- 3littropa1is. TM the 450 of the year 1850, the

then existing Commissioners of Sewers decided upon a plan for the general drainage of London. This plan was diNded into three portions—the Northern, the Southern sides of the Thard4s, and the Westminster division; and it comprised works of no

clinalals:stagnitude, the cost of which was eatimated at 1,080,000/. It

was the intention of the Commissioners tto commence the formation of this vast system of intercepting sewers without delay ; but a serious dif- ficulty -has arisen, and one •which, withoutIthe :intervention of Parliament, will prevent them from doing more than executing smaller works, ancil- lary the greater ones hereafter to be undertaken. The difficulty which presents itselTistthe absolute want of funds,mad the inability of the Com- missioners to offer such security as would enable them to raise the money, or even a portion of it. Under the old act, the Commissioners were em- -powered to raise a rate of one shilling in the pound yearly, on all the rate- able property under their jurisdiction ; but, during the last session of Par- liament, Mr. Henley succeeded in carrying a motion for the insertion of a clause in the act preventing the Commissioners from raising a rate of more than threepence in the pound. This assessment, if enforced throughout the whole of the district rateable to the Commission, would produce only 103,000/. yearly ; but, as at present carried out, it produces about 80,000/. This sum is very little more than is necessary for the present functions of the Commission, viz, the formation of the smaller lines of sewers, the abatement of nuisances from open drains and ditches, repairs, gullies, &a ; leaving but a very small amount to be applied to the gene- ral drainage system. The Commissioners recently attempted to borrow 80,000/. on the security of the rates, and one of the principal insurimcc- offices in London expressed its readiness to grant the loan ; but, upon an examination of the security, it became evident that it was of comparative- lylittle value, the proportion of the threepenny rate required by the Com- mission for its active functions being so large as to leave a trifling residue. Applications were also made in other quarters, but with the like success. It becomes evident, therefore, that even if the whole of the money which the Commissioners could raise were to be at once applied to the execution of the general drainage system—leaving uncared-for the daily requirements of the Metropolitan districts—these works would occupy a period of eleven years in their execution ; and, in the mean time, the sanitary condition of London would be far from progressing favourably. If the balance remaining to the Commissioners after the due execution of all their minor functions were to be applied, London would remain imperfectly drained, and the Thames perfectly polluted, for thirty or forty years to come. Under these circumstances, nothing effectual can be done until the assembling of Parliament, when some extended powers of rating and raising money must be granted to the Commission • or else the Government must take into their consideration the propriety of assisting the Commission to obtain the necessary funds, by those means and upon those terms of repayment which may be agreed upon.—Tintes.

A Vestry meeting of the parish of St. George Southwark was held on Tuesday evening, to reconsider the vexed question of parish baths and wash-houses. The assembly was very noisy and excited. A resolution was moved to establish baths ; but an amendment, that the consideration of the matter be postponed for two years, was carried by a large majority.

The new Surrey County Gaol, erected on a salubrious site on Wands- worth Common, is now completed. The exterior walls enclose thirteen acres. The building will hold 700 prisoners, each with a separate cell. All the recent prison improvements have been adopted in its construction. The exterior style is plain—massive brick-work, with stone coigns and dressings.

• At the opening of the session of the Central Criminal Court on Monday, the Recorder in his address to the Grand Jury, referred to the unusually small calendar. The reduction he ascribed partly to the prosperous condition of the people and partly to an alteration of the law. The Central Criminal Court Act of 1834 took away. from the Quarter-Sessions of Middlesex and Westminster the jurisdiction in certain cases of felony which it formerly pos- sessed. The result was that the Central Criminal Court was overwhelmed with business, which it vainly attempted to clear off by evening sittings ; and the country was put to great extra expense by the detention of witnesses for many days at the court. By the recent act of Parliament, the ancient juris- diction of the Middlesex Sessions was restored ; and compound felonies—as burglaries and stealing in dwelling-houses—could now be tried there, to the relief of the Central Criminal Court and the Grand Jurors.

On Tuesday, Lewis John Jones, the clerk who embezzled the monies of Mr. Huddlestone the barrister, was sentenced to be imprisoned for twelve months.

Caroline Gertrude Rogers, aged nineteen, pleaded " guilty " of forging a check on Currie and Co. for 43/. She had been servant to the Reverend Mr. Lawford ; she abstracted a blank check, forged her employer's signature, and got the money for the false cheek. Mr. Lawford stated that he had re- ceived a good character with the prisoner, and she had generally conducted herself well while in his service. Her ideas, however, appeared to be a good deal above her station ; for she had occupied her time in "making poetry," and had likewise taught herself the Italian language. She was also very fond of dress ; and a considerable portion of the proceeds of the forgery were expended in the purchase of clothing and jewellery of an expensive charac- ter. Judgment was respited. The Grand Jury returned true bills against a Police-sergeant and two officers of the Greenwich Railway, for an assault on Lord Ranelagh, and for perjury. The Recorder required moderate bail for the parties. The case against Lord Ranelagh himself has been removed into the Queen's Bench. On Wednesday, Joseph Brown, a Ilantead letter-carrier, was convicted of stealing a letter containing money. His counsel urged in mitigation that he received only thirteen shillings a week salary. Mr. Baron Martin said, that had "nothing to do with the ease " ; Brown was "not obliged to accept the post" if the pay was not enough: the poor were generally the sufferers by these robberies. Sentence, transportation for ten years. Whittaker, who thrust a tobacco-pipe stem into the face of Policeman Stride, was found guilty of a common assault, and sentenced to nine months' imprisonment.

John Caffrey was tried for wounding his son, "-with intent to do him grievous bodily harm," by beating him with a red-hot poker. The boy did not appear to giye evidence; but the testimony of the Police and of a surgeon was sufficient to obtain a conviction on a minor count dhar&g assault. Caffrey was sentenced to be kept to hard labour for fifteen months. Mary Ann Johnson, a drunkard, was convicted of unlawfully neglecting her infant daughter; and sentenced to six menthe imprisonment. The child's life seems to have been saved only by the -humane interference of a neighbour.

On Thursday, Charles Whieher, green-grocer, was tried for stealing, and John Seward,. a draper in the Commercial 2d East, for feloniously remising, a case of marines and mousseline de n the property of the South-western Railway, to whom it had been intruste for conveyance from Southampton to London, for Messrs. Candy. It appeared from the evidence, especially from that of William Pamphn, the man who was connected with the gold-

A very distressing fire has occurred in Besborough Street, St. Pancras, where a lodging-house has been destroyed, the inmates barely escaping with their lives. Three sisters from Thrapston in Northamptonshire who had come to see the Exhibition, were sleeping in the house ; two escaped almost naked by the stairs ; the third, a married woman, with an infant, leaped from a window, and was so badly hurt that she is now in the hospital. Some charitable persons supplied the two unmarried sisters with apparel and they came in the dresses thus borrowed to ask the Clerkenwell Magistrate for aid : they had lost all their money and clothes in the fire. A Mrs. Hanes, wife of a tradesman in Besborough Street, is suckling the infant. Mr. Tyrwhitt, having inquired into the case, directed that the sisters should be aided from the poor-box.

Early on Thursday morning, a fire broke out in the timber-yard of Mr. Robinson at Bethnal Green. The premises were situated on either side of the Eastern Counties Railway, and four arches of that structure were also occupied. The contents of the arches and the stock in the yard were almost entirely consumed. The posts of the electric telegraph were destroyed, and some of the brick-work of the arches ; but the latter were not so much damaged as to interrupt the traffic on the line. dust robbery, that the theft was effected in this way. William Winter was a foreman at Nine Elms goods-depot; he has absconded ; he took advantage of his position to cover the box with a new cloth, having a direction for "Mr. Noon, Earl Street, Finsbury "—Pamplin's lodgings. Winter was in connexion with Whicher ; Pamplin allowed the box to come to his place. The three sold the property and divided the proceeds. Mr. Saward was the purchaser. He met the others at a public-house, and agreed to give 56/. for the goods ; he paid the money by instalments ; he got a re- ceipt signed "II. Roney " ; the goods were called a "job lot." The whole- sale value of the property thus purchased was 147/. Saward sold some of the merino in his shop at 4s. 11d, per yard ; the wholesale value was 10s. 6d. Sergeant Wilkins contended for Seward, that he had fairly bought the goods as a "job lot," and that he had behaved like an innocent man when the officers came to his house about the goods. Several witnesses gave him a good character. The Jury deliberated for three-quarters of an hour, and then found both prisoners guilty of feloniously receiving the property. They recommended Seward to mercy for his previous good character. Mr. Baron Martin remarked, that Whicher was, if anything, more guilty than Winter ; such men as he gave facilities for disposing of stolen property, without which persons in Winter's positicn might have no inducement to rob. He sentenced

icher to be transported or ten years. As regarded Saward, although he quite concurred in the verdict of the Jury, yet it was possible that he had acted without consideration, and in an unfortunate moment had permitted himself to assist a party of robbers in disposing of their plunder : the sen- tence on him was one year's imprisonment.

Smith, who assisted in plundering Mr. Gibson, the engineer from India, of 1531., by means of an old trick very cleverly furbished up for the occa- sion, was convicted of the theft, and sent to prison for a year.

It was announced that an arrangement had been made in the notable egg- throwing case : the persons engaged in the offence with Mr. Dimsdule are to appear to stand their trial, but that is to take place in a superior court.

Three convicts have escaped from the Justitia hulk at Woolwich, by seiz- ing a boat and rowing to the Essex shore.

Police-Sergeant John Hope, who has been in the force for eleven years, and was considered an active and steady officer, is in custody on a charge of stealing six shillings from Edward Price. Hope has been examined by the Thames Police Magistrate. Price was taken to the Leman Street station, drunk ; Hope assisted in searching him ; he concealed six shillings in his left hand, but was noticed by Sergeant Sugg, who charged him with the act. Hope denied it, swept the rest of the money taken from Price into his hand, and went into another room with it. There Sugg insisted on having it recounted. It amounted to 2/. Is. 4d., whereas only 1/. 15s. 4d. had been counted when the money was taken from Price.

At Clerkenwell Police Office, on Monday, Thomas James Pomroy, a grocer of Old Street, was charged with causing the death of a woman, whose name is unknown. The woman purchased goods at Pomroy's on Saturday night ; presently she returned, said she had received sixpence short in her change, and refused to leave the shop without it. Pomroy tried to push her out. When near the door, she clung to a board not securely fastened ; it gave way, and she fell with 'reat violence on the pavement. She died on her way to the workhouse. The shopkeeper was greatly concerned at the accident, and did all he could to assist the woman. The Police had not been able to dis- cover who she was. Mr. Tyrwhitt held the shopkeeper to bail. At the inquest, on Thursday, it appeared that Pomroy is the manager of the business for a Mr. Anderton. The Jury consulted for three hours, and then gave a verdict of "Manslaughter" against Pomroy.

As a Chelsea omnibus was driving at a rapid rate round St. Clement's Church in the Strand, on Monday afteruoon, a poor vender of pencils was knocked down, the wheels passed obliquely over his head and neck, and he was killed. The driver of the omnibus has been arrested.

As an empty barge was going down the river early on Wednesday morning, it ran foul of a pier of Blackfriars Bridge, and sank. The night was dark, and the tide ebbing very fast : before aid could be given, three men were drowned.