ebt InEtropotio.

The Commissioners of Sewers for the City held a Court, in their Council- Chamber at Guildhall, on Tuesday; Mr. Deputy Corney in the chair.

Mr. Deputy Bridge called the attention of the Court to the present sys- tem of using deodorizing fluids in the sewers. He believed, though these fluids caused a temporary cessation of the stench, yet in a few weeks they Caused a much more offensive smell than before. He recommended that a Committee should be appointed to consider the practicability of carrying off the offensive effluvium by means of shafts or chimnies. Mr. Alderman Lawrence admitted that the deodorizing fluids deserved the censure passed upon them; but he was strongly opposed to the erection of chimnies throughout the City. No doubt, the sewers must be well cleansed; but he should recommend a good system of flushing, such as had been adopted by the Metropolitan Commissioners. The conversation produced no result. It was ordered that the report of Messrs. Walker, Brunel, and Cubitt, on the City Sewers be printed.

A rate of 6d. in the pound for the ensuing half-year was agreed to.

The half-yearly meeting of the Proprietors of the Bank of England Stock was held on Thursday. The Directors proposed a dividend of 3} per cent, without deduction for Income-tax, for the past half-year: the profits had not been equal to 4 per cent in the last six months. A body of proprietors opposed the reduction, and demanded the old rate of 4f per cent; and it was determined that a ballot should be taken on the question. With respect to the last three declarations of 41 per cent, the Governor stated that the profits had been largely increased by the railway deposits lodged in the Bank.

On and after Monday the 2d October, the West-end bankers will follow the successful example of the Bank of England and the City houses, and close at four o'clock instead of five, the present hour.

Extensive premises in Northumberland Street, Strand, were occupied on Monday by the Metropolitan Commissioners as a barrack for the A divi- sion of police; the station recently erected in King Street, Westminster, at a cost of 5,0001., not affording sufficient accommodation. Two hundred men have recently been added to the A division; the total increase in all divisions up to the present time being 640. Hundreds of young men are daily in attendance at Scotland Yard: those who are approved are imme- diately placed on drill at the Police drilling-ground, Dartmouth Street, Westminster. Sections of constables are also daily instructed and exercised in the use of the broad-sword. The recent augmentation will increase the police-rate 150,0001. per annum.—Daily News.

On Thursday, a shaft six feet by three was sunk from the centre of the Blackfriars Road, at the point of junction of the main sewers from the Kent Road, Friar Street, and Webber Street; at the month of this opening into the sewers an iron grating was bricked in; above it, and about three feet below the surface, a furnace, constructed of sheet iron, was erected. A space about twenty feet square was enclosed around the shaft, for the deposit of Coal, &c.; and on Monday the furnace will be lighted, to test the practica- bility of thus destroying the foul air generated in the sewers, which in this locality penetrates the dwellings of the inhabitants, and renders them unfit to dwell in. The Morning Chronicle states that if the experiment succeed, "similar shafts are to be sunk at stated distances, with architectural co- lumns or obelisks to carry off the smoke."

The formation of Battersea Park is to be actively commenced imme- diately : notices to quit have been conveyed to all the residents on the spot. The park will extend about two miles and a quarter along the river, with a breadth of about a mile; a carriage-drive will be formed along the bank of the Thames, and a suspension-bridge will be thrown across the river to the spot where the Red House now stands. At the South-western boundary of the park an elegant church has been erected, which will be ready for Consecration in the course of the present autumn.

The revision of the Metropolitan electoral lists was commenced on Tues- day, in the Guildhall, by T. Y. M`Christie, Esq. Mr. Sydney Smith, a Reform agent, made some opening observations— In consequence of the very judicious measures of stringency adopted by the Court last year with regard to imposing fines upon the offimals who were charge- able with neglect and inaccuracy in making out the lista, and also from the prin- ciple then laid down of granting costs in cases of frivolous or vexatious objections, very great benefit had accrued• which would be testified both by the amended state of the lists generally speaking, and by the greatly diminished number of objections taken to votes this year. An understanding. bad been come to by the agents on both sides, to abandon this year all cases similar to those which the Court considered untenable last year, and to confine their objections to cases where bona fide grounds existed.

Mr. Brown, the Conservative agent, contested these remarks, and denied that the stringent measures of the Court had yielded fruits in the shape of improved lists: as the lists stood now, there were many hundreds of names improperly described. The Overseers and Vestry-clerka, he maintained, had all along done their duty; and the lists this year were made out precisely as they had been in former years: they were not at all improved, nor did he believe they ever could be so.

Mr. M'Christie said, if the Bets were not improved, he must renew his efforts to produce an improvement; but he hoped to find Mr. Brown wrong.

On the tender of the list of persons who claimed to vote.as Liverymen of the" Homers' Company," Mr. Smith suggested some inquiry. This was a

new Company, in respect of its appearance in the electoral list: it had only lately been endowed with the franchise by the Corporation; who unde- niably possessed that power. In order to guard the franchise, and to pro- tect the Corporation itself, some inquisition should now be made into the origin of the Company, and into the formalities of its late enfranchisement.

It was proved that the Company was duly incorporated by a charter of Edward the Fourth, and that it duly received from the Corporation a grant of the Livery in December 1846, and thereby became enfranchised. Mr. M'Christie was satisfied, and received the lists.

On Wednesday, Mr. Sydney Smith raised a point on the validity of one of Mr. Brown's notices of objection, which will affect upwards of a thou- sand notices. The objection is purely technical The Registration Act provided a machinery to facilitate the service of notices of objection. The objector is to draw up his notices in duplicate, and take them to the post- office, open; the postmaster is to examine them, and, on "being satisfied that they are alike in their address and in their contents, shall forward one by post," and, after stamping the other, give it back to the objector to be available as evidence of the service of the first. In the present case, the duplicates were faithful copies in all but one respect—the copies to be stamped and retained by the objector were not directed to the voter on their outside; the voter's address was only in "the contents" of the copy. Mr. M'Christie took time to consider the objection; which turned on the meaning in which the act used the word " address."

On Thursday, Mr. M'Christie gave judgment in favour of Mr. Smith, and determined that none of Mr. Brown's objections were good. The de- cision applies to upwards of 1,400 Conservative objections in the Metro- polis, and to many thousands of provincial ones. Mr. M'Christie refused to grant an appeal; " the case was so clear."

The September session of the Central Criminal Court commenced on Monday. Mr. Recorder Law stated, that of the 200 prisoners for trial 31 were charged with offences against the Crown and Government Security Act; and he explained at some length the provisions of that act.

John Shaw, undertaker, was tried on Wednesday for sedition, and for being at an unlawful assembly: his case presented no feature of interest, and resulted in a verdict of " Guilty" on each count.

At the Central Criminal Court, on Monday, Ebenezer Tearle was charged with forcibly entering a house in Hammersmith, and with causing a riot. In June last, Wells, the prosecutor, negotiated to let Tearle the house in question, and gave him some sort of document: there afterwards occurred some difficulty, and Tearle was refused the house. Thereupon he hired eight cabmen from a stand, and made a forcible entrance. Once in possession, a carousal of eatables, beer, and pipes, was kept up for several days; and a grand fire was maintained in the draw- ing-room with the fruit-trees and shrubs of the garden. The Jury found Tearle guilty: but on his yielding up the document given him by Wells about the house, and binding himself to cease all annoyance, he was liberated without punishment.

At the New Criminal Court, on Wednesday, Anna Smith, a lady like spinster of twenty-five, was tried for stealing various articles of dress and jewellery, from her mistress, the Honourable Frances Harriet Eden, sister of Lord Auckland. The offence was not proved to the satisfaction of the Jury, who required the tes- timony of Miss Eden: so a verdict of " Not guilty" was found.

The prisoner was then indicted for stealing twelve towels, the property of the Earl of Derby, and bearing the mark of his crest. The towels were missed during the prisoner's stay with her mistress at Knowlsey in October last, and were found in her box. Verdict, " Guilty "; sentence, seven years' transportation. " The prisoner did not seem at all affected by the sentence; but a respectable-looking elderly female, said to be her mother, began shrieking most violently, and was carried out of court fainting."

On Thursday, Robert Whalley, aged twenty-six, son of a deceased physician, was convicted of uttering a forged check for 101.•' he passed it on a publican to whom he owed money, obtaining an advance of 21. The young man had fallen into habits of intemperance, and mixed with bad society; he has a wife and two children; a short time ago he received a legacy of upwards of 4001., but soon squandered it away. Though the prosecutor recommended the convict to mercy, Mr. Justice Williams could not inflict a less punishment than seven years' trans- portation.

In consequence of the disappearance of Bagster, an important witness, the trial i of the parties charged with firing a coffeehouse in Long Acre was postponed till the October Sessions.

At the Westminster County Court, on Tuesday, Mr. Bolding, a baker, sued three parties for sums which he alleged to be doe. The first two cases having been decided against him, he turned to the Judge, and exclaimed, " I came here to have justice done me; but I have not had it, and I call this a court of iniquity and not of justice. People are encouraged here to defraud creditors out of their just debts. Judge Moylan seemed disposed to overlook this insolence; but as Mr. Bolding added more contumelious remarks, he ordered the bailiff of the court to take him into custody and detain him. Upon this the plaintiff spoke and acted very violently. The baker's third case was given in his favour; but still he could not refrain from insulting the Judge, who displayed imperturbable good temper. At the conclusion of the business, the clerk read the section of theCounty Courts Act which empowers the Judge to fine, or imprison for seven days, any one in- sulting him during the sitting of the Court. As the plaintiff had made no apology, and was not disposed to make any, Mr. Moylan committed him to the House of Correction for two days; which produced another wrathful explosion.

At the Mansionhouse, on Saturday, Mrs. Ann Batt, the owner of the house No. 19 Backlersbury, and of a house in Walbrook, was summoned by the Over- seers of the pariah of St. Stephen Walbrook /for 251. 108. poor-rates, which she refused to pay. It seems that Mrs. Batt is the " Sextoness ' of the parish of St. Stephen, and that the Churchwardens are in debt to her nearly 5001. "for supply- ingthe Church with every necessary article for these last five years, viz. for coals, candles, sacrament wine, making and washing surplices, paying man for bell-ring- ing, and every other article too numerous to mention." Mrs. Batt claimed to pay her debt of 251., by subtracting it from her credit of 6001. She stated that "there is property to the amount of about 700/. per annum belonging to the parish; and if the monies were properly managed there would be no occasion for any rates at all, as there have not been any for the last twenty years." She prayed the Lord Mayor to protect her from the Overseers, and refuse them a warrant. The Over- seers urged, that they are noways oonneoted with the Churchwardens, who owe the 5001.; and that the debt of one should not be confounded with the credit of the other. If a warrant were now refused, a mandamus must be applied for to overrule the refusal. The Lord Mayor took .a popular view of the question, and refused the warrant against Mrs. Batt; observing, however, that the Overseers were " performing their duties in the most humane and at the same time most efficient manner."

At Bow Street Police-office, on Tuesday, George Bridge Mullins, of 34 South- ampton Street, Strand, a Chartist conspirator of the genteel profession of A sur- geon, was charged with an offence under the Crown and Government Security Act. Powell, the Chartist informer, deposed that the prisoner was chairman of the meeting of delegates held on the 15th August at the Lord Denman public- house: it was he who put the question to each delegate, " Was he ready or not, to come armed next night and begin the fight and the firing of London? The pri- soner in the course of that evening called down "God's bitterest curse on the head of any man that should mean to betray them." Mullins was arrested in his father's coal-cellar, dressed in his mother's gown, bonnet, and veil; and two ladies were with him. He was committed for trial.

At the Thames Police-office, on Monday, John Richmond, a twine-spinner of Walworth, was charged with attempting to murder his wife, and with wounding himself Owing to the man's drunken and violent habits, his wife had recently left him, and was living at her sister's in Poplar • Richmond met her in that loca- lity on Saturday morning, and went to his sister-in-law's in the evening. After he had been there a little while, he put his arm round his wife's neck, and was in the act of kissing her, when the woman felt that he was cutting her throat; she shrieked, and the man was dragged away: the wound was not a dangerous one— the woman's fingers and her bonnet-string having partially protected her throat. It was supposed that Richmond had used a knife, but it was not found. At the stationhonse he was searched, and it was thought that nothing was left on him by which he might execute his threats of self-destruction: after a time he was found with wounds on both sides of his neck, which he tore open with his fingers, causing a great effusion of blood. It appeared that he had wounded himself with the buckle of his braces, which he had torn out Before the Magistrate, Rich- mond declared there was an improper intimacy between his wife and his brother- in-law, Caffell; but there seemed to be no grounds for the assertion. The prisoner was remanded till Wednesday.

At Guildhall, on Saturday, T. Arnold, a youth employed by Messrs. Morris the stationers on Ludgate Hill, at whose shop is a branch post-office, was charged with detaching the postage-stamps from paid letters, and with stealing the stamps. The Central Office authorities had taken note that a disproportionate number of unpaid letters came from Messrs. Morris's office, and had set a trap. They posted a number of letters with freshly-attached stamps which had been marked. Three stamps were again detached; and on Arnold's arrest they were found in his pocket, and identified. He was " committed for fourteen days."

At Bow Street, on Saturday, William Frazer, "a well-dressed, respectable-look- ing man of fifty," was charged with a number of frauds; among others with this one. He went to a hosier of Middle Row, Holborn, and ordered goods worth 41. to be sent to his tavern in Brooke Street, Holborn; leaving his publican's card. The goods were sent with their bill. The messenger found Frazer standing by the bar without a hat on and reading a paper; and was invited into a parlour to "take a glass and settle." Frazer observed that a pen and ink would be needed; the shopboy said his pencil would do; but Frazer said ink would be better, and started to fetch some, taking the parcel casually in his hand: the boy was sus- picions, and peeped through the door ajar; he saw Frazer ran out of the house without his hat, and gave pursuit. Frazer ran smartly, though he had been lame just before; and was not overtaken till a long chase. The boy snatched the par- cel: Frazer seized him, twisted his arm, and pinched a piece out of his hand, to make him let go of the prize. Finally, he was captured by bystanders. In at- tempts with other tradesmen Frazer was successful, and gained goods worth 101. It seems he was almost unknown at the public-house whose landlord he assumed to be. He stands committed for trial.

At the Southwark Police-office, on Wednesday, Dixon, a shoemaker of Ber- mondsey, and his wife, were cbarged with inciting their apprentice, John Fudge, to commit felony. The boy had been accused of stealing a piece of soap from a shop; and he excused himself by declaring that his mistress had ordered him to do rt. Dixon and his wife denied this. But when Fadge had been remanded and placed in a cell, Dixon went to him, and was heard to tell him to admit on his next ex- amination that Mrs. Dixon had given him money to pay for the soap, but that he had appropriated the money and stolen the soap: if he said this, Dixon declared he would get him off with a light punishment. The Dianne were committed for trial.

At Worship•Street Police Court, on Monday, Mr. Roper, honorary secretary to the Society for the Relief of Distressed Needlewomen, attended before the Magis- trate to communicate the result of some proceedings in which he had been lately engaged, to ameliorate the condition of the poor shirt-women and sempstresses. We give Mr. Roper's statements at length from the police report- " Mr. Roper said, it would be necessary to explain, that the primary cause of the starvation wages which these unfortunate beings were required and compelled to accept, was a system which had for a length of time obtained in all the union workhouses, and various prisons of the Metropolis, of receiving work from master-manufac- turers, to be made up by the inmates of their establishments, at a scale of prices which reduced the general ratio of wages afforded to the independent workwomen to an amount barely sufficient for their actual existence. He had himself seen at a large union workhouse, some of the female Inmates employed in making full-sized shirts of such a superior description, that the fair remuneration ought to be at least Is. 9d. each, but which were taken of the warehouses at 34d. and only one farthing allowed to the pauper workwomen for their labour. The same system was also pursued at the Mill- bank Penitentiary and other prisons, at which sailors' jackets and soldiers' greatcoats were made at the respective rates of 2jd. and ad. each; and although repeated appli- cations had been made to Government with the view of effecting a discontinuance of such a practice, they had been unfortunately unsuccessful. He had entered into correspondence on the subject with the several Guardians of the Metropolitan Unions ; the whole of whom, he was happy to state, although one of the parishes had been in the receipt of 2001. per annum from that source, had came to an unanimous determination to decline taking such contracts In future, and confine the labours of their workpeople to such articles as were indispensably necessary for the use of their fellow inmates. Several of the most respectab:e of the manufacturers of articles which afforded the lowest scale of remuneration had expressed their readiness to cooperate ia his efforts to the utmost extent In their power ; and the society with which he was connected were about to draw up a scale of prices for that kind of goods for their adop- tion, to which all the lesser tradesmen having claims to respectability would feel it their interest to succumb. In this event, a guarantee would be given to the public of far superior workmanship, and the condition of the general mass of impoverished needle- women be raised to a state of comparative comfort, from the starvation and wretched- ness in which they were now involved." Mr. Combs said, that he was well aware of the evils resulting from the per- nicious spirit of competition existing among the manufacturers in such depart- ments; and expressed his gratification that the exertions of Mr. Roper in pro- moting the benefit of the unfortunate workpeople were likely to be attended with success.

At Worship Street Police-office, last week, the Magistrate, Mr. Arnold, was engaged in investigating a curious case. About three weeks ago, Anne Lofinck complained to the Magistrate, that some gentlemen who had subscribed money to assist emigrants had sent her husband to America, leaving her and a child desti- tute; the subscription had been made at a meeting held in the Irish Ragged School in the Minories, at which Lord Ashley and other influential persons were present; and Mr. Jackson, of the City Mission, had the management of the scheme. Lofinck said Mr. Jackson had led her to expect that she would go with her husband; but he afterwards said the funds would not permit of this; and re- marked that it would be better not to spoil her husband's prospects, though she and the child should have to enter a workhouse. Her husband went to Ame- rica. As Mr. Jackson was out of town, Mr. Arnold gave the woman some money to relieve her present wants. On Thursday week, Emma Lofinck, sister-in-law of Anne, attended to make a similar complaint, with this difference, that her husband had been sent out by Mr. Jackson entirely without her knowledge: she and a child were left destitute. Mr. Jackson attended at the court in the after part of the day. He said the fund had been formed to assist repentant thieves to leave the country; both the Lofincks had represented themselves to be convicted felons: he did not know that both were married : it was understood that Anne's husband was to provide the means for the voyage of his wife and child. Mr. Arnold commented on the strange proceeding; and when Mr. Jackson said he had sent the men out believing them to be repentant felons, the Magistrate remarked that he should have made inquiries before he believed them; one of the men had offended once against the Hackney Carriage Act, and that was all. Mr. Jackson was obliged to admit that he had not made inquiries; but protested that he had acted with the best intentions. Mr. Arnold said the matter could not rest there. " I think the Poor-law Commission should be applied to about it But I must say, that the parties who have taken upon themselves the responsibility of sending a number of men out of the kingdom upon their own mere representations, without proper inquiry into them, and leaving their wives here destitute, have placed themselves in a very awkward position ; and I would recommend you to se- riously consider the matter, and see whether you cannot devise some means for an alleviation of their condition." To enable Mr. Jackson to do this, he adjourned the case; meanwhile giving the woman five shillings. On Thursday this week, Mr. Jackson, attended to inform the Magistrate that the women would be sent out to their husbands.

A fire occurred at a house in Whitechapel Road, on Saturday morning, by which lives were lost. The house was a milliner's, and the lower parts were in a gene- ral blaze before the inmates could be waked. A Mr. Pitt and his wife and three children were in the upper rooms. Urged by the crowd below, Mr. Pitt leaped from the window, and was caught without injury. Mrs. Pitt was frantic at the loss of her son, who could not be found; and her little daughter and infant son stood helpless at her side. The flames swept round them, set their garments on fire, and partly burnt their limbs. Mrs. Pitt seems to have become paralyzed; for she put her head down on the window-sill, and only moaned out the name of her son. A Mr. Watkinsou bravely and skilfully got within reach of her, and drag- ged her out of window by force; but could not hold her aloft in his position, and she fell into the street—receiving but little hurt. Her child Priscilla he also threw down to the people; but it fell on the pavement. Another child he mana- ged to bear off in safety. The eldest son ran from room to room after his father, and is supposed to have been suffocated by the smoke: his remains were found next day. In the course of Sunday, the child Priscilla died from the burns she had received and the shock of the fall. At the inquest, on Monday, no light was thrown on the origin of the fire; and the deaths were found to have been by acci- dent.

Norman Howard, foreman of the establishment of Mr. Cooper, the Queen's tailor, in Suffolk Street, has shot himself with a pistol, in a cab. He had suffered great losses by racing-bets on the St. Leger. He was young, and about to be married.

Bollsten, an old Waterloo pensioner, died in Westminster Hospital, the other day, from fracture of the skull, received by falling upon the pavement from a second-floor window: he had been cleaning the windows at a baker's, and his foot slipped as he was looking at some men carrying flour into the shop. By a recent act of Parliament, occupiers of houses are liable to a penalty of 21. for allowing any one to stand on the sill of a window to clean it.

A terrible accident occurred at the North Green saw-mills, in the City Road, on Tuesday. George Castles, a boy of fourteen, got his band entangled in the machinery, and while straggling to disengage it fell with his leg against one of the immense saws, which was whirling at its full speed. The poor boy's leg was instantly cut off from his body. Prompt means were taken to prevent his bleed- leg to death, and he was removed to St. Bartholomew's Hospital, but with little chance of life.

Catherine Meagher', a child of three years old, was crushed to death in a nar- row street, on Monday. The child was playing in Fore Street, Limehouse, when a cart approached; it tried to get behind a post, but did not succeed, and its head was crushed by the wheel against the post. Verdict of the Coroner's Jury," Ac- cidental death."

A strange accident occurred in the church of the Holy Trinity at Paddington, on Sunday morning. A child fell over the back rails of a gallery, through a win- dow recess, and alighted on a lady's head; but the projection of the wall about mid-way had so broken the fall, that neither child nor lady was much hurt.