be litetrop_oirs.

A Court of Aldermen was held on Monday for despatch of business. In answer to Alderman Salomans, Alderman Musgrove stated that the sub- ject of the City franchise had been considered in Committee; and it heA been ananimonsly resolved that immediate means to extend the franchise houid be taken. The Recorder, however, had given his opinion that the s Court could not legally proceed in the matter without application to Par- liament The Court of Common Council met on Thursday. The Navigation committee reported strongly the necessity of lowering the navigation tolls. redaction took place, the railways would cause the tolls to disappear altogether. Recommendations of reduction in the tolls were agreed to, and referred back for execution. The Billingsgate Market Committee re- ported, recommending an expenditure of 15,000/. in enlargements and im- provements: the report was agreed to.

There was a numerous meeting of the inhabitants of St. Pancras on Monday, in aid of the new Reform moven:tea Lord'Dudley. Stuart and Sir Benjamin Hall were present, and spoke. Lord Dudley Stuart ap- proved of all the four Reform points, but would not say that he accepted them as final measures. Sir Benjamin Hall had not enlisted under the banner of any Member of the House of Commons, but he cordially con- curred in all the four points. A Reform resolution was proposed by Mr. B. Dell, a Quaker; but it met with an opponent in Mr. Vernon, the Phy- cal-force Chartist, who moved as an amendment the adoption of the whole Charter. A considerable debate occurred: the amendment was put, and carried by a small majority. The meeting declined proceeding farther, and broke up.

The supporters of the " The People's League" held a public meeting on

Wednesday, at the London Tavern. The chair was taken by Colonel Thompson, M.P.-' and the chief speakers were Mr. Sharman Crawford, M.P., Mr..Charles Lwthington, M.P., Mr. Robert Gardner, M.P., Mr. Ed- ward ktiall, Mr. Lovett, Mr. J. E. Parry, and Mr. Ernest Jones. Several resolutions were proposed. The People's League has the object of securing the one point of the Charter, universal suffrage, "together with such details as are essential to its exercise." Mr. Ernest Jones was anxious for union between middle and working classes, but deprecated aiming at half- measures: what were the details" which the society meant? Mr. Parry protested against the conclusion that half-measures only were the object of the society. Mr. Jones said the society was either for uni- versal suffrage alone, or for that and "the details ": if for the latter, what were the details? Mr. Lovett, said he had convened the League on the principles of the Charter; but the friends who had met, finding they differed as to the details of the exercise of the franchise, had only at present expressly gone for the suffrage, and had left the details to be further con- sidered at the next meeting. Mr. Jones would not Move an amendment, as the party of the People's League had come out more fairly than any other at either of the three meetings held in London. A resolution in flavour

of universal suff '

rage together with eubh.tdetails," lc., was put to the meeting; but on a show of hands it was negatived. A scene of confusion arose, and the meeting broke 'up. '

The Venerable John Sinclair, M.A., Archdeacon of Middlesex, held a

Visitation of the clergy under his jurisdiction, at St. Paul'et,Covent Garden, on Monday. In his charge the Archdeacon alluded to the Convocation of Clergy, and stated his desire that that body should' have an increase of practical powers—

It appeared to him most important to have the fact universally understood and

acknowledged/ that the functions of the Convocation should be revived, for the purpose of affording to the Church an effective system of legislation. Circum- stances might arise—and from present appearances it was impossible to say how soon—when it would be imperative upon them to meet in virtue of these legisla- tive powers. If any of those circumstances should arise, and if Parliament should evince its unfitness to legislate for the Church, it would be a grievous predica- ment to find themselves placed in, to have no governing body in operation—not to know where to find one, or even to know by what authority it should be con- vened.

The Horticultural Society held their first prize-show, at Chiswick, on Saturday. In spite of cold and changeful weather, there was a large and gay company. The Princess Metternich and M. Guizot with his two daughters were part of one group, which comprised also the Dutchesses of Sutherland and Beaufort, the Dukes of Devonshire, Argyll, and Beaufort, and Lord Wor- cester; the Duke and Dutohess of Northumberland, Sir Robert Pee], and some other persons of note, were members of another group. The azalea show is described as the finest ever seen.

Mora of.the May meetings have bean...held this week.

The British and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society met on Monday, in the Hall of Commerce; Threadneedle Street; Mr. G. W. Alexander, the treasurer, presiding. It was stated that the slave-trade to Brazil has been unusually. flourishing within the last two years; under the alleged stimulus of the Sugar Act of 1846. In 1847 nearly 70,000 slaves were imported to Brazil. The horrors of the trade in- crease: of 100,000 embarked, not more than 35,000 are landed. The profits are not unusually 6001. and are sometimes 1000/. per cent. Hopes, however, are entertained that slavery in the United States will before long be abolished; as it had been in the French, Swedish, and Danish colonies of the West Indies. The scheme of African emigration now prosecuted to the British Colonies was cha- racterized,as slave-trade in a new form. The report was unanimously adopted, soda collection made in aid of the Society's funds.

The number of pupils in the Royal Naval School is now 178; 30 on the gra- tuitous and reduced list. Considerable donations, an endowment by Lord Yar- borough, and a balance ill hand of the year's revenue, were announced.

At the meeting of the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals it was announced that a new bill would be introduced in Parliament to increase the penalty of forty shillings which is the utmost that a magistrate can now in- flict even in the most aggravated cases. The Agricultural Society of England has elected Lord Chichester President for next year. The accounts showed a balance in hand, of the annual revenue at the end of the year 1847, amounting to 1,1411. 14s.

The Judicial Court of Appeal of the House of Lords gave judgment on Tues- day in the case Wilson versus Wilson. Mrs. Wilson was an adopted child of Sir Henry Wright Wilson, who by his will left her a fortune of some 5,0001. a year. In 1839 Mrs. Wilson married Mr. Ileniker, a gentleman of station; who there- Upon added to his own name that of Wilson. Differences arose; and at last a suit of nullity of marriage was instituted by Mrs. Wilson, on the ground of impo- tency. Friends interposed: it was agreed between the husband and the wife with her trustees, that the husband and wife should live separately; that a rearrange- tnent should be made of the property settlements; that a deed embodying these conditions should be executed; and that then the ecclesiastical suit should be abandoned. Afterwards Mr. Wilson refused to act up to this agreement; and a Chancery suit was prosecuted to enforce its specific performance. The Vice- Chancellor decreed in favour of that suit, and his decision was now appealed against. The chief ground of appeal was broadly, that agreements for separa- tion of husband and wife are against the ;whey of the law, and ought not to be upheld by courts of equity. The House of Lords, after hearing a very lengthened and learned argument, determined that such agreements are legal; that the pre- sent one be upheld; and that the decree of the Vice-Chancellor for specific per- formance be affirmed, with costs.

Salter, a livery-stable-keeper, brought an action in the Westminster County Court against Earl Fitzherdinge for 151. 15.0., the hire of a horse ridden by Mrs. Barker. The Earl hired the horse for Mrs. Barker, in 1846, and afterwards bought it; and the question was wheth_g the 151. 15s. was not to have been in- cluded in the 651. paid for the horse. The plaintiff's books were produced, and the entry of the hiring was found to be in interpolated writing. The Judge thought the item had been "squeezed in" long since 1846, and gave judgment for the defendant.

At the Central Criminal Court, on Saturday, John Bradbridge Nice, a non- licenciate in medicine or surgery, was tried for the manslaughter of Ann Cossins, who died under his attendance as a man-midwife. Nice had attended Cassius in former confinements, with success: on this occasion the birth had occurred in due course, but had been followed by great prostration of the patient. Mr, Nice administered a stimulant, and departed, promising to return and perform a required needful operation at a mentioned time. On returning at that time ha found the patient dead; and the gravamen of the charge was that the time men-- tioned was long beyond all bounds of good medical practice. Baron Alderson• thought the facts insufficient to support the charge of manslaughter—of criminal negligence or ignorance: the prosecution was therefore abandoned, and a verdict. of Not guilty "returned.

James Connor, a lad, with Anne Connor and Hannah Cavanagh, were tried for assaulting and robbing Richard Dyer. The chief interest of the case lay in the fact elicited by Baron Alderson, that the prosecutor, an engine-driver on the Brighton Railway, was grossly drunk at the time he was robbed. The Judge ex- pressed horror that such a person should be intrusted with the lives of traveller on the railway. The prisoner vowed he never got drunk when on duty; but the Judge hoped he might never have the ill luck to travel by a train in his charge. The prisoners were convicted, and sentenced to hard labour in prison.

On Monday, Margaret Burford, aged nineteen' was tried for • attempting to drown her child of three months old in the Surrey Canal. Burford lived with her father and her mother-in-law at Deptford, in a state very near, to starvation: neither father, mother, nor daughter, had work, nor did one piece of pawnable furniture remain to bring them bread. Burford was seen in the canal, with her child under her, in water eight feet deep. She was drawn out with difficulty, awl restored after an interval of insensibility. The Recorder summed im hi language of compassion and regret that such poor creatures could not get the werk to earn their bread by. The Jury gave a verdict of "Not guilty ": they thought Bur- ford had acted in no intention of guilt, but in the hope ,of getting sympathy and relief.

'

The adjonmedistemire br6, the cause of the death of Mr.Dakin, the tea-dealer, .. was held on Tuesday. Mr. Perkins, an engineer and inventor of celebrity, consk-- 'Aered the casting of the boiler was dekgetive: air-hotee were -visible in its sub. stance. Cast-iron was an improper material for an apparjdus _intended when raised to a heat of 500 to 600 degrees of Fahrenheit to bear a pressure of 2,000 pounds to the square inch. He thought the accident would not have occurred if the cylinder had been made of wrought instead of cast iron. Dr. Andrew Ure, Dr. Ryan, and Mr. Josiah Parkes, agreed that the accident had 'been caused im- mediately by unequal expansion of different parts of the cylinder—remotely by the precipitancy of Mr. Dakin himself, who would have the furnace lighted while the masonry in contact with the cylinder was still raw and undried. A witness proved that he had tested the cylinder before its erection, with a pressure of 3,000 pounds to the square inch. [It is not stated whether this test was any othee than that of hydraulic pressure with cold water.) The Jury returned this ver- dict, after an hour's deliberation— "We find that the deceased William Dakin was accidentally killed. We cannot separate without expressing our opinion that the casting of the overt was defective, though from the conflicting nature of the evidence of the scientific gentlemen examined we are unable to decide as to the real cause of the explosion."

The murder of the child at Spitalfields still remains a mystery. At the sitting of the inquest on Monday, the evidence was very unsatisfactory. Charles Savage, a half-witted lad who gets a living by begging and playing on bones, said he saw two boys murder young Lazarus, strip the body, and hide it in the yard; and the Coroner ordered that the boys should be arrested. One of these, William Hackett, was brought before the Worship Street Magistrate on Tuesday. But Savage's statements were so untrustworthy that he was discharged. Sarah Rogers, who had been in custody for a week, in consequence of having talked about the murder in the streets, was also liberated, there being no tangible evidence against her. The inquest closed on Thursday, with a verdict of "Wilful murder against some person or persons unknown."

A Coroner's Jury has returned a verdict of " Manslaughter " against Reynolds and Bann, two carters, who drove their carts at a frightful rate along Black- friars Road, and knocked down a woman, who died in consequence.

A considerable fire occurred in the General Post-office on Monday. A book- binder's workshop, in the London district side of the building,. near. Foster Lane, was burnt out before the engines obtained the mastery. Burning paper shavings wafted by the wind are presumed to have caused the accident.

A fire broke out in Hungerford Market on Tuesday, and consumed the whole of-- a long gallery running from the meat market to the hotel on the shore and up- - wards of a hundred loads of hay, owned by a Mr. Milligan. Ashes beaten from a tobacco-pipe are believed to- have originated the fire.