be Ifietropolis.

A Court of Common Council was held on Thursday, for the despatch of business. A petition was presented from Lord Dudley Stuart and others, requesting the use of the Guildhall on some day after the 9th of November, for a ball in aid of the Polish refugee fund. The prayer of the petition was granted ; and Lord Dudley Stuart returned thanks. Mr. R. L. Jones called attention to the report of a Committee recom- mending that in future the duties of the. High Bailiff of Southwark should be performed as much as possible in person, and that the fixed salary of 8001. should be abolished, the Bailiff, instead, devoting to his own use the fees of the office. Mr. Jones moved the adoption of the report. Mr. Wire moved resolutions that the fixed salary should be continued. Ultimately, the report was agreed to by a large majority. Deputy Allan moved that the 23d Standing Order be suspended in respect to the approaching election of High Bailiff: this is the order- " That no person, who is a member of the Court, or who has been so within_ three calendar months of the day fixed for the election to any office or place in the gift or appointment of the Court, shall be eligible to be a candidate, except ia such cases where the vacancy has occurred subsequently to the person offer- ing himself ceasing to be a member of the Court." .Mr. Allan's object was to admit Sir William Heygate to be a candi- date. Mr. Stevens opposed the motion, on the ground that it would be a precedent for endless jobbing. After an animated discussion, an amendment moved by Mr. Stevens was rejected, by 57 to 56, and the Court adjourned. It is understood that the question of the Standing Order still remains open, since by some accident the original motion was not put after the amendment was rejected. By the death of Sir John Cowan, a vacancy is created in the Court of Aldermen, for Broad Street Ward. At first then was a disposition to

pat forward Sheriff Pilcher for the post; but he has waived his claims in favour of Mr. Musgrove, who has long represented the Ward in the Common Council.

The Middlesex Justices met on Thursday, at the Sessions-house in Clerkenwell ; Mr. Sergeant Adams in the chair. A highly favourable report was read from the Visiting Justices on Hanwell Lunatic Asylum ; where the recent improvements have completed accommodation for 1,000 patients. Reports on the House of Correction and the New Prison were also read. Mr. Wilke offered some remarks on the annual report of the House of Correction- " The operation of the Silent system, as carried out in Coldhath Fields Pri- son, was working beneficially ; there being this year, as compared with the last, less sickness among the prisoners, and a diminished number of punishments in- flicted, although the number of criminals in the gaol had increased. Much lately had been said in certain quarters respecting the cruelty, as it was repre- sented of employing criminals at wheel-labour; but, from the experience of the Governor and others who watched the system in operation in the House of Correction, neither the tread-mill nor the length of imprisonmentlad ap- parently any detrimental effect upon the prisoners. The only punishment which had increased during the past year was that of the 'birch. They found that the young vagrants stood more in awe of inflictions of that sort, than from confinement, stoppage of food, or any other punishment whatever. It would be well, if, instead of dealing with offending children as felons, the use of the birch was more widely extended. The House of Correction, both as a whole and in its details, reflected the highest credit upon those under whose active su- perintendence the present management has been matured."

Both Mr. Wilks and the Chairman spoke with horror of the Solitary system pursued in the prisons of America.

At a meeting of the Directors and Guardians of the Poor of Mary- lebone parish, yesterday, it was stated, that the number of loaves distri- buted to the out-door poor, during the month of September 1837, was 2,688; the number of four-pound loaves distributed to out-door poor during the corresponding month, September 1842, was 9,144. Several tenders were received to supply bread, at rates varying from qd. to 6d. The lowest tender was accepted.

A festival was held on Monday, at the Hall of the National Associa- tion in Holborn, in honour of Mr. Thomas buncombe, the Member for Finsbury, to mark the sense of his exertions in the House of Commons on behalf of the labouring classes. Colonel Thompson occupied the chair ; and near him were his son, Mr. P. T. Thompson, Dr. Epps, Dr. Black, Mr. Hodgkin, Mr. Lormon, Mr. Parry, Mr. Thomas, and Mr. Hether- ington. The toasts of the evening are called "toasts or resolutions": they were in the form of what toastmasters, we believe, call a "senti- ment," but had the length and matter of prayers. Exempli

May the Queen remove from her councils and offices of state, all those who restrict and misapply our country's resources ; and call to her aid those only who will extend to the people the full measure of their rights."

'May Reformers of all shades of opinion speedily perceive the necessity for cordiality and union in favour of the People's Charter; a measure framed to confer equal political rights, without which there are no hopes of ever obtain- ing equal political justice." "May inquiry in pursuit of truth be freed from all legal trammels; may the press be unshackled from its restrictions; may despotic judges be deposed, and unjust Magistrates be deprived of their arbitrary power; and may every ob- stacle to the purifying influences of knowledge be speedily removed.', In proposing the first of the toasts which we have quoted, Dr. Epps spoke as if the process of improvement in changing Ministers began with the last change— Be believed that the present Government bad been placed in its present dis- graceful position by the still more disgraceful consequences of the proceedings of the late Ministry—( Cheers and cries of "No I ")—for he believed that the Administration of Lord Melbourne had done all in their power to prevent the people from obtaining their rights. (Renewed cries of " No!" and chasm) He believed that Sir Robert Peel's Government had done more for the people than that which preceded it; and, however unwilling they might be to give it sup- port, they must pause before they utterly condemned it. (Cheers.) They were not the men, it was true, to whom they could give unbounded confidence, and they must look to the result of their exertions to secure Ministers more in accordance with their views.

Mr. Hodgkin who supported the resolution, expressed a belief that "before they could hope to have better statesmen, they must improve the educational system of the community at large." Returning thanks for having been toasted, Mr. buncombe also dis- cussed the merits of the late and present Ministries. He regarded the ease with which the Tories returned to power as proof of the inefficiency of the Reform Bill-

" We are now reaping the fruits of that change of Government. Much blame is due, and justly due, to the Whigs for their conduct. They were told, when they were in the zenith of their power, that they were not then makiog the hest of their time; that the Reform which had been effected was incom- plete; and that it was their duty to render it at once a complete and useful measure. They heeded not the warning which was given to them ; but they talked of finality, and hang on the skirts of the Court, instead of supporting themselves on the strong arms of the People. And what was the consequence ? Corruption and intimidation were brought to bear against them; and at the eleventh hour they brought forward measures which were good, perhaps, but which came too late. They called on the People for aid—upon the People whom they had neglected; hut, amidst the universal corruption and intimida- tion used at the last general election, their cries were unheeded in the hour of need. They fell—and I am sorry to be almost compelled to say they deserved the fall—unpitied and despised by alL Well, then I say we are now bitterly reaping the fruits of their misconduct in the popular cause. I ask you to look at the last session of Parliament—take it with regard to any party. There never was a session so discreditable to the Tories, so inglorious to the Whigs, and I may say so unsatisfactory to the People."

He produced some statistics of the business of the House-

" I was looking this morning at the return of the number of hours during which Parliament sat in the course of the last session ; and I find that, from February to August, they sat 1,008 hours, and 125 of those hours were after midnight. Now, what did we do during those hours ? They were passed in crimination and recrimination between this agriculturist and that manufac- turer—between High Church and Low Church—between my Lord John This and Sir Robert That; my Lord John reproaching Sir Robert, and saying. You are not satisfied with turning us out, but you take our measures.' And what are those measures, now thay have taken them ? We have got a trum- pery Corn-bill, a delusive Tariff, and we have got an inquisitorial Income-tax. These are the great measures which Sir Robert Peel required five months to pander upon before he proclaimed them to the world. But then, what was

done with regard to the People? Did we not, night after night, make repre- sentations to the Government, and to the House which calls itself the Repre- sentative of the People, that the people of this country were starving—were dying by hundreds in the manufacturing districts ; and that it was necessary to afford them some relief, or at all events to institute some inquiry into their

condition, and the causes of that condition Every inquiry was resisted. We told them, that if they persisted in this course, they would drive millions to desperation; that the working and industrious classes were not prepared to starve and to die in ditches; that they ought not and would not submit so to terminate their existence. They heeded not this warning; they prorogued parliament; and the moment the Queen had closed our doors, she was com- pelled to go home and sign a proclamation calling on the Magistracy and calling out the military to put down the people, because, as Parliament would uot help them, they threatened to help themselves." Alluding to Lord Abinger's assertion that the distress of the people had been exaggerated, he continued— flow, I ask, could their distresses be exaggerated, when we know that hundreds of thousands of human beings inhabiting the manufacturing dis- tricts were glad to appropriate, aye, even carrion, if they could find it ?—that many of them were glad to cull the nettles from the fields, and to put them into hot water to make something like broth? Their houses were without furniture- their hearths without fuel—their bodies without raiment: and yet these are the persons with reference to whom my Lord Abinger—(Hisses, and cries of " Shame ! ")—has thought proper to say from the judgment-seat, at Liverpool, that so far as he was a judge—and a pretty judge he is—their distresses were greatly exaggerated."

He contradicted Lord Abinger's assertion, that "a kind of people called Chartists" sought to subvert the Aristocracy, to destroy property, and to overthrow the Monarchy— "I have looked at the Charter again and again but I can find nothing in it which would sanction an interference with the rights of the Aristocracy, nor could I find a line which indicates a desire to overthrow the Monarchy. What the People ask is, not that they should have the exclusive right of legislating, but an equal share in the legislation of the country ; that their liberties should be equally protected with those of my Lord Abinger ; and that the Govern- ment of the country should be placed upon a broad, popular, and secure basis."

He threatened Lord Abinger with some notice of his charge in the House of Commons-

" Well, indeed, may my Lord Abinger wish that the People should have no greater power in the House of Commons than they now possess; for if re- cently they had possessed that power which they claim, the House as it would have been constituted would not have sanctioned that which is now called the Scarlet job '; and the House of Commons thus constituted would have no hesitation in addressing the Crown for the removal from the judgment-seat of any judge who has so disgraced that high position as Lord Abinger has done in this instance. It is impossible that this charge, whether in the words or in the spirit in which it is reported, can pass unnoticed in the House of Com- mons. It is impossible that Parliament can permit a charge dangerous to the liberties of the people to pass uncensored and unnoticed : and I can only say, that if no other individual calls the attention of the House to the subject on its meeting, I feel that I should basely betray the trust reposed in me, not only by my own constituency but by the working-classes, if I did not call the attention of the House to it."

Mr. Duncombe recommended union among all in defence of the People's privileges, and especially of their right to hold public meetings.

At a Chartist delegate meeting in the National Charter Hall at the Old Bailey, on Sunday, Miss Mary Anne Walker presented herself to say a few words. She is described as "tall and of prepossessing face and figure, with much of grace and dignity of contour in her manner and action," and dressed in deep mourning. Her present purpose was to bandy sarcasms with the Times; that journal having attacked Miss Walker and her friends for their proceedings last week— Who would have thought that Mr. Cohen, Miss Susannah Inge, and herself, would have been so far distinguished as lobe made the subject of a "leading arti- cle!" Mr. Chen had brought all this upon them by his question, "Suppose ladies were in the House of Commons for a Parliamentary borough, and that a young fascinating sprig of Tory aristocracy were to try to sway their votes through an influence over their affections, how could they resist?" How ridiculous that was ! She would tell Mr. Cohen, that they had got a nice little point in the Charter which would act as an antidote to that sort of "influence over their affections." They would be discharged from their situations of members at the end of twelve months, should they weakly prove " unworthy of their trust," and thrown "on the wide world, out of place," and "without a character from their last masters and mistresses."

Mr. Cohen, although personal allusion had been made to him by Miss Mary Anne Walker, would not then say any thing in answer to the very able remarks of that distinguished and highly talented young lady ; and he proceeded with the other business of the evening.

A meeting of inhabitant householders of St. Andrew's parish, Hol- born, assembled in the theatre of the Mechanics Institution on Tues- day, to consider the conduct of the Reverend John Travers Robinson, M.A., the Rector. Mr. Wakley, M.P., took the chair, and stated the case. Mr. Travers was presented to the Rectory in 1838, by the Dutchess of Bucclench. Some of the parishioners having refused to pay tithes, in 1841 the Rector instituted proceedings against them under the acts of 7th and 8th Will. III., and that of Will. IV. passed in 1835 for the recovery of tithes and the prevention of expensive litigation. From the Magistrates he obtained, in fonrten cases, an order to pay ; but instead of proceeding further, he let those orders drop, and had since filed four- teen separate bills in Chancery against the fourteen defaulters. Mr. Furday, one of the recusants, said that ten of the fourteen had yielded : he added, that he could prove that he had been proceeded against more because he was a Nonconformist than because he was a defaulter. Re- solutions were passed condemning the conduct of the Rector, and pro- mising support to his opponent in litigation.

A respectable meeting of persons connected with the coffee-trade was held at the London Commercial Sale-rooms on Monday, for the Purpose of taking into consideration the best measures to be adopted for effectually checking the wholesale losses incurred upon coffee delivered from the various docks short of the original weights. Mr. Edwards, the Chairman, stated that the difference between the original weights and the re-weights had become so great, that it was high time something should be done for the protection of the importer. The defalcation was attributed to the misconduct of the dock-servants. A Committee waS appointed to remonstrate with the Dock Companies on the subject.

..An *annual festival of gentlemen educated at Christ's Hospital was held on Monday, at the London Tavern. Captain Shea, of the East India Company's Navy, presided ; and a nong the company were Dr. Rice, the Head Master, Mr. Pidgeon, tie Treasurer, Mr. Peacock, the Secretary, and Mr. Trollope, and other Governors. Among the toasts was "the memory of Edward the Sixth." One of the Times Univer- sity scholarships has been appropriated to students at the school ; and the merits of the Times, and the estimable qualities of its late editor, Mr. Barnes, a Blue-coat boy, were among the subjects of discussion.

At the Central Criminal Court. on Tuesday, Henry Grover, Martha his wife, and Mary Anne Goatley, were indicted for a burglary at Hampton Court Palace, on the 17th instant ; and Susan Foster, Mrs. Grover's mother, for receiving the stolen property. Goatley had been a servant of Mrs. Sheridan, and had recently been employed in putting away some plate; but she had been discharged on suspicion of dis- honesty. The three thieves entered the apartments of Mrs. Sheridan and Lady Dufferin through a window, which they opened by cutting out a pane of glass : and they took a quantity of plate. They were pronounced "Guilty." Afterwards, on another indictment, Martha Grover was acquitted, on the ground that she acted under her husband's orders. Foster, in whose possession was found some of the stolen property, was acquitted. Grover and Goatley were sentenced to be transported for ten years.

At the same Court, on Wednesday, John Webber, an artist, was tried under a charge for which he had been committed from Kensington Police-office, and, after some deliberation on the part of the Jury, acquitted.

William Smith, a person of independent property, who resides at Wandsworth, was tried on Tuesday, under an indictment for wilful and corrupt perjury, brought by John Dark Lyon, a baker, of the same place. Lyon was formerly a tenant to Mr. Smith ; but an ill feeling arose between them, and Lyon was summoned lately before the local Police Magistrate for assault. On that occasion, Mr. Smith deposed that Lyon pulled the summons from his pocket, shook it in his ad- versary's face, and swore at him ; and it was for deposing to these facts that the present indictment was brought. Mr. Clarkson, the counsel for the defence, drew forth the following statements in the cross-exami- nation of Lyon. He was fined 40s. for the assault: Mr. Smith had sued him for a debt : he once borrowed 501. of Mr. Smith, but the money had been returned, and an "I. 0. U." which had been given was burned. Here Mr. Clarkson said, producing an "1,0. U." for 334 "Ii that your handwriting ? " Lyon—" Oh yes ; but it ought to have been burned long ago." Mr. Clarkson—" So you say : I believe the action is brought against you on that document ?" Lyon—" Very likely it may be." He proceeded with his admissions. The day after be was fined for the assault, he procured eighteen halters, and he had eighteen placards printed with the words "Patent slip, warranted—Farriers supplied, and Black Smith," which he affixed to the halters and hung in his shop-window. He carried a halter in his pocket, (having con- sulted a lawyer as to his right to do so,) and when Mr. Smith came to the public-house Lyon hung the halter up in the room. " Perhaps he might" have told him that he deserved hanging more than Good the murderer. He had a mortgage upon the Wandsworth omnibus, and had the owner's name erased from it ; and once when Mr. Smith tried to enter it on a very wet day, Lyon pushed him out. He " might " have held up his finger to Mr. Smith, and said, "You shall stand in the dock of the Old Bailey, and be tried for perjury." 1!.1r. Smith did not stand in the dock, but by the side of his counsel.] 'the Recorder stopped the case while the evidence was proceeding ; and the Jury, who said they had quite made up their minds, at once acquitted Mr. Smith.

Louisa Grange and Rossiet Lennon were tried, on Thursday, under charges variously put, for defrauding Mr. Welshman, a jeweller, of four diamond rings. They had defrauded several tradespeople, by hiring lodgings under the name of Viscount and Viscountess La Grange, or Count and Countess de Noailles, pretending to be connected with the French Embassy ; and then the Countess ordered goods to the lodgings and decamped with them. A correspondence between the two has been published, composed in high-flown language of romantic love, especially on the woman's side. They were convicted, and sentenced, the man to seven and the woman to ten years' transportation.

Edward Banister, dealer, and James Campbell, a working-harness- maker, were tried for having in their possession one hundred forged Bank of England notes for 500/. each. The possession of the notes and plates was clearly proved : they had been seized by the Police in the presence of the prisoners at an office in Grocers Hall Court. Camp- bell had acted as Banister's servant. The engravers whom they employed were secretly in communication with the Bank authorities. It was contended for the prisoners, that the notes were intended for nothing more than "flash-notes," or a sort of toy for country-customers; a purpose which was stated to the engravers, and was corroborated by the careless manner in which the prisoners behaved throughout. They

were both acquitted. .

William Russell, a postman, was convicted of stealing a sovereign and ten shillings out of a letter ; and was sentenced to transportation for ten years. Thames Holloway, another letter-carrier, pleaded guilty to a charge of detaining fifty-six letters, to avoid the trouble of delivering them ; and was sentenced to six months' imprisonment.

Various complaints were brought torward at the Mansionhouse on Saturday, against the British North American Association for Emigra- tion and Colonization, or its agents. A carpenter complained that he had been engaged to go by the ship Barbados to any part of North America; but that after he was on board, a second master was appointed to the ship, who required him to sign a contract to go to any part of the world. Some emigrants destined for Prince E lward Island complained of other attempts to alter the agreements which they had made with the representatives of the Association. The case was adjourned till Monday; when Mr. Bourdillon, the solicitor to the Association, and Captain Campbell, the owner of the Barbados, attended. Captain Campbell said, that the first master appointed to the vessel had been prevented from going by his own private pecuniary difficulties ; the next ap- pointed had turned oat to be of indifferent character, and to his mis- conduct much of the dissatisfaction was attributed; but now a third had been engaged, and the vessel would no longer be delayed. Mr. Hour- dillon produced documents to show the respectable nature of the Asso- ciation: the President is the Duke of Argyll, who has taken part in its

proceedings: the members consist of several Scottish noblemen, thirty- four Scottish Baronets originally associated to prosecute the claims of their order on lands in North America, and others; Dr. Thomas Rolph and Sir Allan M'Nab, of Canada, being of the number. The ship has been approved of by the Government. Mr. Bourdillon, however, stated, that with the agreements of the emigrants the Association had nothing to do : they were made with a Mr. Haldon, who negotiated with the emigrants, but whose office is not distinctly described. Several of the complaints made on Saturday appear not to have been pressed on Mon- day : and the Lord Mayor advised Mr. Haldon to make some new ar- rangements with the people ; his Lordship at the same time promising to write to the Duke of Argyll on the subject of the emigrants being sent to Prince Edward Island at so late a season, On Wednesday, Mr. Pratt, the master secondly engaged, attended at the office, and declared that the allegations against his character were calumnies. "It was the wish of the passengers that he should go out as captain ; but he had peremptorily refused to take the vessel under Isis command, as every thing connected with it was a dark mystery, and there was no evidence whatever of the stability and correctness of all the arrangements."

After being several times remanded, William Edwards was finally examined at Clerkenwell Police-office, on Tuesday, on a charge of stealing in several dwelling-houses. His plan was rather ingenious. he went into a surgeon's, seeming to have something the matter with his thumb ; and while waiting to see the master of the house, or while the surgeon was engaged, be contrived to steal something. In this way, after he had waited a few minutes in the surgery of Mr. Burrowes of Park Street, Islington, and then departed, saying that he would return in the evening, a case of medical instruments was missed. At Mr. Ro- binson's, in Cross Street, Islington, the servant was sent to ask when her master would be at home? He was to return at four o'clock, and Edwards said that he would return at that time ; but a gold watch had already been taken. While Mr. Wilson Pretty, of Manchester Terrace, Liverpool Road, went to get a liniment, Edwards took some plate worth 21. 10s. from a chiffonier, which he locked and put the key in his pocket. He took a quantity of jewellery from the study of Mr. Basire, a student living with Mr. Phillips of Alton Street, Hyde Park. Mr. Basire thought that he had a power of using the joint of his thumb so as to give it the appearance of having been dislocated. The prisoner was com- mitted for trial.

Hammersmith was the scene of a singular occurrence this week. A maiden lady, of some property, whose intellects were not strong, was placed under the care of a gentleman who receives such patients at Fulham. An intimacy sprung up between her and the son of the me- dical man ; in consequence of which, her friends removed her to the house of a surgeon at Brook Green. The correspondence between her and the young man was renewed : they were privately married in Sep- tember; and on Monday the young gentleman went to the house to claim his bride. He was refused admittance ; but, in the face of a crowd, who countenanced his demand for his wife, and of the people of the house, he persuaded her to descend from a balcony : she did so with some danger, and he carried her off Oa a neighbouring public- house. Her friends followed, and watched the place ; but the happy pair contrived to evade them by a back-door and escape in a fly; while some other persons belonging to the house, muffled in cloaks, got into another fly, and led off the pursuers in a long circuit, terminating at the public-house-door again. It is said that proceedings are to be in- stituted in the Ecclesiastical Court.

Two plots of ground have been taken in the new part of Farringdon Street, on either side : it is expected that the building will be begun in the spring. The houses, it is said, are to be second-rate, forty-nine in number, with a frontage of 18 feet and a depth varying from 50 to 60 feet. The leases are granted by the Lord Mayor, commonalty, and citizens of London, in conformity with the act of Parliament ; and, as expressed in the terms of the contract, for sixty-one years, at a pepper- corn rent, and subsequently at such yearly rent as may be determined upon.

A whale—a "fin-back," upwards of fourteen feet long—was speared in the Thames on Sunday afternoon, by some watermen, between Deptford pier and the Dreadnought hospital-ship. A great number of persons congregated to look at the prize as it lay on Deptford pier.