Ebe jattropolis.

The Lord and Lady Mayoress gave a splendid entertainment at the Mansionhouse, on Monday, to celebrate the christening of their young- est son, who had been born during the Mayoralty. The " sponsors" were Lord Worsley, Viscount Torrington, General Dyson, and Mrs. Wigan; and among the company were Lord Marcus Hill, Lord Dudley Stuart, Mr. John Masterman, the Lord Mayor Elect, Sir George Smart, and several persons connected with the City ; many of the gen- tlemen being accompanied by the ladies of their families.

A Court of Aldermen was held on Tuesday, in order to swear in Mr. William Hughes Hughes, the newly-elected Alderman for Bread Street Ward. No other business was transacted.

At an adjourned Vestry meeting of St. Stephen's Walbrook, on Thursday, the discussion on the conduct of Alderman Gibbs was con- tinued. Mr. Rock laid upon the table two sets of accounts, one signed "Michael Gibbs," and the other "Punch"; and they were equally sa- tisfactory! (Laughter.) A more fraudulent account than that for 1843 had never been shown to a vestry. The receipts were set down in one sum, 15/. 14s. ; which was derived from sacramental collections, and ought never to have found its way into the possession of the Alder- man. Now there were some thirty houses belonging to the parish, and not one farthing received from them had been credited. The meeting was again adjourned.

At a meeting of the Managing Committee and members of the Sheriffs' Fund institution, (for the temporary relief of those dependent on persons in confinement,) on Tuesday, Mr. Rock, of Walbrook, stated that no accounts of the fund had been rendered daring the shrievalty of Alderman Gibbs and. Alderman Farncombe, in 1841. It was ex- plained, that until lately the fund had been considered of a private nature, and therefore it was by some thought that the Sheriffs were not bound to render an account. No step was taken in the matter.

Michaelmas term began on Thursday ; when the Judges, after break- fasting with the Lord Chancellor, proceeded to open the several courts.

The trial of Mr. Pedro de Zulueta, in the Central Criminal Court, on a charge of slave-trading, began on Friday, and lasted till Monday. Mr. Zulueta is a junior partner of a firm of which his father is the head, and which has had extensive dealings with Spain, Havanna, and other parts of the world. He is himself but twenty-seven years of age ; and is a Spaniard by birth. The prosecutor was Sir George Stephen, who also acted as attorney in the case. Mr. Sergeant Bompas, Mr. Sergeant Talfourd, and Mr. Payne were engaged on behalf of the prosecution; Mr. F. Kelly, Queen's counsel, Mr. Clarkson, and Mr. Bodkin for the prisoner. At the commencement of the trial, Mr. Kelly asked the Court to allow Mr. Zulueta, instead of being placed in the dock, to sit near his counsel, to assist in referring to several documents in the Spanish language ; but the Court refused to permit the distinction be- tween the prisoner and any other person charged with felony. The accusation of the indictment, variously put in seven counts, was, that in November 1839, the prisoner unlawfully and feloniously equipped, manned, and navigated :a vessel called the Augusta, for the purpose of dealing and trading in slaves. Mr. Zulueta was told that he might be tried by a jury of which half were foreigners; but he answered—" No, I have no wish to do so ; I am as safe in the hands of Englishmen as foreigners."

Mr. Sergeant Bompas stated the case. Vied voce evidence was taken at great length ; and much documentary evidence was put in, including Mr. Zulueta's evidence before the Committee of the House of Com- mons on the West Coast of Africa. Some letters, which were said to be very important in their bearing on the case, were pronounced to be in- admissible as evidence. The allegations were these. In 1839, the ship Golupchick, trading under the Russian flag, and fully equipped for the slave-trade, was seized by Captain Hill, of the Queen's frigate Saracen, and sent to England ; where it was claimed by the Russian Consul, and eventually sold at Portsmouth, by Mr. Bernardos, its master, to a Mr. Emanuel, for 600/. Subsequently it was purchased, for 6501., by Mr. Jennings, who afterwards became the commander ; and it was now called the Augusta. There had been a number of large tanks called " leagores," which were:broken up by a ship-cooper; but they were carefully marked and packed up, so that they might be put together again if needed. A number of deck-screws, used for fixing moveable "slave-decks," were accidentally seen on board, at Portsmouth, by a teacher of navigation. The vessel was sent from Portsmouth to Liver- pool ; where, apparently, some cotton and other manufactures were taken on board; and it was chartered in October 1840, by Messrs. Zulueta and Co., on behalf of Pedro Martinez and Co. of Cadiz ; Thomas Jennings signing the charter-party,—which set forth that the Augusta was to proceed direct to the Galinas, and there discharge her cargo, after which she was to proceed on any lawful voyage, according to the directions the captain should receive from the consignees, either to America, the West Indies, or elsewhere. In this transaction, Messrs. Zulueta professed to act for Messrs. Martinez and Co., and merely to transfer, on account of the foreign firm, to Mr. Jennings, the money necessary for the purchase of the vessel: but for the prosecution it was contended, that that representation of the case was merely colourable ; that Messrs. Zulueta acted on their own part, Mr. Jennings being really

their servant ; the proof of this being a letter written in August 1840, in which: Messrs. Zulueta told Mr. Jennings that they would not gire more than 5001. for the vessel, though the price actually paid was 6501- a variation on which mere agents would not have ventured. The ship sailed from Liverpool with a crew of about twenty persons : it met with had weather not far from Cork or Falmouth ; but instead of putting into either of those ports, the master proceeded to Cadiz to repair. There, the greater part of the crew left the ship, in consequence of disputes with the master. On its way to the Galinas, in February 1841, the vessel was again encountered by the Saracen, and detained by Captain Hill, on Mr. Jennings's refusal to say "for whom he was concerned." It was taken to Sierra Leone, and condemned. Captain Hill understood that on many places on the coast of Africa a lawful trade and the slave- trade were carried on by the same persons ; but not at the Galinas. The vessel was not egeipped for the slave-trade when he seized it the seeond time. Captain Denman, who commanded a ship-of-war on the African station, and was for ten months constantly in sight of the Galinas, deposed that the trade there is confined. solely to slave-trading-

"There are but two descriptions of merchandise ever taken to Galinas; one being provisions and the other clothing, solely for the use of slaves. The in- habitants had no merchandise of any description to give in barter except slaves. * • * Galinas is an exception to the general rule of trading on the coast of Africa, as that is the only place where the slave-trade alone is carried on. * • • There are many persons on the coast of Africa who carry on the slave-trade, and also a lawful commerce. It is possible that a merchant, not knowing the character of the merchants at Galinas, might send a cargo to them without having the slightest intention of bartering for slaves. I know that 800 tons of goods were landed there whilst I was there; and the vessel went away in ballast, having received bills or money. None went away with cargoes except those that went to the Havanna. * • * I do not believe that there are any actual merchants at Galinas; I believe they are all agents. There are no persons there to whom goods,could be consigned except the slave- factors;. there is not a White person in the place except the slave-factors. The only exchange they can possibly make for merchandise is slaves; there is no produce there whatever."

Colonel Edward Nichol!, who was Governor of Ascension Island and Fernando Po, having been at each place for five years, confirmed this evidence of Captain Denman ; adding, that the slaves were not sold for money, but were always bartered for with British merchandise. The evidence given before the Committee of the House of Commons was put in, for the purpose of showing that Mr. Zulueta knew Messrs. Martinez and Co. to be notorious slave-dealers ; and that papers found in the Augusta when it was seized related to the disposal and. shipping of slaves.

For the defence, Mr. Kelly took a preliminary objection—that the slave-trading, to be unlawful; must be carried on by British subjects to some British colony or settlement 3. which the Galinas was not. This objection was over-ruled ; and Mr. Kelly made his address to the Jury. He dwelt upon the high consideration in which the prisoner and the firm to which he belonged were held— The young gentleman far whom he appeared, Pedro De Zulueta, was the eldest son of a gentleman who, though now advanced in years, had filled the IreXry highest offices in his own country, among them that of President of the Cortes, (an office equivalent to that of Speaker of the House of Commons in this country,) and had been the representative for the city of Cadiz so long as his commercial pursuits allowed him to remain in Spain. During the whole af his life he had been engaged in commercial transactions of the largest nature an/extent, under a firm of which not only he but his father and grandfather before him had been the principals. For seventy years the firm had carried on the most extensive concerns, during a period when not only Spain but also this country was engaged in slave-traffic ; but the firm had even then abstained from and not embarked' a single copper farthing in the slave-trade. So far from it, it would appear that when, owing to a bankruptcy, some slaves became the property, of the firm, Mr. Zulueta, the father of the prisoner, immediately gave them their freedom : in short, at the only time he ever could have been said to have been the holder of slaves, he instantly manumitted them.

Mr. Kelly complained of the general nature of the charge ; and argued. that Mr. Zulueta's share in the matter was strictly that of an

agent, shipping goods and transferring money by direction of Messrs. Martinez and Co. ; and that of several things relating to the manage- ment of the vessel and its voyage the defendant was altogether ignorant. It was true that Mr. Zulueta said before the Parliamentary Committee, that he knew Martinez and Co. to be engaged in slave-trading: but he then spoke of the knowledge that he had:in 1842; whereas, a little further on in his evidence, it appeared that he had obtained that infor-

mation since the subject had been mooted—that is to say, since the affair of the Augusta. But suppose he had known that they were en-

gaged extensively in the slave-trade, he knew also that they traded largely and lawfully in sugar and tobacco. Was a party, then, who shipped goods to such a foreign house—goods which he could not know would be used unlawfully—to be regarded as a felon ? The reason why the vessel had an English name was, that under the Spanish laws no Spanish vessel could. be commanded by an English master ; and Mar- tinez and Co. desired to employ Jennings, who had before been in their service, and whom it was convenient for them to make the ostensible owner of the vessel. As to the letters found on board the Augusta, Mr. Zulueta never saw nor heard of them until brought under his notice in the course of the law-proceedings. Several witnesses were called to speak to the character of Mr. Zu- lueta: they were—Mr. James Cooke, the Colonial broker, Sir John Pixie, Mr. Arroyue, Mr. Thomas Halifax, Mr. Sampson Ricardo, Baron de Rothschild, Mr. Isasay, a Spanish gentleman, M. Jose Maria Bareiro, the Spanish Consul, Dr. Arnett, Mr. Charles Dodd, a so- licitor, Mr. Christobel Galietta, a Spanish merchant, Mr. Charles Arthur Dodd, Mr. Hugh Sandiman, a stock-broker, Mr. Gibbs, of the firm of Gibbs and Son, Mr. Bevington and Mr. Tyndall, Quakers, Me. Jones Loyd, the eminent banker, Mr. Frederick Huth, a Bank Director, Mr. Mocatta, of the firm of Mocatta and Goldsmidt, Mr. Edwin Gore, Mr. Rougemont, Mr. Saddler, Mr. Vantzeller, the Portuguese Consul. Most of these gentlemen had known the prisoner mid the firm to which he belongs for many years ; and they vied with each other in eulogizing Mr. Zulueta's personal character, as dis- tinguished for honour and probity ; while they testified to the high

respectability of the firm. Mr. Jones Loyd spoke generally as to the reputation of the house, being personally unacquaiuted with the prisoner. Mr. Justice Manle rather briefly summed up-; pointing out weak or strong points, in the ease on either side. He told the Jury, that if

the venture was a lawful one, or if the prisonerhad no guilty knowledge of improper objects in the venture, there was an end of the case.

About half-past eleven o'clock on Monday, the Jury retired ; and soon after one o'clock they reentered the Court, and returned a verdict of "Not Guilty"; which was greeted with a loud burst of cheers.

There was another indictment against Mk. Zulueta, for a mis- demeanour in the same case ; but no evidence was tendered, and a verdict of acquittal was formally recorded. On Mr. Zulneta's leaving the Court, the cheers were renewed by the people outside.

At the Central Criminal Court, on Monday, William Haynes was tried on a charge of murdering his wife, by administering large doses of sulphate of potass, in order to prevent an increase of their family. Several medical witnesses described the drug as not being more noxious than many others, Epsom salts for instance ; though very large doses would be highly dangerous. And there was some doubt whether the wife might not have died of apoplexy. On these grounds, the Jury seem to have rested their verdict of acquittal.

William Stelzer was convicted of stabbing Peter Kelm, so that he died. Both the men were foreigners, and Keim was a bootmaker„ Stelzer, who knew him, met him in the street on the 30th September, and asked him for some pecuniary assistance; which Kelm said he could not give : they separated, and Stelzer ran back and stabbed the other in the abdomen. The defence was insanity ; but it failed, and the prisoner was sentenced to be hanged.

On Tuesday, Thomas Rowe, a discharged cellarman, was tried for shooting at his former master, Mr. Thomas Waller, a wine-merchant, in Cross Lane, St. Mary-at-Hill. Anger at being refused employment was the immediate motive that actuated Rowe, who is an aged man ; but various acts of eccentricity were proved of him, and especially a childish habit of playing with pistols, such as putting them under his pillow atnight, or shooting at imaginary crows ; and the Jury acquitted him on the ground of insanity. He was ordered to be detained during the pleasure of the Crown.

Isaac Bridgman and John White Bridgman were tried, on Wednesday, on a charge of misdemeanour, in removing the body of Mr. J. G. Tawney from a vault in the burial-ground of St. John's Chapel, West Street, Walworth—a Dissenting chapel, of which the Reverend Isaac Bridgman is the minister. Mr. John Bridgman is the other's son, and a student in surgery. It will be remembered, that on the night of the 6th September, some neighbours saw three men removing the coffin ; which was afterwards discovered near a garden at a spot about which Mr. Isaac Bridgman had been seen to dig. Some of the neighbours also thought that they saw the minister at his house on the morning of the 6th, and heard his voice at night. The defence consisted of an ex.- planatory statement by Mr. Bridgman's counsel. Mr. John Bridgman, who is but seventeen years of age, was a zealous student, and he re, quired a skeleton that had been long buried; for which purpose he re- moved the remains of Mr. Tawney : but that was some time before the 6th September. Wishing to diminish the chances of detection, on the 6th, he also removed the coffin, which was buried in the grounds. That night, his mother discovered the affair, and was much shocked ; and it was the conversation with her that was overheard. Eight witnesses of the highest respectability proved that they saw Kr. Isaac Bridgman at Ramsgate on the 6th, 7th, and 8th September,—thus disproving the evidence of his being at home on the 6th ; and many others, including several Dissenting ministers, gave him an excellent character both as a minister and a man. The reverend gentleman was acquitted ; but John Bridgman was convicted, and sentenced to twelve months'imprisonment.

Thomas Adolphus Talbot, who was convicted last week of stealing jewellery from his landlord, was sentenced, on Monday, to twelve months' imprisonment, with hard labour.

The revolting cruelties of " knackers " have again been brought to light, in a dispute between the Royal Society for- the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals and the Animals' Friend Society. The Royal Society maintain that such cruelties have ceased: to prove that. they-ane still perpetrated, the Animals' Friend -Society publish extracts of a report by their Inspector' corroborated. by evidence of several Police- men who have visited the knackers' yards by order of the Police Com- missioners.

"Thomas Radcliffe, the Society's Inspector, says—' We found eighthorsas in an enclosed place, up to their fetlocks in decayed animal matter, mire, and every description of corruption. They had neither food nor water. The living animals were standing among the carcasses of the dead, crushing them at every step. The stench was overpowering. One of the slaughtermen ad- mitted that they had no trouble with the horses, as four or five dropped' off every night. At another yard, the son of the proprietor showed thirty horses lying dead, some completely putrefied; and he admitted that they never killed while they had so many dead ones. He offered to sell me a horse if I. wanted one.'

"Police-Constable Mernier, N 188, says= I confirm Radcliffe's statement. I saw a number of horses apparently starving ; two had fallen dead, and the living ones were gnawing the hair and skin from the carcasses.' "Police-Constable Shayler, S 114, says= I saw several horses lying dead and dying in the filth of the yard, and a quantity of rats running over them.'

"Police-Constable North, N 17, says—' When passing the yard, hearing a groaning, I sealed the wall. There was about twenty horses, some tied up and others loose. Those at liberty were gnawing the manes and tails of the others, in their hunger ; which caused them to groan dreadfully. It was a horrid sight, and the stench was dreadful.'

"Police-Sergeant Allen, N 21, soya—' We discovered fourteen or fifteen horses, apparently dead, lying on the stones in an open shed : some of them were tied up to rings in the walls, and had died durhg the night. All the wood-work about the premises was gnawed away, even the bar across the gates inside. While examining the shed, we heard a noise behind, among the sup- posed dead horses : it was the moving of a horse's leg, the grating of the shoe against a stone. After some trouble, we discovered (by the steam issuing from the trunk of a dead horse from which the bowels had been taken) that the still living animal had, in its agony, plunged its head into the body of another horse by its side. It was the first time I had seen such horrors ; and it made me quite ill for some time after. In another yard, I found four or five horses tied to the skeleton of a horse in the open air.. One had dropped down from starva- tion; it was in the agony of death : the animal struck out feebly in its On, and the others stumbled down on the body three or four times."