t4t afttruirulio.

A Common Hall was held in the City on Tuesday, to receive the re- port of the Committee appointed in April last to conduct the opposition to the Government bill for the reform of the Corporation. The report, which simply recapitulated the successful resistance of last session, was adopted unanimously ; and it was resolved-

" That whilst the Livery are determined to maintain those ancient rights and privileges which they believe to be necessary for preserving the inde- pendence of the City of London and the usefulness and dignity of the Cor- poration, they are desirous to assist the other branches of the Corporation in their endeavours to effect any necessary reforms, and are anxious to strength- en that harmony between the Livery and the Executive requisite for the

wellbeing of the City." • It was also resolved, that for the better accomplishment of this resolu- tion, a Committee should be formed, to consist of two members from each Livery Company, with the Lord Mayor for President.

At a special meeting of the Metropolitan Board of Works, on Mon- day, the question whether tithes, or rent-charge in lieu of tithes, arc liable to be rated under the Metropolitan Sewers Act, was decided in the affirmative; and it was resolved that a distress-warrant should issue for the amount of two sewer-rates claimed of Mr. Wood, the owner of the rectorial tithes in the parish of Hammersmith. It is said that Mr. Wood's legal adviser is determined to try the question in a court of law, and that it is likely to lead to great litigation.

The Committee appointed by the City Commissioners of Sewers to consider the question of alleged nuisances from works of the City of Lou- don Gas Company, made their report on Tuesday. Having heard a great deal of conflicting evidence on the subject before them, they had thought it their duty to consult the City Solicitor and the Solicitor to the Com- missioners ; and, acting upon the joint opinion, of those gentlemen, they summed up the practical result of their investigation in these terms- " After maturely considering the whole question, and being distinitly advised that neither under your own acts of Parliament nor the Nuisances Removal Act have you any jurisdiction in this case ; and feeling that it is rather for the Magistracy of the City to prosecute an indictment in such a case as this than for you, because they have always been accustomed so to do ; and because it is doubtful whether you would be legally justified in burdening your rates with the heavy costs of such indictments,—for these reasons, we beg to recommend that you lay the whole of the evidence and documents in this case before the Lord Mayor and Court of Aldermen, that they may direct such steps to be taken in the case as they may be advised." The report was adopted, with only two dissentients.

Messrs. Fox, Henderson, and Co., haye suspended payment. The event had been prematurely announced in several quarters, but did not formally occur until Wednesday ; some embarrassments which were pri- vately known to have existed at the beginning of the week having been temporarily adjusted— "During the past year," says the City writer of the Times, " the firm have experienced occasional difficulties, which were greatly increased by the reckless circulation of reports affecting their credit. By great efforts they were enabled to maintain their position up to the present time; the re- newed pressure in the money-market, and the discovery of? losses from heavy foreign contracts just finished, have now compelled them to call their creditors together. It is understood that upon the completion of their an- nual stock-taking and balancing, the house have found that they have suf- fered to the extent of about 70,0001. by the construction of the Zealand (Danish) Railway. This, combined with unprofitable results from some other works, and the impossibility of realizing or of obtaining sufficient advances upon the large amount of shares and debentures they hold in the various undertakings with which they have been connected, has left them in a position in which they could make no further sacrifices without jeopardizing the ultimate liquidation of their general liabilities. They have therefore taken the advice of the persons most largely interested, and have resolved to suspend. Itappears, however, to be the general fcelingthat an extension should be granted them, and that they should be allowed at once to resume, upon a full and satisfactory exposition of their engagements and assets being submitted. Their total debts are stated to be about 320,00011 of which about half are unsecured." More " law " for the Royal British Bank ! The shareholders who joined the company when the capital was augmented are preparing to dispute their liability, on the ground that they were induced to take shares by the fraudulent representations of prosperity held out by the managers. These new shareholders had a meeting on Saturday, at Dr. Richards's residence in Bedford Square, to concert measures for carrying out their views.

On the same day, other shareholders met in the bank premises, to con- sider what could be done to facilitate the winding-up of the estate, an early distribution of assets, and a cessation of the struggle between Chancery and Bankruptcy. A Committee was appointed.

The Australian Auxiliary Steam Clipper Company entertained on Monday last, on board the Istamboul, now lying in the Victoria Docks, about 250 gentlemen, principally merchants and others interested in traffic with the Colonies. The Istamboul, now about to depart for Aus- tralia, is the first vessel with which the company will try their new sys- tem of effecting an expeditious and reasonably certain communication between this country and the Gold Colonies. Its peculiarity consists in its being a sailing clipper, fitted with light steam-engines which with their fuel occupy little space, and are to be used only for the purpose of working the vessel through the region of calms, where mere sailing-ships are liable to be detained indefinitely. The Istamboul has been for three months in the Government transport service in the Mediterranean, and the directors think themselves justified by the results of that trial in ex- pecting that the voyage to Melbourne may be regularly run within sixty-five days. Full-powered Australian steamers have proved unpro- fitable, because the great space . occupied by their engines and fuel left little for the paying cargo. Moreover, much time was lost by their stop- pages at their coaling-stations. They are now taken off the station, and their failure has led to the adoption of two different plans for overcoming the difficulty. One is the enormously large ship of Mr. Brunel, which is to carry with it a supply of coal for the whole passage ; the other is the plan of this Company, the merits of which were clearly and succinctly explained by Mr. Gooch at the dejefiner of Monday. He ascribes to it the twofold advantage of economy in the first cost of the ship and in its working. Taking the cost of one of the full-powered steam-ships as averaging something like 65,0001., he says- " We find that we can for that same money bring into use two ships ; that two of such ships as you see here today cost us the same money as one ship with full power. I will therefore make my comparisons upon that amount of capital, 65,0001. The one ship, with full-powered steam, carried engines equal to 450-horse power : our two ships will carry engines equal to a combined power of 160-horse power. The registered tonnage of the one ship was 1900 tons : our two ships are 2861 tons. Their capacity for carrying cargo was 450 tons upon the average : we carry 2800 tons. With regard to passengers, I believe that their one ship would carry as many as our two ships ; and therefore I let that fall down. The quantity of coal consumed by the one ship upon the one passage, that is from London to Australia, was about 1950 tons : the quantity of coals that our ships consume we estimate to be 300 tons. The cost of the coals, at 2/. per ton upon the average, which I believe is a very low one upon the big ships, was 39001.: the cost of coal to these two ships is 6001. The value of the freight upon the cargo carried, taking it at 31. per ton, in the one ship, is equal to 13501.: the value of the freight upon the cargo carried in our two ships is equal to 8400/. With regard to the sailing-expenses, I believe that the great expense attending the engine-room of the one ship, the wear and tear of the large and heavy instruments, the stores consumed, the very large and expensive crew required to work that engine-room, would fully make up for the sailing-crews of our two ships. This, then, brings us to the practical commercial result, that upon the freight, with the same amount of capital employed, we have in our favour, upon one passage, 70501. over one ship ; then with regard to the cost of coals, we have a saving in our two ships over the one ship of 3300/. ; making a total of 10,350/. in our favour upon the one passage. Now, we believe and anticipate that our ships will make two voyages to Australia and back in the twelve months—that is, four passages ; and if we take the 10,350/. saving upon one passage and multiply that by 4, we get 41,400/. as the difference of working between our ships upon the same capital as upon the full-powered steamer which has been working in that way."

A section of the West-end of London and Crystal Palace Railway was opened for traffic on Thursday. The line extends from the railway-sta- tion of the Palace to Wandsworth Common—four miles and three-quar- ters in length. It passes under the Palace by a tunnel.

The once popular London Mechanics' Institution, founded by the late Dr. Birkbeck, has been in considerable straits since his decease. It has now only 363 members ; at one time it had 1300. It appeals to the public to aid it by an increase of members.

At the Central Criminal Court, on Tuesday, Joseph Lane, a stout elderly man, was tried for publishing a false and malicious libel. lie advertised in the Police Gazette a reward of 501. for the apprehension of Mr. Salter, an attorney of Chard, for the forging and uttering of a will : the charge was utterly baseless, and a policeman had too much discretion to arrest Mr. Salter, though he went to Chard for that purpose. It seems that Mr. Salter had been employed in carrying out the provisions of the will of a Mr. flood who resided in the place; Lane supposes, or pretends to suppose, that the property should have come to him, and that the will was a false will : probably it will turn out that he has a delusion on the matter amounting to insanity. Ile behaved strangely at the trial. He was convicted ; but sen- tence was deferred, apparently for the purpose of an inquiry into his sanity.

On Wednesday, John Pratt, the young clerk who robbed the Bank of Aus- tralasia and squandered part of the money in a brothel, where he seems to have been robbed of the rest, pleaded guilty. He was recommended to mercy by the prosecutors. Sentence, nine months' imprisonment. On Thursday, Mr. George Fossey, a timber-merchant, and William Neary, formerly clerk to Mr. Walker, the corrugated iron manufacturer, were tried for conspiring to defraud Mr. Walker. Neary had already been convicted of embezzling small sums beton. ing to Mr. Walker. The parti- culars of the charge against Mr. Fossey have been mentioned before. It was alleged that he had conspired with Neary to charge Mr. Walker for more timber than he supplied to him, Neary certifying that the accounts were correct, and thus getting them accepted by Mr. Walker as -correct ; and it was said that this system had been carried on to a large extent. But the chief witness called to make out the case, Thomas James Steele, formerly clerk to Mr. Fossey, turned out to be quite unworthy of credit. He said he advised his father to enter intopartnership with Mr. Fossey after he knew that Mr. Fossey was " sticking it on" in his accounts with Mr. Walker. It

appeared that the assignees of Mr. Fossey claim 60001. or 7000/. from the estate of Mr. Walker. The Chief Baron remarked that it would have been better to settle the civil dispute before this criminal charge had been tried. It also appeared to his mind, that it was clear that the business of Mr. Wal- ker had been conducted in every loose manner, and that there really was no satisfactory evidence in the case to show that the quantity of timber charged for had not really been'delivered. With the Judge's concurrence, the Jury declined to hear counsel for the defence, and at once returned a verdict of "Not guilty."

Octavius King, corn-merchant, ' pleaded guilty to two indictments for forging bills of exchange. Sentence deferred.

Yesterday, William Gaylor was tried for the manslaughter of his wife ; prosecuting counsel agreeing to that course instead of proceeding on the charge of murder. It will be recollected that Gaylor assisted his wife to obtain sulphate of potass with a view to procure a miscarriage. The facts were not disputed ; the time of the Court being occupied by the arguments of counsel. The Jury eventually returned a special verdict, by which they expressed their opinion, that the prisoner was proved to have purchased sulphate of potass for the purpose of giving it to his wife to procure abor- tion ; that her death was occasioned by her taking a portion of the sulphate of potass so given to her ; but they were of opinion that the prisoner was not proved to have been present when the poison was taken. Upon this finding, Mr. Justice Erle directed a Verdict of " manslaughter" to be re- corded ; but he at the same time respited judgment, and said he should take the opinion of the Court of Criminal Appeal upon the points of law that had been raised. The prisoner was permitted to be at large upon bail until the decision of the Court be made known.

Alderman Sir Robert Carden has committed William Jennings, a delicate- looking youth of seventeen, for a robbery at Messrs. Stephens and Son's premises in Throgmorton Street, mid for burglariously breaking out of the house. Jennings had formerly been in the service of the firm, who are stationers ; by some means not yet explained he entered the place and secreted himself in the evening ; during the night lie broke open a safe, took out 20/., made up a packet of gold pens, silver pencil-cases, and other articles, valued at 2501., and got oft' with the plunder. Nearly all the pro- perty has been recovered. The youth's parents arc very respectable people.

Joseph Jenkins, otherwise Robert Marley, who committed the murderous assault and robbery in Parliament Street, was reexamined at Bow Street Po- lice Office on Tuesday. Richard Cope, whose skull was fractured, and who has twice been reported to be dead, had decidedly improved under skilful treat- ment in Westminster Hospital. Marley was formerly in the Second Dra- goon Guards, for twelve years, and was dismissed in disgrace. In 18.53 he was convicted of burglary and sentenced to be transported for seven years ; he has a ticket-of-leave. Further evidence was given describing the assault on Cope and the capture of the prisoner ; and a woman deposed to finding a " life-preserver" in Palace Yard on the night of the outrage—the weapon was of more.than the usual dimensions. Marley appeared indifferent as to his position : he was again remanded.

In the evening, poor Cope spoke, for the first time, asking in a whisper for food. An immediate communication was made to the Police ; Marley was brought from the House of Detention, Mr. Jardine arrived, and int- ,portant testimony was elicited from the sufferer. The description of the scene is affecting. " Upon the prisoner's arrival at the hospital, Mr. Mar- shall, the house-surgeon, having first satisfied himself that Cope was in a perfectly rational state and able to articulate, allowed Mr. Jardine and the other officials to be introduced. Mr. Burnaby, the Magistrate's chief clerk, took a position close to the bedside of the injured man; to whom he ex- plained in a soothing manner the occasion of the visit, introducing to hint Mr. Jardine, who stood on the other side of the patient's bed. All being in readiness, the prisoner was brought in between two officers, and placed at the foot of Cope's bed in a position allowing full observation of his features. The prisoner bore this ordeal with great nerve, looking down sternly and unmoved upon the emaciated and pallid form of his victim. The first question addressed to Cope by Mr. Burnaby was, Do you know the man standing at the foot of your bed ?' Cope surveyed him with a penetrating glance for some few moments, and then faintly ejaculated, Yes.' Mr. Bur- naby pursued the question, by inquiring how he knew the prisoner : upon which Cope replied, in a tremulous voice' That is the man who struck me.' Mr. Burnaby next asked Cope whether he could tell what it was he was struck with ? Cope looked anxiously towards the prisoner and articulated, in a guttural voice, A life-preserver.' Mr. Burnaby then asked the sufferer whether he could tell how many blows had been given to him by the prisoner? Cope appeared anxious to reply more fully to this inquiry ; but, after an effort, was only able to articulate a simple No.' Mr. Burnaby, after a short pause, next asked Cope whether the prisoner had spoken le him before commencing to attack him ? The unfortunate man, whose utterance up to this point had been gradually becoming more imperfect, appeared excited by the last question, and in reply muttered some inarticu- late sounds from which nothing could be gleaned. Mr. Burnaby looked towards Mr. Marshall, who all this time stood at the bedside watching the effect of the examination on his patient ; and, gathering from him that a continuation of this mode of examination might probably be very prejudicial to Cope, Mr. Burnaby said lie had got quite enough, and that if the patient would affix his mark to the deposition he should not be troubled any further. Upon this intimation, Cope stretched out his hand, and tremblingly affixed his attestation : upon which the prisoner was removed, and the few present retired, painfully affected with the scene they had witnessed." Lounction: the unfortunate men were horribly mangled. In the streets of ndon numerous accidents occurred. Inquests wore held on Thursday. Thomas Watkins, a gatekeeper at the Plough Lane level crossing, Wandsworth, seems to have suffered entirely in consequence of the fog : he had just signalled an up-train which passed, and was stepping across the rails to the other side, apparently to allow a passenger to cross the line, when a down-train struck him : both trains had whistled at the same moment, in the same key ; and had the afternoon been clear, the „poor fellow could have hardly avoided seeing the approaching train ; but the fog was so thick at the moment that it was impossible to see even across the line. Just be- fore his death, Watkins had remarked, in reply to an acquaintance, that he was afraid accidents would be heard of that night. William Yeomans, a porter at the Wimbledon station, was killed in a somewhat similar way : while one line of rails was occupied by a train he walked across the other, in the darkness, and an express-train struck him. A fellow servant of Yeo- mans thought the accident arose in part from the man's having stepped be- hind the stationary train, instead of going in front of it as he ought : but had there been no fog, in all probability the man Would be now alive. Ver- dicts of "Accidental death" were returned.