Ebe Illetropolis.

The Courts of Aldermen and of Common Council have discussed and passed votes acknowledging in suitable terms the splendid and honourable style in which the late Lord Mayor, Sir James Duke, passed through his year of civic rule. In each assembly there were slight tokens of adverse feeling; Alderman Sir Peter Laurie objecting to the praises given for per- formance of magisterial duties which were notoriously never attended to at all; and Councillors Lambert Jones, Anderton, and Lott, raising questions of etiquette on the late Lord Mayor's not having communicated, according to usual forms, his information of the Queen's late indisposition, "whereby the City had been deprived of her Majesty's presence " at the opening of the Coal Exchange. Votes of compliment were at last passed by the Aldermen unanimously, and by the Councillors with the single exception of Mr. Lott, who, amid laughter, held up his disapproving hand "at least three minutes longer than was at all necessary" for counting it.

The City Commissioners of Sewers held a special meeting on Wednesday, to consider the report of Mr. Simon, the Officer of Health, on the sanatory condition of the City. Mr. Harrison moved the adoption of the report; testifying to its extreme import- ance, but not concealing from himself, that "as to at least two-thirds of the objects it embraced, the Commissioners had not at present the slightest control." In par- ticular, Mr Harrison mentioned the subjects of water-supply and intramural burials—the Commissioners had not the least power about them. He was happy, however, to state upon the authority ors highly respectable clergyman, that early in the ensuing session, the Government would introduce a general measure upon the subject [of intramural burials]. He thought that though the Commissioners had no power, the objects might be forwarded by a deputation to Government. With regard to the erection of baths and public washhouses, he declared that no public institutions had been of more social benefit; and he thought the Corpora- tion might advantageously dispose of some portion of their funds in promoting further erections. In conclusion, he recommended that such matters as the Com- missioners could not themselves take up the Common Council might properly take in hand. It was a grave duty cast upon them; and if they did not take a step in advance, other parties would be invested with the power. He moved that the re- port be referred to a Committee for consideration—especially those matters which do not come within the power of the Commission of Sewers. Mr. Deputy Pewtress seconded the motion.

The report seemed to have warm approval from a majority of those present; though particular details met with criticism from particular mem- bers. Among the general supporters, Mr. Harrison and Mr. Blake de- clared themselves opposed to its recommendations as to the mode of water- supply; adhering to the intermittent system with cisternage, as preferable to the constant dribbling system. Mr. Elliott threw out a suggestion for the conversion of "that odious, disgusting, and immoral place, Smithfield Market," into a site for "rows of houses round an open space, to be called the Working Man's Square"; and he quoted the example of Birkenhead in proof that comfortable dwellings can be erected for working men, with advantage to them in a social point of view, and to the projectors of the dwellings in a money point of view. There bad been no cholera in any of the City Gaols: the Corporation would not have done their duty until they saw the honest working man as well housed as the gaol felons. Among the objectors, Alderman Lawrence complained that the report was fanciful and visionary, and put the desirable before the possible. Mr. Lott thought it only too good and too beautiful to be car- ried out. Mr. H. L. Taylor expressed his dissatisfaction at finding Mr. Edwin Chadwick's name employed in it as an authority,—a feature that savoured of centralization, and "implied that men in power were anxious to save the Commissioners the trouble of attending to the management of their own business": be denounced the repcat as counselling exertions, which for some years have proceeded systematically, "to get rid of the poor out of the City.' Mr. Taylor admitted that the fallacious document was exceedingly well written; and hinted at the common authorship of the report and the leaders in the Times on the same subject. Mr. Simon dis- claimed writing articles in the Times or any other newspaper. "After ex- planations," Mr. Harrison's motion was agreed to.

Dr. Bucklaud gave a lecture on Artesian wells, on Tuesday, to the Royal Institute of British Architects. Lord Ebrington presided; and many eminent engineers and sevens were present. Dr. Buckland set himself to establish his controverted assertion that it is a vain hope to expect a suffi- cient supply of water for London from Artesian wells within it. From two to three hundred of these wells have now been sunk in London; and the increase of numbers has so lowered the subterranean reservoir from which they draw, that there is strictly speaking no such thing as an Artesian well now existing in the Metropolitan district. An Artesian well is one where the water flows up above the opening at the surface, from the pressure of a column of water reaching higher than that opening: this was the case with the wells sunk twenty or thirty years ago in the gardens of the Horticultural Society, in the gardens of the Bishop of London at Fulham, and at Brentford: but the water no longer rises so high. At the well sunk to supply the Trafalgar Square fountains, the water rises only to within from 40 to 80 feet of the surface; and at one of the great breweries, the level has sunk from 95 feet below the surface, which it reached a short time ago, to 188 feet. In twenty or twenty-five years no well of this sort would yield water at a less depth than 120 feet. Dr. Bnckland advocated bringing the water of the Thames to London from the point just below Reading, where it receives the Kenneth, the Loddon, and other clear tributaries.

Mr. Robert Stephenson confirmed Dr. Buckland's ideas as to the inade- quacy of Artesian wells for the needful supply; but he had some doubts as

to the practicability of his other plan, Mr. Tite declared his engineft.,„„ experience of the constant expense of Artesian wells; and was joined 7.;!, this point by some speakers who were the owners of such wells. one 0"; the latter stated, that the great brewers of London have long acted on e; arrangement, to pump up the enormous draughts which they need In. aree.

lug, on different days of the week.

The letter of the Bishop of London recommending contributions lath funds of the Society for Improving the Dwellings of the Labouring Claws

has been productive of large results: up to Wednesday morning the armt ee received in subscriptions was 669/. 48. 9d., and the contributions from the different churches had reached the sum of 1,1981. 138. 9d.

At a meeting of the opponents of all capital punishment, held in South wark, Mr. Ewart, the Chairman, stated that great changes in public feel. Mg had taken place on the subject-

" Some years ago, the Judges were unanimous in favour of capital punishment, Within the last three years, before a Committee of the House of Lords, irhen their opinion was asked on the same subject, Lord Denman gave no opinion et all. Would he not have declared in favour of it if he thought it right? ids Justice ldaule gave no opinion. Mr. Justice Coltman gave an opinion against i„ Mr. Justice Wightman did the same. Chief Justice Wilde, one of the great- est lawyers the country has produced, was not for capital punishment; he said the objections were very great: and when the Chief Justice said that, he was not very far from being a canvert to their opinions. Mr. Justice Crampton, of the Irish bench, abstained from giving any opinion ; Mr. Justice Perrin was ' de- cidedly of opinion capital punishment should be abolished '; and Chief Baron Pigot was decidedly against it. He was much mistaken if in the recent elevation of Mr. Justice Talfourd they had not found another enemy to capital punishmeat on the judicial bench."

The Lord Chancellor last week confirmed a decision of the Vice-Chancellor of England, which declared that certain charitable estates bequeathed to the Corpo- ration of Reading in 1624 have been forfeited to Christ's Hospital in London, through the neglect of Reading to perform the trusts of the bequest. The Berk- shire Chronicle states that the estates would have lapsed in 1639, only fifteen years after the bequest, but for an Exchequer decree obtained by Archbishop Land, who was a native of Reading. The Chronicle narrates the modern circum- stances of the case. " In 1837, the useless position of the charity induced the Attorney-General to file an information, with the sole object of framing a new scheme for its administration, adapting it to the wants of the town, and as nearly as possible comprehending the evident desire of Kendrick to benefit a certain class of his fellow townsmen. Finding Christ's Hospital mentioned in the will, the Governors were made, as a matter of form, a party to the suit. Upon a search- ing examination, they thought themselves entitled to claim the estates. They did so claim them; and on Wednesday they obtained them by a decree of the High Court of Chancery. How singular that they should so long have overlooked the forfeiture; or that, having discovered it, they were able to secure the property after more than a century had apparently confirmed the first owners in their possession, and covered all defects of their original title."

In the City of London County Court, on Tuesday, in the ease of Hollingsworth versus LIarradine, Mr. Commissioner Bullock decided, that by the 23d of George III. cap. 50, the letting out of newspapers is illegal, and that any debt incurred for the hire of such papers is not recoverable in any court of law ; further, that any person so letting out newspapers is liable to a fine of Si. for every offence.

Daring the Thanksgiving-day last week, from nine o'clock in the morning till nine at night, the City Police were not called upon to act in a single instance. They declared this to have been unparalleled in the history of the force.

Francis, the convict who killed Thomas Hall, was examined by Mr. Burrell, the Westminster Magistrate, in Milbank Penitentiary, on Saturday, and com- mitted to Newgate for trial on the charge of murder. The witnesses were those examined at the inquest. Francis listened to their recitals without the least emotion, but wasted much time in putting frivolous and irrelevant questions: and he took notes. The assassin is of the Jewish persgasion. He complained that he had been kept in irons, and that he had not been sent to another priaon after the inquest: he could get no justice there—he wanted to be sent to Newgate and have a fair trial.

At Clerkenwell Police-office, on Wednesday, Charles Corbey, a young man not yet of age, was charged with attempting to murder Mary Noble, a young 'Man with whom he had lived. The couple had a quarrel, and Noble leg the prisoner, saying that she would live with him no more; he went to her place of work, pre- tended to kiss her, but cut her throat with a razor. The young woman was examined: when she was bound over to prosecute, she exclaimed, entreatingly- " Oh! I hope you will have mercy upon him: the Lord has been so merciful as to spare my life, and I hope his will be spared." Corbey is a man of weak aspect, and during the examination he betrayed every sign of being a very silly person.

At the Thames Police-office, on Thursday, Henry Samuels junior, of Shadwell, was summoned, at the instance of the Registrar of Seamen, for unlawfully ship- ping a boy on board the Henry Cootes, to serve therein as a seaman, Samuels not being duly licensed for the purpose. The case was curious, as showing how pauper boys are illegally bound apprentices to shipmasters. The defendant had acted for his father, an outfitter; and the senior Samuels attended, and attempted to justify all that had been done. Hales, a boy from the Mile-end Workhouse, and Tunatill, a youth from Alarylebone Workhouse, had been taken by Samuels to a collier, and had there been apprenticed, without the forms required by law in binding parish-boys or in shipping boys and men on board vessels. In the case of Hales, which erode was fully investigated, Samuels received 51. from the union as a bonus or payment for the outfit of the boy ; he took him to the ship in a sailor's dress, and represented him as a boy from the country, not a pauper. The indentures were executed in so slovenly a manner that the two boys signed • the wrong papers; while the master of the collier signed the owner's name, and then put his own as a witness. The Union officers attempted to justify the Board of Guardians for their share in the matter: the Si. was paid for an outfit; there was so much trouble in providing for boys, that they were allowed to seek

places for themselves; the binding was quite voluntary on the part of Hales. Mr. Yardley severely censured this lax mode of proceeding, so contrary to the inten- tion of the law. After a long investigation, he fined the defendant 201. The se- cond summons, in Tunstill's case, was not proceeded with: Tunstill is eighteen years old. The binding of both is nail and void.

The "Count de Taxa Dembicki," a Polish impostor who has formerly been imprisoned for fraudulent practices in extracting money from the charitable or the

timid, has again been brought before a Magistrate. On Monday he was finally

examined, at Lambeth Police-office, on a charge of vagrancy, and sent to the House of Correction for three months. He is an audacious knave, forcing himself into houses, and demanding alma in a manner likely to intimidate women. On the present occasion, he represented himself as an old French officer, lately re- tuned from America. As Mr. Davis, a member of Tettersall's, was palming through Cromer Street, Brunswick Square, about one o'clock on Thursday morning, three men attacked

him: we seized him from behind by the throat, while a second beat him on the head with a "life-preserver," felling him to the ground: then they began to search his pockets; but the third ruffian gave an alarm, and all three decamped ; mr. Deets giving chase for a little way. A reward of 1001. has been offered for the conviction a the man who inflicted the wounds. On Sunday morning, seven arches of a viaduct on the East and West India psee Railway, traversing Camden Town, fell in. A large arch adjoining, which spanned the Hawley Road, cracked, and appeared to be in a sufficiently dangerous suite to warrant the suspension of the public traffic beneath it. Men were set to fork to pat supports under it. Mr. J. D. Allen, a surgeon in the Royal Navy, committed suicide at the Waterloo terminus on Monday afternoon. He was seen walking on the platform, with a sub- dued and melancholy expression of countenance. Divers engines were moving about on the rails. As one of them approached Mr. Allen, he got on the rails: a police- man called out to warn him of hie danger, and ran towards him; as he approached, he saw Mr. Allen deliberately lie down on the rails before the advancing locomo- tive placing his neck upon the iron; in another instant the ponderous machine cru;hed him to death. At the inquest, previous symptoms of mental disease were proved; and the Jury gave a verdict accordingly.