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A Court of Aldermen was held on Saturday, to swear in Sir William Heygate as City Chamberlain. Sir William also gave in the resigna- tion of his Aldermauic gown. A vote of approbation and thanks to him for his conduct as an Alderman was passed unanimously.
The Court having been dissolved, the members remained as a Com- mittee to receive a statement from Alderman Thomas Wood, respecting the charges which had been made against him, and which had pre- vented his election to the Mayoralty. He denied that he had derived any advantage from his connexion with the Talacre Coal and Iron Com- pany, and he challenged proof that he had received a single pound. The association consisted of the most respectable people : Captain, since Major, Thomas Pottinger, a brother of Sir Henry Pottinger, was one ; another was Mr. John Spencer, a relative of Lord Spencer and the holder of an office under Government ; a third, Mr. Lawson, a gentleman of large property in Ireland. He entered into a variety of details contro- verting the statements of a Mr. Chappellow, a discontented shareholder. He declared that, upon his honour as a gentleman and a Magistrate, he never received a shilling out of the company ; and the only parties who had were the very men who had thus assailed him. The Court of Aldermen ordered this statement to be printed.
The following have been among the charitable and religious meetings of the week. The Aborigines Protection Society met at Crosby Hall in Bishopsgate Street, on Monday : the income of lest year was 2591., the expenditure 2441. ; and the Society has a debt of 100L The British and Foreign Temperance Society held its twelfth annual meeting at the Music Hall in Store Street, on Tuesday ;, Lord Teignmouth in the chair : the year's subscription was 686/. but there was an accumulated balance against the Society of 2001. The Universal Peace Society as- sembled at their meeting-house in Houndsditch; the Chairman being Mr. Samuel Gurney. The London Orphan Society's anniversary was kept at the London Tavern on Wednesday ; Lord Ashley occupying the chair. Among the many handsome donations, headed by the Queen and other Royal persons, was one of 10/. 108. from W. Savory, late an orphan in the institution. The friends of Foreigners in Distress met at the London Tavern, and the Governesses Benevolent Institution at the Hanover Square Rooms, on Thursday ; the Duke of Cambridge pre- siding at both.
The twenty-fifth annual meeting of the Incorporated Society for Promoting the Enlargement, Building, and Repairing of Churches and Chapels, was held yesterday, at the Society's rooms in St. Martin's Place, under the presidency of the Archbishop of Canterbury. The funds, on the 31st March last, amounted to 44,5171. ; the grants outstanding, to 48,5001.
The fifth annual meeting of the Royal Agricultural Society of Eng- land was held on Monday, at their rooms in Hanover Square. Earl
Spencer was unanimously reelected President of the Association. The report stated that 1,436 members bad been added to the list in the past year ; making the total number 7,000: there had been a further in- vestment of 1,0001. capital ; making the funds of the Society 7,7001., and leaving a current cash balance in the banker's hands of 1,2001. It was announced that the Society intended to give four prizes of 50/. each for the best essay on the several counties of Norfolk, Chester, Essex, and Wiltshire. The annual festival of the Society would be held at Derby in July next, and at Southampton in 1844. The receipts of the half- year ending 31st December 1842 were 4,4411.; the expenditure was 3,758/. ; balance 683/. ; and there was a balance of 573/. to be paid by the Society for expenses of the festival at Bristol. The report was adopted unanimously. Mr. Houghton suggested a plan for the allotment and cultivation of waste lands : he would contribute 501. towards the experiment. The Chairman said that a discussion on so important a subject could only take place before the Council. The reading of a list of prizes awarded and offered closed the proceedings.
The newly-formed Botanical Society gave what may be considered as their first annual fête on Wednesday ; when their beautiful gardens in the inner circle of the Regent's Park were filled with visiters. The storm of the preceding night had cleared the air, and the day, so threa- teningly ushered in, proved delightful : the deluge of rain had saturated the gravel-walks, but planks were laid down in plashy places, and the vegetation looked its freshest in the light of an afternoon sun. The show of flowers was magnificent both in quality and quantity ; filling four marquees, one of very large dimensions : the pelar- goniums, calceolaria, azaleas, cacti, and heaths especially, were very fine and various. Mrs. Lawrence's contribution of fifty greenhouse plants, which gained the first prize, was superb, and attracted great notice. The rich hues of the flowers which scented the air, the throng of lovely faces that made the walks vie in attraction with the parterres, and the music of two military bands, combined with the brightness of the day to give an enlivening effect to the scene.
The taste and ingenuity shown in the lay ing out of the ground, and the perfect order and neatness which they exhibited, are highly credit- able to the officers of the Society. Separate portions of the ground are assigned to plants of different species : an artificial mound of irregular shape, picturesquely diversified with fragments of stone of different kinds and fossil specimens, rises near a piece of water destined for aquatic plants; and grotto-work in various turns of the walks, and rushy pools, are prepared for the growth of plants that thrive in such localities. A model was exhibited of the green-house, or conservatory, that is to enclose the " winter garden" : it is one vast hall of glass, of enormous extent—covering four acres of ground, if we are rightly in- formed—and capable of sheltering 3,000 persons as well as the plants it is intended to protect from the weather. This will be unique of its kind.
When it is considered that this Botanical Society derives its revenue solely from the subscriptions of members, the efforts that have been made and are making to advance the science of botany by the mainte- nance of these gardens, and the propagation of plants of every clime, deserve the support of all who are interested in these pursuits. Flori- culture may be promoted by the efforts of individuals, as it has been to a great extent, and horticulture also, which has a society devoted to it especially ; but arboriculture, and the growth of plants neither orna- mental nor edible, but not less useful to man, opens a wide field for the exertions of the Botanical Society, in which it has no competitors.
George Howse, the late Lord Fitzgerald's steward, and William Cornelius Fuller, the cannon, were reexamined at Queen Square on Monday, on a charge of being concerned in the robbery of plate on the 13th instant ; and they were again remanded for a week.
At Marylebone Police-office, on Monday, and again on Thursday, Mr. Hugh Stratford Stratford was examined on a charge of assaulting Mr. Chisholm, surgeon, of Devonshire Street, Portland Place. He met him in Wimpole Street, and mistaking him for Mr. Barnard Gregory, editor of the Satirist, who had aggrieved Mr. Stratford, he inflicted a severe beating with a heavy stick. Mr. Chisholm was se- riously hurt in the head, and lies in a dangerous condition. Mr. Strat- ford was remanded till Thursday next.
At Worship Street Police-office, on Wednesday, Richard Wheatley, a carpenter, was finally examined on a charge of ill-using his son George, a boy between nine and ten years of age. On Saturday, the boy had been brought up for stealing a file, and he excused himself by saying that he had only taken it to file off his leg a chain that his father had put there on inquiry, it came out that his father had been in the habit of chaining him down to tine floor with his arms and legs ex- tended. The accuser and accused changed places; and on Thursday the boy gave a narrative, here abridged— His mother bad been dead four years, leaving himself and two daughters, one older and one younger than he was. About six months back his father began to ill-use him. One Saturday, his hands were tied behind him, and he was turned into the yard, for staying out at play. Another day he went to play with a boy at Chelsea, and staid out all night; and his father chained him by the leg to abed-post for a week ; but he was let loose every night. Another time his father found him in the street, and chained him up for a fortnight ; but he broke loose, and ran away to Chelsea. In two or three days his father caught him, beat him with a rope, and sent him to bed. Next morning, his father drove four large nails into the floor, made him lie on his back in his clothes, stretched his limbs out, and chained him in that position. He re- mained so till let loose at nine at night. His little sister gave him some tea and bread in the morning. At the time of Stepney Fair, he got out, went to the fair, and staid away for a week. A Mr. Ward, a carpenter, found him lying about the streets, and took him home; and hie father threatened to chain him in an empty room in which a person bad recently died. While big father was at tea he escaped, and hid in the neighbourhood all night ; but Mr. Ward again found him ; and he was chained to the floor, with a sack to he on and an old coat and trousers to cover him, for seven days and seven nights, except one, when Mr. Ward let him loose and put him to bed. His little sister brought him bread and water, and he had meat about three times. She brought him a chisel, with which he pulled up a nail; a file which he procured set him free ; and he ran away. A Policeman took him home ; and his father was going to beat him, but the Policeman told him not : be was, however, chained down again for nearly three weeks. Last Sunday week, his father let him loose on his promising to be a good boy ; but on Thursday he went out to play with some boys, and was again chained up. He denied that he had stolen any thing from his father, except some old nails.
His leg was bruised by the chain, and there were marks on his wrists. Wheatley averred that he had none but a father's feeling for his son ; who was addicted to pilfering, and to running away from home into bad company, and that what he had done was solely with a view to correct those bad habits. The prisoner was ordered to find bail for his appearance to be tried at the Central Criminal Court.
A frightful death occurred at Hanwell Lunatic Asylum on Sunday. Miss Jane Sarah Collins, whose mind had been wandering on religious subjects, came to visit her brother-in-law, Dr. Conolly, on Saturday. Next morning, it being daylight, he was awakened by her coming into the room and asking for a light, as she thought it necessary to burn herself; and she added, that she had been thinking of throwing herself out of window. Seeing him make a motion to get out of bed, she ran up stairs. He slipped on a dressing-gown and followed her, and on reaching her room, found her in the act of springing out of window. He caught her by the wrist, held her as she hung for twenty minutes, screaming for help ; but no one came to him, and he was obliged to let her fall a height of fifty feet. She never moved again. She had a notion that if she had destroyed herself on Palm Sunday she would be saved. A Coroner's Jury returned a verdict of " Accidental Death."
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