Vlbe A special Court of Aldermen was held on Tuesday,

"to receive an im- portant communication from the Lord Mayor." On the assembling of the Court the doors were closed, and it was " understood" that the Lord Mayor read a letter from Lord John Russell announcing that the Queen would "visit the City on the 30th instant, on the day of the opening of the Coal Exchange." The letter was received with manifestations of pleasure, and was ordered to be entered on the journals of the Court.: A Committee was immediately appointed, to carry out, in conjunction with the Lord Mayor, all the necessary arrangements for the proper reception of her Majesty.

A special Court of the Common Council was likewise summoned on Tuesday, to receive the same pleasing communication; and steps were taken to cooperate in giving the Queen a " splendid " reception. On Thursday, the Lord Mayor, Mr. Wood, Chairman of the Committee) and the City Remembrancer, waited on the Queen, at Windsor Castle, to ascer- tain her Majesty's pleasure. The Queen will proceed to the City by water, in her state barge; she will embark at Whitehall at half-past twelve, land at the Customhouse Quay about one, and return between two and three. "No steam-boats or laden craft will be allowed to move on the river between Whitehall and the Eastern end of the Customhouse from eleven till four o'clock; and it is particularly requested that no guns may be fired on the banks of the river." Prince Albert will accompany her Majesty, "and it is hoped, the Prince of Wales also."

A large meeting of the leading men in the banking and commercial world of the City of London was assembled on Wednesday, by the Lord Mayor's invitation, to hear an official explanation of the plans now in preparation, under the guidance of Prince Albert, for a gigantic exposition of industry open to all the world, in the year 1851. Among those present were the Governor and Deputy Governor of the Bank of England, many leading Di- rectors of the East India Company and the Hudson's Bay Company, Mr. Joseph Hume, Mr. Masterman, Admiral Dandies, Mr. Jones Loyd, and Dr. Buckland. A deputation attended from the Society of Arts; including Baron Lionel de Golcismid and several other Vice-Presidents, Mr. Henry Cole, and some dozen members of the Council. The Lord Mayor stated that he had received from Colonel Phipps a letter on behalf of Prince Al- bert, requesting that he would assist in bringing together the leading citi- zens and the deputation. Mr Henry Cole acted as spokesman.

He informed the meeting that Prince Albert had for these last five years de- voted his thoughts to the organization of a grand exposition of industry open to the competition of the world, and had confided his idea to members of the Council of the Society of Arts. At Birmingham, last year, the Society had the finest col- lection of bronze-work perhaps ever exhibited ; and the Queen herself took such interest in it that she contributed the chief specimen. After that exhibition, it was thought that a larger project was practicable. According to the plan ar- ranged with Prince Albert, a deputation travelled to the leading towns of the em- pire, and six or seven hundred gentlemen were personally consulted. They unani- mously received the plan with great favour, and promised their cordial co- operation. Mr. Cole sketched in picturesque succession and contrast the various objects which would be congregated,—ivory from Africa and from the ice- bergs of Siberia; leathers from Morocco and Russia; wools from Yorkshire, Australia, and Thibet ; furs from Asia and the Esquimau'; corn seven feet high from the virgin soil of Connemara, corn also from the Baltic ports; spices from the East; hops from Kent; olives from the Pyrenees, from Italy, and from the Australian Colonies ; gold from California and the Dural; iron from Sweden, from Wales, and from the sandstone-rocks round Tunbridge Wells; clay from China, from Truro, and from Vauxhall; hand-looms from Dacca, to compare with the last-invented power-loom of Fairbairne; ancient spindles of Egypt, similar to those still used in the flax-mills of Belfast; a printing-press by Mr. Applegarth, like the monster press of the Times; specimens of ancient and modern plastic art; castings in iron and bronze from the most excellent workmen of this country and of France.

Mr. Cole then touched in succession on the points of site, expense, and prize- distribution; giving in detail the particulars which were adequately set forth in our notice of the subject last week.

Resolutions were carried unanimously, which offered hearty thanks to Prince Albert for his proposal, and pledged the meeting to assist in carry- ing it out. Mr. Prescott expressed his warm approval of a scheme which should afford so wide an opportunity of comparing defects and excellencies in art and manufactures. Mr. Hume lauded the idea of raising the funds by voluntary subscription. Mr. Dillon and Mr. Masterman testified their admiration of Prince Albert's patronage of the arts. Formal resolutions -wound up proceedings characterized by a spirit of hearty cooperation.

The Lord Mayor and Lady Mayoress gave a banquet to the Magistrates and Town-Council of Edinburgh on Monday evening. The Lord Provost was prevented from attending by severe indisposition. Among the general guests invited to meet the Northern visiters, were Mr. Masterman, M.P., air. Charles Eastland Michele, the newly-appointed British Consul at St. Petersburg, Mr. Sergeant Adams, and the entire bench of the Metropolitan .Magistrates. The speeches were wholly of a convivial and complimentary " character. Sir James Duke repeated his acknowledgments of the muni- ci distinction wkich the City of Edinburgh lately conferred on him, and tude to so many friends for coming four hundred miles tality." Mr. Bailie Melville acknowledged, with due "high honour" of being invited to meet the members

ssed lus "

4toace.4ajs hos \C"' -eintrireeel*ensi \ iza itaf-" ao-greal,a corporation." The City of London Revising Barrister -continued his sittings almost daily for about a fortnight, and his labours were completed at the close of last week. The objections raised.and claims made on this occasion have beeu on the same scale as in former years; but the arguments and decisions have not involved points of constitutional or political importance, and have only been of technical and professional interest. One of Mr. M‘Christie's de- cisions did, however, cause something like a scene in his court. It seems that Mr. Brown, the Conservative agent, had a large batch of objections dependent on a point which the Barrister thought untenable. The first of these objections was overruled, and costs were granted to the voter to coin. pensate him for the needless trouble of appearing to defend a good vote. The Barrister was about to deal seriatim with the long list of cases which involved the same point, and to give costs in each case as he had in the first; but Mr. Brown, in alarm at the aggregate weight of all the penalties, essayed a legal manceuvre. The Registration Act enforces its penalty for the making of an untenable objection by a declaration that an objector who has been fined shall not be again heard in court till be have paid his fine. It does this, however, by throwing an incapacity upon the Barrister "to hear " any further objection by the same objector, instead of by incapacitating the objector "to be heard." Mr. Brown intimated, that he should not pay the costs in the first case; gave hasty notice to the voters objected to, that he no longer objected to them; and withdrew from corn-b. It was con- tended on his part, that the Barrister was incompetent "to hear" the other objections, inasmuch as no qualified objector was before the court, and therefore the voter was not duly before the court as objected to. Mr. M‘Christie regarded the manceuvre as an affront, and overruled the objec- tion in an elaborate judgment involving much ethical argument and moral indignation. Mr. Brown returned into corn t, and paid the costs under pro- test; but the moral animadversions of the Barrister so roused his anger, that he invoked the clause in the Reform Act which renders any Revising Barrister acting contrary to the statute liable to a penalty of 500/. in each case; and pledged himself, that if he had to beg from door to door, an action of that description should be brought. In a few days, however, the excitement of all parties wore off; and on the last day of the proceedings the usual amenity of all was quite restored. Mr. Brown and Mr. Sidney Smith vied in compliments to the often-acknowledged justice and ability of the Revising Barrister; while the latter compli- mented the agents on their vigilance and talent: he especially regretted that Mr. Brown was about to retire from his old post, and was certain that the Conservative party hardly calculated the loss they would suffer by the move.

Both Mr. M`Christie and the objecting agents expressed their strong feel- ing of the complexity of the present registration-law, and their hopes of legislative improvements whereby the law might be made more simple and its administration more economical.

The Improvement Committee of the Court of Common Council have presented a report, stating that they have made considerable progress in carrying into execution the act of the 10th and 11th Victoria, entitled "An Act for Widening and Improving Cannon Street, and for making a New Street from the West end of Cannon Street to Queen Street"; all the premises commencing at the Western side of Turnwheel Lane to Queen Street have been taken down, and notices have been served on the parties interested in the property between Tnrnwheel Lane to Lawrence-Pountney Hill. The Committee represent that this is a suitable juncture for continu- ing the line of improvement from Queen Street to St. Paul's Churchyard, as determined by the Court in 1846. On Tuesday the Court took the report into consideration; approved of its recommendations; and referred the matter to the Coal, Corn, and Finance Committee, to consider the best means of raising the necessary funds.

The first Court of the newly-appointed Metropolitan Commission of Sewers was held on Wednesday. Lord Ebrington took the chair, and opened business by a speech of friendly advice, to discuss differences of opinion without wrangling and without enmity of feeling. The public eye was on them, and would judge them by their works, and not by their barren intentions. Letters were read which had passed between the Gene- ral Board of Health and the late Metropolitan Commission of Sewers rela- tive to the new constitution for the latter, which had become advisable. In the course of one of these communications, by Lord Carlisle, his Lord- ship paid a tribute of "just praise" to the many members of the Commis- sion about to be superseded—with a particular reference to Mr. Chadwick, who " has sustained a prominent share both of labour and of attack," and whose "health has been but too much affected by his unremitting exer- tions for the good of the public." .

The General Board of Health published in the Gazette of Tuesday s series of rules for regulating the mode of interments in several of the Metropolitan burying-grounds. The rules, ten in number, are framed in exer- cise of the powers given to the Board by the Nuisance Removal and Diseases Prevention Act; and they are personally directed to the Church- wardens or other persons having control over each burying-ground specified.

The first orders, "that the whole surface of the said burying-ground (exceptuig such parts thereof as are now used as footpaths, or are now covered with flat stones) shall be forthwith covered with quicklime of an uniform thickness of three inches at the least." The second provides, that on every removal of the earth upon digging a grave, the lime shall be replaced in a uniform covering three inches deep; and the ninth, that if any remains of a body or of a coffin be exhumed, the disturbed earth shall immediately be filled in and covered with an extra coat of lime beyond the sur- face coating. The third, fourth, fifth, sixth, and tenth rules, provide that every grave shall have a bottom covering of lime three inches deep under the coffin; shall contain only one corpse, and shall be filled up whenever the corpse is de- posited; shall be at least two feet six inches from the nearest point of any other grave; shall be of such depth as to secure at least five feet of earth between the upper part of the coffin and the ordinary surface of the burial-ground; and that no grave shall be dug on a spot "where a corpse has been buried within ten years now last past." The seventh rule exempts burials in stone or brick graves, vaults, or catacombs, from the regulations of rules three, four, five, and six; and the eighth rule declares that no corpse shall be buried in a stone or brick grave, vault, or catacomb, unless "enclosed in a coffin made of or lined with lead, of the weight of at least six pounds to every superficial square foot, and of the.thick- nese throughout of one-tenth of an inch, nor unless such coffin or lining he soldered up, or otherwise secured, so as to be perfectly air-tight." The burial-grounds named are—the Crossbones, Redoross Street, South- wark; Tottenham Court Road Chapel ground; Churchyard of St. (Rave and St. John, Tooley Street, Southwark; St. George-the-Martyr, South-

wark; Ray Street, Clerkenwell; St. Paul, Covent Garden; St. Giles--'°the-Fields; New Btuihill Fields; Collier's Rents, Southwark; St. John,

Clerkenwell, and the ground in Benjamin Street; St. Mary, Newington; Thomas's burial-ground, Golden Lane, St. Luke's; and Tavistock burial- ground, Drury Lane. A requisition signed by 287 merchants, bankers, and traders of the City, ime been presented to the Lord 'Mayor, calling on him to convene a meet- mg at the Guildhall in order to "give utterance to their gratitude for the mercy which has been shown them in their tribulation "—their escape from the cholera. The requisitionists declare that "they cannot but regard this visitation as a warning of their neglected duties towards their humble fel- low creatures ": they desire, therefore, to provide and devise measures for improving the dwellings of the labouring classes, and for protecting them in future from the ravages of disease and sickness. Lord Ashley gives this movement the aid of his collateral support. In a letter to the Times, published yesterday, he expresses his earnest hope that the present necessity may lead to some effective and permanent im- provement of the domiciliary condition of the poor. Such improvement is no longer matter of theory or investigation—it has been begun: "it may be seen in full operation in the various model lodging-houses of London, founded by the Labourers' Friend Society, by many benevolent individuals, and by the Metropolitan Society for Improving the Dwellings of the Work- ing Classes." In these places the inmates have roomy lodging, well venti- lated, and amply supplied with water, for less rent than they pay for a twentieth share of "some pestilential sty." Their demeanour denotes the improvement in their condition, moral and physical; no ease of cholera has occurred in these abodes, and only two cases of diarrhosa, which were quickly cured. At present the public baths and washhouses in a very few districts —St. Martin's, Easton Square, and Goulston Square,—supply the only means of personal cleanliness for the poor.

Preliminary public meetings have been held in Holborn and in Broad Street to further the object of forming an association for procuring a supply of good water to the Metropolis. There is to be another on Monday evening, at the Hanover Square Rooms.

The Common Council have agreed to a motion for the appointment of a Committee to inquire into and report upon the best means of obtaining an adequate provision of good water to the city.

The Association for promoting the relief of Destitution in the Metropolis, and for improving the Condition of the Poor by means of Parochial and District Visiting under the superintendence and direction of the Bishop and Clergy, deems the present an especially fitting time to appeal to the pub- lic for renewed and increased contributions to its funds, which are now so reduced as to be inadequate to meet the ordinary demands upon them. " The Committee," says a circular issued under the authority of the Bishop of London, "would respectfully but earnestly remind those who by the Divine goodness have been exempt from the pestilence which has swept off so many thou- sands of their poorer brethren, that their thankfulness cannot be better evinced than by contributing liberally to the mitigation of those evils which have followed in the train of disease and death. Those poor persons who are recovering from the disorder are in urgent need of nourishment and clothing; while those who have fallen victims to it have left, in numerous instances, widows and orphans bereft of all their worldly means of support." Contributions are received by Messrs. Berries and Co., Drummond, and Coutts and Co., at the West-end; Messrs. Hoare, Williams and Co., Glyn and Co., and Barclay and Co., in the City; and by the Secretary, Mr. Haly, at the office, No. 4, St. Martin's Place, Trafalgar Square.

A meeting of the London clergy, convened on requisition by the Arch- deacon of London, was held in the hall of Sion College on Tuesday, to ex- press an opinion on the evil of an increased transmission of letters on Sun- day, and to consider the necessity of presenting petitions to Parliament on the subject. The Archdeacon presided, and advised the meeting that peti- tions to Parliament would be inconvenient: he proposed, and the meeting adopted unanimously, a series of resolutions expressing sympathy with the lay movement on the subject, and declaring it to be the duty of a Chris- tian Government to secure to all its subjects rest from labour, and an op- portunity of worshiping God, on the Lord's Day.

A memorial on the subject to the Lords of the Treasury has since been signed by nearly two hundred out of the three hundred clergymen in the Archdeaconry.

The "Waterman's Church" at Penge: Common was opened for Divine service, by licence, on Sunday morning. The building is contiguous to the almshouses of the Waterman's Company, and has been erected for the use of the inmates of the asylum and the surrounding population. The cost has exceeded 5,000/, raised by subscriptions; and a considerable sum is still required to complete the church. Mr. T. D. Brown, who is connected with the Waterman's Company, gave the site, subscribed a thousand guineas, and Presented a painted window for the South aisle. The building contains five hundred sittings, many of them free; and consists of nave, with North and South aisles, a South porch, a chancel, a chancel aisle, and a vestry. At the West end of the nave, and open to it by a lofty arch, rises a tower and spire about 150 feet high. The Waterman's Company are the patrons of the living, and they have appointed the Reverend Joseph Ridgeway to the incumbency. He preached two sermons on Sunday, and liberal collections were made.

The native Welshmen resident in London held a meeting on Wednesday, at the Freemasons Tavern, to consider measures for securing the appoint- ment of a native of Wales to the Welsh see of Llandaff. Mr. Benjamin Lawrence presided. It was stated that no Welsh Bishop has filled the see ell?ce the accession of the house of Brunswick, and the great increase of Dissent was connected with that fact. A Committee was appointed to wait on Lord John Russell.

At the Court of Bankruptcy, on Tuesday, the case of Francis Strong came be- fore Mr. Commissioner Evans. In 1844, Mr. Strong was sent to Worcester Col- lege, Oxford; his father allowed him only 301. a year, and his grandfather paid his college-fees. The insolvent said he was obliged to run into debt, believing at the time that his grandfather would pay his creditors. In October 1847, he &Red to Pass his examination; whereupon his grandfather discontinued payment of the college-fees, and his father forbade him to return home: he obtained the situation of tutor, but soon after he was obliged to resign, from illness; after some time his father and grandfather made such provision as enabled him to return to Oxford in order to pass his examination; but he was unable to remain there, in consequence of proceedings taken against him by a creditor. In 1848 he married, and had since been supported by his wife's.relations. The petitioner prqposed that all his creditors should abstain from taking proceedings azainat him for three years; so

as to enable him topaz hisaximination, take his, and be ordained, upon the assurance that he will immediately pay them out of any funds which his re- lations might then advance to him and out of the emoluments of his profession. The debts were 1,3281; there were no assets. The claims of eight tailors amount to 2481; of hosiers, 981; of wine-merchants, 1302.; chemists, 562.; surgeons, 451.; hair-cutting, 1/. 15s. 8e1.; confectionery, 241.; jewellery, 602.; watch, chain, and ring, 251.; ditto, 202.; guitar and music, 241.; cigars, 61. 14s.•' ditto, 14s. 171.; ditto, 51.; hair-cutting in 1848, 8/. 13s.; ditto in 1846, 41.; dental operations, 51. 17s. A majority of the creditors agreed to a modified proposal of payment— three years' grace to be allowed, and then, if Mr. Strong's relatives do not pay his debts, he is to set aside out of any income he may receive 2002. annually till debts and interest are paid. Mr. Fraser, on the part of some of the creditors, opposed the grant of the certificate. The Commissioner said, as the majority of the creditors had assented to the petitioner's terms, he could not refuse the cer- tificate. After a warm altercation between the counsel and the Commissioner, protection to the 30th April was granted.

The bodies of the three workmen who perished in the sewer at Kenilworth Street were got out on Saturday morning. A hole was broken into the sewer, and straw was burnt over it, and thus the foul air was sufficiently removed for men to enter the place. The bodies were found about fifty yards from the spot where the sufferers had entered. The corpses presented an extraordinary ap- pearance: the face, neck, and upper part of the chest, appeared completely bronzed, and were glazed; the bodies generally had a blue tint. Sherwan has quite recovered.

The inquest on the five sufferers was commenced on Monday. A watchman who saw the three workmen enter the sewer, at half-past five o'clock on Friday morning, said, they were quite sober and in good health. They had their lamps with them. Edward Jordan released the previous witness as day-watchman at the aperture about six o'clock. At breakfast-time he called to the men in the sewer, but got no answer; he then went to another place and shouted, but still there was no reply. As the day wore on, he mentioned the absence of the men to other labourers, but did not think anything was amiss. At three o'clock he went with a labourer to a side-entrance to the sewer, where they saw the men's clothes, and thus knew that they were still in the sewer. At five o'clock, Carter, a timekeeper, came round, and Jordan expressed his alarm about the men. " I told him I thought it a very curious and serious case that the mu had not been up; and that, being only a labouring man, and not having much knowledge, I did not know how to act." Soon afterwards, though not till the deceased had been absent for twelve hours, two men, Christmas and Turner, went up the sewer in search of them. They discovered the bodies; but, from the confined nature of the sewer—three feet six inches high by two feet six inches wide—it was possible to bring the bodies out. The sewer was measured, and then the street, and the place was thus discovered where to dig a hole: this was done, and even- tually the bodies were recovered. William Christmas, a bricklayer, stated, that he worked for Messrs. Humphries, contractors under the Commissioners of Servers. He was told several times of the continued absence of the men; but he thought that they had found more work than they expected, and they had expressed a determination to finish the job—the measuring of the sewer preparatory to flush- ing—that day. At five o'clock he grew alarmed, and went down with Turner. They searched for an hour; they saw by chalk-marks on the wall and splashes of mud where the men had passed along. At length they felt the bodies. While the bole was dug in the street, a boy said he knew where the end of the sewer was, and he pointed it out in a field: it was bricked up. A hole was broken in with a pickaxe. Mr. Wells was present, as he had been told of the disaster. Four persons entered the sewer. Alsop went in first, then Mr. Wells ; I fol- lowed Mr. Wells' and Turner followed me. When we had proceeded about a hundred feet up the server, Mr. Wells complained, and said he felt faint. He turned back, and I also did so, with the intention to let him out; but before I got to the opening in the wall by which we had entered, Alsop called out that the doctor had fallen down. I returned with the intention of assisting the doctor, but saw Alsop coming away, saying he could not stand. I turned again to leave the sewer; but before I could reached the outlet I fell down insensible, and have no recollection of what followed. I believe I was dragged out, and laid upon the bank. Before I was overcome I felt a strong smell, but nothing uncommon in sewers, or such as to create any alarm." "When I first went into the sewer from the War- wick Streetopening, I felt no kind of oppression whatever; and when I was seized, after my entrance from Mr. Cubitt's field, I was taken all at once, in a moment. I had not been cautioned before I went in. I had not received any general caution. from anybody." Mr. Lidstone, a butcher of Pimlico, who was passing when the sewer was opened, said, the smell that issued was very great Mr. Wells, before going in, put on a workman's coat and a boy's cap. He said, " We will get the men out: if there is a spark of life in them, I will put the lancet into them." On hearing a splashing and moaning, Mr. Lidstone rushed into the sewer, and succeeded in bringing out Christmas- but he was so overpowered by the stench that he could not relater the place: lie had been ill ever since. The Coroner said—" I wish you had had more assistance. You have, however, the satisfaction of knowing that you saved the life of one poor creature."

Dr. William Ord stated, that he was called to see the bodies. All the people were quite dead. They had died from suffocation caused by sulphureted hydro- gen gas: this gas acts upon the iron of the blood, and causes discolouration of the blood. He tested the air of the sewer after it had been ventilated for a con- siderable time; and in seven minutes and a half it discoloured acetate of lead tests. paper. The presence of this gas in a sewer " could easily be discovered by the individual carrying before him a lighted candle on a long stick. In this gas the candle would flicker and turn blue; which would at once indicate that no animal could exist in it. My opinion is, that all the deceased died from this cause, and that nothing could possibly have saved them." Chloride of lime would destroy the gas.

Mr. Thomas Lovick, an assistant surveyor of the Commissioners of Sewers, was examined. He had ordered the sewer to be inspected. The officer had re- ported to him verbally that the sewer was foul. The Coroner—" Do you take any means to ascertain if gas dangerous to life exists in sewers, before your men are sent down into them ? " Witness—" Not any chemical means; we only ascertain it when the men enter. We send an inspector in first, to ascertain whether it is so or not; and in that way Mr. Batterbary was sent in to examine, and if he had found it to be unsafe he would have reported it to me. No such report was made. On the 8th of October, I directed him to examine the collateral sewers, where they could be examined with safety ; and the report upon them has not vet been made to me." There are no inspectors to superintend the men when 111;1 enter the sewers, so as to ascertain the existence of foul air. The men would know the state of the air by the smell. The hole opened in Warwick Street was to let in a current of air. The men know in practice whether or not it is safe to enter. One of the men, Gee, had been employed four or five years. The men have Davy lamps, and these bum blue in foul air long before there is a danger to life. He did not know that the sewer in Kenilworth Street ended in an abutment wall in Mr. Cubitt's field. Mr. John Henry Batterbury, one of the inspectors of ilosb- lugs, stated, that he went along the sewer in Warwick Street on the morning of Monday week, and a little way along that in Kenilworth Street,. That sewer was close, and he called a man back who was going up it. lie told Gee not to g.p into that sewer again; and.he replied, "Very well." He thought the man would not have gone there.

The inquiry was adjourned till Thursday. At the resumption of the inquiry, Mr. John Phillips, the chief surveyor to the Commissioners of Sewers, was examined at great length. The sewer in Send- worth Street is nearly level; if there is a fall at all it is towards Warwick Street. The deposit in the sewer could not have come from the three houses drained into it, but must have flowed in from another source, The wall at the end retained the deposit. For four hundred feet there were no means of ventilation. The real cause of the mischief had been the lime from gas-works placed over the sewer: this deposit ought to be removed, or it will be dangerous not only to people entering the sewer but to the inhabitants of the houses in the street. Dr. Tire gave evidence, and read the report of an analysis of the water and lime. The in- quest was again adjourned, till Monday.

At a meeting of the Commission of Sewers on Wednesday, Dr. Andrew Tire handed in a report of the analysis of water taken from the Kenilworth Street sewer, and of a greenish earthy matter from the ground over the sewer. This is the pith of the report— "I dad that the earthy matter is the refuse lime of gas-works, impregnated with sul- phureted hydrogen, certain prussic acid compounds, and a little ammonia as hydrosul- pharet. These three substances are all exceedingly noxious to life in their separate state; and they are liable to be liberated by the action of the carbonic acid of the at- mosphere, to be washed out by the rains, and to percolate down through the crevices and joints of the arched roof of the sewer. That this is the case is demon- strated by the analysis of the water in the sewer ; which has exactly the green colour imiiarted to pure water by the calcareous compound, possesses the very peculiar fetid smell of sulphureted hydrogen, and affords to chemical reagents the characters of this gas, as also of prussic acid and ammonia. Certain animal exunthe may also be readily detected in the said water, as urine, &c. ; the whole forming a mixture remarkably deleterious . The presence of the prussic acid, or sulpho- cyanogen poisons, in these effluvia, is a striking peculiarity; proceeding, no doubt, from the layer of gas-lime imprudently shot as a dUing-up rubbish over the sewers Suiphureted hydrogen and carbonic acid gas, both present in that sewer, being in mixture with prussic vapour, form an air heavier than that of the atmosphere, and thereby would be found to prevail chiefly near the bottom of the sewer ; so that Mr. Wells and his companion, on stooping down to search for the dead bodies of the work- men lying there, would come to inhale the concentrated gaseous poison, and drop in- stantly down on their faces ; in which position their own bodies were observed to lie."

It has now been ascertained that foni: persons perished by the explosion at the firework-maker's in Bermondsey: James Barlow, a workman; William, aged twenty, Mr. Barling's eldest son; and two younger children. The bodies of the children were found in the first-floor front room; they appear to have been blown from their bed by the shock; the skull of one was fractured. Barling, his wife, and their son Charles, a youth of seventeen, were all more or less severely burned; Placebo Wynn, a young woman, fell on some iron spikes in endeavouring to escape from the burning house, and her thigh was lacerated.

The inquest began on Tuesday. The bodies were so fearfully burnt that they could not be identified; so the Coroner was obliged to consider the inquiry as on four "persons unknown." The principal witness was a boy named Larter, nephew to Mrs. Barling, who lived at the house in Brook Street. On the even- ing of the tire, he saw the family and Barlow at work; Mr. Barling was tying crackers, and the others were making squibs. There was a naphtha lamp bang- ing from the ceiling, a lighted candle on the table, and a fire in the grate: neither candle nor lamp had a shade. Barling was a sesling-wax.maker as well as a pyrotechnist; he occasionally made fireworks at Brook Street, but the larger sorts he manufactured at another house in the Westminster Road. The boy had left the room before the accident happened. The inquest was adjourned till the 6th November, in the hope that by that time some of the persons now in the hospital may be recovered sufficiently to give evidence.

The two brothers Riddell, who are charged with robbing their employers Messrs. Pontifex, have been committed from the Thames Police-office for trial. The case respecting the stealing of a large quantity of tartrate of lime has not been pro- ceeded with for the present.

Barton and Banbury, the men implicated in the robbery of the Great Western Railway parcels, were again examined at the Clerkenwell Police-office on Wednes- day, and committed for trial.

Two charges of robbery by Post-office clerks were investigated at Bow Street Police-office on Tuesday. Mackenzie Mackay, who bad been ten years in the ser- vice was committed for trial for stealing a letter containing a handkerchief and a shilling. William Holford was remanded on a charge of stealing a letter contain- ing a sovereign: he was seen perpetrating the robbery, but evidence of the post- ing of the letter was wanted.

At the Mansionhonse, on Monday, John William Bird was charged with fraud. Ile applied at the Government Emigration Office to be passed as a surgeon for an emigrant-ship. He produced a paper purporting to be a certificate from the Col- lege of Surgeons that he had passed his examination; it was signed "Morgan Jones, Martin Luther, Registrars," and "James Duke, Mayor." But as Bird's name was not in the list of surgeons, the Office would not pass him. Neverthe- less, he took the certificate to the owner of the ship Lord Stanley; and as the near& "Passed, S. S. Smith, Assistant to Lieutenant M'Lean," were on the back, he was engaged. Mr. Smith encountered him on board the sbip, and the roguery was discovered: the certificate and endorsement were both forgeries. Witnesses proved this. A Mr. Storey, who stated that he was a surgeon, deposed that he had signed a certificate for the admission of the accused into a lunatic asylum. Bird's wife said he was insane' and Bird himself urged that his head had been so much affected by a violent typhus fever that he did not know what he was doing. The Lord Mayor said, a Jury must decide on the plea of insanity: the business seemed to have been done with much ingenuity.—Committed.

The Home Office has authorized the offer of a reward of 50/. for the discovery of the murderer or murderers of M‘Guire: no trace of the missing man has yet been found.

At Wandsworth Police-office, on Saturday, James Weston, aged thirty-nine was charged with the murder of his wife and infant child. It appeared from the evidence, that Weston had surrendered himself at the Clapham stationhouse early that morn- ing; saying he had killed his wife and child, and producing the razor he had used to cat their throats. He had got up in the middle of the night, he said, to kill his wife; but he felt he could not do it; than he resolved to attack her while she was dressing. He uttered a number of incoherent expressions, which led the Police-Inspector to conclude that he was insane. He wept., and spoke affection- ately of the deceased. He had recently been under medical treatment. A police- man went to Weston's house, and found the mother on the floor, almost dressed, and the child on the bed ; both with the throats gashed, and quite dead. In an- other room he found a little girl sitting up in bed: this was a daughter of the murdered woman by a former husband. A witness stated that Weston was in constant work, and his house was very comfortably furnished.—Remanded till Thursday.

A Coronet's Jury sat on Monday, and gave a verdict of "Wilful murder" against Weston, On Thursday, the prisoner appeared more collected in his manner, but spoke incoherently. After several witnesses had been examined, be said be thought Mr. Parrott, the surgeon who had given him medicine, was the murderer; Mr. Parrott and others mesmerized him; that gentleman had given him drugs, taken away his senses, and told him there would he murder in the house. Several gentlemen had come to his bedside on the preceding night, and would have =m- etered him but for the turnkey, &c. The poor man was committed for trial.

John Farmer Monkhonse' the young sailor who shot his father at Chiswick, was to have been examined by the Hammersmith Magistrate on Wednesday ; but as the wounded man, though recovering, was not yet strong enough to attend to give evidence, the prisoner was again remanded.