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The conviction and punishment of Mr. Mitchel in Dublin have given a pretext to various riotously-disposed persons, who are indiscriminately termed " Chartists " by the press, for demonstrations of a threatening aspect. On the arrival of the Irish news on Saturday, the Chartist and Confederate Clubs met and debated with great earnestness: it was resolved at some, to arm for a demonstration, and it was announced generally that a public Meeting on Clerkenwell Green and a procession should be held on Mon- day evening. Accordingly, at seven o'clock that evening, a large concourse of people assembled, and were addressed by the leaders from a van. A person named Williams presided, and instructed his hearers to prepare to follow him " where he would lead them—no matter where ": he promised they should meet ten times their numbers on the way, and further orders Would be given what to do. Williams said he was resolved; he had made up his mind to a course of action; and he feared banishment no more than that brave, noble, and patriotic man, John Mitchel, who had been sacri- ficed by the Whig Government, and murdered, through the instrumentality of a packed jury and partisan judges. M'Carthy, Fussell, and others of the notedly violent Chartist leaders, added stimulating speeches; and then the word of command was given to "fall in " and " maroh." The crowd formed rapidly into columns of four abreast, and, headed by leaders, set out for Finsbury Square. There they found a body as large as their own; and, forming into new columns of twelve abreast, they paraded round the Square for about an hour. They were then joined by further bodies from Stepney Green and other places, that swelled their ranks to a number the estimates of which vary from 7,000 to 10,000. Thence they went in proces- sion to Smithfield; where they received further accessions, and started West ward. Pass-words were given at different points: the mob passed up Holborn, King Street, and Long Acre, to Leicester Square; and after a brief halt, to Trafalgar Square, where it seemed intended to concentrate forces and have some further speaking. A prodigious crowd of stragglers accompanied the mob and entered the Square with them. The Police authorities interfered at this point; and an imposing body of constables compelled the intruders

to leave the Square, by way of the Strand. Some inclination was insini- rested to make for St. James's Park ; but that particular intent had been anticipated, and was prevented by an adequate force properly positioned.

The "Chartists" returned to Finsbury Square; where they received from their leaders mysterious announcements that disappointments had been occasioned by circumstances which it would be prudent to conceal: orders were given to disperse, and to reassemble on Wednesday.

On Tuesday night, there was again a large meeting on Clerkenwell Green, and some more inflammatory speaking.

Mr. Williams urged his hearers to action. " What he wished all those who heard him to do was this—to go without an hour's delay and join some ' asso- ciation' or locality,' whether it were the Irish Confederation or the English Chartists be did not care a straw. When they had done that, they would call out 100,000 or 200,000 men at leas than half an hour's notice; not giving the authorities of the Bank denote fill up their assailable points with sand-bags and cannon; without giving the. police the opportunity of bludgeoning the people, as they had done in some cases the night before; and before the Government could call out their cowardly special constables." Mr. Sharpe " declared emphatically," that the time was now come for mea- sures " to destroy the damnable and despotic power of the Whig Administration." He too pressed his hearers to join some club or confederation, "where they would be informed of a secret that the Government wouldn't scruple to give 1,000,0001. to learn." He spoke " openly and advisedly "; and if they did not understand him, they must please to imagine what he meant. (Laughter and cheers.) He concluded by some significant gestures, which elicited loud applause. Mr. Daly spoke to the assembly as an Irish Confederate, delegated to form an " offensive alliance with the Chartists of England." [He was proceeding with great warmth on the Mitchel topic, when a body of police came in sight, and a multitude of his hearers ran away.] In great disgust he " inquired how did they mean to fight for their liberties if they ran away from the police? There were 10,000 men at Wapping, and as many more at Bermondsey, ready to rise when called upon." The police pressed forward in a compact mass, headed by some score on horseback; and in a short time the whole meeting disappeared. On Wednesday, the Police authorities had made very extensive prepara- tions against the intended repetition of Monday's annoyances. They is- sued a notice against tumultuous assemblages, and against processions, and made such arrangements as enabled them to despatch 5,000 of the Force to any point on which the mob might concentrate. Three squad- rons of Horse Guards were also moved through the City, and posted in Clerkenwell and Finsbury. The whole of the Fire Brigade were placed on duty; and hints having been received of intended incendiarism, ar- rangements were made with respect to the gas and water-mains, to keep them under control. The leaders of the special 'Constables of the various City and Western districts were instructed to have on the alert the bodies under their command; and some of these were actually called out, and placed in positions of 'vantage. The result of the preparations was, that the intended meeting on Clerken- well Green was prevented: at least the leaders of the movement did not appear on the ground. A large body of idlers and mischief-makers assem- bled, however, and were not dispersed without rough exertions, and con- siderable skirmishing with the police. The brief spectacle of some sixty of the Horse Guards, who seem to have been moved across a part of the Square simply to have a moral effect on the crowd, was of essential service Long before midnight, the police were left undisturbed masters of the streets.

On Thursday, there were renewed attempts at disturbance on Clerken- well Green; but none of the Chartist leaders appeared: the attempts were irregular and unsustained; so the police had no difficulty in putting an end to them.

A considerable number of commercial gentlemen of high standing met on Saturday—" merchants, bankers, and others, of the city of London, anxious to uphold the system of free labour in the British Colonial Pos sessions, and to prevent this country from becoming dependent for its sup- ply of sugar and coffee upon the extension of cultivation by means of slavery and the slave-trade." The meeting was held 'in the great room of the London Tavern. Mr. Thomas Baring, M.P., presided; the speakers were Mr. Samuel Gurney, Mr. W. Cotton, Mr. M. T. Smith, Mr. G. Han- son, Sir Edward Buxton, M.P., Sir H. Sykes Thornton, Mr. Alderman Thompson, M.P., Mr. G. W. Alexander, Mr. Ross Mangles, M.P., Mr. Tritton, Mr. Gurney Hoare, Mr. C. Barclay, Mr. Reay, Mr. Masterman, M.P., Sir Charles Price, Mr. Bagshaw, M.P., and Mr. Money Wigram. Some remarks were also made in opposition—by Mr. Elliott, by Mr. Scobell on the ultra side of Anti-Slavery, and at some length by Mr. Bright on the Manchester Free-trade side. The following resolutions were carried, some unanimously, and the others with scarcely a dissentient voice.

"That this meeting, consisting of merchants, bankers, and others of the city. of London, assembled without regard to the political views or private interests of' any class of her Majesty's subjects, is of opinion that, while it is an object of great importance to the people of this country to obtain an abundant and cheap supply of sugar and coffee, it is no less desirable to combine with that object the main- tenance of the system of free labour, which has been established at so great a sa- crifice in the British Colonial Possessions."

" That it appears from the evidence taken before the Select Committee on Sugar and Coffee Planting, appointed by the House of Commons in February last, and from the published despatches of the Governors of her Majesty's Tropical Posses- sions, that the competition, consequent upon the act of 1846, between the forced and unrequited labour of slaves in Cuba and Brazil, and the paid labour of our emancipated Negroes, has already brought the British Colonies, which had been previously struggling with the difficulties of their new position, to the brink of ruin, and endangered the existence of those civil and religious institutions on which the future welfare and progress of their inhabitants depend." " That the inhuman traffic in slaves, which in the years 1844 and 1845 had been more effectually checked than at any antecedent period, has—according to the evidence given before the Committee by Lord Palmerston, her Majesty'a Se- cretary of State for Foreign Affairs—actually doubled in amount during the last two years." " That to stimulate, on the one hand the demand for slaves in Cuba and Brazil, by enhancing the value of the products of their labour, and on the other hand to make a show of checking the supply of slaves from Africa to those countries by armed intervention, is an inconsistency which impugns either the honesty or the common sense of the people of this country, and renders their policy a matter of suspicion to Foreign Powers." " That unless the Sugar-duties Act of 1846 be promptly and materially alter- ed, it is manifest that the production of the British Possessions will greatly de- cline; that we shall speedily become dependent for our supplies of sugar. upon slave-trading countries; and that the consumer must pay an increased pnoe, at

least until additional slaves can be transported from Africa to extend cultivation in Cuba and Brazil."

" That the interests and the honour of the British empire are alike concerned in averting the destruction of the agriculture and trade of the Colonies, and in securing the full success of the great experiment of Emancipation; the failure of which would indefinitely postpone the abolition of slavery throughout the world." " That this meeting, while it would most strongly deprecate any system of immigration which might lead to a renewal of the African slave-trade by a pay- ment in money or otherwise for a supply of labourers from that continent, and while it would be opposed to any enactment in the Colonies which may be incom- patible with freedom and the Act of Emancipation, is nevertheless of opinion, that, in order to enable the British Colonies to compete successfully with slave- trading countries, it is highly desirable that her Majesty's Government should give prompt encouragement to the introduction of suitable free labourers, under proper supervision; that just relations should be maintained between employer and labourer to secure to both the benefits of freedom and industry; and that every local improvement which can tend to reduce the cost of production should be promoted by generous assistance on the part of the Mother-country." " That until these objects can be fairly accomplished, and the Colonies placed in a position to encounter a competition which most under the most favourable circumstances prove formidable, they have a just claim to such support as shall put them upon a footing of virtual equality, in respect to the cost of labour, with those countries in which slavery still exists."

On the fifth resolution, Mr. Alexander moved as an amendment., " That it was desirable that the Sugar Bill of 1846 should be repealed, so far as it had the effect of admitting slave-grown sugars into the British domin- ions, and thereby encouraging slavery and the slave-trade." Sir Edward Buxton, though agreeing fully in the amendment, considered that they would better further the objects they had in view if it were withdrawn. Mr. Alexander agreed to withdraw the amendment, if the meeting desired it; though he considered that those opposed altogether to the admission of slave-grown sugar ought to have an opportunity of expressing their opi- nions by their votes.

It would be impracticable in our apace to give any outline of the speeches; which took four hours in the delivery, and of which the main arguments are already familiar to our readers. The most striking fact was the cha- racter of the meeting itself.

In opening the business of the day, Mr. Baring, the chairman, glanced at the nature of the assemblage: it was not, he said, a Free-trade meeting nor an Anti- Free-trade meeting, it was not Ministerial nor Anti-Ministerial. The commercial community of London was not fond of the habit of meeting for public or political discussion; and though some of the younger members of that community often accused them of dilatoriness in not publicly agitating such matters of discussion, he was glad of it, because he held that each performed best, not only his own duties, but also those he owed to his country, by every one in his own sphere act- ing for the general welfare of the country—acting fur its welfare by attention to business, and by struggling against national reverses when they came. (Cheers.) Be was very glad to bear that opinion responded to; and he hoped that it would remain the characteristic of the London commercial community, that if they were not friends of public agitation, they at the same time considered there might be circumstances which would render it not only an object but a duty to express publicly a commercial opinion, particularly when any part of her Majesty's do- minions, or any portion of their fellow subjects, should be threatened with anni- hilation and ruin. Nor should they cease doing so until injurious measures were changed, if not redressed. It was impossible for the most cursory reader of the proceedings of the Committee sitting on Colonial Agriculture, not to be aware that at the present moment the interests of our Colonies were in a most precarious state; and when he said interests, he did not solely allude to those of the posses- sors of .property, but to those of the labouring classes, for in no country could property be depreciated without rendering the poorer classes poorer than they were before.

Sir Edward Buxton wished that Lord John Russell bad been present, to see how men of all parties and all political opinions were perfectly at one on a subject which involved higher principles and more sacred interests than any of those in- volved in the question of free trade. (Loud cheers.) Mr. Gurney, who avowed some want of confidence in the expediency of import- ing free labourers into the West Indies, read statistics to show that the slave- trade goes on and increases. In 1845, the number of slaves that crossed the Atlantic was estimated at 45,000. In 1847, the number was 60,000 by official reports, but by private and well-authenticated amounts it was 711,000. He should wish them to consider well what the slave-trade really was. He would mention one or two cases by way of elucidation. One of our Admirals within the present month had written to his Government that he had a slaver in tow, of 60 tons

burthen, with 317 individuals on board. The system of packing those indivi- duals was such as to make them almost a solid mass of human corruption. Some few remained alive. He knew cases in which nine out of ten of the persons composing cargoes of slaves died on the voyage. If such vessels of 60 tons were employed to transport the 60,000 slaves in 1847, the meeting might form some calculation as to the amount of deaths. He only told half the evils of the slave-trade when he mentioned the horrors and deaths during the Atlantic voyage. What if he told them of the wars and cruelties exer- cised in Africa—of the ruin committed in that country to get possession of those unfortunate individuals—if he told them all, they would see that for every 70,000 exported from Africa an equal number was destroyed. He believed that the consequence of the African slave-trade, as now carried on, was at least 1,000 deaths a day. In pointing out briefly the horrors of the case, he would say that really and truly a stimulus had been given to it by recent legislation. He read extracts of communications from Cuba and from the Brazils, showing that in 1844 and 1845 the planters would have maue terms with the British Govern- ment whereby the slave-trade might have been got rid of, but that since the act of 1846 the slave-trade had revived, and was now carried on with terrible vigour.

He also read statements to show the increase in slave-grown sugar since 1846. The increase had been immense in 1847. From Havannah 100,000 boxes had

been sent that year to Great Britain, and from Matanza 60,000 boxes. He also showed that there was a decrease in the exportation of sugar from our own Colo- nies, because free labour was not sufficiently protected. Mr. John Bright poured out figured statements, of no novelty, but delivered with great fluency and confidence, in vindication of " the Manchester Freebooters,"

and in opposition to the objects of the meeting. [Mr. Bright was saluted with frequent Indignant interruptions, calls for his authorities, &c. At the end of his speech, be left the meeting; although the Chairman requested him to stay and hear those who were about to reply to his statements.]

Mr. Ross Mangles pointed out the root of all the mischief. He believed the great cause of the mischief that had occurred to the West Indies was the not pro-

viding a fair supply of free labour at the time of the emancipation of the slaves, and the shortening the period of apprenticeship. He considered the mismanage- ment of the Colonial Office—that great national drag-chain—was the main cause of the distress of the West Indies.

Finally, it was resolved that the Chairman be requested to communicate the foregoing resolutions, in such manner as he might deem proper, to the First Lord of the Treasury and the Secretary of State for the Colonial Department. A meeting of the English proprietors of the Boulogne and Amiens Rai, way was held at the London Tavern on Wednesday,—M. Laffitte in the chair,—to receive and consider a report from the Directors on the project of the French Government to take State possession of all the French rail. ways. The report was a very able document: after hearing it the meeting unanimously empowered the Directors to protest against the project.

The Society for Promoting the Amendment of the Law held its annual meeting, at the rooms in Regent Street, on Wednesday afternoon; Lord Brougham in the chair. Lord Lyndhurst, the Earl of Stradbroke, the Earl of Devon, Earl Fitzwilliam, Earl Fortescue, Lord Monteagle, Hawes, M.P., Mr. Bethel, Q.C., Mr. James Stuart, Q.C., and Mr. Roebuck. were among the members of note present. Mr. Blake, Master in Chancery' admitted that his own experience in office convinced him that some mode' of cleansing the Court of Chancery of its abuses was more necessary than a mode of doing the like even for the sewers of London. Among the reel_ lutions passed was one affirming it to be absolutely essential to appoint a distinct Department of State under a " Minister of Justice "; and another asserting it to be iudispensibly requisite that a Law University should be established in connexion with the Inns of Court.

The members of the Society for Encouragement of Arts and Manufac- tures assembled on Monday, in great numbers, with friends, at their house in John Street, Adelphi, and witnessed the annual distribution of prizes. The Marquis of Northampton presided, and Mr. Scott Russel read the Council's address. It was stated that many influential members had been obtained in the last year; and that 17,000 persons had visited the Society's recent exhibition.

At Marlborough Street Police-office, on Tuesday, another railway robber was brought before the Magistrate. He refused to give his name. A portmanteau and two boxes were stolen at the Great Western terminus from the Reverend Mr. Attree: the prisoner was found at Webb's Hotel, and had the two boxes with him; a duplicate for the portmanteau in his pocket. He was remanded.

A sugar-house in St. Mary's Street, Whitechapel, now occupied by Mesas. Browne and Co. for the manufacture of chicory, was burnt down on Tuesday night. The building was very large, and of great height. The fire broke out in a countinghouse, and spread rapidly, so that the Fire Brigade could do nothing but confine the flames to the building where they commenced: the whole pile was destroyed.

The extensive premises of Mr. Cooper, a builder, in Grove Lane, Peckham, were burnt down on Sunday evening. Glass of the value of 5001. was melted into a huge mass; and a valuable horse perished.