Ebt IfIttropolis.

The new Lord Mayor's accession to office was signalized by the usual ceremonies on Saturday, the 9th of November. The chief persons of the Corporation assembled about ten o'clock at Guildhall ; where the business of the day began with a substantial repast. A little after twelve o'clock, the procession was formed, and issued from Guildhall Yard. It was composed of the usual ingredients—officers and servants of the Corporation, gentlemen of the Livery Companies, bands of music, ban- ners, men in armour, carriages, and the great state-coach. The attend- ance of the Livery was not so numerous as usual ; but the Police were in great force, and a strong guard of Lancers escorted the Lord Mayor's coach ; some apprehension being entertained of a hostile demonstration on the part of the people. The entrance to Guildhall Yard was watched by an immense crowd. In issuing forth, a wheel of the Lord Mayor's carriage became entangled in the post of a barrier, and the Chief Magistrate was exposed to a critical delay. The opportunity was im- proved by the crowd, who saluted him with loud yells and shouts, and with sarcastic jibes ; the uproar drowning the cheers and the sound of the music. The procession took a detour to pass through Walbrook Ward, which Mr. Gibbs represents in the Court of Aldermen. Here the windows were crowded with spectators, who cheered while ladies waved their handkerchiefs ; at the church of St. Stephen there was more yelling and shouting ; and such displays of feeling were indulged at various points on the way, both going and returning. At Southwark Bridge, the Lord Mayor, accompanied by the Sheriffs and some other principal personages, boarded his barge, and went in the usual state up the river to Westminster, where he proceeded to the Court of Exchequer. There the dignitaries of the City were received by the Chief Baron and the other Judges in their scarlet robes. The new Lord Mayor was in- troduced to the Chief Baron by the Recorder, with an eulogium on his fitness for the office ; and Sir William Magnay was also introduced, with a panegyric on his conduct during a brilliant Mayoralty. The Chief Baron replied with a compliment to both the-late and the present Mayor. The oath of office was then administered to Mr. Gibbs by the Queen's

Secondary. Sir William Maguey took oaths, that he would render a true account, as escheator to the Crown, gauger, &c., during his time of

office, of all the escheats, felons' goods, outlawed men's goods, waifs, strays, and other profits that had accrued. The Recorder, in the name of the Lord Mayor and Sheriffs, invited the Judges to the banquet. The Chief Baron replied, "Some of us will wait upon them." The civic body returned by water to Blackfriars Bridge ; and thence in procession, with the same order as at starting, to Guildhall. A good deal of hissing greeted the Lord Mayor on his return ; and it was even observed that some persons spat at his carriage. It does not appear that the Cabinet or Foreign Ministers joined the procession as usual, at the corner of Bridge Street and Fleet Street. Soon after six o'clock, the company sat down to the banquet in the Guildhall ; which was brilliantly lighted with gas and chandeliers. The Lord Mayor presided ; with Sir William Magnay on his right, and the Lady Mayoress on the left. There were present—Sir James Graham, Mr. Gladstone, Lord Arthur Lennox, (one of the Lords of the Treasury), the Count De St. Aulaire and other Foreign Ministers, Mr. Master man and Mr. Lyall, and other Members of Parliament, the Chief Baron and other Judges, the Solicitor-General and several barristers, Mr.

Cotton, Governor of the Bank of England, Mr. Shepherd, Chairman of the East India Company, Sir Claudius Hunter, and many other gentle- _

'Men connected with The Corporation or trade of the City. Though some captions critics complain that the dinner was one of the worst ever set upon table, there seems to have been luxury and to spare : of real turtle there flowed, in 250 tureens, 1,250 pints. The speaking was as vapid as possible. The reporters were ill-placed for hearing ; and they confess that the reports of the speeches are imperfect, and half imaginary. Sir James Graham, "feeling that he whom the citizens of London had thought worthy, could not be unworthy," proposed, "with great and heartfelt satisfaction," "The health of the Lord Mayor of the City of London." The toast seems to have been pretty well received. The Lord Mayor acknowledged it with modest brevity ; saying, "It be- comes not him who putteth on the harness to boast like him who pnlleth it off." The most notable points in the speechmaking were, an allusion made by Sir William Maguey to Louis Philippe's recent visit, as a pledge that the bonds of amity between France and England are increasing in strength, and the Count De St. Aulaire's response. The Count, who spoke in French, enlarged on the blessings of peace-

" Never have sentiments of amity, of mutual good-will, and, above all, of Christian charity, been more universally disseminated than in the age in which -we have the happiness to live. Never have the benefits of peace been so fully and so truly appreciated. Never has that great truth been better understood, -that individual prosperity has no more sure guarantee than in the prosperity of all, and that the best mode of obtaining advantages for one's self is to take care to procure them for one's neighbour. Thanks to this fortunate disposition of the public mind, gentlemen, the arts of peace obtain a favourable preference over the arts of war, and we see a daily increase in the wealth of our cities and the productions of our soil. Three years ago, when for the first time I came to London, it seemed to me that this city had already reached the highest point 'of splendour, so immense and so magnificent did it even then appear. Yet at the present hour I still see it increasing in size, and adding in every way to its beauty. Within the last few days we have taken part in the ceremony of the inauguration of one of those monuments of art which seem to spring from the earth as by enchantment. That building is itself the temple of commerce ; and in asking the presence of the representatives of Foreign Sovereigns at the ceremony of its opening, you had in some sort a right to do so, for the trans- actions of the Exchange of London are important to all the world. Your commerce, gentlemen, is one of the most powerful instruments of the civiliza- tion of the universe. Its noble mission is to bear even to the extremities of the earth the laws of a holy religion, the discoveries of scientific intelligence, and the comforts of domestic life. Let us work together in this noble cause ; and may that temple of commerce in which but a few days before we met to- gether, endure for many centuries. May it continue an evidence of your prosperity even to the end of the world. 5 • • Yes, gentlemen, all Frenchmen, whatever may be their opinions, or their position in society, have felt deeply, and they will long remember, the kind sentiments expressed by you towards the representative of the French nation."

The company separated soon after ten o'clock.

At a meeting of St. Pancras Vestry, on Wednesday, a communica- tion was read from the Committee appointed at a recent meeting in the Mansionhouse, calling upon the Vestry to cooperate with the gentry and clergy of the parish in establishing a bath and wash-house for the labouring class of the district. Mr. Douglas regretted that the Vestry had no power to devote the parochial funds to the purpose ; but, at his suggestion, the members formed themselves into a committee to raise a special voluntary subscription. The Bishop of Winchester has given 501. towards the fund for es- tablishing baths and wash-houses for the poor ; and the East and West India Dock Company has given 100/. The third annual report of the Hospital for Consumption and Dis- eases of the Chest, at Brompton, has just been published. The annual income of the charity now exceeds 1,0001.; and several very valuable donations and bequests have recently been made to the building-fund. There is a great increase in the number of applications to the inefficient wards of the present establishment at Chelsea ; and the Committee have resolved to spare no exertions in completing at least the Western wing of the building now in progress.

• A numerous meeting of persons engaged in the wholesale linen- drapery trade was held at Gerard's Hall, in Basing Lane, on Wednes- day; and a resolution was passed, that the wholesale linen-drapers in the City should be requested to close their warehouses at one o'clock in the afternoon of every Saturday.

The Vice-Chancellor gave judgment in the case of Huxtable versus the State of Illinois, on Monday. Before July 1840, Maria Sarah Langstone, who in that month married Anthony Huxtable, clerk, by advice of Mr. John Wright, of the firm of Wright and Co., her bankers, invested a considerable sum of money (6,544/.) in bonds issued under the seal of the Governor of Illinois. Messrs. Wright were the agents for the State ; to which they were largely indebted when the bank failed. Messrs. Magniac, Smith, and Co. were then appointed agents for the State ; that firm subsequently undergoing divers changes of partnership, and becoming known as Magniae, Jardine, and Co. ; while since April 1842 Messrs. Baring Brothers and Co. have been the agents. In March 1842, the agents refused to acknowledge Mrs. Huxtable's bonds, or to pay the dividends upon them, on the plea that the bonds and sixteen others had been irregularly sent into the market by Messrs. Wright and Co., that the coupons had not been severed, and also that the agents had not sufficient funds. The plaintiff denied that she was liable for the irregularities of the State's agent ; and further alleged, that Mr. Jaudon, as Commissioner for the State, had proved a debt against the estate of Messrs. Wright and Co., amounting to 17,9201.; which sum included the money that she had invested. She therefore filed a bill against the State and various petsons, including the partners to the several firms, (we observe among the names those of Anthony Huxtable and James Houghton Langstone,) praying that the dividend upon Wright's estate might not be paid over to the State until her claim should have been satisfied. The State of Illinois did not appear to the bill ; but Messrs. Magniac and Co. and Messrs. Baring Brothers and CO. demurred to it, on the score of a general want of equity as regards them. The Vice-Chancellor observed, in giving judgment, it did not follow that if the State of Illinois had repudiated the transaction, they repudiated it in the offensive meaning intended to be given to that word, or that they had done so without reason ; for if the State placed bonds in the hands of its agents with certain directions itolv to use them, and they were improperly dealt with by those agents, it would be too much to say that the State acted dishonestly because it refused to sanction what it nad not authorized. He thought the trans:- action a fair one on the part of the State. The question here was, had the plaintiff by her bill made out a sufficient case against Messrs. Mag- niac and Co. as one party, and Messrs. Baring Brothers and Co. as another party ? The allegations in the bill were too indistinct as re- spected the several parties ; and though there appeared to be the sub- stratum of a good case, he did not think that it had been sufficiently made out. The demurrer therefore was allowed.

In the Court of Exchequer, on Wednesday, Sir Thomas Wilde was heard on the part of the Honourable Captain Denman, defendant in an action brought by Baron, a Spanish merchant, whose warehouse on the coast of Africa Captain Denman had destroyed, besides liberating a number of slaves the property of Baron. Sir Thomas Wilde contended, that Captain Denman had acted in accordance with the laws both of Spain and England for the suppression of the slave-trade, and had merely obeyed instructions for which not he but his Government was respon- ble : if wrong had been done, the Government of Spain should claim compensation from that of England. Some laughter was created by Baron Alderson's asking if it was contended by the plaintiff, that the Ameers of Scinde might bring an action against Lord Ellenborough for false imprisonment ? Mr. Kelly saw no reason why they should not. Baron Alderson—" Perhaps Sir Charles Napier and Lord Ellenborough might be jointly sued." The Court declared its intention of taking time to consider its judgment.

At Worship Street Police-office, on Tuesday, Anne M'Cormack, a young Irishwoman, was charged with stealing a sovereign, the property of Leah Aarons, her fellow-servant ; and also with decoying from home her master's daughter, Julia Da Silva, a little girl ten years of age. On Monday, Mr. Da Silva, a foreign merchant, was at his counting- house in the City ; and about noon he received a message to hasten home, as the child was missing. He sought her for many hours, in all parts of the town, without success. On returning home, after six o'clock, he was told that M'Cormack had suddenly absconded, and that a sovereign had been stolen from the box of another servant. And at the same time Mrs. Da Silva put into his hands the following letter, written by the little girl to M'Cormack : it had arrived by post that afternoon and had been left by M'Cormack, open on the kitchen-tahle-- - 4. Charles Court, St. Martin's Lane.

"Dear Anne—I write to inform you that I have gone to the West-end : but I hope you will come tonight, for I do not know what I shall do without you; for, now I have gone, I cannot come back. Came about seven o'clock. Now, do come, for I do not know what! shall do without you. I am obliged to take any place till you come. I have no mo' (sic) to say; but believe me to remain

"Your affectionate JULIA DA SILVA. " P.S. Pray come." This letter was neatly, not to say elegantly written. Another servant took it up to Mrs. Da Silva ; who sent her eldest daughter, with an upper servant, to the house in Charles Court. Miss Da Silva took the precaution to accost a Policeman, (Marks, 61 L,) in St. Martin's Lane, and he went with her. On going to the house, a man, who looked re- spectable, at once led them into a room where the little girl was sitting. The man said that she had been brought to his house by a woman living in Chandos Street ; who told him that she had asked leave to write a letter in her house; but, believing from her genteel dress and manners that she had run away from home, the woman had brought her there to be taken care of. Soon afterwards, she asked for writing. materials, wrote the note to Anne M'Cormack, and it was put into the post for her. The little girl was taken home ; but the Policeman re- mained at the house ; and when M'Cormack came there, about six o'clock, he arrested her. Julia Da Silva was put into the witness-box. She said that M'Cormack had often urged her to leave home: but she refused to do so, till the Monday ; when she agreed to go with the woman at night. M'Cormack, however, giving her a sovereign, and telling her that she must go on first, placed her in a cab, and directed her to go to the Strand and wait for her there. After waiting for some time, the girl became alarmed, wandered into Chandos Street, and spoke to a woman standing at the door of a house—the one who took her to Charles Court. Mr. Da Silva stated that he had learned from the landlord of the house in Charles Court, whom he had ascertained to be a respectable man, that a woman who keeps a notorious house in the same court had made arrangements to receive the child ; for possession of whom she was to give ten guineas. A young girl who is nurse-maid in Mr. Da Silva's family, a very pretty Jewess, deposed that M'Cormack had often urged her to leave service and take to a life of prostitution. She always resisted ; and once when she went to tell her mistress of the importunity with which she was pursued, M'Cormack followed her, caught her, and threw her down stairs ; using such threats that she effectually deterred her from making a disclosure. When called upon for her defence, the prisoner, a coarse-looking woman, declared that it was all a conspiracy against her; that she never saw the sovereign ; and that as to the letter she knew nothing of it, not being able to read. She was remanded. Yesterday, M'Cormack was again examined, and was committed for trial on the charge of stealing ; but was remanded for further examina- tion on the other charge.

The wife of a gentleman of fortune was charged at Marlborough Street Police-office, on Saturday, with stealing a microscope, valued at half-a-crown, from a stall in the Soho Bazaar. The inspectress of the bazaar observed her take the article, and a doorkeeper saw it drop from her side after she was taken into custody. The lady was committed for trial ; but the Magistrate accepted bail for her appearance.

An ingenious fraud on the Customhouse has been recently discovered. Eighteenpence an ounce is paid on all silver plate stamped at Gold- smiths Hall; which duty is returned when plate is exported. The fraud was managed by having silver articles stamped, and then en- larging them by adding more silver, which of course had not paid duty ; and when the enlarged articles were entered for exportation, the duty was allowed for the whole weight.

Charles Smith, footman at Messrs. De Lisle and Company's, the bankers, in Devonshire Square, Bishopsgate, robbed the bank and dwel;- ling-house of a large amount of property on the night of Friday week. He broke into the well-safe, where the cash and books were nightly deposited, by working a hole through a thick brick wall; and took away 800/. in gold and notes, and a pair of very valuable diamond ear- rings. He then broke open some of the clerks' desks in the office, and obtained twenty pounds. Afterwards, he rifled Mrs. De Lisle's private cash-box of thirty-three pounds. The thief has escaped, for the present.

The family of Mr. Sergeant Andrews were visited by a heavy afflic- tion, on Thursday last:week, at his Hampstead residence. Mr. Andrews had retired to his library, as usual, after breakfast ; and when Mrs. Andrews entered it, some time later, she was horror-stricken at finding her husband deluged in blood. He had cat his throat. The lady's screams brought help ; medical aid was summoned ; and the patient received every attention. He survived till Wednesday morning, when he expired. Mr. Andrews, who was in his seventy-third year, was senior Sergeant-at-law, and leader of the Midland circuit. He had for a long time been very much depressed in spirits, and especially just before his death ; which is variously attributed to over-study, and to some disappointment at not obtaining the Assistant-Judgeship of Mid- dlesex Sessions, recently conferred on Sergeant Adams. Besides a 'widow he has left two young children.

An inquest was opened yesterday, before Mr. Wakley ; but some doubt arising as to whether the deceased had actually died from the effects of the wound or from the bursting of a blood-vessel in the lungs by a fit of coughing, under an access of long-standing disease, the inquiry was adjourned in order to a post mortem examination.

An inquest was held at Eastcot, in the parish of Ruislip, last week, before Mr. Wakley, on the body of William Haynes, a labourer aged seventy, who had committed suicide on the previous Sunday. Haynes lived with a wife nearly his own age, and a son. The labourers of Ruislip suffer much from want of employment—one of the witnesses stated that, although there are 7,000 acres in the parish, not 100 men are employed ; and Haynes appears to have had no work but odd jobs to do. He had subscribed for forty years to a club ; by the rules of which he was entitled to 6s. a week if unable to work for twelve months, and afterwards to 3s. a week for life. He had been feeble and unwell for six or seven weeks, and had consequently received 6s, a week. The funds of the club, however, were so low that it would probably be broken up in a few weeks; and that made him gloomy. Mr. C. J. Jenkins, a retired tradesman living at Eastcot, who seems to have done many little kindnesses for the old man, having met him about seven weeks ago, Haynes complained that he could not get work. Mr. Jen- kins told him, that if he came to his house there should always be some- thing for him : but Haynes answered that he did not like to impose on the gentleman's good-nature. Mr. Jenkins observed, that if his club failed and it came to the worst, Haynes could but go into the work- house. Be answered, almost sharply—" No ; I would rather starve to death." Afterwards he added—" I would rather suffer a dozen deaths than go there, and be separated from my poor old woman in our old age." In this low condition he seems to have continued : his son said that he did not actually want for food, but he had been very low for two months or more : he complained of a pain in hie bead, and seemed " wizzy-wozzy " ; but he was quite right in his mind. It appeared that he went into Giddy Lane and cut his throat with both a penknife and a razor, making a large round wound: his body was found in a ditch. The verdict of the Jury stated that the deceased had destroyed himself, but that there was no sufficient evidence to enable them to ascertain his state of mind : at the same time, the Jury ex- pressed their conviction that he cut his throat in fear of being sent to the workhouse.

A prolonged inquiry took place before Mr. 'Wakley the Coroner, on Friday evening, into the death of Mary Allowaye, a needlewoman, aged sixty-three. On Tuesday evening, she took tea with Mrs. Jones, who lodged in the same house, Market Row, Oxford Street ; and she ap- peared in very good spirits, though her manner was observed to be "odd." Next morning, she was found dead in her bed ; having, as medical evidence proved beyond a doubt, taken oxalic acid. A letter was produced, addressed by the deceased to a Mrs. White as "dear friend," and very well written. It stated that the writer had passed many anxious days and sleepless nights ; being unable to obtain work, and owing seven weeks' rent to her landlady, another Mrs. White. She requested her friend to sell the only thing which she had pre- served—a watch, which had been valued at 10/., and to devote the proceeds to funeral-expenses and payment of rent : if the watch would not pay those charges, she wished to be sent to the workhouse- " The life I now live is a miserable one, and has been for several years. I have no one to care for me. heaven is merciful. Yet a little while, and this feverish and unquiet spirit I most sincerely hope will be at rest, with the hope that the Almighty will pardon me. Was I sure of that, I should leave the world without the least regret. I must chance what many great people have done before me. I am obliged to all my friends that have been kind to me. My dear friend, I hope you will let some one follow me to the grave : but that 1 leave to you. I do not wish any one here to know my affairs.' So well had Mrs. Alloways concealed her extreme poverty, that her neighbours supposed her to have some small independent income ; but on examination after death, the emaciated state of her body exhibited the privation that she had endured. She had some friends, who occa- sionally gave her food ; but she seldom took any meals except break- fast and tea. She had been heard to advert to the double suicide at Kilmarnock, and to say that she would rather follow that example than

• apply for relief.

The verdict of the Jury was, " That the deceased destroyed herself by taking oxalic acid; but in what state of mind she was at the time there was no evidence to show."

One of those frightful accidents with steam that make everybody shudder happened on board a vessel at Blackwell, on Tuesday evening ; and the case derives additional interest from having proved fatal to Mr. Jacob Samuda, an engineer well known as the maker of atmospheric railways. The Gipsy Queen, a new iron steamer of 600 tons burden, fitted with engines of a novel construction to economize space, had been down to Woolwich on an experimental trip; had returned to Blackwell, at five o'clock ; and was moored off the buoy there. Mr. Joseph Sa- muds, the brother and junior partner, and some other persons connected 'with the steamer, were on the pier. Suddenly, a slight explosion was heard on board the vessel, and vapour was seen to issue from various parts. The alarm on shore was general, and a loud shout was raised for boats. After some delay, they were procured. A horrid sight met those who boarded the steamer—five people on deck in a state of frantic agony or dying. They were sent ashore as fast as possible ; only to in- crease the fears of men and women who had hastened to the water's edge to learn the worst. Meanwhile, seven more people—Mr. Jacob Samuda and six others—were known to be below, in the engine-room; but the still violent escape of steam forbade access to it by the usual way, and holes had to be cut in the deck to hasten the dispersion of the pent-up and scalding cloud. When it was entered, the room pre- sented a ghastly sight : on the floor lay the seven, dead ; their counW•• nances distorted, their features swelled and discoloured, teeth displaced, hair stiffened, and as the bodies were lifted the flesh peeled off 1—the men had been scalded to death.

A Coroner's inquest began on Wednesday. One witness identified the bodies of Mr. Samuda, Mr. Dodds the engineer of the vessel, Mr. Scholefield another engineer, and four men. The next witness was Mr. George Lowe, an engineer, who worked the engines on the trial-trip. He described the nature of the machinery ; which cannot be made very intelligible without drawings, but the important point is tolerably clear. The boilers were constructed to bear a pressure of forty pounds to the square-inch : they had previously been proved, but only by a water- pressure : on the trip they had only been subjected to a pressure of ten pounds ; and the witness said that they could not get it any higher while the engines were working. But after the vessel was moored, Mr. Samuda directed a pressure of twenty-six pounds to be tried,—the safety-valve being set to that; and Mr. Lowe was sent up on deck to see whether any steam was blowing off: five others followed him ; and just as they were coming up stairs the explosion occurred. Exa- mination disclosed a defect in the machinery : one of the boilers was connected with the engine by a main steam-pipe in which there was a "spigot and faucet" joint, packed in with hemp, to allow of expansion. From some want of hold in the make of the joint, the great pressure of steam lifted it out of its socket, and it poured out the hot vapour into the engine-room. Mr. Samuda was standing close to it and beneath it, and the steam must have been shot right upon his head. The engine- room was soon filled with boiling water and steam. It is supposed that the sufferers must have died almost instantaneously ; but an hour and a half elapsed before any one could get into the place. The inquest was adjourned till Saturday (this day).

The five living sufferers had been carried in an omnibus to the London Hospital. Three have since died, and yesterday an inquest was held on the bodies. Further examination of the damaged joint had detected the remains of a flange or ring at the end of the spigot, which had been broken ; probably by a workman ignorant of the mischief that he might cause. A verdict of " Accidental Death" was returned in this case.

James Taylor, an old soldier, was dreadfully mutilated, on Tuesday, by the explosion of a newly-invented shell, on Wimbledon Common. Dr. Ryan had been making a number of experiments with shells in- vented by a Mr. Buckingham, which the inventor asserts he can make to explode at any time he pleases : one of those shells missed fire ; and after it had lain on the earth two hours, no one expected it would ex- plode. Taylor took it up to clean the dirt from it ; at that moment it burst : both the man's hands were blown off, he was wounded in the legs, and his lower jaw was carried away. Some faint hopes of his re- covery are entertained.