At a meeting of the Common - Council, on Thursday, wereread the

_re- signations by Mr. Bullock, now Common Sergeant, of the offices of Judge of the Sheriff's Court, Commissioner of -the Central 'Criminal Court, and Judge .of the City &mall )ebts Court. Mr. Russell -Gurney, -Q.0., Mr. Ryland, a City 'Pleader, and Mr. Prendergast, QC., were proposed as candidates for the vacant Judgeship in the Sheriff's Court. At the same time, candidates were-put up for -the office of City Carpenter; Mr. All- slerton defending the eo-momination on the ground that both offices be- long to the bench, and both should be put up 'together. Mr. Gurney was elected Judge, and Mr. Waterlow was elected Carpenter.; and each pro- perly returned thanks.

At .a meeting of the City-Commissioners of .Sewersron Tuesday, a eom- Inunioation was road from the Dean and Chapter of St. Paul's, on the subject of Mr. Barber's -proposed removal of the vrall and railings from their 'present 'position round the Cathedral. Mr. Barber's plan is disap- proved, as -promising "no advantage so long as the -approaches to the Churchyard, especially that by Ludgate Hill, are in their present state:" The Dean and Chapter, however, have under consideration a plan for " opening the arena before the West front to all persons 'on feet during the day-time, (except on occasions whenthe Dean and Chapter may third( it necessary to 'keep fhe gates closed,) so that an =interrupted and leisurely view of the architectural elevation may 'be enjoyed by the

public?' • At a meeting of the Law Amendment Society, on Monday, the report of the Committee in favour of establishing a Law School was unanimously adopted ; and a resolution was passed, which requested and empowered the Committee to "take the necessary steps for securing the delivery of lectures of a -popular character on legal subjects." The Chairman, Me. Spence, Q.C., congratulated the Society on the decision it had come to-

' There might be some difficulty in establishing the Legal schools, for the legal education of students naturally belonged to the Inns of Court. The Committee had endeavoured to steer clear of the difficulty, but it could not altogether be avoided. As regarded the other main element of the report, the establishment of popular lectures on subjects connected with the law, at was clearly within the province of the Society; and he believed that such an institution would be attended with the most beneficial results. For it was a most extraordinary fact, that in no country whatever did the law form a more inconsiderable part of ordinary education, and that these who were summoned to net asjurymen made no profession of knowing anything of the law of the land. They were, in consequence, wholly influenced in their decision by the opinions expressed by the judge, instead of usefully assisting him in his duties, and forming an independent opinion, based on their own conviction and appreciation of the general spirit of the law Similar obser- vations might be made upon the legal ignoranceof execute's, churchwardens, &e. ; and he could not exonerate their lawgivers themselves, the Means:sof the Houses of Parliament, very few of whom could take part in any debate upon the amendment of the law."

The National Reform Association has carried out its resolution to held a conference of the friends of financial and representative reform from sll parts of the kingdom. The Conforenoe assembled= Tuesday, at •Croshy Hall ; and it has held daily sittings during the chief business part of each day. The number of delegates has been upwards of two hundred ; including representatives of all the large town and city populations in England, Scotland, and Ireland, with special representatives of-the gene- ral agricultural population. London, Liverpool, and Manchester, rot' course furnished a batch of representatives; the far North was-repre- sented by a gentleman from Aberdeen ; Ireland sent Mr. CharlesOavan Duffy and some quondam Repeal associates from Dublin ; the counties of Hertford and Norwich sent agricultural representatives, with Mr. Latti- more and Mr. George Tilled ; and the centres of learning and ecclesiasti- cal influence, Oxford, Canterbury, and Winehester—and those of pure fashion, Bath, Cheltenham, and Brighton—each sent its respectable ,eiti- zen chosen by the public voice at meetings held for the 'purpose. Mr. Hume, Mr. Cobden, Mr. Bright, Mr. 'Charles Lushington, Mr. W. J. Fox, Mr. Feargus O'Connor, and other Yarliamentery supporters -of -financial and representative reform, have attended, and sped the mare- ment with speech or counsel. The first day's proceedings inehaled speeches by Sir 3oshua Walmsley, the President and Chairman,; -Colonel Thompson, XT. • Lord Dudley Stuart, M.P. ; '. Lawrence Heyworfh, M.P. ; Mx. J. Kershaw' M.P. • Mr. J. Williams,ms, M.P. ; and Mr. George Dawson, delegate from Birmingham. The Conference passed •resalutions declaring the necessity of extending the local organization of the society, and of issuing tracts and publications.

Wednesday's proceedings included speeches by Mr. Cobden, 31r. Lueh- ington, M'Gregor, and Mr. Bright; and the passing of 'resolutions urging the active formation of Freehold land Societies as powerful auxi- liaries to reform, the establishment of a periodical organ, and the Janice of a Committee to prepare a bill for Parliament to carry out theprinciples of the Association.

The resolution regarding Freehold Land Societies was moved byy Mr. Cobden. He :resisted that the great obstruction to progress in the Muse of Commons is the County Members, and that by the machinery-of -,the freehold societies -nearly every English and Welsh county may be wan. Mr. Cobden gave details of the rapid and effective progress made by a local society in London, of which he is a member. They have made allot- ments in East Sunny which give 340 votes, and they are prepared to buy Iturd worth 10;0001. to carry out their plans. There could not be a better field of operation in the eountny.: you may appeal to nearly. seven-eiglithamif the population as voteless. As-to parties,•they never were in such a -state. of loveless and scattered higgledy-piggledy—Corn was a much worse blow ito them than. Catholics were before,; •you canno more reoonetruct them thanypu can collect the dust on the great Northern road and put it into the,shape of its original granite. The constituencies will not-be won soon, but they inevitably be iron in the end; and the whole farce to be used _must be _mare' force. You see disasters And eonvulsions abroad, because the mass of the people had not men, more especially men of education and man of wealth, to aid and head them in their efforts to obtain political freedom. Tf it over should come to such a state of things in this country that the influenfial members of the middle elms and thearistocraoyabstain from attending-public -meetings like this,-the object of which is-to advocate measures for theyste. pies good, then adieu to the system of carrying measures by moral moans. Ideas are not changed.by violence' principles are-not inculcated by blows. By hard arguments, by appeals to facts such as you.can use—for you reeve all the filets and logic on your side—go an as you have begun, and von will carry this great reform as you have-carried-other great reforms; and which, once carried, are carried for ever, so that you need never .go back or look baok.

Mr. Bright's speech was especially conciliatory to nervous and .timed interests.

" It is not my conviction that the moment we obtain a reformed Parlia- ment we should upset the Established Church: because it is-a question of argument whether or not there should be an 'eatablished church." 2ffie question of the Irish Parliamentary franchise shows how great an advance has been made even in Parliamentary opinion. A county qualification is now unopposed There which is wider than would have been an instant tolerated some years ago. The only complaint is that Government did not also son- siderably- reduce the boronglefranchbie—a thing, "I believe, theftoverument are.sorry for, as it originated more or leas in a blunder." ." --believe it '*as sir Robert ieel 'that said, when speaking on the question of iteform, 'They -would all be very glad to get up some morning arid iindthe thing -had been done ; lint there was a difficulty in doing it.' Our retiree therefore is to put this question in the most palatable shape-before the public—to -putit without offence to the frightened and the timid ; and if we do not put.forward im- possible theories to overturn society whereon to build our own schemes- vihichanay be. effected.hereafter .as being more in „keeping with the times, Waist to effected in•our lifetime—I venture to say these classes will be won.over to,oursulvocacy. Give the.people more power and means to obtain what they believe to be necessaey, and the conviction that I hold as a faith will .be—namely, .that the true and permanent foundation of all valuableinatitntionsis to be found in the general concurrence of the in- telligence

and virtue of a nation."

The proceedings on Thursday were confined-to business statements by llue. delegates—upwards of two hundred of whom were then present. Mr. Fox was the only speaker of mark, and his observations were brief and of immediate relation to business in hand. The Conference wound up its sitting in the -evening with a grand soiree, at which seven or eight hundred persons were present, including .almoseall the notables who had been present on the previous days.

The judgment of the Court of Queen's Bench on the application of the Bishop of Exeter to.prohibit the Court of Arches in the Gorham ease, was delivered on Thursday, by Lord (lief Justice Campbell. Lord Campbell premised, that he should have abstained from giving an opinion if the ap- plication were connected with any point argued or decided in the Judicial Committee of `Privy Council: but the applicant himself suggests that the point did not occur to his advisers till alter the decision ; it was in fact as new to Lord Campbell as to his learned brothers beside him. The 'argument of Sir Fitzroy 'Kelly was, that in all eases touching the Queen the only appeal is to the Upper House of Convocation. Upon the question whether the Queen is interested or not in this case, the Court needed not to express any opinion: it thought that even in such cases there never was any appeal to the Convocation. The first statute quoted in argument, relating only to tithes, &c., 24th Henry VIII. chapter 12,) was passed when Sir Thomas More, a rigid( Roman Catholic, was Chancellor, and when Henry had not yet broken with the See of Rome : it therefore still allowed an appeal on all spiritual matters, and reserved only suits on temporal matters for decision within the realm. The ultimate ap- peal under that act, where the matter did not touch the King, went no further than the Archbishop, whose decision was to be final.: where the matter did touch the King, the appeal went to the Upper House of Convocation, whose decision was to be final. Next year, when Henry found no chance of succeeding with his divorce suit, he broke with the Pope altogether, and resolved to vest wholly in himself the jurisdiction which the Pope had till that time retained. Sir Thomas More was succeeded by the pliant lord Auilley ; and several statutes were passed by Parliament to carry out the King's aims. The first of these was the statute cited secondly in Sir Fitzroy 'Kelly's argument, (the 25th Henry VIII. chapter 19) ; and it en- acts that, in all manner of appeals of what nature soever, [temporal or sm- rituat] -the manner and -form of appealing established by the former act should be observed,—that is to say, to the Archdeacon, Bishop, and Arch- bishop, in succession. No exception is made where -the King is touched; the enactment extends to all cases. The section following that which Sir Fitzroy Kelly quoted, creates a now court of appeal for "all causes in the Ecclesiastical Courts." " For lack of justice in any of the 4f any Abbots, Priors, and plums exempt from the Ordinary, shall be to the to be appointed. chap- ter 12. "( All•manner of appeals hereafter to be taken from the jurisdiction ap- peal to his Majest in the High Court of Chancery" ; where delegates are theretofore taken to Some, as in the temporal, enumerated by the act ohap- tofore to the See of Rome." No exception is made of suits touching the Sing; ofthtohoeghArcithbmislishonopsto, Itoseehall be theretofore tooreth King Majesty in the Court of Chancery, in like manner and form as here- tofore is given in all cases—as well in the spiritual, Coke exanessly„puts this constructipn on the statute, in the commentary on it in his Fourth Institute. In practice this construction has been acted on for three centuries, although many suits gave opportunity for a contrary con- struction, both in the Catholic reign which immediately succeeded that of Henry the 'Eighth, and in the religiously contentious reigns which followed-after; and In some of these cases the matter of the suit was one which obviously touched the King's personal interest. The language of the Mande being clear instead of• obscure, there is no justification for differing from theconetruction put on it by contemporaneous andlong-eontiumed usage. If itte true, as suggested,:tbat the Upper House of Convocationie a fitter tri- himal, the Court cannot regard that, or be influenced by any view to public policy; it can only interpret the law as presented in the language of the law. The Court holds thatze reason has been alleged to invalidate the ap- peal to-the Queen in Council, or the sentence delivered.; and it refuses to call on Mr. Gorham to.show cause why the execution of that sentence should not be stayed.

At-the Thames Police Office, on Thursday, Mr. Waddington, master of the bark Mary Ann, appeared to show cause why he refused to pay the wages due to his steward, Isaac Bowers. The complainant is a Black, a native of Antigua, and therefore a British subject : while on a voyage in the Mary. Ann,-the ship entered Charleston ; the city authorities took the Black out of the vessel, shut him up in prison, and kept him there during the two months that the vessel was in the port : for this safe keeping of the unoffending steward, Mr. -Waddington had to pay 201. The master wanted to deduct A from the man's wages, and also not to pay him wages for the two months he was in prison. Mr. Waddington admitted that he knew the custom of Charleston and New Orleans to imprison all mariners guilty of a black skin during the stay of their ships, in order that they might not communicate with the slaves ; lowers had not misbehaved ; the ruaster.made no effort to Yardley, his incarceration, or to obtain his freedom. The Magistrate, Mr. Yardley, decided that the master must pay the wages of the Black for the *hole-term, and that he must not deduct the 201. paid at Charleston for an imprisonment not brought on by the man's own misconduct. Mr. Pelham, who appeared for the steward, remarked that this seizure of British subjects seemed a matter for Lord Palmerston's attention.

At Westminster Police Office, on Wednesday, Thomas Powell, a middle- aged Irishman, was charged with sending threatening letters to the Earl of Reaborough. He demanded papers relating to some proceedings in Ireland in whielle supposed (erroneously) the Earl had acted magisterially : even hadthe demand been a proper one, the complainant had no control of the Mos. Powell threatened personal violence against the Earl, oven after lie had been warned by the Police to desist ; he entreated.the Earl not to "con- vert !him into another M'Naughten " ; he carried a stick to support his tottering steps, "and to lay about his Lordship's shoulders," &c. The ac- cused anode a xamhling statement, but bad nothing to say really in defence. He was sent to prison in default of bail to keep the peace.

• se. young lady has complained to the Marlborough Street Magistrate of having been cheated at .a shop in the Quadrant She selected a shawl at elimprice of 30s. ; when she got it home, she found it had been changed, the aribstitute having several holesin. it; she took it back, and received another ; this had been valued .at '12s. by a tradesman inHaford Street. When she Arent back with this second bargain, she was abused ; and 4he 'asked the Magistrate, had she no redress ? Mr. Bingham told her she might try the County.Court; audadvised her not to deal henceforth at "ticketing-shops," which "must live, and will live somehow."

James Brown, the man who stole the post office letter-bag, was committed from the Mansionhouse, on Thursday. It is said that the river near London Bridge has been vainly drugged to regain the bag, which Brown says he threw into the stream there.

At Worship Street Police Office, on Thursday, Pound and Jenkins were finally examined and committed for trial on a charge of fraudulently ob- taining cash and bills for 8001. from Mr. Newman, a tradesman of Heaton. Bail was permitted, but 8,000/. was required. A good deal of excitement was created on Tuesday afternoon by an alarm of fire at Hrury Lane Theatre, sparks and smoke rising from the roof. En- gines were immediately obtained, but the people in the building itself seem to have overcome the danger very speedily. A flue had set on fire some of the wood-work of the roof. Fortunately, this occurred an hour or two be- fore the time of the evening's performance.