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At a meeting of the Court of Aldermen on Tuesday, it was unani- mously resolved, on the motion. of Alderman Wilson, seconded by Sir Francis Moon, that a committee of the whole Court should forthwith consider and report on " the best mode of testifying its feelings on the occasion of the late diabolical attempt to assassinate the Emperor and Empress of the French." At a meeting of the Court of Common Council on Thursday, complaints were made that The Court of Aldermen had proceeded to frame an addiesa to the kmperor of the French without communicating with the Court of Common Council, as the two Courts had agreed to join in ad- dresses of public idmortance. The Court condemned the course pursued by the Aldermen, and then adopted an address of congratulation to the Emperer. Reports were presented showieg that conanittees intrusted with that duty had minima to be struck and presented medals commemorative of the visits to the City of the Emperor of the French and the King of Sardinia.

The meeting of the Special General Court of the Eat India Compa_nTi adjourned on the 13th, was resumed on Wednesday. The Cheirman before the Meeting the eorrespolidence with Lord Palmerston end another document. The first paper was a letter from the Directors to Lord 1d1. meraton; the second was Lord Palmerstmis reply; the third was kph' lion of the Company to the Rouse of Commons. The letter of the Cote of Pireetors expressed their surprise that, without imputing any blame tethems and without instituting any inquiry, the Government should have determined to propose the immediate supercession of the East India Company. Such a change, they think, should be made in a time of tran- quillity, when it would not in the minds of the Natives be directly con- nected with recent calamitous events. If made now, it will be misunder- stood by the people of India. The Court do not deny that the system of government is susceptible of improvement; but they think there can be no effective moral check upon the Board of Control without a second au- thority of some kind. This was Lord Palmerston's reply. "% Piccadilly, San. 18.

" Gentlemen—I have had the honour of receiving your joint letter of the 31st of December upon the subject of the measure which it is the intention of her Majesty's Government to propose with reference to the future system to be established for the government of India ; and I beg to assure sem that the observations and opinions which you have therein expressed will be duly considered by her Majesty's Government. "I forbear from entering at present into any examination of those obser- vations and opinions—first, because any oorrespondenee with you on such matters would be most conveniently carried on through the usual official channel of the Pxesident of the India Board ; and, secondly, because the grounds on -which the intentions of her Majesty's Government have been formed, and the detailed arrangements of the measure which they mean to propose, will best be explained when that measure shall be submitted to the consideration of Parliament. "I have the honour to be, Gentlemen, your obedient servant,

"B. D. Mangles, Esq., PALMERSTON. "Sir Frederick Come, 8se."

The third doeument, "the humble petition of the East India Com- pany," is of enormous length—upwards of three long columns of small type ; and puts the ease of the Company much more fully than the letter, which reads like a feeble abridgment of the longer document. We en- deavour to give the gist of the presentment. The servants of the Com- pany acquired, founded, and governed the Trelian empire, without the smallest cost to the British exchequer. In 1783 Parliament provided a department to control the acts of the Company; that arrangement has been three times renewed after Parliamentary inquiry, and the change made in 1853 has not undergone a, sufficient trial. The petitioners chal- lenge inquiry into the remote or immediate causes of the mutiny which obviously gives rise to the proposed change. Any remissness on the part of the Company does not absolve her Majesty's Government from re- sponsibility; for that Government is "in the fullest sense accountable for all that has been done, and for all that has been forborne or omitted to be done." . The remedy for failure, if there has been a failure, is not to be found in the annihilation of the branch of the ruling authority which is not principally in fault, in order to concentrate all powers in the branch which had the decisive share in every error, real or supposed. The Directors, indeed, claim to share the responsibility, for their advice has been a potent element in the conduct of affairs in India ; but the government in which they have borne a part is the purest in intention, the most beneficent in act, ever known ; and it is one of the most rapidly improving governments in the world. If the threatened measure be carried out, the people of India will have a false impression, and believe that the Company has been cashiered for misconduct. They will regard

the abolition of the Company as the abolition of the present system of especially as it will be coincident with the outcry of the press in England and India accusing the Company of having been too forbearing and considerate towards the Natives. The change will be re- garded as a concession to these opinions and feelings ; and the Natives will believe that a policy directly aggressive towards all their habits and customs will be henceforth backed by the power of the Government. The Directors of the Company have seen with pain the demonstrations of indiscriminate animosity towards Natives of India. They cannot con- template without dismay the doctrine that India should be administered with =especial view to the benefit of the English who reside there. The Government of India has hitherto held that its first duty was to the people : the exclusion of the Company from the Government is likely to be regarded in India as the first successful attack upon that principle. The present is a most unsuitable time for effecting the proposed change ; and it should be postponed at least until it can be calmly examined. It is to be assumed that the home portion of the Government will not be vested in a single Minister ; he will absolutely need the aid of a Council of statesmen experienced in Indian affairs ; and the body must be sub- stantive enough to exercise a moral check upon the Minister, and to form.. a barrier against the him& of ignorance and self-interest into Indian affairs. Any body associated with the Minister that is not a check will be a screen.

"tinless the Council is so constituted as to be personally independent of the Minister—unless it feels itself responsible for recording an opinion on every Indian subject, and pressing that oimion on the Minister, whether it is agreeable to him or not—and unless the Minister, when he overrules their opinion is bound to record his reasons—their existence will only serve to weaken his responsibility, and to give the colourable sanction of pru- dence and experience to measures in the framing of which those qualities have had no share. •

"Your petitioners' find it difficult to conceive that the same inde- pendence in judgment and act which characterises the Court of Directors will be found runny Council all of whose members are nominated by the Crown. Owing their nomination to the same authority, many of them probably to the same individual Minister whom they are appointed to cheek, and looking to him alone for their reappointment, their desire of reeemmending themselves; to him, and their unwillingness to risk his dis- pleasure by any serious resistance to his wishes, will be motives too strong not to be in danger of exercising a powerful and injurious influence over their conduct."

The Council should substantially participate in the government ; the ninabers should not be too restricted—a body of six or eight will not be equal to one of eighteen in a feeling of independent self-reliance. Con- tending that the Court of Directors and the Board of Control possess all the qualities at a good system of government, the petitioners pray that the existing powers of the Court may be continued. They meet some objections- " Your petitioners have heard it asserted, that in consequence of what is called the double government, the Indian authorities are less responsible to Parliament and the nation than other departments of the Government of the =mho, since it is impossible to laiew on which of the two branches of hemi government the responsibility ought to rest. Your petitioners fear- lessly affirm that this impression' is not only groundless, hist the very re- verse of the truth. The home government of India is not less, but more responsible than any other branch of the A,dministration of the State, inane much es the President of the Board of Commissioners, who is the Minister for India, is as completely responsible as any other of her Majesty's Ministers, and, in additiont his advisers also are responsible. It is always certain, in the case of India, that the President of the Board of Commis- sioners must have either commanded or sanctioned all that has been done. No more than this, your petitioners would submit, can be known in the

case of the head of any depart-meet of her Majesty's Government. For it is not, nor can it rationally be supposed, that any Ministerof the Crown is without trusted advisers; and the Minister for India must, for obvious

reasons, be more dependent than any other other Majesty's Ministers upon the advice of persona whose lives have been devoted ter the subject on which

their advice has been given. But in the case of India such advisers are assigned to him by the constitution of the Government, and they are as much responsible for what they advise as he for what he ordains ; while in other departments the Minister's only official advisers are the subordinates in his office, men often of great skill and experience, but not in the public eye—often unknown to the public even by name ; officiaireserve precludes the possibility of ascertaining what advice they give, and they are res- ponsible only to the Minister himself, By what application of terms this can be called responsible government, and the joint government of your petitioners and the India Board an irresponsible government, your petitioners think it unnecessary to ask:" Finally they pray that no change may be made without full inquiry.

The petition and the .vv'hole question were discussed by Mr. Jones, Sir Lawrence Peel, Mr. Dickenson, and Captain Eastwick. Sir Law-

rence Peel defended the East India Company. He admitted that some changes are desirable but not such as would interfere with the just rights of the East India Company. The meeting was again adjourned.

A public meeting was held in the London Tavern on Tuesday, to consider the proposal for the extinetionof the East India Company. Some odd iniaie dents were the result. Mr. George Crawshayein the chair, defended the Company and offended his hearers. When he said the Company had never robbed the people of India, there were cries of" Oh, oh ! " When he asked

them to leave the Company alone if they did not want to be taxed, they laughed at him. When he said India had been acquired by the gallantry, of their forefathers, they repudiated the paternity, and shouted "Villany !

" Treachery ! " " Robbery !" Mr. Lewin moved and 3Lijor Rolland seconded a resolution throwing the blame of present evils upon the Court

of Directors, who submitted to the coercion of the English Government ; and, as a remedy, proposed measures for securing the administrative inde- pendence of that court. Major Rolland said that England could only be saved by doing justice- " The men of (hide are defending themselves in a righteous cause. (Loud cheers.) Let them treat with the people of that country, and restore the King to his rightful throne."

Mr. Mead proposed and Mr. Ernest Jones seconded an amendment, to the effect that "it is desirable to obtain a responsible form of adminies tration for India instead of the present double government, and also such a reform of the representative system as will insure an effectual Parlia- mentary control over the Indian authorities." Mr. John Frost appeared in defence of the East India Company, and was saluted with cries of'

" You're a traitor !" and prevented from speaking. Mr. Jones asked the meeting to hear Mr. Frost ; but added—" It is easy to see through the

trick," Mr. John Frost, pointing at Mr. Ernest Jones, said—" I have no trick to play, but I can easily see the trick that man is playing." The amendment was carried almost unanimously.

The evening service at Westminster Abbey last Sunday was attended by a vast crowd. The preacher was Archdeacon Sinclair. Those who could not find places in the Abbey were accommodated in St. Margaret's Church ; the Reverend William Cureton, the Rector, having arranged for a special service in their behalf. In the Abbey, the Dead March from " Sanl " was performed, in honour of the memory of the late General Havelock.

The United Kingdom Alliance, through the agency of a deputation from all parts of the country, waited on Sir George Grey on Thursday, to urge upon him the propriety of taking measures for the suppression of the liquor traffic. Their chief proposition was that power should be given to "the ratepayers or inhabitants of any district to decide by vote on the existence of public-houses, even to the extent of their entire prohibition." Sir George Grey said he sympathized with the object of the deputation, and in general terms expressed a hope that any alteration that may be made in the licensing system will not increase but diminish the evils of intemperance.

On Monday evening last, a highly respectable public meeting of the inhabitants of the parish of Paddington was held at the Prince of Wales Hotel, Bishop's Road, for the purpose of taking into consideration the beat course to pursue -with a view of putting a stop to the continual nuisances caused by street musicians organ-grinders, bawiers, and other disturbers of the public peace. After much indignation had been ex- pressed a Committee was appointed.

In December last, the Attorney-General filed an ex officio information in the Rolls Uouit referring to certain lamb granted by Edward the Sixth to the Dean and Canons of Windsor upon certain trusts, and praying that the shares of the Poor Knights of Windsor might be ascertained, and that any surplus remaining . after the execution of the trusts might be distributed under a scheme to he settled by the Court. In delivering judgment, on Tuesday, the Master of the Rolls, guided by a decision of the House of Lords in an analogous case, decided that the Dean and CallORS' are entitled to the surplus revenue which fornied the ssibjeet.of the information, except in so far as the revenues have been diverted-from them by the Ecelesisstial Commissioners.

The Court of Queen's Bench, sitting in hence, headeeided that a steam- engine used for driving a threishing-machioe le an "implement of has- bandty," and consequently not liable to 'tolls op turapike-roads.

The Court has also decided that an =di in the North Kent Railway via, duct converted into a stable is not a "building" coming under the pre- visions of the Metropolitan Building Act : it is a. building used for the pur- poses of the railway, and therefore exempt from fees.

Dr. Cronin, a medical practitioner, was knocked' down by Isoril Powers- court's cabriolet, in Bond • Street, Ink July,He was carziedinto a shop; Lord Povrerseourt pulled up and hastened to scie him ; it ems found that pr. Cronin was much injured. Isnel PoMersoeurt afterwards offered " rose's- able eompensation " but does not seem to have mentioned any sum: If Dr. Cronin would not reasonable compensation, the case, said Lord Powers- churl's agent, must be placed in the hands of a lawyer. Dr. Cronin, who would not name a sum, regarded this as a threat, and brought an action for damages. It was tried before Mr. Justice Erie, in the Bail Court, on Wed- nesday. The Judge, having heard the evidence said the defendant ap- peared to have done all he could to settle the matte;, and left it for the Jury to assess the damages. The Jury fixed them at 250/.

At a meeting of the shareholders of the Surrey Gardens Company, on Tuesday, it was resolved to wind-up the company in the Court of Bank- ruptcy.

The notorious Colonel Waugh, of Branksea Island and the Eastern Banking Corporation not having surrendered to his bankruptcy, and no information having been obtained respecting him, was proclaimed an outlaw in the Bankruptcy Court on Tuesday.

Mr. Elliott, the Lambeth Magistrate, has enjoyed the gratification of being the first to grant protection under the new law to a married woman

deserted by her husband. He has made an order protecting the earnings and property acquired or to be acquired by Mrs. Lucy Freeman, deserted in June 18.56: her husband has suffered imprisonment for the desertion yet, under the old law, he could have entered his wife's home and stripped her of everything. She is a dressmaker; and her friends only awaited the action of the new law to assist her to commence business.

Other Magistrates have not been able to grant assistance to applicants because it could not be shown that "earnings" had been accumulated to be protected.

Mr. Beadon, the Marlborough Street Magistrate, has given a decision on a point of law in connexion with the pawning of medals presented to soldiers and seamen, or their surviving relatives. There was no doubt that the pawning of a medal by a soldier while in the service is illegal ; but it was a question whether a soldier, after his discharge from the Army, or the sur- viving relatives who had possession of a medal, could not deal freely with the honorary distinction, and pledge or sell it. A case came before Mr. Beadon where apawnbroker had advanced money on the medal of a soldier not then in service ; he is again a soldier, and his commanding-officer has claimed the medal for him from the pawnbroker. Mr. 'leaden has decided that, by an enactment first introduced in tho Mutiny Act of 1856, it is ille- gal for any one to pawn medals for military or naval service. The pawn- broker is quite willing to give up the medal. In future, in any smilax ease, the War Office will prosecute for penalties.

Emily Dnice, "a wretched-looking young woman," was charged before the Worship Street Magistrate with having pledged a pair of trousers in- trusted to her to make up by Elias Mears. From the evidence it appeared that a wholesale dealer in clothes named Moses, at 36 Minories, gave ma- terials for trousers to a man named Barnett Harris, who undertook to return them finished for is. per pair. Harris has a machine which effectually per- forms the stitching portion of the labour, and for that he reserved one-half of the is., giving Mears the remainder to complete the work. Mears in turn engaged the prisoner, and furnished her with twist, thread, &c., on the un- derstanding that she was to receive aid. for finishing the job. Deserted by her husband, and having a child to support, the found the pittance accruing from her labour at this price insufficient to purchase necessaries • and, after finishing the trousers, she pledged them for 7s. Mr. D'Eyncouzi expressed astonishment at the price given by the dealer for the making," and put several inquiries as to the value of the article as it now appeared, produced by the pawnbroker. A tailor in court said that the material cost probably from 8s. to 9s., and would as probably be sold for 188. Some didtrence of *Pinion was expressed on this point by the persons connected with thiesse, but the most general one was in favour of the tradesman who volunteered it. Mears, whose cadaverous features and ill-clad body indicated a state of poverty equal with the prisoner's, said he only got about three-halfpence for hoithare Aar purchasing the small materials, and he had not any money to redeem the trousers. Mr. D'E vncourt observed that it was clear this was a system which gradually grouna to the dust the workpeople. He wished to.sg Er. Moses in regard to the case before him; but that person had sedt a letter, explaining brat he was too busy to attend. Whatever might be the selling price of the article in question it was manifest that it was made for one shilling, and that three persons shared that amount. Most sincerely did he wish that dealers, by being content with smaller profits, would enable-their workpeople to receive something like a remuneration. The prisoner was ordered to pay the redeeming value, or in default ha imprisoned for three days, and to pay a fide of 5s. for the illegal pawning, or to undergo a further imprisonment.

Mrs. Mary Sotheron was charged before the Marlborough Street Magis- trate with selling wines and spirits without a licence. She has been the real keeper of a night-house in Carlton Street, Regent Street, though an- other name appeared over the door as that of a "free vintner." The house has been largely frequented by wealthy men and women not virtuous, for the sake of liquors to be had there during the night ; and a great and pro- fitable trade has been carried on. One night Police-Sergeant Silvester en- tered in disguise—he went "a complete swell." In that character he was supplied with lemonade, sherry, and brandy-and-water. The house has since been closed. Mr. Bingham imposed a fine of 501. for selling spirits, and another of 12/. 10s. for selling wine.

The Lambeth Magistrate has committed Meat, late Master of Newington Workhouse, on two charges of illegally disposing of the bodies of deceased paupers for purposes of anatomy. Bail was permitted.