Ett itletropolfs.
A very numerous meeting of gentlemen interested in the maintenance of the Navigation-laws was held on Wednesday, in the Town-hall at Pop- lar; Mr. Richard Green, "an extensive shipowner and builder," presiding. Mr. Richardson urged the "mercantile interest to die with harness on their backs; and if they could not obtain justice from the House of Commons, to look to the House of Lords." Mr. Tudgay denounced "the whole of the Laboucheres and parties" as a "set of snakes in the grass." Mr. George Frederick Young was happy to see that the word "protection" could now be used at public meetings without risk that the persons using
it would be hissed down.
He had the honour of first pointin& out to the great and good Lord George Bentinck the defects in the Board of Trade returns; he now indicated another suppression of the truth by them. Nothing was said in thok returns of imports of cotton goods, linen goods, or woollen goods, because it was said that the dee value could not be ascertained; while he believed the real reason was, that it was feared the manufacturer would see that he was being competed with in their own market. Now, he found from the Customs returns of Saturday last, that on that day 2,4001. worth of cotton goods were brought into this country; 1,750l.offwisge- len goods; 5,460 pair of boot fronts; and probably that would account or fact of 400 bootmakers being thrown oat of employ by the masters of the West- end last week. At the same time, there were 8,268 pairs of gloves introduced, and in the month of February no less than 299,447 pair. In addition to the articles he had mentioned, there were numbers of stocking's, &c. entered; so that he would ask them, could they wonder at the distress of Leicester—could they lidtta4 thAPArio`. talligaiirdL OPlitcharia§BiliggilYhcLlerdd-anwd sixty vesselsentered the West India Docks laden with foreign corn. (A cry of" A hundred and eighty!") He wished to be within the mark. As to public feeling, he would give the facts relative to the petitions presented on the subject. Up to the 234 of the present month, there were only 12 peti- tions presented in favour of an alteration of the laws, signed by 3,156 persons; while there were 107 petitions against it, signed by 118,218; and of the 12 peti- tions for an alteration, he might mention that one came from Manchester, the hot- bed of Free-trade, containing 300,000 inhabitants, with only 376 signatures.
so
Dr. Bowkett and me others attempted to support Free-trade views, "amidst considerable interruption": their speeches are unreported. Pro tectionist resolutions were carried, "with one or two dissentients."
At a meeting of the St. Martin-in-the-Fields Parochial Association of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, held on Tuesday,—the Bishop of London in the chair,—Mr. W. E. Gladstone appeared as the expounder of scientific colonization. He seconded a reso- lution, moved by the Vicar of the parish, to the effect that "it is the spe- cial duty of the English Church to supply to her children settled in any of our Colonies, and to the heathen among whom they dwell, the full enjoyment of her ordinances according to her own apostolical form": and in the course of his speech Mr. Gladstone distinctly marked his adhesion to the doctrine of colonization by transfer of a complete society— "Were those people to be launched upon the ocean of affairs and human vicis- situdes to guide themselves? If they were to guide themselves, how were they supplied with the principles and with the habits and institutions which would adapt them for such guidance? Depend upon it, they could not be guided by this country, although perhaps from national pride we might suppose that we could sit here, in this little spot of London, and regulate the affairs of the remotest parts of the globe. That could not be. It was not to be desired ; it was not to be thought of. All the colonies would more and more become what were called self-governing colonies. Let not that be looked upon as a calamity to this country. It was not the mere augmentation of power that was the great purpose of colonization; the object was to reproduce the likeness of England—to reproduce its laws and manners, as they were doing in Australia, New Zealand, North America, and the Cape, thereby contribut- ing to the general happiness of mankind. That was the purpose of colo- nization, and the mere question of power was a small one. We had erred grievously in former times in attempting centralization, and that error had pro- duced national animosity between this country and America. We had committed a great error in attempting to hold our colonies by the mere exercise of power. If they were to be attached to us—if they were to follow our fortunes—they must be held by the cords of love, and in no other manner. But, whether attached to us by political ties or otherwise, the time would come, and must come, when they would assert for themselves their own full integrity; and if the Colonies should be held by the bonds of affection now, when that day to which he alluded did come, the beneficial connexion of England with the Colonies would not have ceased. How was that to be brought about? Why, by beginning at the beginning. If they wished to produce an essential similitude between the two, they must lay the foundation of that similitude in religion."
At the Mansionhouse, on Saturday, Edward Stannard, the "wine-merchant" of Pancras Lane, was reexamined on a charge of defrauding William Walker of fifteen railway shares. The Lord Mayor decided that the evidence was sufficient to warrant committal: the paper that Walker had signed at the instance of the amused did not bar a prosecution for Stannard's offence against the public; and Walker could not condone the public crime, as he might the private injury. Bail was accepted. The Olympic Theatre in Wych Street has been burnt to the ground. On Thursday afternoon at about five o'clock, while Mr. Sterling was on the stage superintending arrangements for producing some benefit pieces, the stage-curtain floated over a gas-burner from which it was usually fended by a tin guard, then accidentally displaced. The curtain was of very old velvet, lined with cotton to keep it together; the cotton blazed up, and burned with such rapidity that the car- penters were unable to cut the lines which suspended the curtain and drew it back, wore the upper part of the theatre took fire. The light furniture of the upper boxes wet the machinery at the top of the stage soon conducted it over the whole in- terior of the house. In less than half an hour the flames forced their way through the roof, and poured out through all lateral openings in such a volume as to set on are several adjacent houses. Twelve engines were very soon on the spot, and an enormous quantity of water was promptly thrown on the conflagration ; but with- out the least subduing it. By eight o'clock the galleries and roof had dropped in, and the front walls had fallen forward into Wych Street ; and by nine o'clock the building was a mass of ruins. Nearly a dozen houses in Craven Buildings, and some of the houses in Newcastle Street, have been ruined or seriously damaged.
The Olympic Theatre was built by "Old Philip Astley," on the destruction by fire of the Amphitheatre in Lambeth. Astley was a favourite of George the Third, and received through his favour the gift of the captured French ship Ville de Paris, to break up and use in the construction of the Olympic; and the theatre was built almost entirely of timber.
Mr. Davidson, the lessee, was wholly uninsured : it is stated that he was about to insure next day before giving up possession to young Mr. Farren and Mrs. Nes- bitt, who had just concluded an agreement with him to sublease the theatre for the summer season. The building was the property of Mr. Cavell, a representative by marriage of Old Astley, and was insured in the County Fire-office. The sur- rounding homes were part of the Craven estate, and were also insured.
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