311ttrucutio.

The Peace Society held its thirty-eighth annual meeting on Wednes- day, in Finsbury Chapel, Moorfields; Mr. Charles Hindley M.P. in the chair. Mr. Hindley regretted, that after all their efforts to indoctrinate the public mind with the principles of peace, they had not been success- ful in averting war. He read a letter from one of his constituents, "a man of great ability, and a member of the Christian Church," who said- " I see you are to preside at a meeting of the Peace Society : I hope you will give Russia what she deserves—I would blow up all her ships and soldiers : I am a man of peace, but this is the time for fighting." Mr. Hindley had hoped that no Christian would dissent from the doctrine that "it is wrong to take up the sword in vindication of what are called national rights." Speeches were made by the Reverend William Brock and the Reverend John Burnett ; also by Mr. Robert Charlton and Mr. Joseph Sturge, two of the delegates who recently went to St. Petersburg. The meeting resolved that it was grateful to the Government for its long and strenuous efforts to obtain a pacific adjustment ; that it delighted in the Anglo-French alliance; and that England ought to adopt the principle of nonintervention in the quarrels of other nations. A deputation waited on Lord Palmerston on Tuesday, and presented a memorial praying that a free pardon might be granted to Mr. Jeremiah

Smith, the late Mayor of Rye, convicted of perjury at the Central Crimi- nal Court in March last. It was stated by one of the deputation, that Mr. Smith felt justified in denying before the Committee that he paid for the Rye election dinner with Mr. Mackinnon's money, because Mr. Curteis openly professed to give the dinner, and indeed wrote the invita- tions himself. Upwards of forty testimonials to the high character of Mr. Smith were also presented. Lord Palmerston asked why the facts now stated had not been proved at the trial ? He promised to look into the case, and to consider all that had been urged in Mr. Smith's favour.

A deputation from Lambeth, headed by the Borough Members Mr. Williams and Mr. Wilkinson, waited on Lord Palmerston on Monday, to point out to him that the London Necropolis and National Mausoleum Company have engaged nine arches under the South-Western Railway for the purpose of depositing dead bodies therein before transferring them to their cemetery at Woking. The position of these arches in a densely- peopled part of Lambeth would, it was argued, endanger the public health ; and Lord Palmerston's interference was solicited. Having heard the statements, Lord Palmerston said he had no power to interfere ; but he would confer with the railway authorities. He thought the only remedy would be under the Nuisances Removal and Diseases Prevention Act ; but the nuisance must first be proved.

At a meeting of the Metropolitan Sewers Commission, on Tuesday, Mr. Jebb, the Chairman, read the reply of Lord Palmerston to the ap- plication agreed on at a previous Court for his decision on the question of main drainage. The Commissioners ask, whether Government will sanction for the purposes of main drainage the application of the 150,000/. reserved for that purpose ? Lord Palmerston replied, through Mr. Waddington, simply that "the main drainage should be suspended for the present." On the motion of Colonel Dawson, 51,300/. was voted towards defraying the cost of the woiks of Counter's Creek, a work of urgent necessity.

At the annual general meeting of the Royal Geographical Society, on Monday,—the Earl of Ellesmere in the chair,—the usual prizes were dis- tributed, and a very gratifying report on the state of the institution read. During the past year, 112 ordinary and two corresponding members have been added to the Society ; and the receipts have risen from 1220/. 38. 4d. in 1852 to 1693/. Os. 8d. in 1853. At the instance of the President and his immediate predecessors, especially of Sir Roderick Murchison, Go- vernment has tendered a yearly grant of 500/. for the establishment of a public map-room, wherein the Society's valuable collection of maps and charts may be displayed. The additions to the library consist of 400 volumes of books and pamphlets, 300 sheets of maps and charts, and 10 atlases. The Queen's annual donation of gold medals were awarded as follows- " The Founder's medal, to Rear-Admiral William Henry Smyth, K.S.F., &c., for his numerous valuable maritime surveys in the Mediterranean, pur- sued at considerable pecuniary, cost to himself, and commenced at a time when our acquaintance with the physical geography of that sea and the sur- rounding countries was most imperfect ; surveys which produced 105 charts and maps, still used by the Admiralty, and established upwards of 1200 maritime positions on the coasts of France, Spain, Italy, Corsica, Sardinia, Sicily, Croatia, Dalmatia, the Ionian Isles, Greece, and the shores of Africa from Egypt to Morocco; also for his writings upon the climatology and na- tural history of large tracts, (including his memoirs on Sicily and Sardinia,) and especially for his recent able work, The Mediterranean, in which his own observations are embodied in a rich compendium of the actual geogra- phy of those regions, as compared with their physical features recorded in the classical and medimval ages.

"The Patron's medal, to Captain Robert M'Clure, R.N., of H. M. ship Investigator, for his remarkable exertions in getting to Bullring Strait early enough in 1850 (the same year ho left Englanu) to enable him, against great difficulties, to navigate his ship through the ice of the Polar Seas, for his survey of Baring Island, and above all, for his brilliant discovery of the North-west Passage."

At the half-yearly meeting of the Royal Agricultural Society, on Mon- day, Mr. 'William Miles was chosen as the new President. The re- port showed, that during the past half-year 88 members have died or resigned, and 175 been elected ; that the receipts had been 7264/. 88. 3d., and the payments 6142/. us. 7d. The entries for the next show, which will be held at Lincoln on the 17th July, arc very numerous, and a pa- villion is to be erected for 800 persons. No fewer than 143 persons have competed for the prize offered by the Society for the best substitute for guano at a cost less than 51. per ton ; but the value of these compounds has not yet been established.

The annual meeting of the Mendicity Society was held on Saturday, the Marquis of Westminster in the chair. It appears from the report, that 8080 persons applied during the year for relief by ticket ; in the year preceding the number was 7067. The number of cases considered of sufficient importance to be registered was 419 ; in the preceding year 658 were registered ; the eases of children amounting to 11 per cent upon the total registered. A decrease of vagrants from 968 in 1852 to 618 in 1853 is remarked. Many of the children were found to be in the hands of pro- fessional beggars, who subsisted on their gains.

The Anti-Slavery Society is not in a flourishing condition. From a report read at the annual meeting, on Monday, it appears that at the commencement of the year the balance-sheet showed a deficit of 228!.; that the subscriptions for the last year amounted to 800/., and the ex- penditure to 7661., leaving still a deficit of 1941.

The pillar-stone of St. Andrew's Church, Westminster, was laid yes- terday, by Vice-Chancellor Sir William Page Wood, in the presence of a large and distinguished assembly. The children of the foundation school of St. Margaret's, mustering nearly 300, were in attendance.

Cannon Street West, the new City thoroughfare connecting St. Paul's Churchyard with King William Street, London Bridge, was formally opened on Monday, by the members of the City Improvement Committee. The cost of this street has been 200,000/. It is understood that the open space between Old Change and St. Paul's will not be encumbered with buildings.

The first show of flowers for the season, held in the gardens of the Bo- tanical Society at Regent's Park on Wednesday, was remarkable for a new arrangement adding much to the beauty of the display and to the comfort

of the spectators. Instead of being placed on wooden benches in separate tents, the whole collection was arranged under one large canvass covering, and disposed on hanks of turf, intersected by gravel paths. It was a mag- nificent exhibition.

At the Middlesex Sessions, on Monday, Edward Blake, styled "Captain Blake," underwent his trial on the charge of stealing a ten-pound note from his friend Mr. Mannock, at Bacon's Imperial Hotel, Covent Garden. Mr. _Manna* missed the note, and insinuated a charge against the servants; but when the matter was looked into, the note was traced to Blake, who said he had it from an auctioneer, and he was arrested. Mr. Mannock did not desire to prosecute him ; and Blake said he had borrowed 6/. of Mr. Mannock, and he had " taken " the ten-pound note intending to return it. He had written to Mr. Mannock saying he would repay "the sum he had taken." Mr. Mannock tried hard to soften both Judge and Jury; but a verdict of guilty being returned, the Assistant-Judge, commenting on the furtive mode of getting possession of the note, and the injury the theft might have done to the servants of the hotel, sentenced Captain Blake to six months' imprison- ment with hard labour.

An appalling instance of the proverbial cruelty of stepmothers is recorded this week in the ordinary Police reports. Mary Ann Seago, thirty-two years of age, stood charged before Mr. Ingham of the Thames Police Office, with the murder of William Seago, her stepson, a child six years of age. The woman is the wife of a bricklayer, having two children, William and Ann Cooper, by a former wife; while she herself is the mother of three children by a former marriage. Her own children she treated well ; not so her hus- band's children. These she beat and half-starved ; and on Sunday night she carried one, the boy William, a corpse to the London Hospital. The surgeon saw that it was dreadfully bruised and emaciated; and pronounced that it died of concussion of the brain from blows. There was a cut on the forehead two inches and a half long. This led to the arrest of the woman. The evidence against her reveals a terrible state of things. Ernest Heitman, a tailor, and his wife, lodged in the same house; and they heard Mrs. Seago come home on Sunday. Immediately afterwards a noise of blows was heard, and a screaming of children. Seago came in, and almost instantly went out. The noise was renewed ; screaming, cries and moans, and "a noise as if a board was thrown about the room." Then all was quiet. Brandy was then sent for ; and Henman heard Mrs. Seago say—" My darling boy, speak to me! Oh speak tome! What shall I do? Why should 1 ill-use these chil- dren ?" But there was more direct evidence, that of Ann Cooper Seago, a little girl nine years of age, who witnessed all the horrors of the tragedy. She wore only a ragged frock, she looked half-starved, and was much cut and bruised. Her evidence so affected the Magistrate that he burst into tears. She pointed but did not look at her stepmother while giving her evidence. She said her two brothers, Tommy and Billy, were in the room ; and Tommy, apparently in a childish way, complained of Billy for having told tales to the husband ; whereupon the mother began to beat Billy, and put him to bed. He got up and sat on a box ; the mother knocked him off; "strapped him" [hit him with a strap] ; "put him into a tub of water' naked, and " hit him several times in the tub." His nose poured with blood ; he could not get out of the water, and was lifted out. "My brother Tommy wiped him and put him to bed. Willie got up again, and mother told him to rub a tea-tray a little while. Then my mother took him up by his feet, and shook him a long time. Then my mother took him up again, I think it was by his hair, and threw him across the room. Be fell upon the boards. She took him up again, and threw him on a box and kicked him. I don't know on what part of his body she kicked him. She took him up and threw him on the chair on his back, and his head was hanging down ; and she said to me, 'Now, you crafty , you may take and do what you like.' I said, Willie, get up from the chair and let me wash you' ; and he could not getup. Then my mother hit me. Then my mother threw me down, and kicked me over the eye, and made this wound, and kicked my face. Then my father knocked at the door. I did not go down, because I was wiping up the blood and water." The father came in, while the little girl, bleeding from her wounds, re- mained outside for fear he should see her face, should notice her wounds, and that she should afterwards "catch it" from the wife. She thus nar- rates the climax of horrors. "My brother Willie was in bed then. My mother told him to get up and wipe his forehead ; but he could not get up. Because he could not get up my mother kicked him down. He was sitting up in bed and could not move ; and because he couldn't, she took him out of bed and kicked him, and made a great lump on his forehead as big as a walnut. She did that with her foot. She kicked him about half a dozen times. She kicked him once on the forehead, and once on the chest, and once on the side; I don't know anywhere else. She took him by his hair and threw him right across the room ; and he fell down on the floor and couldn't move, sir. My eldest brother, Tommy, said, Oh, mother, don't hit him; oh, mother, don't hit that poor little fellow, or else you will kill him and be hung.' Mother took up the pepper-box, and was going to throw it at Tommy because he said that. My mother took Billy up from off the floor, and was going to throw him down again ; but he was dead then, and she said, Oh, Billy, I do love you.' " Tommy again told his mother she would be hung ; and she told them to be quiet, for "the people in the house were listening." At the hospital she gave out that the child died of disease of the heart. In her defence she only alleged that not one-third of Annie's tale was true. Mr. Ingham fully committed her for trial ; and a Coroner's Jury has brought in a verdict of " Wilful murder."

Mr. Combo, the Southwark Magistrate, has decided that by the act of Par- liament a cabman is not bound to state his fare when a passenger alights : the hirer is supposed to know that as well as himself.

A third fire within a short period broke out on Thursday night in an arch of the South-Eastern Railway at Bermondsey, occupied by Mr. Garner, a japanner. The water used in extinguishing it so acted upon the crown of the arch that bricks fell out as trains passed over ; but it is supposed that the railway is safe.