The deputies of the Presbyterian, Independent, and Baptist Dis- senter.,
met at the King's Head in the Poultry, on the 27th Decem- ber; renewed their protest against Church-rates, and urged the Com- mittee to take " prompt and efficient measures for procuring their early and entire abolition." [These demonstrations of hostility to Church-rates are abortive, and only excite the ridicule of the trium- phant Tories. Thanks to their Whig friends, the Dissenters have the gratification of knowing that the main object of their exertions is further off now than it was seven years ago. When the Whigs had the power to abolish Church-rates, they introduced a measure for perpe- tuating them in a shape most convenient to the clergy of the Esta- blishment: it was only when they knew that the means of effecting their pretended purpose were wanting, that they brought forward a plan for really relieving the Dissenters from the payment of rates.] A numerous meeting of the inhabitants of Hackney and the neigh. bourhood was held at the Mermaid Tavern, Hackney, on Tuesday night, to petition Parliament for the immediate emancipation of the Negro apprentices in the West Indies. One of the speakers said that the restitution of the twenty millions should be demanded " in a voice of thunder, and with an aspect of lightning."
Mr. Laing, the Magistrate of Hatton Garden Police-office, having received a communication from Lord John Russell on Wednesday last, that if he should send in his resignation of his office it would be accepted, has taken the hint ; and Mr. Laing is no longer a Magis. trate.—Chronicle. 1" Thank you, Lord John, thank you! "J Mr. Wedgwood, one of the Police Magistrates of Union Hall, has resigned his office ; and we hear that he has been induced to take that step from a conscientious feeling that it is improper in him to be a party to the administering of oaths. It is not the intention of Lord John Russell to fill up the vacancy caused by the resignation of Mr. Wedgwood, until the Committee of the House of Commons on the Metropolitau Police-offices shall have made its report.—Times.
. Yesterday, sentences were passed on the prisoners convicted of va- rious offences, in the Central Criminal Court, which has been sitting during the week. One man, found guilty of manslaughter, was or- dered to be transported for life. The Recorder, in passing sentence, said, that " he had to thank the Jury for the humanity they had shown
in not tinding him guilty of murder." Such it:smirks see c ammo!: ill our courts of justice: they amount to is virtual charge of perjury against the Jury, and in the instance quoted, to a most unwarrantable aggravation of the prisoner's sufferings. After the Jury had given a verdict of " Manslaughter," uhat right had Mr. Law to tell the pri- soner, almost in so many words, that he was a murderer, and ought to be hanged ?
At the Middlesex Sessions, on Tuesday, a Juryman gave Mr. Sergeant Adams, the chairman, a good deal of annoyance by insisting on being paid for his attendance in the jury-box. He declared that he
would not concur in a verdict till he was paid ; and defied Mr. Ser- geant Adams to prove that he acted illegally. The Sergeant reminded
him, that he had sworn to return a verdict ; but the Juryman replied that be had not sworn to deliver it within a certain time. Other Jurymen offered to pay his expenses, but the obstinate man said he was contending for a great public principle. His patriotism, however, soon gave way ; for the Jury having been locked up, came into court with an unanimous verdict, in about a quarter of an hour.
James Barnett, his son, and the three seamen, who were detected in smuggling foreign spirits in the sloop Prince Regent last week, wets:
brought before the Magistrates at the Thames Police-office on Satur- day, and fined 1001. each,—to be imprisoned till the tine is paid. The quantity of spirits seized was no less than 153.1 gallons. The tolls at Vauxhall Bridge were this week reduced one-half on unladen waggons and casts drawn by two or more horses, with a pro- portionate reduction on all light vehicles.
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