Zbe filttropolis.
The Governor (Alderman Humphery) and Deputy-Governor of the Irish Society entertained Sir Henry Pottinger at dinner on Tuesday, at the Albion Tavern. About fifty gentlemen sat down to table.
A very numerous meeting of Middlesex Magistrates was held on Thursday. The election of a Chairman was fixed for Monday the 16th December ; and Mr. Henry Pow nail and Mr. B. Rotch were named as candidates. Satisfactory reports were received from the various prisons. A Committee was authorized to purchase twenty-four acres of ground adjoining Hanw ell Lunatic Asylum, for 6,0001. District-surveyors were appointed for the nine new districts under the Metropolitan Build- ings Act.
• A meeting was held, on Thursday, to receive the report of a Com- mittee, appointed at a previous meeting, on the feasibility of closing warehouses in the City at an earlier hour, and especially at one o'clock on S.turdays. The committee reported, that it would be impossible to close so early on Saturdays, on account of post arrangements ; and they recommended the closing at six every evening, instead of seven ; the hour for tea no longer being allowed. The report was unanimously adopted. Seine houses had already followed the suggestion ; which is expected to be generally observed on Monday next.
A large number of the Barking fishermen, by whom the London market is principally supplied with certain kinds of fish, have struck for an advance of wages and a 83 stem of shorter voyages, that they may more frequently visit their families. Sixty smacks belonging to Barking are now lying idle near Woolwich, and two hundred appren- tices have been thrown on their master's hands by the strike of the men. The Barking fishery employs about 160 smacks.
In the Court of Exchequer, on Thursday, counsel for Messrs. Dean and Candy agreed, in eight Government prosecutions arising out of the
Customhouse frauds, to verdicts charging them with fines equivalent to the "single value" of the forfeited goods, amounting in all to 11,6981. They were liable to a mulct of thrice that amount.
At the Central Criminal Court, on Wednesday, Captain Jennings's trial for slave-trading was postponed for six mouths; a principal witness being absent. The prolonged postponement is in order to enable Mr. Jennings to make a voyage in the mean while, as the length of time the charge has been hanging over him has much impoverished him.
On Thursday, Ann M'Cormack was tried and found guilty of stealing a sovereign the property of a fellow-servant, and enticing away Julia Da Silva, her master's child, for an improper purpose : she was sen- tenced to be transported for seven years. The particulars of this case were stated in the Spectator of the 16th.
A true bill has been found by the Middlesex Grand Jury against Mrs. Jane Tyrwhytt, for the late robbery at the Soho Bazaar. The trial has been postponed, on the application of the accused.
At Bow Street Police-office, on Thursday, John Ogilvie, a person of bad character, was finally examined on a charge of extorting a gold watch and chain and 5/. from Mr. F. Mieville, of Hanover Square, un- der an execrable threat. Mr. Mieville, when disappointed of an omni- bus, had incautiously shared a eab with Ogilvie, a well-dressed man, who seemed equally disappointed. The prisoner was also accused of attempt- ing to extort money from Mr. Claud Neilson, a clerk in his father's office, Leadenhall Street; whom he had beset near a print-shop. He was committed for trial.
Few poets have been liable to such a loss as that which Mr. Rogers has suffered this week. A robbery to a very large amount was effected on the firm to which the poet of Memory belongs—that of Rogers and Company, in Clements Lane—between Saturday night and Monday morning ; but how and by whom is a mystery. An iron safe in an inner office, over which there is a constant watch kept, was opened, without any apparent violence; and 40,710/. in bank-notes, with a number of bills of exchange and a quantity of specie, was taken away. One ac- count says, " that the money was deposited in the iron safe on Satur- day; and, as usual, a clerk was appointed to watch over its safety during the day, and another clerk to perform the like duty during the night. One of the partners remaining at home on Sunday, the day-clerk asked permission to go out for a few hours ; which was granted. At the ac- customed hour in the evening, the other clerk came, and remained during the night ; but when business was resumed on Monday morning, and the iron safe opened with the ordinary key, it was found entirely empty." Another account states, that it is the practice of the partners, of whom there are said to be four, to relieve each other in the heavy cash business of the house at stated periods; each of them keeps keys of the safe and iron chest ; and it is supposed that one of the gentlemen left behind him his keys upon some occasion of hurry or forgetfulness, and that with these keys the safe was opened. Some force had been used on a tin box, in which several valuable securities were kept ; but it ap- peared that the thieves had made some mistake with regard to the exact position of these documents, for they worked on the wrong side, and were so far disappointed. A reward of 3,000/. has been offered for the recovery of the property ; and a free pardon by the Queen is promised to any one of the guilty parties giving such evidence as shall procure the conviction of the other offender or offenders. The notes were, of course, immediately stopped at the Bank of England ; and information of the robbery was forwarded to the Continent, with such celerity that it is thought the thieves could not negotiate their plunder there if they had tried ; which does not appear to be the case. It has been rumoured that Messrs. Rogers attempted to make a compromise with the robbers. The Forresters are employed in endeavouring to discover the culprits and the booty.
The City Police were hoaxed on Wednesday by an anonymous writer's sending them to a house at Walworth, where they were to have found all the money.
" We are requested by Messrs. Rogers, Olding, and Co.," says the Times, "to inform the public that all the boxes and property of their friends remained undisturbed, and that the robbery affected their own property only." What is called " a tragedy of real life "—the suicide of two lovers.— has happened at Mile End. Charles William Duckett, the son of an accountant, and Elizabeth Williams, the daughter of a surgeon—the young man twenty-one, and the girl a year older—had been attached ot each other for many years, and with the sanction of their families were engaged to each other; but their circumstances did not enable them to marry. The girl was observed to be melancholy ; which was imputed to her lover's jealous disposition. It appears from some papers which they left, that he had resolved to die, and that Elizabeth had told him that to leave her alone would be to murder her: they therefore determined to die together. Last Sunday evening, they went out, as if going to chapel ; but they were lost sight of from that time. As night advanced, the two families became alarmed, and some one went to see if the young man was in his own room. The door was fastened. It was broken open ; and on the bed were the two lovers, locked in each other's arms, dead. They had taken prussic acid. They left a letter declaring their intention to die; the paper inked at the edge for a mourning-border. A poem on their hopeless love was also found, written by Duckett, and fancifully illuminated. It does not appear that they had committed any such indiscretion as might have been suspected. A Coroner's Jury has returned a verdict describing the manner of their death, but declaring that there was no evidence to show who admi- nistered the poison.
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