'ebt Attropolis.
The Court of Aldermen was engaged on Tuesday in considering a re- port of the Court of Common Council and the draft of a bill for limiting
• the power of the Court of Aldermen in the 'expenditnre of corporate funds. -A long discussion- ended in is resolution declaring the bill unlawful and calculated to interfere injuriously with the privileges of the Court. Sub- sequently, a presentment was 'received from the inquest of Farringdon- Within, denouncing the intolerable nuisance caused, by the practice of -slaughtering cattle in Warwick Lane, Newgate Street. A general opinion having been expressed that the nuisance ought immediately to be abated, the matter was referred to the Alderman of the Ward, to be dealt with in conjunction with the City Solicitor.
At a meeting of the Court of Common Council, on Thursday, two reports were brought up and agreed to,—one for the erection of a more commodious coal-market; the other haying reference to the new City prison. The prison is to be erected on the City's ground at Holloway. It is to occupy a site of eight acres; is to accommodate 400 prisoners; and it is to he so con- structed as to admit of its future adaptation to any mode of discipline that may hereafter be determined upon.
Within the last few days, twenty-eight of the principal builders of the Metropolis, including Messrs. Thomas and William Cubitt, Mr. Kelk, Mr. Jackson, and Mr. Burton, have acceded to the prayer of a memorial pre- ' seated to them by a large body of the carpenters and joiners in their em- ' ploy, to be allowed to leave work on Saturdays at four o'clock instead of half-past five.
An 'adjourned special meeting of the Birmingham and Oxford Railway -Company took place on Saturday, at Herbert's Hotel, Old Palace Yard. The object of the adjournment from the 12th instant was to give time for a settlement of differences. All negotiations, however, had failed; and the chairman, Mr. W. T. Matthews, called on Mr. Mozley to proceed with the business. Mr. Mosley moved a resolution to the effect that legal proceed- ings be forthwith taken against certain of the Directors of the Birmingham and Oxford Junction Railway, to prevent them from completing the sale of the line to the Great Western Company, and to restrain them from act- ing as directors. The chairman having refused to put this resolution, it was put by. Mr. Mozley, and carried; the chairman protesting. Several other resolutions were put and carried in the same manner, under protest from the chairman, who refused to put most of them.
Parsons, the Police Sergeant, has been captured, and has been committed to Ilford Gaol, by Mr. Justice Erle, before whom he was produced on Monday. The man was arrested at Lincoln, by two officers of the division to which he had be- longed. Parsons had been employed on a railway : a Chester Policeman seized him, some weeks since; but a companion threw snuff into the officer's eyes, and enabled the culprit to escape.
At the Mansionhonse, on Wednesday, several persons employed to navigate River steamers were fined for infraction of the by-laws made by the Court of Al- dermen: notice of appeal was given, apparently with the intention of testing the validity of the by-laws.
At Bow Street Police-office, on Wednesday, William Yates, chief clerk in the Income-tax Office, Somerset Home, was charged with forging a receipt for 1371. and obtaining thereby that amount from the Rm. iver-General. It was the pri- soner's duty to prepare the document for the return of 1371. Income-tax to the Drapers Company ; then Mr. Timm, the solicitor to the Stamps and Taxes, would sign it; and the money would be paid to Mr. Lawford for the Company. Yates presented the receipt at the Receiver-General's office, and said he wanted the money for Mr. Lawford; it was paid; but the signature to the receipt was forged. Sufficient proofs that a fraud had been perpetrated were adduced to warrant the remand of the prisoner for a week. Yates was in the receipt of a salary of 4001. a year.
At Worship Street Police-office, on Monday, William Sheen' a man who was tried at the Old Bailey in the year 1827 for cutting off the head of his illegiti- mate child, but acquitted through some technical difficulty as to the child's name, was charged with an attempt at mender. The prisoner lived with a woman named Sullivan; on Sunday night he went home drunk; opened a clasp-knife, seized Sullivan by the hair, and attempted to cut her throat. The woman strug- • glad, and her little finger was nearly cut off; Sheen then knocked her down; her cries brought assistance, and her assailant was secured. He was now committed for trial.
The South-western Railway Company have recently suffered to a large amount by robberies of goods intrusted to them. It was suspected that the people at the London terminus were the pilferers but no one could be discovered. It has now been ascertained that the thefts gave been committed while the property was in transitu• and two men have been caught in the act of removing a basket which had Leen thrown off a train in motion between Nine Elms and Battersea. -Other property has been traced to the prisoners.
Another steam-boat collision occurred on the Thames on Tuesday. The Sap- phire and the Sons of the Thames having arrived at Rosherville about the same time, a very reprehensible struggle ensued to reach the pier first; this led to two collisions; in the second of which; Mr. Catlin, a gentleman from London, had his leg broken and crushed, so that it was necessary to amputate it.
Extensive damage was done by an explosion at Mr. Daniel Watney's distillery, in Wandsworth, at mid-day on Monday. A vast still, which worked off 5,000 gal- lons of wash hourly, had been cleared of its contents in order that it might be ex- amined to detects defect in it; the man-hole was opened by a workman, another
• standing near with a lighted candle; a violent explosion instantly ensued, and the still was rent open. The place in which it stood, being constructed of timber, was soon in a blaze; but as there was a large water-tank over the still, and plenty of manual aid, the fire seems to have been confined to this room. The damage, however, is estimated at 5,0001. ln the same department was a great opint-receiver, which half an hour before had contained 3,500 gallons of spirits: this had been drawn off; and thus, probably, the whole premises—which altogether -cover seven acres—were saved from destruction.
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