Irbe ifletropolis.

The long-expected death of Mr. Benjamin Wood, M.P., which happened at Eltham Lodge on Wednesday, left a vacancy in the representation of Southwark. A committee had already been organized to provide a can- didate for the vacant seat; and it was at once announced, at a meeting of the committee on Wednesday evening, that Sir William Molesworth would stand. Next day, Sir William issued an address to the electors, in which he thus succinctly refers to his political conduct for the nine years that he sat in Parliament— "I then belonged to that party in Parliament which was called the Radical; and was a supporter of progressive reform, and of 'improving the institutions.of this country. I steadily voted for the ballot, triennial Parliaments, extension of the suffrage, and for tlw abolition of the property qualification of Members of Par- liament. Ou every occasion I supported, either by my votes or speeches, the prin- ciples of free trade; and I may boast that I was one of the first persons who de- clared themselves in the House of Commons for a total repeal of the Corn-laws. On these and all similar measures, on all financial questions, on all propositions to improve the condition and increase the education of the people, on all questions of colonial policy, on all matters concerning Ireland, and on all measures calculated to extend the commerce of this country, to nnfetter its industry and unshackle its trade, my votes have been given on the Liberal side; and so again will they be given if I should again sit in the House of Commons as a Representative of the People." Sir William adds that he is connected with Southwark by the ties of property.

Mr. Jeremiah Pilcher, late Sheriff of London and Middlesex, has also been invited by some electors, and has consented to stand. It is boasted that he and his family have resided in the borough, and engaged there in mercantile pursuits, for more than a century!

The bill permitting Jews to hold municipal offices without taking the oaths which were heretofore a necessary qualification, having become a law, Mr. D. Salomons has addressed a letter to Mr. Alderman Moon, in which he states, that as his appeal from the decisiou of the Court of Aldermen was based upon public grounds, and was urged by him from motives unalloyed by personal feelings, he felt satisfied with the decision of the Legislature in favour of the Hebrew community, and would not further prosecute his opposition to the election of the worthy Alderman who now represents the Ward of Portsoken.—Globe.

A communication was forwarded, on Saturday, by order of the Eccle- siastical Commissioners to all the Curates of the various district churches in the Metropolis and suburbs, by which it appears that these churches arc to be endowed with the same privileges as parish churches in the elec- tion of Churchwardens, &c.

In one of the districts of Hackney, where a church-rate has several times been refused, the Churchwardens have been allowed by the Bishop of Lon- don to raise the price of the sittings in the church, and out of the money thus obtained pay the ordinary church-rate expenditure. If this plan were generally adopted, there would at once be an end to those unseemly Cal- tests which at present annually disturb the peace of so many neighbour- hoods.—Globe.

The Royal Botanical Society of London held their annual meeting at their grounds in the Regent's Park, on Tuesday. The Society is flourishing: in the past year, 147 new members and fellows have been elected, making the total number 911; the receipts amounted to 9,4661., leaving a balance over the expenditure of 2,322/. The Duke of Norfolk was elected Presi- dent, and other officers were appointed for the year.

A periodical race for the championship of the Thames as tculler was rowed by Mr. Chapman and Mr. Bumstead, between Westminster and Putney Bridges, on Saturday; when Mr. Chapman won without difficulty; his opponent being much distressed.

At Croydon Assizes, the Court was occupied great part of _Saturday and Mon- day with an action for libel brought against the Duke of Brunswick by Mr. limy Wellington Valiance his former attorney. The libel was perpetrated in the course of a speech delivered by the Duke, while he was conducting in person pro- ceedings in the Sheriffs Court to assess damages for a libel in the Preston Gaon. dian. The Guardian had represented the Duke as having been taken into 0118- tody at the Preston Guild for being one of the swell mob: .afterwards an ample apology was made, and Mr. Valiance advised his client not to continue the action. The Duke did not take that advice; and in the Sheriffs Court he accused Mr. Valiance of treachery and neglect of his duty as an attorney. The Duke of Brunswick was provoked because Mr. Valiance was not so brisk as he wished in pushing a great variety of legal proceedings against several journals for libels; but nothing at all irregular was proved. On the- other band, while Mr. Valiance acted as attorney for the Duke, he was himself made the subject of libels, for which it cost him 400/. or 5001. to obtain redrew; And when the attor- ney pressed for payment of his bill, amounting to 1,6001., the Duke changed his lawyer, and the bill was taxed with such rigour that the very Inning-master ex- pressed disgust- In his defence, the Duke of Brunswick, who appeared in person partly endeavoured to explain, away his terms,—observing, for instance, that the Morning Post had used towards Ministers a phrase which he had applied to Mr. Valiance, " shuffling," and which Johnson pronounces to mean "a disordering of things"; partly he attempted to enforce, but without evidence, 'his accusation of neglect; and he imputed the present action to a mere desire to obtain more menu in the shape of costs. The Jury returned a verdict for the plaintiff, damages 2001.

Mr. Maynard, estate-agent of Howland Street, Fitzroy Square, has been held to bail by Alderman Hughes, at the Guildhall Police-office, onA charge of unlaw- fully attempting to exact a reward from Mr. Prance, a Briagewater solicitor, for helping him to recover a writing-case containing bills of exce to the amount of 2,0001., which was stolen on the Great Western Railway last month. On the 7th July, Mr. Prance left London for Bridgewater by the railway- be told a porter who was labelling ..his baggage that the case contained valuable property; and when the train arnved ati3ridgewater the ease was missing. A few days after, Mr. Prance received a letter which informed him that the property had been "found," and would be restored on his offering a reward in the Mot-rung Post. This letter was not answered, and another was sent; on which an advertisement was inserted in vague terms; and ultimately Mr. Maynard appeared as the go-betwesti, declaring that he was nothing more. After some negotiation, the case was de- livered up by Mr. Maynard to Mr. Prance, minus a hill for 1202. and 10/. in gold; 221. 10s. was handed to Maynard as the reward; and he was given into custody. The matter has not yet been thoroughly investigated.

At the Thames Police-office, on Saturday, Henry Osborne, the proprietor of the Crooked Billet public-house on Tower Hill, William Strickland, proprietor of the Wheat-sheaf public-house, Anton Street, St. George's in the East, William Bon- ham, a weighing-porter in the West India Docks, and Edmund Lewis, searcher's- man in the same establishment, were charged with stealing one gold and four silver watches, the property of A. B. Savory and Sons, Cornhill. The robbery was committed so far back as June 1842. The watches formed part of a pack- age which was sent to the docks by Messrs. Savory to be despatched to India. A twelvemonth after, information was received that the watches had not arrived pith the rest of the articles. Strickland, who was then shipping-officer in the Docks, and Bonham and Lewis, were suspected; but there was no evidence against them. The Detective Police, however, continued their researches; and now a man named Turner has turned approver. In 1842, he was a customs-weigher in the West India Docks. He saw Bonham and Lewis fastening up the case in which the watches had been placed; afterwards he met them and Strickland in the street, and was shown five watches; he went with Lewis to sell them to a Jew; but the Jew not offering enough, Strickland sold them for 201. to some other person. Osborne was charged with having purchased the watches; two were found in his possession, and amen who bought a third of him was produced. The prisoners were remanded till Thursday.

On Thursday, further evidence adverse to the accused was produced. Moss, a Jew to whom the first offer of the watches was made, reluctantly gave his tes- timony, and was bound over in a large sum to appear at a future time as a witness. The prisoners were all committed for trial.

A stone-mason named Bristow, residing at Bow, has been killed by three Irish felt-makers, who had some grudge against the luau: they surrounded him, and one beat him on the head with a poker.

A dispute between a married pair, in the neighbourhood of Tower Street, on Thursday, ended fatally. One Ban bade quarrel with his wife, and he struck her; she fell upon the floor, and died shortly after, her neck having been broken by the blow or the fall. The man is in custody.

The inquest on the body of Mr. Dean, the gentleman who was killed by the collision on the Birmingham Railway, was resumed on Monday. The Jury in- spected the broken carriages and trucks at Euston Square, and then visited the it where the disaster occurred, and had it explained to them by the Railway- rs. The most important evidence given was that of Heise, one of the Rail- way Policemen. The luggage-train on the morning of the accident was forty- eight minutes behind time in starting, in consequence of there being an extra quantity of goods for conveyance that morning. There were forty-seven wag- gons in the tram. He had never known a train with a greater number of trucks start at its proper time. The Coroner—" What time does the train usually start ? " Witness—" At a quarter-past four." The Coroner—" That is the appointed hoar, but do the trains generally start at that time?" Witness—" No, they do not; but the engines are always ready." • * • "When the carriers are not ready with their trucks we wait for them provided there is a sufficient number of goods to be conveyed." A juror remarked that such a proceeding appeared to him very extraordinary: the Company never waited for passengers. The day's proceedings were brought to a sudden close by the illness of one of the Jury; and the inquiry was adjourned to Thursday.

The inquest was resumed and concluded on Thursday. The evidence showed a state of things at the Camden station of the Railway, which renders it surpris- ing that accidents such as the late one have not been of frequent occurrence. Mr. Bruyeres, General Superintendent of the Railway, said, with respect to the goods- train—" The clerks have no written or printed instructions. They are presumed to understand their duties without them. I should add, that their duties depend on circumstancea. The goods and cattle trains differ materially from all others. There are no printed rides to govern their hours of starting, nor are they men- tioned in the ordinary time-bill." "There is not sufficient room at the Camden " station to make up such a luggage-train as that which was about to leave town on the morning of the accident without crossing the permanent line; but certain changes are now in progress, which will enable us to marshal similar trains much better and without any such necessity. The directors have long had the altera- tion in view; but it was necessary to purchase a good deal of property before the work could be commenced." The accident was caused by the Liverpool mail- train's arriving too soon. It is more dangerous for a train to arrive too soon than • after its time, as in the latter ease every one is on the look-out for it. "The proper time for the arrival of the Liverpool mail at Camden station is twenty-two minutes past five; and allowing Unsworth, [the engine-driver on the morning of the disaster,) as is usual, three minutes for the delay at the Tring station, he arrived sixteen minutes before his time. I cannot say positively whether Uns- worth has been fined on any former occasion, but I believe he has. On the 24th May, he was ten minutes before his time at the Leighton station, and in con- sequence came into collision with a goods-train. He was before the directors on that occasion, but I do not know whether he was fined." The arrival of a train before its time does not appear. to be considered much of an offence by the Railway Company: there IS no special rule respecting it. Time-returns were read showing that it has been the rule for the luggage-train to start too late and the mail-train to arrive too soon; regularity appears to have been the exception. Another witness said, that in making up the luggage-train it was necessary to cross the permanent line three or four times. Hogg, an engine-driver, declared that on the 5th August, seven days after the collision, the mail-train he was driving arrived at the Camden station two minutes before its • time, and the luggage-lain was then across the line I It was a clear dry morning, and be was enabled to see the signals and stop the train in time: had it been foggy and damp, he could not have seen the signal; and even if he had, the wetness of the rail would have prevented the speedy stoppage of the train: of course, another collision would have occurred. Mr. Wakley summed up at considerable length; and after consulting for an hour and a half, the Jury unanimously returned this verdict- " We find that Charles Dean died from an injury to his left leg, caused by an acci- dental collision on the London and Birmingham Railway near to Camden Town; and that the engine marked 91, belonging to the Company of that Railway, moved to the death of the deceased; that its value is 1,0001., and we make a deodand on the same engine to the extent of 1,0001. In delivering this verdict, the Jury express the opinion that the laws and regulations of the London and Birmingham Railway Company for the guidance of their servants have been carried out very inefficiently for some time past ; and further, the Jury consider that the area of the Camden Town station, and the system of rails there laid down, are too much cramped and limited to be consistent With the public safety."

An alarming steam-boat accident happened near Wapping at ten o'clock on . Tuesday night. The Father Thames, on its return from Gravesend, ran foul of a barge; and by the shock one paddle-box and a side-cabin were carried away; i

six people were n the cabin, and narrowly escaped death: they were picked up, however, by a Police-boat and some watermen, in a very exhausted state. The steamer was disabled from pursuing her voyage.

The animal excursion made by the Directors of the Woolwich Steam-packet Company, en .Tuesday, was marred by an unfortunate accident. Just below Gravesend, a stoker fell among the machinery, and his thigh was seriously cut: he ivas taken to the guard-ship at Sheerness; but the commander and surgeon of that vessel advising that he should at once be carried to the place where he was to remain, the steamer returned to Greenwich, and the man was put on board the Dreadnought. The company willingly relinquished their day's pleasure for the vfonnded masts cerafert, and subscrib-ed a purse for him besides. s is .• Several of the above-bridge steam-boats started from London to Westmi Bridge at the reduced fare of twopence for each passenger, for the first time in Thursday.