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The King of Portugal and his brother the Duke of Oporto were re- ceived at the Mansionhouse on Monday, by the Lord Mayor and Cor- poration, in state. The business of the occasion was the presentation of an address of welcome to England, and expressing a hope that the King's visit may tend to perpetuate the friendly alliance that has so long sub- sisted between the Portuguese and British nations. The King read the following answer, said to have been written by himself.

A deputation of Mayors and representatives of important corporations had an interview with Lord Palmerston on Wednesday, to state objec- tions to the Police Bill introduced into the House of Commons. Lord Palmerston, not admitting the strength of all the objections urged against his bill, said he was not prepared to force arty measure against such strong and unanimous representations as had been made to him, and therefore he would withdraw the bill.

The Chancellor of the Exchequer received, on Tuesday, a deputation from a newly-formed society for promoting the decimal system. Among them were Lord Monteagle, Lord Stanley, Mr. Arthur Kinnaird, Mr. W. Brown, and thirty-two other Members of Parliament : generally the deputation were in favour of the pound as a unit. Mr. Gladstone said there could be no doubt of the advantages of the decimal system ; but it has not yet been sufficiently sifted. The commercial classes favour the system, but large masses know nothing of decimals. On this subject the opinion of the Government is of no importance—the question is, what does the country think ? Patience is not a popular text, but they must have patience until the matter is further discussed.

The annual meeting of the Law Amendment Society was held on Wed- nesday; Lord Brougham in the chair. The report for the past year, read by the chairman, stated that although the year had been marked by great national excitement., yet there had been no retrogression as re- garded law reform. The Society had chiefly occupied itself with the sub- jects of law-reporting, the Ecclesiastical Courts, the assimilation of the commercial laws of the United Kingdom, the Commission on the Inns of Court, and the appointment of a Minister of Justice. The appointment of a Minister of War evinces the feeling that has arisen in favour of uniting the duties pertaining to each branch of the public service under one head. The report expressed an opinion that if prosecuted with vigour the objects of the Society can assuredly be obtained. The report was adopted, on the motion of Lord Beaumont, seconded by Mr. Adderley. Li reply to a special vote of thanks for his services in the chair, Lord Brougham said that while his life and strength are spared, he will con- tinue his exertions for the amendment of the law.

On Wednesday, the hundred-and-fifty-third anniversary of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, there was a meeting of the Society, at Willis's Rooms ; the Archbishop of Canterbury in the chair. The speakers were the chairman, the Archbishop of Dublin, Lord Robert Cecil, the Bishop of New-Zealand, the Bishop of Natal, the Bishop

"My Lord Mayer—I thank you, and the Aldermen and Commoners of the city of London, in my own name, and in that of my brother the Duke of Oporto, for the kind expressions with which you have welcomed us upon the occasion of this our first visit to this city. The premature death of my dear and for ever lamented mother, the Queen Dona Maria the Second, having obliged me to ascend a throne which, however glorious, I would rather have ascended much later, I have undertaken this voyage, not for my amusement, but for my own instruction, and for the purpose of better fitting myself hereafter to guide the destinies of the noble people over whom I am called to rule ; and in doing so I do but execute the late Queen's will.

"Painful as are for me the circumstances which obliged me to quit my own country sooner than I would perhaps otherwise have done, it is a satisfaction to me that the first soil upon which I tread should be that of our most ancient and faithful ally ; and that the first court I visit should be that of your gracious Sovereign, to whom, as well as the Royal Consort, being already connected by ties of relationship, I am now attached by the deepest feelings of friendship and gratitude for the cordial and affectionate reception they have given me. "I cannot but acknowledge with the utmost satisfaction that the city of London, whose worthy representatives you are, has been united by the most intimate relations with the city in which I was born, not only at a time in which European commerce was conducted by municipal corporations, by small repubhcs, who in the midst of monarchies acted with almost sovereign independence, but also in modern times. These relations I confidently hope will be maintained for ever. The friendship between England and Portugal has existed for centuries, and increases more and more. England has al- ways fought for Portugal whenever her independence has been threatened. Our liberal institutions powerfully contribute to identify the feelings and in- terests of both countries. Throughout the course of my reign, my constant and firm purpose will be, under the blessing of Divine Providence, both to maintain the institutions of my country and to render more and more close the relations which have united and continue to unite the two nations."

After paying a visit to the Bank, the Royal Exchange, and the Stock Exchange, the King and his brother returned to the Mansionhouse, and partook of a dejefiner a la fourchette.

" The annual banquet of the Trinity Corporation took place on Wednes- day; when Prince Albert, as Master, presided. Nearly the whole of the Brethren and several Cabinet Ministers were present.

of Oxford, and the Bishop of Graham's Town. From the report pre• sented by the secretary we learn, that 56,0001. was last year expended for the maintenance, wholly or in part, of 447 missionaries, and 700 catechists, schoolmasters, and theological students. The expenditure in the diocese of Toronto has been reduced from 6500/. in 1843 to 31001. in 1853; and in the six dioceses in the North American Colonies there has been a re- duction of 5000/. since 1843. In the same period the sum expended in the West Indies has been reduced from 11,2001. to 26001. The East Indies and Ceylon have recived during the past year 23,00W., more than a third of the Society's income; a proof that the Society does not confine its operations to people of British descent.

The managers of the Crystal Palace Company entertained the foreign Commissioners at a dejefiner, in the basement story of the Palace, on Saturday last ; Mr. Laing in the chair. The Bishop of Oxford said grace; Count Lesseps, one of the French Commissioners, and the Earl of Car- lisle, made speeches ; the Duchess of Sutherland, the Marchioness of Ailesbury, the Marquis of Granby, the Earl and Countess of Desert, the Earl and Countess of Shaftesbury, Lord Campbell, Lord Stanley, Mr. Ralph Osborne, Sir John and Lady Pakington, and several other Mem- bers of Parliament, were among the guests.

A Committee of the Institute of British Architects had an interview with Lord Palmerston on Monday, and with Sir William Molesworth 011 Tuesday, to solicit the support of the Government to the proposal for keep- ing the ground near St. Paul's free from buildings. Both Ministers pro- mised their cordial support, for reasons of public health and convenience, as well as on grounds of taste.

The Board of Works are about to erect more sightly entrances to St. James's Park at Storey's Gate, to Kensington Gardens at Bayswater, and to Greenwich Park from Blackheath.

An extraordinary case came before the Court of Common Pleas on Tues- day. Margaret Rejinbal, a French girl, sued a Frenchman, named Le Brun, or Marmaysee, or Germain, by all which names he was known, to recover a riding-habit, some linen, and money due on account. From the evidence it appeared that Marmaysee traded in these girls' importing them from France as traders import cattle from Holland ; and that when they arrived they were kept in his house in Newman Street, entirely under his control. He made this bargain with them : one half the proceeds of their calling was to be paid to him ; the other half was to be their own, Le Brun being banker, charging for board, lodging, and clothes. They never were allowed to go out without a femme de eonfiance ; and on Sunday morning the accounts were balanced. Margaret Rejinbal kept a book of her receipts ; and claimed 70/. as due to her, after deducting expenses. Gentlemen, she said, some- times gave her 1/., sometimes 2/., sometimes 3/. She came to London on the 27th December last, urged to do so by a friend of the man who seduced her. In the first week of the new year she made for the first three days 3/. each day, on the fourth and fifth 4/. a day, on the sixth and seventh 34 a day—in all 23/. When she left France she did not know what sort of a house she was coming to; but soon found out. She left that house in April ; when Marmaysee refused to give her the money due, and her clothes. Tired of her mode of life in Newman Street, she learned to ride, with the view of getting employment at an equestrian theatre ; and as her riding- habit had been detained, she was obliged to hire one at 5s. each time she needed it. Cross-examined, she admitted that she had lived at Marseilles, Havre, Paris, and Lyons, under the surveillance of the pollee. She was first seduced at Paris, when an orphan. An attempt was made by the counsel for the defendant to stop the case on account of the shocking details ; but it failed. At length, however, the counsel on both sides agreed to take a verdict for 30/. The Chief Justice said, it was clear that the de- fendant was engaged in a disgusting traffic of buying young women abroad from his agents, and then cheating them out of their wretched earnings. If the case had gone on, and it had appeared that persons of that kind were in the defendant's house' he should have directed him to be indicted for keeping a brothel, and detained in prison in the mean time.

At the Middlesex Sessions, on Monday, Joseph White, an old man, was convicted of stealing four pounds of coal, the property of the Chancellor of the Exchequer. The theft was a peculiarly ungrateful act : White went twice a week to Downing Street to receive soup given him by Mrs. Glad- stone ; it was noticed that he always entered the coal-cellar ; a footman watched him, and saw him fill his pockets with coal. Sentence, six months' imprisonment.

John Lyons, an Irish coalwhipper, has been committed for trial by the Thames Police Magistrate for assaulting his wife, by putting her on a coke fire, severely burning one of her legs. A Policeman witnessed the cruelty through a crevice in the shutters of the room. Lyons upbraided his wife for spending his money in drink, and leaving their children to starve ; she re- taliated by thrusting his trousers into the fire ; he said as she harl burnt his trousers he would burn her—and he actually thrust her on the large fire. The Policeman immediately entered : Lyons told him to take him into custody— he would sooner be hanged or transported than live with such a drunken woman. The wife has since kept out of the way to avoid giving evidence ; but the Policeman's testimony enabled the Magistrate to commit.

Some time since, a child named Richardson, three years and a half old, died under a surgical operation in the Free Hospital, Gray's Inn Road. The boy was supposed to be suffering from the stone ; but Dr. Cooper, of the Bloomsbury Dispensary, found no trace of anything of the kind ; and when it was taken to the Free Hospital, one of the surgeons agreed with Dr. Cooper ; while another, Mr. Cooke, adopted a contrary opinion. The mother left the child in the Hospital, and consented that an operation should be performed on condition that the nurse of the child should be present. The operation was performed : it is alleged that it lasted an hour and forty minutes ; and the child died. [The surgeons mentioned as performing the operation are Mr. Cooke and Mr. Wakley junior : the latter has denied that he had any hand in it : he touched neither scalpel nor forceps.] The mother went to the Hospital and asked to see the stone, but it was not produced. Mrs. Richardson, dissatisfied with the explanation of the surgeons, employed a solicitor to obtain an inquest, and signed a document to be served on Mr. Wakley. When she waited on Mr. Wakley, at his office, he asked her if she had been bribed to take this proceeding ; and she said "No." Subse- quently, some person, unknown to her, asked her to forego the inquest ; but she refused. Meanwhile, the attorney engaged by the child's father called on the man and requested him to stop the inquest ; saying that the doctors had admitted their error, and that if an inquest were had the Jury could say no more. The attorney induced Richardson to sign a paper withdrawing the demand for the inquest., and told him to call at his office next day. Richardson went, and received from the clerk a packet containing 201. Thinking he had been deceived, Richardson lodged the money with his em- ployer; and, through Lord Dudley Stuart, obtained from Lord Palmerston

an order for an investigation. The inquiry opened on Tuesday ; Mr. Bal- lantine appearing for the father, Mr. Bodkin for the Crown, and Mr. Clark- son for Mr. Cooke. Mr. Baker, Coroner for the Eastern division of Middle- sex, presided, at the request of Mr. Wakley, whose son was alleged to be one of the operating surgeons. In his opening address, Mr. Ballantine stated that the attorney referred to had received 100/. to stop the inquest ; but proof was not adduced, and the inquest is still pending.

A large part of the extensive premises of Messrs. Pinchin and Johnson, oil-merchants, in New Road, St. George's in the East, wa.A destroyed by a fire which broke out very early on Wednesday morning, From the nature of the stock, including Government stores, vast quantities of oil and turpen- tine, the blaze was tremendous, and the streets were covered with streams of fire rushing to the sewers. Three arches under the Blackwell Railway, oc- cupied by the firm, were burnt out, and the traffic on the line was suspended for a time ; but after some shores had been applied to the arches it was re- sumed. The property destroyed is valued at 20,000/. ; the insurances amount to 16,0001. The cause of the fire is unknown : the people were work- ing late on Tuesday night.

M. Latour made a successful parachute descent on Tuesday evening. He ascended with a balloon from Cremorne Gardens, and alighted in the parachute in a field at Shooter's Hill. Fortunately, the useless exploit was unattended by any disaster.

No wonder that cab-drivers try to extract more than legal fares, when they are expected to pay their employers so highly for the use of a cab and horse : in a case that came before the Lambeth Magistrate this week, it appeared that a driver had contracted to pay a cab-owner a guinea a day.

The new cab-law, with its lower fares and more stringent enactments, has not reduced the number of cabs : in June last year 3326 licences were issued ; in the present month 3421 have been granted. [Perhaps the horses are inferior?]