Int „Metropolis.
At a Court of Common Council, on Thursday, a report was pre- sented from the Royal Exchange and Gresham Trust Committee. It stated that an agreement had been come to with the Bank of England for an advance of 70,0001, at four per cent per annum ; and it recom- mended the setting by a part of the rental of the Finsbury estates to repay the loan within the stipulated time of five years. The report was affirmed. The other business was not of much general interest.
A Court of Directors was held at the East India House on Wednes- day; and the Marquis of Tweeddale was sworn in as Governor and Commander-in-Chief of Madras, and Sir George Arthur as Governor of Bombay. The Marquis and Sir George afterwards dined with the Directors at the London Tavern ; several of the Ministers being pre- sent. Compliments to the new officials and professions on their part, formed the staple of the speeches. Only general allusions were made to the state of affairs in India, and they were of a hopeful cast.
A public meeting of the electors of the City of London was held on Wednesday evening, at Burke's rooms in 'Change Alley, to consider the necessity of calling a Common Hall to demand the resignation of Lord John Russell, on account of his " factious opposition" to the measures of Sir Robert Peel, delaying the progress of the new Tariff. The ac- counts given by the Whig and Tory reports are of the most opposite kind. The Whigs say that the few electors who assembled waited half an hour before a chairman was appointed; the Tories say that a chair- man was appointed by intruders half an hour before the proper time, that chairman being Mr. Chilcott. A resolution was proposed, thank- ing Lord John Russell for his opposition to the Income-tax and other measures of the present Administration. To that an amendment was moved, approving of the Ministerial measures, and censuring Lord John's opposition to them. The mover said that the new Tariff would enable the poor" to get good butcher's-meat at fourpence a pound—to enjoy the roast beef of Old England": "And no bread to eat with it ! " cried some one. The question was put, amid much confusion ; and the Tory account says that the chairman somewhat reluctantly admitted that the amendment was carried, by twenty to one—the Whig account, that the chairman declared the resolution in favour of Lord John Rus- sell to be carried by twenty to one !
The annual general meeting of the Metropolitan Anti-Corn-law Association was held on Tuesday, at the Crown and Anchor Tavern in the Strand. Among the attenders were the Earl of Radnor, Lord Kin- naird, Mr. Charles Villiers, Dr. Bowring, Mr. Milner Gibson, Mr. Joseph Hume, Mr. Francis Place, Mr. Warburton, Mr. John Scobel, Mr. James Wilson, Colonel 1'. P. Thompson, Mr. Ricardo, and many active members of the Branch Associations. The resolutions, which were passed without dissent, reasserted the policy of the Association ; declared that Sir Robert Peel, by saying that the revenue uniformly increases with abundance in the necessaries of life, virtually admitted that the Corn and Provision laws had materially conduced to that "de- falcation" in the revenue which is assigned as the cause of necessity for an Income-tax ; accepting the reconstruction of the Tariff as a proof that public opinion has driven monopoly from the ancient strong- holds of the restrictive system ; affirming that the maintenance of mo- nopoly is incompatible with a sound state of revenue ; and pledging the meeting to continue their exertions with increased activity. The Earl of Radnor alluded to the strong feeling which has grown up in favour of free trade in the short year and a half since the issue of the Import-duties Report ; and Mr. Villiers contrasted the " nibbling " at the Corn-laws by the Ministers themselves, with the time when "every Corn-law Repealer, every enemy of monopoly, was jeered in the street." These sentiments were generally reechoed.
The Vestry of St. Luke's, Middlesex, at a meeting on Wednesday, resolved to petition Parliament that the expenditure may be equalized with the revenue without resorting to the Income-tax ; and pointing to a probate-duty on landed property, and a duty on corn, as the means of raising the requisite revenue.
The Chartist " National Convention" is sitting in London. Last week, a resolution was adopted in favour of abiding by the Charter in substance : it was intended as a sort of bar to secession from the Chartist ranks to those of Mr. Sturge and his followers. On Monday, a resolution was proposed for abstinence from intoxicating drinks, tobacco and snuff, as a means of affecting the revenue, improving the People in sobriety, and rendering the Chartist funds more ample ; and against enlistment in the Army or Police, as rendering men, whilst the present corrupt institutions exist, slavish tools in the hands of tyranny. The resolutioo, with some other matters, is postponed until after the presentment of the great Chartist petition to the House of
Commons on Monday next. It is complained that the various bodies of Chartists in the kingdom have not regularly contributed the funds required by the rules of the National Charter Association.
A preliminary meeting, called by the Political Institute, was held at the Crown and Anchor on Tuesday, "for the purpose of considering the present alarming crisis." Delegates attended from various parts of the country. Resolutions were adopted, for increased activity in favour of the Charter, in support of the National Convention, and promising unabated exertion to procure the pardon of Frost, Williams, and Jones. Mr. Feargus O'Connor declared that every hour the people were be- coming more politically active : Sir Robert Peel was forcing them into political intelligence ; every man worth 150/. a year would be certain to be politically informed. The meeting adjourned to Monday next, then to join the procession which is to carry up the great Chartist petition.
A numerous meeting of the friends and admirers of the late Dr. Birkbeck was held on Monday, at the Freemasons Tavern, to consider the report of a Committee appointed to devise the best means of testi- fying the public gratitude for the services which Dr. Birkbeck had ren- dered in the cause of national education. Lord Brougham was called to the chair; and there were present Lord John Russell, Lord Dudley Stuart, the Bishop of Ripon, Mr. Roebuck, Mr. Monckton Milnes, Mr. Joseph Hume, Mr. Basil Montague, Mr. Mathew Davenport Hill, Mr. Richard Taylor, and other friends of the diffusion of knowledge. Lord Brougham delivered an eloquent eulogy of the deceased, especially as the great promoter of Mechanics Institutions : he stated that besides the London Institution there are 200 similar socie- ties in the country, comprising 25,000 members, of whom two-thirds belong to the working-classes ; but the number of lectures is not above 1,200 in the year, or less than six to each institution. It had struck Lord John Russell, that great benefit would result to those institutions if a Professorship of Machinery and Manufactures were established ; and the reports recommended that as the form of the testimonial. The other speakers moved resolutions expressing the sense of Dr. Birkbeck's services. Among them was the resolution "That the most fitting method of testifying the public gratitude to Dr. Birkbeck is by found- ing, in University College, London, a Professorship of Machinery and Manufactures, including the application of chemistry and other branches of natural philosophy to the arts ; and that a subscription be commenced for this purpose." A discussion was raised, as to whether the working- classes would benefit by the Professorship ; and whether it would not be better to appoint a number of itinerant lecturers. Eventually the resolution was amended by the addition of a few words to make it in- cumbent on the Professor to lecture in the country during vacation ; and in that shape it was carried. Thanks were voted to the Commit- tee ; and to Lord Brougham, who had controlled the more tumultuary elements of the mixed assemblage with great suavity and skill.
The hundred-and-second anniversary of the London Hospital was
celebrated on Thursday, by a dinner at the London Tavern, to which one hundred-and-twenty gentlemen sat down. At the centenary meet- ing, the immense sum of 10,000/. and some odd hundreds was collected ; and, some Jews subscribing largely, Jewish wards have been added to the Hospital. The Jews again came forward, and swelled the evening's subscription to 1,509/.
The weather on Sunday was oppressively hot, and very variable. In the afternoon, the Metropolis and its vicinity were visited by a thunder- storm of considerable extent and duration, which did some injury in several places. It was felt very severely at Wapping, Shadwell, and Limehouse. At Shadwell, the lightning is described as assuming the appearance of balls of fire, which exploded. The steeple of All Saints Church in Poplar was struck, during afternoon-service ; but no other damage was done than the displacing of a large stone, which fell on the roof of the church. Two houses in St. David Lane were injured, and the roof of one was destroy ed. At Mill Wall, the chimney of a manu- factory was struck, and a house in New Gravel Lane. Several trees in the outskirts of Bow, Stratford, and Edmonton, were torn up by the roots. A vessel off Bow Creek was much damaged, and one of the men on board was knocked down by the lightning. The steeple of a church at Brixton was struck, and it fell upon the top of the belfry. A boy, who was ringing the bells for afternoon-service, had both his arms broken by the fall of a stone. At Tulse Hill, two houses were set on fire by the lightning : in one, the electric fluid passed down the chimney into the first-floor, and demolished the stone-work round the fire-place ; it then passed over the floor, and setting it on fire, travelled down the stairs, which were also set on fire ; and thence it passed into the adjoining house, which it fired in different parts. Several other houses in the neighbourhood were much injured, as well as some planta- tions. The roof of a house in West Square, Lambeth, was set on fire.
Mary Good and Richard Gamble, who were accused at Bow Street of being the accessories of Good in the murder at Roehampton, were committed on Monday, on a charge of receiving stolen goods. Among the witnesses were John Good, a nephew of the principal prisoner, and Hannah his wife, who lived in Deptford. They said that Goad staid with them from Thursday till Sunday morning ; and in that intetval he bought the bricklayers clothes in which he was seized ; putting them. on on Sunday. On Saturday night, Good accompanied his nephew's wife in marketing ; and while they were walking they heard a man crying papers of the murder. Hannah observed, it was strange the murderer's name was Daniel Good : the other smiled, and said, " Yes, but there are plenty of persons of the same name."
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