Zbe _Metropolis.

A meeting of representatives of Incorporated Livery Companies, and of others interested in the administration of charitable trusts, was held at the London Ta- vern, on Thursday, to take the Charitable Trusts Bill into consideration. Alder- man Farebrother presided. A paper of " reasons" against the bill had been circulated, and was repeatedly referred to by the speakers: in this paper the bill was objected to as unnecessary, no abuses having been made out; as unjust, be- cause the charities in the City have for the most part emanated from members of the Companies; and as injurious, because the Companies administer their charities without expense, and even add further contributions to the funds, which they would no longer do if deprived of the administration. It was also stated, that as some of the charities do not exceed 208. or even is. a year, they would be annihi- lated by the expenses newly incurred. The City Companies had applied to be heard by counsel against the measure; but the application had been refused, on the ground that as the bill contained 120 exemptions no proposition of the kind could be entertained from particular bodies. Resolutions against the bill, and au- thorizing steps to oppose it, passed unanimously. A meeting of representatives of Incorporated Livery Companies, and of others interested in the administration of charitable trusts, was held at the London Ta- vern, on Thursday, to take the Charitable Trusts Bill into consideration. Alder- man Farebrother presided. A paper of " reasons" against the bill had been circulated, and was repeatedly referred to by the speakers: in this paper the bill was objected to as unnecessary, no abuses having been made out; as unjust, be- cause the charities in the City have for the most part emanated from members of the Companies; and as injurious, because the Companies administer their charities without expense, and even add further contributions to the funds, which they would no longer do if deprived of the administration. It was also stated, that as some of the charities do not exceed 208. or even is. a year, they would be annihi- lated by the expenses newly incurred. The City Companies had applied to be heard by counsel against the measure; but the application had been refused, on the ground that as the bill contained 120 exemptions no proposition of the kind could be entertained from particular bodies. Resolutions against the bill, and au- thorizing steps to oppose it, passed unanimously.

The distribution of prizes to the students in University College took place on Saturday; when the theatre of the College was crowded with an audience in- cluding several ladies. The Marquis of Normanby filled the chair; Lord Brougham, President of the College, the Earl of Auckland, Vice-President, Sir Lyon Goldsmid, Mr. Warburton, with some other Members of Parliament, being present. Lord Normanby congratulated the early supporters of the College on finding their views with respect to the mixed education of several sects adopted by the Government of the day. In moving thanks to the Chairman, Lord Brougham let fall some remarks on the Roman Catholic religion, as " detrimental, both in a spiritual and temporal point of view, to the best interests of society." This drew forth some cheers and hisses; on which Lord Brougham continued—he bad just made an experiment, which showed how utterly impossible it was for many to agree together on any one religions point; a remark echoed by "Hear, hear I " The vote of thanks passed, and the meeting broke up.

The movement in the country for bettering the condition and raising the moral tone of the working classes, is to be followed up in London by its untiring advo- cate, Mr. Simpson, of the Scotch bar. The provincial press bears testimony to his exertions for the last two years, during which he has visited gratuitously the prin- cipal towns of England and Scotland, and addressed many thousands of all classes. In compliance with a requisition signed by upwards of three thousand working men of-London, Mr. Simpson is to address them, in Exeter Hall, on Wednesday the 9th and Friday the 11th of the present month. Lord Brougham presides; and the Marquis of Normauhy, the Duke of Bucclench, with other noblemen, and some lathes of rank, have signified their intention to be present. The admission to working men is gratuitous. Mr. Simpson's powers of interest- ing an audience are well known in his exertions as an enlightened educationist.

A public meeting cif an Association for the Promotion of Improved Paving, Cleansing, and P triage,. was held at the Hanover Square Rooms on Thursday; the Duke of sliteinding. • Mr. Cochrane contended, that if the streets, courts, and all e4histhroughout the United Kingdom, were properly swept and kept dead peetild the accumulation of mud and dust be entirely pre-

vented at a tr- ItiMenae, but employment could be given to 40,000 labourers. The annual expense he said, would be 7s. per house. He offered to the parish of St. George's, that if they would undertake to employ one man for every 1,500 yards of area in the parish, for six months, in cleansing the streets according to the plan of the Association, and would then call a meeting of the rate-payers, he would pledge his word end .give any pecuniary guarantee to pay the whole of the expense of the experiment,whether it should he 1,0001., 2,0001, or 3,0001., if the rate-payers so assembled Amid pass a resolution then objecting to the expense which had been thus incurred. Several other speeches were made; and the meet- ing unanimously adopted resolutions commending the plan.

On Saturday, Prince Albert laid the foundation-stone of the hospital intended for the relief of the sick poor in the parishes of St. Mary's, Marylebone, and Pad- dington. - The site lies at the back of Cambridge Terrace, near the terminus of the Great Western Railway. The whole of the space was enclosed, covered over, fitted up with an amphitheatre of seats, and decorated with flags. About 2,000 were present; among them the Bishop of London, Earl Manvers, the persons of nhichester, the Earl of Beverley, Mr. Bond Cabbell, and other leading persons in Marylebone. In an address to the Prince and the assemblage, the

Bishop stated that the population of the district is 200,000; the annual mortality 4,500; of which number 3,000 belong to the poorer classes. Prince Albert wielded the trowel with his usual address; and the whole ceremony passed of satisfactorily; not the less so for the announcement that 15,0001. had been sub- scribed towards the building.

The first annual dinner on behalf of the Cutaneous Institution in Bridge Street, Blackfriars, was held at the London Tavern on Thursday; Viscount Sandon in the chair. The Chairman, Mr. Samuel Gurney, and Sir Edward Buxton, delivered speeches defending the institution from attacks that had been made upon it. Tho subscription of the evening exceeded 6001.

The thirty-ninth annual festival of the Licensed Victaallers School was held at White Conduit House, on Wednesday; Mr. Harvey Combo in the chair. About 1,800 persons of either sex were present; a vast marquee in the gardens being added to the house-room for the occasion. The subscriptions amounted to 2,0001

A church-rate for the repairing and enlarging of St. Dunstan's Church, Step- ney, was refused last week. On a poll, there were for the rate, 840 votes; against it, 991—majority, 151.

The parish of St. George's, Middlesex, has been for some and is still disturbed by dissensions between the Reverend Bryan King, the Rector, and his flock, on account of Tractarian observances which he has introduced. Appeal has been made to the Bishop of London; but he has not interfered effectively. A church- rate has been refused by the offended parishioners; and the consequence was, that on Sunday last, for want of funds to keep up the usual salaries, there was no organ playing, the clock was stopped, and the congregation was so thin that the officiating clergyman abstained from giving out any psalm lest there should be no response.

In the Arches Court, on Monday, Sir Herbert Jenner Fust gave judgment in the case of the Reverend Mr. Oakeley. The question came before the Court by virtue of letters of request from the Bishop of London, to whom Mr. Oakeley had written his now well-known letter, vindicating Mr. Ward. The case was argued on the 10th June, and noticed in the Spectator of the 14th. In that letter Mr. Oakeley claimed to hold, though not to teach, the doctrines of the Church of

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Rome; in several of which he avowed his concurrence: and he declared that he subscribed the Thirty-nine Articles in the same sense as that adopted by Mr. Ward; who was deprived of his degrees in the University for the avowal of simi- lar opinions and the acceptation of the Articles in a non-natural sense. Sir Her- bert elaborately analyzed Mr. Oakeley's letter, and pointed out its inconsistency. with the doctrines and discipline of the Church of England. The promoters of the snit, he said, had sufficiently proved their case, and Mr. Oakeley had ren- dered himself liable to ecclesiastical censure. If the proceeding had been under the statute of Elizabeth, he must, in the first instance, have been called upon to retract his error, and if he refused, be deprived of his preferment; but, as the proceeding was under the general law, the punishment was left to the discretion of the Court, according to the exigency of the offence. The Court would not go beyond thejustice of the case by revoking the licence to Mr. Oakeley to perform the office of minister in Margaret Chapel, or any ministerial offices in the diocese of London, by prohibiting him from performing such offices elsewhere within the province of Canterbury till he should have determined to retract, and did re- tract his errors, and by condemning Mr. Oakeley in the costs of the proceeding.

The Court of Queen's Bench was occupied on Friday and Saturday last week with an action brought by Dr. Firth against the Phoenix Fire insurance Company, for the sum of 1,1501., the amount of a policy of insurance. Dr. Firth had insured the contents of a house in Suffolk Place, Islington; in May 1842, a fire occurred there, and the building was nearly destroyed. A claim was made on the Insurance Company for the amount:of the policy: but they refused to pay it, alleging that it was a fraudulent attempt to obtain a larger sum from them than Dr. Firth was entitled to; and they even insinuated that the fire was not accidental. Hence this action. Many witnesses were called for the plaintiff; and described the contents of the house. There was a medical library, the value of which was variously estimated, at sums ranging from 3001. to 5001. There were clothes belonging to the deceased Mrs. Firth, worth 300/.; anatomical plates, globes, phrenological preparations, wax anatomical preparations (valued at 100/.); a Crucifixion by GtudoZ put down at 1501.; and plenty of good furniture. Dr. Firth was at another house, which he also occupied, in Trinity Row, when the fire occurred. In 1838 he passed through the Insolvent Debtors Court. Evidence was given that he had subsequently had a goodpractice as a medical man. Many witnesses were examined for the defence. They doubted whether a large library had been destroyed at the fire. Books are scarcely ever quite consumed in fires; while in the ruins at Suffolk Place hardly any trace of books was discernible—certainly not of large and valuable books. The furniture was of an inferior description. A short time before the fire furniture had been taken to the house in Trinity Row, and goods of an inferior sort brought back to Suffolk Place. An old acquaintance had never seen Mrs. Firth so dressed as to suppose her clothes worth 3001. No mathematical or medical instruments were found in the ruins. Several witnesses, firemen and others, declared that the house was on fire in two distinct places—near the back kitchen, and in the upper part of the building. The Jury consulted for twenty minutes, and then returned a verdict for the defendant, the representative of the Insurance Company.

In the Court of Common Pleas, on Wednesday, Chief Justice Tindal gave an important judgment with respect to " Derby sweeps," a species of gambling in which many thousands are interested. A subscriber to one of these lotteries brought an action against a City publican, the treasurer of the club, for the amount of a prize; the plaintiff having drawn the horse which was declared the winner. The defendant pleaded that the whole affair was illegal; and tendered - one pound, which the plaintiff had subscribed. The Lord Chief Justice gave judgment for the defendant, declaring such lotteries to be illegal.

Judgment was also given in an action to recover a bet of ten pounds on a horse- race. If the bet be under ten pounds it can be recovered; but one of ten pounds cannot be. Judgment therefore was given for the defendant.

At Worship Street Police-office, on Monday, two young men, engineers, were convicted on the clearest evidence of indecently assaulting a respectable married woman in the street, and brutally beating her brother-in-law when he remonstrated with them. The men denied the charge, and trumped up an improbable story that they had been attacked first. Mr. Broughton, the Magistrate, said, although he always felt extremely reluctant to impose such a penalty upon working-men as would have the effect of consigning them to prison, he felt bound, in the pre- sent case, to order each of them to pay a fine of 40s., or be committed in default for six weeks to the House of Correction. The prisoners begged hard for a miti- gation of the fine; but the Magistrate said he feared the sentence was already far too lenient, and he could not listen to the application. [This sentence, "feared" by the Justice himself to be " far too lenient," for so scandalous an offence, has not escaped animadversion. Mr. Broughton, however, has since explained from the bench: seeing that the men were drunk when they misbehaved' that one of them had received a bite from the brother-in-law of the woman insulted, and that they were in poor circumstances, he is satisfied that the punishment was an ade- quate, indeed a severe one.]

Some more Magisterial leniency was exhibited at the Clerkenwell Police-office, on Tuesday; when two men, milk-carriers, were charged with an assault on females similar to the above. Bat in this case the husband of one of the women bad given one of the ruffians a black eye for his shameful conduct, and Mr. Comte discharged the culprit on the strength of it; fining the other man one pound, which was immediately paid.

A man and woman have been committed for trial from Worship Street Police- office, for appropriating the proceeds- of a check which they picked up in the street and immediately got cashed.

Chalk, a brickmaker at Kentish Town, has caused the death of his son, a boy of thirteen, by striking him with his fist and kicking him; in consequence of which ill-treatment a fatal abscess formed in the boy's abdomen. A Coroner's Jury has returned a verdict of a Manslaughter " against Chalk.

Shortly after midnight on Sunday morning, two houses fell down in Wellclose Square. The inmates had perceived the dangerous state of the buildings, and all escaped.

The visitors to Richmond by water met with an unpleasant mishap on Sunday. On the return of the steamers in the evenirw, they got aground near Kew, and were detained for three hours till the tide floatd them off Ten vessels were aground at one time.