys ill of cholera. Some of the beds contained four boys. The attendance was totally inadequate—one male and one female nurse for the whole establishment. The sudden and spasmodic action of cholera deprives the patient of all self-control; and for want of due assistance the beds and floor were in a most filthy state. In the surgery there was this provision of implements—one pair of scales, and one spatula ; many of the medicines were un- labelled. In this state of things, Mr. Grainger recommended three additional surgeons and a superintending physician, and nurses in the proportion of 4 for

i every room of 12 patients-33 nurses in all ; the patients to be not in any instance more than one in a bed; heating apparatus to be provided. On Sunday, however, none of these directions had been complied with. Only two additional nurses had been sent—by the St. Pancras Guardians; these two had been up nearly all the time since Friday, and were themselves, from fatigue and exhaustion, in imminent danger of a cholera attack. The children were still two in a bed; no warming apparatus had been provided ; the beds were still wet with the filth of Friday. Mr. Grainger doubts not but many children perished from this neglect. He states that the St. Pancras Guardians failed in a promise to send nurses; and he arraigns Mr. Drouett of total inattention to every one of his directions; also of impeding the inquiry, by sharply rebuking an under master for giving in- formation.

Mr. Grainger inquired into the general causes of the malady. He found that Tooting itself was healthful. There were warnings of diarrheas and cramp in the bowels of several children a fortnight before the outbreak—which warnings were misinterpreted by the medical officer. He finds enough, and more than enough, in the defective ventilation and enormous crowding of the establishment, in the scanty quantity and unbroken quality of the diet—meat thrice, padding thrice, and pea soup once, each week—and in the defective and insufficient clothing of the children—to account for the outbreak of the malady. In addition, the playground was close and damp, and there was a foul yard containing cattle and poultry abutting on the buildings; and the fields around were intersected by open ditches and pieces of filthy water, which had been lately drained out by the elder pauper boys, and the filth spread on the banks. Mr. Dronett has disobeyed the directions of Mr. Hall, the Assistant Poor-law Commissioner, by crowding 500 boys into a school-room which was certified to be large enough for only 260; 400 girls into one large enough for only 160. The inquest was adjourned till next week, and is expected to occupy several days.

At Guildhall, on i Monday, Dr. Henry John M`Dougall, a physician, applied for the Magistrate's assistance n a case of medical police. The applicant had pre- scribed for a patient sent up to him from the country ; and the prescription was taken to the shop of Mr. Hooper, a chemist's at Loudon Bridge: the medicine was labelled "mixture," and no directions were written on it; so the patient did not touch it. This was fortunate, for the draught might have caused death. Dr. 3I'Dougall's recipe was for a sedative composed of henbane and camphorated water: the shopman had substituted for the latter ingredient a quantity of pare- goric. On the complainant's going to Mr. Hooper's, two shopmen treated the matter lightly: " it was only a mistake." The prescription was legibly written. AldermanFarebrother granted a summons against Mr.ilooper for having, through gross ignorance or criminal negligence, allowed such a poisonous compound to be made up instead of the proper prescription sent to him.

The bellicose feeling existing between the Danish and Schleswig-Holstein sailors has caused an outrage in the port of London. A number of Danish sailors, led by the master of a vessel, entered several Schleswig-Holstein vessels in the West India Docks, and violently pulled down the ensign of the German Empire, com- mitting at least one assault in the process. Several Danes appeared at the Thames Police-office on Saturday, to answer the charge. The facts were fully proved, and no attempt was made to controvert them; but it was alleged that the flags hoisted were illegal—that the Danish flag was the only legal one for the ships. Mr Yardley, the Magistrate, said he had nothing to do with that; the Danes had committed an outrage against the laws of England, and should anything of the kind occur again he would send the offenders to prison for trial. He held them to bail till Tuesday, that he might consult the Dock authorities: the Danish Consul volunteered his security. On Tuesday, the matter was amicably settled, by the counsel for the Danes ad- mitting that his clients had been entirely in the wrong.

The water in the Parks was sufficiently frozen over on Sunday to tempt the skaters; but the ice was so rotten that an extraordinary number of accidents occurred. Upwards of forty persons were immersed in the water at different times of the day, and the icemen themselves several times escaped with difficulty from drowning. However, no life was lost.