311Arnintio.

At a meeting of the Court of Aldermen on Tuesday, after the custom- ary thanks had been voted to-the late Lord Mayor, a long letter was read from Police Commissioner Harvey on the " extremely unsatisfactory con- dition of our police establishments." Urgent representations, he said, had proved "unavailing." The "pestilential condition" of the ma- jority of the stationhouses " affects most severely the health and com- fort of the occupiers." The chief office, in every respect except its lo- cality, is "inadequate to the requirements of the service." No "suita- ble residence" has ever been provided for the Commissioner ; and the allowance of 2001. as a substitute has been withheld. No fewer than six inspectors, six sergeants, and forty-eight constables, have been phy- sically disabled by the unhealthy condition of the chief office and the stations. Mr. Harvey suggests that this is not a time when " unworth_y feelings and acts of injustice should be allowed to perplex" his course. If the Court could not deal with these subjects, he trusted they would take measures for effectually removing all obstacles to the well-working of the police. Several members of the Court said that the statements were ex- aggerated, and "anything but creditable to the writer." The letter was referred tq the Gaol Committee.

A deputation from the Metropolitan Board of Works, headed by Mr- Thwaites, waited on Sir Benjamin Hall on Thursday. The two Presi- dente exchanged declarations of amity ; and the result of the conference was, that Sir Benjamin Hall agreed to sanction a plan for the main- drainage, fixing the outfalls into the Thames at points on each bank, in- dicated by Captain Burstall R.N., who had surveyed the Thames on be- half of the First Commissioner. These points are not much lower down the river than those originally selected by the Board; and the sewage matter will float about at pleasure between Woolwich and Gravesend.

Dr. Archibald Campbell Tait, the new Bishop of London, was "con- firmed" on Thursday, in the Church of St. Mary le Bow, Cheapside with the usual forma and ceremonies. He was accompanied to the chinch by the Reverend F. Blomfield, his Chaplain ; and received by Dr. Travers Twiss, the Vicar-General, and other officers of the province of Canterbury. After morning prayers, letters-patent appointing the new Bishop were presented to the Vicar-General ; opposers were cited, and pronounced contumacious for not appearing; Dr. Tait took the oaths of office ; and the ceremony closed by Dr. Twiss pronouncing sentence, to the• effect that the ceremonies had been duly.performed.

St. Paul's Knightsbridge has again been the scene of a contest between the Reverend Mr. Liddell and Mr. Westerton the Churchwarden. There wee a heavy fog on Sunday : foreseeing that light would be needed in the chancel, Mr. Westerton directed the beadle to light the gas.. Nearly at the same time, Mr. Liddell ordered that functionary to light the great candles on the altar. The beadle obeyed both his masters. Seeing the candles lighted, Mr. Westerton went into the vestry, and, bringing out an extinguisher, walked quietly up to the altar and put out the candles. Mr. Liddell, rising from prayers, went into the vestry, with two of his castes, procured a light, and relighted the great objects of contention. Mr. Westerton did not further interfere, while the congregation looked on with amazement at this three-act pantomime. It should be remem- bered that the great candles are a part of the furniture of the church in- cluded in Dr. Lushington's adverse judgment, and that the Court of Arches has still to deliver judgment on an appeal against the decision of Dr., Lushington.

At the meeting of the Law Amendment Society on Monday, Lord Brougham, from the chair, stated that Sir Fitzroy Kelly had informed him *et it is greatly to be feared the Government will substitute a mea- sure am the Ecclesiastical Courts, is lien of the bill introduced by Sir Fitzroy last session, less extensive and efficacies/sr in its character. At the end of the session, Sir Richard Bethel met Sir Fitzroy Kelly, slid concurred with him as to what the measure ought to be. Under these circumstances, Sir Fitzroy desired that the subject should be brought under the notice of the Society. The letter of Sir Fitzroy was ordered to be printed in the Law Amendment Journal ; and a Committee on the Ec.

clesiastiCal Courts Bill introduced last session was appointed. -

Monday the 17th was the anniversary of the death of Lord Dudley Stuart ; and the Polish exiles held a meeting at Sussex Chambers, Duke Street, St. James's, to pay " a tribute of respect and gratitude to the memory of the departed champion of the Polish cause.' Major Suk- zewski spoke a eulogy on Lord Dudley's character : he maintained that the position of Russia is as threatening as ever, and that the only effee. teal mode of meeting her is by restoring Poland.

The new road into St. James's Park from Pall Mall was opened to the public on Monday, for " private carriages and hackney cabs only:. There is now, therefore, a road to Pimlico and Belgravia from Pall Mall.

At the sitting of the Court of Queen's Bench, on Thursday, Lord Chief Justice Campbell granted a rule Nisi, on the application of Sir Frederick Thesiger, calling upon Lord Ernest Vane Tempest to show cause why a eri- minal information should not be filed against him for an assault on Cornet Ames, with intent to provoke a breach of the peace, at Brighton, on the 31st October last.

A case of some interest was raised before Tice-Chancellor Sir Page Wood on Tuesday. The Liverpool woolbroking firm of Gartside, Ward, and Bowes, applied for an injunction to restrain one Outram, formerly an ap- prentice, from making known in any way certain extracts from the books and business documents of the plaintiffs of which he was possessed. The defendant put in an answer by stating that the plaintiffs were guilty of fraud in the conduct of their business. Thus, he alleged, and stated special cases in proof thereof, when wool was sent to them to dispose of with a limit of price which was below the market-price, the plaintiffs were in the habit of taking it themselves and sending fictitious sold notes, by which it was made to appear that the wool was sold at the price limited, and that they then sold it at the real market-price, or higher if possible, and pocketed the difference. It was pleaded on behalf of the plaintiffs, that the defendant had revealed knowledge obtained in confidence, and that he had only made roving suggestions of fraud. The Vice-Chancellor said, that no such re- lationship as confidential relationship in matters of fraud is recognized by the law. If this had been a mere "roving suggestion of fraud" made by a clerk against his employers, he certainly would net have been allowed to file roving interrogatories, calling upon them to make disclosures from their private hooka and entries. But nothing could be less roving than the an- swer put in by the defendant. It was clear, sharp, plain, marked, and de- fined. He ruled that the defendant was entitled to put certain interroga- tories to the plaintiffs with the object of substantiating the case he had set up.

Proceedings arising out of the settlement of the affairs of the Royal Bri- tish Bank continue to be taken in the Courts. Mr. James Wyld, on the part of the creditors of the Bank, addressed vice-Chancellor Kindersley on Tuesday, and urged him to give a speedy decision as to whether the affairs of the bank should be wound-up in Chancery or under Bankruptcy—delay is ruin to the creditors. The Vice-Chancellor said he would give no rash judgment : he will give his decision with all reasonable despatch.

On the same day, Mr. Commissioner Holroyd ordered the Directors to prepare a balance-sheet of the bank. Some of the Directors complained of the hardship of this, as no funds were appropriated to pay for the assistance of an accountant.

In the Court of Common Pleas, also on Tuesday, . Messrs. Taylor and Aston, share-brokers, obtained a verdict for 6531. against Mr. Stray. Mr. Stray had commissioned them to buy in the Stock Exchange certain shares of the Royal British Bank ; they bought them ; the bank stopped, and Mr. Stray refused to pay for the shares; the brokers have paid, as they were compelled by the rules of the Stock 'Exchange to pay, the jobber of whom they bought the shares. The verdict for the plaintiffs, however, does not settle the matter, as leave was given to the defendant to move the Court in lance on several legal points.

The great gold robbery was again the subject of investigation before the Lord Mayor on Monday. The convict Agar continued his evidence in chief, and was cross-examined ; and Fanny Bolan Kay was called to support a number of his statements. Agar told what was done with the plunder. The foreign coin was quickly sold ; a piece of a large bar of gold was also sold; the rest of the bars were melted, and made into smaller ingots. In a room at his house at Shepherd's Bush, Agar and Pierce constructed a furnace with four fire-bricks, laid in a supply of charcoal, got crucibles, and melted the gold. [Mr. Bodkin produced three fire-bricks ; the witness identified one—it had a hole in it which he had made ; there were particles of gold sticking to it.] By an accident, some molten gold fell on the floor, and the boards were burnt. Some of the ingots were sold ; others Pierce secreted in a hole in the pantry at his house ; and a large portion of the bullion had not been disposed of when Agar was arrested for forgery. A number of bars [30001. worth]. were sold through James Seward, who was called the "barrister" and said he lived by his "profession!' Seward guessed the gold was the result of the robbery on the railway. Coin was got for the ingots, and these sovereigns Pierce converted into notes at the Bank of England. After a time " we had a meeting "—Agar, Pierce, Tester, and Burgess—to- divide the money. Tester had 600/., Burgess 700/., Pierce 600/ and Agar 600/. When .Agar was arrested he had 30001. of Consols he directed that 25001., the balance after paying for his defence, should be invested by Pierce for the benefit of Fanny Kay and her child ; but Pierce did not so invest it.

Mr. Wontner, who appeared for Pierce, declined to cross-examine Agar at present ; but he stated that the 25001. was invested by Pierce in Turkish Bonds, which were now in the custody of an officer. Mr. Lewis, for Bur- gess,.cross-examined the witness. His chief object was to damage the ere- dibilrty of Agar by eliciting the variety and enormity of his crimes. Agar denied that he was a forger—he had been wrongly. convicted ; but he ad- mitted that he had received the proceeds of forgeries. He refused to answer some questions respecting his connexion with crimes which had nothing to do with the case in hand. "I have acknowledged my character," be said; " I have told you that I have been connected with several forgeries!' Mr- Lewis—" Did you read in the papers of a man named Seal being in custody

_

upon this. barge of robbery ?' 1Winess—" I rend of it and knew of it Mr. Lewis--"- You did not thinb it necessary to come forward when Seal was in custody ?" Witness--" No I did not care about it; it was a casualty' t matter." Agar said he had been to America probably six times ; he did no explain clearly for what purpose—he had "taken bank-notes" with him: no doubt these visits were quite "professional." Fanny Bolan Kay is a woman of five-and-twenty with an intelligent countenance. She shook hands cordially with Agar. She stated that she was formerly an attendant at the refreshment-room at Tunbridge station; there she became acquainted with Burgess; she was dismissed because she bad formed a connexion with a gentleman. Burgess introduced her to Agar. From her narrative it would appear that she had no direct knowledge of the robbery ; but she detailed how Agar and Pierce brought bags to her residence, how they altered straps, and were busy together, excluding her as far as possible from any insight into theirproceedings. Sacks of charcoal were brought in ; and she heard "a noise like that of a furnace" in the room to which Pierce and Agar retired ; they were at work for many days ; they would not tell her what they were about; she once saw a bright fire ; the men would shut the door if by chance she got a glance into the room ; when they came out of the room to meals they were very dirty and hot. Pierce subsequently brought down in a pail some pieces of stone. [Mr. Bodkin produced a fire-brick, and the witness said the stones were " some- thing of that kind."] After Agar had left her in consequence of a dis- agreement, the witness noticed that the floor-boards in the room were scorched. She related how badly Pierce had treated her after Agar was in prison; and at length, one night when she went to Pierce's house to en- deavour to get her child's clothes which were in his possession, he dragged her down to the floor by the hair of the head and greatly ill-used her. This brutality and her great pecuniary straits led her about two months since to disclose what she knew of the matter, first to the Governor of Newgate, and next to the Railway authorities.

Mr. Lewis applied for the liberation of Burgess on bail, as the only evi- dence that affected him was Agar's. The Lord Mayor refused. The pri- soners were remanded till Monday next.

Another evidence of the way in which the business of the Great Northern Railway Company has been managed. William Snell, late chief clerk to the Accountant, was remanded by the Clerkenwell Magistrate, on Thursday, on a charge of misappropriating checks for 10001. belonging to the Company. He treated the matter very lightly.

Caroline Hobbs, a servant-girl of nineteen, has killed herself by poison, at her lodgings near the Regent's Park. She had been seduced, and to escape the shame which her approaching maternity would have cast on her she destroyed herself. A letter which was read at the inquest much moved the auditors. It was addressed to her mother. It said, her case was a fearful one ; "for you don't know half my sufferings Don't fret for me; I will go before and be ready to receive you. Give my love to my father. and brother, and I hope they will be good to you. I hope my poor dear sister will be well provided for. I beg you will not scold my dear Harry; it is not his fault, and I love every hair of his head. Write to him, and he will pay my funeral expenses. Pray don't wrong him, for my sake. Don't scold him. I could not die happy if I thought you would do so. My

dear Jane [her sister] will give my love to Mrs. and tell her all about it I am not yet nineteen years of age and don't forget my birth- day (the 26th of December). Tell my Harry I love him, and can't bear to be separated from him." She then alludes to some one who has spoken against her to a former employer ; but does not intend to retaliate, as it would "do her no good," and she would " not hurt a hair of anybody's head but my own." She concludes—" I have put all my things right for you to lay me out in, which you will see ; and I have sent him my likeness. I have only my clothes to leave you ; I wish I had more. Good bye ;. God bless you. Your affectionate daughter, Caroline." The verdict was simply "Death by swallowing poison."

At the inquest, on Monday on Elizabeth Mann, the woman who was found in an empty house in Marylebone with her four children naked and starving,. it appeared that the actual cause of death was effusion into the brain from a tumour at the base of the brain. The poor woman, it seems, had formerly been an inmate of the workhouse ; she was not taken there with she was in nearly as bad a state as she was found in last week ; and she insisted upon leaving the house on the Ilth September, in spite of re- monstrances : the Poor-law officers heard nothing more of leer till the dis- covery last week. She was of a very sullen disposition. The Coroner said it was clear from the state of her head that the deceased could do nothing for herself or children; but he was surprised that the eldest girl had not had sense enough to apply-to the workhouse. The verdict was " Natural death." The children are going on favourably.

The stoppage of the Royal British Bank has turned out a fortunate thing for Mrs. Rumball, the widow of the Police Inspector : to assist her while her ser. is locked up in the bank, the public have already subscribed upward of 134f.

Mr. Train, the Greenwich Magistrate, has made his report to the Board of Trade on the loss of the steamer Tay ; Captain Robertson R.N., his naval assessor, fully coinciding in it. The report is what might have been ex- pected from the evidence laid before Mr. l'raill : he ascribes the disaster to a storm wave caused by a distaut hurricane having driven the Tay out of her course ; and he censures the neglect of the use of the lead. Praising Captain Strutt for the judgment, skill, and self-possession he showed after the wreck, he merely censures him for not using the log.

" Doctors' Commons " was in danger on Thursday night a fire destroyed the premises of Messrs. Hodgkinson and Rolls, stationers; they abutted on the Prerogative Court, and faced the Herald's College. Fortunately, the fire was confined to the stationers' warehouse—a pile erected after a fire in 1/354.