i bt Tatrllfu lis.

A meeting to express the opposition felt in the City to Lord Harrowby's bill for the removal of Churches was held on Wednesday ; Mr. Hub- bard, Governor of the Bank of England, in the Chair. The meeting was

not quite but nearly unanimous. Among the speakers against the billy were the chairman, Mr. Henry Sykes Thornton, the Reverend Mr. Too- good, the Reverend Mr. Hill, Mr. Deputy Lott, Mr. Varden, Mr. Hoare, Colonel Short., Dr. Croly, and the Reverend William Scott. Their ob- jections were, that the bill would desecrate old and noble monuments and the homes of the dead ; and that it was proposed to pull down the churches without the consent of the parishioners. On the other hand, Mr. Richard Bell, Mr. Mathew, Mr. George Brooke, and Mr. Seely, applauded the bill. The views of its opponents were embodied in two resolutions and a peti- tion to the House of Commons. An amendment was moved upon the petition, pledging the meeting to the principle, though not to the details of the bill ; but it was negatived by a great majority. The resolutions and the petition were adopted.

At the meeting of the Law Amendment Society, on Monday,—Lord Brougham in the chair,—the report of a Committee, recommending the appointment of a Minister of Justice, was discussed and adopted. In the course of the proceedings, Lord Brougham made some statements in cor- rection of some erroneous opinions as to what has been done this session in the way of Law Reform. If, he said, only a few of the mea- sures introduced this session should pass, very great benefit would be con- ferred on the community.

The Common Law Procedure Bill would pass, and that was of immense importance. It would not do to underrate the amount of fusion of law and equity accomplished by its provisions, for some most important equitable powers had been given to the courts of common law. It had adopted almost all the important parts of his arbitration bill, which had been introduced last session. Again, it fundamentally embraced the Law of Evidence and Trial by Jury Bills, introduced also by himself last year. And it provided for compulsory arbitration' and gave power to Judges to order a reference. At one time he thought of inserting in the Common Law Procedure Act his clauses about bills of exchange and promissory notes. The Committee, how- ever, thought it better to keep his clauses separate. Then there was Mr. Craufurd's excellent bill, and Lord Harrowby's for the registration of bills of sale. He must add Mr. Butt's process of subpcena, by leave of the Judges, extending equally throughout the United Kingdom. Mr. Whiteside, too, had a bill to extend to Ireland many parts of the Common Law Procedure Act. On the whole, there were no grounds for dissatisfaction at the pro- ceedings of the present session.

Among other subjects of remark, Lord Brougham regretted that the discussion in the House of Lords regarding a public prosecutor had been so meagrely reported in the newspapers. On that occasion, Lord Campbell entered fully into the merits of the ques- tion, and made some admirable remarks, which never appeared in print. Subsequently, Lord Brougham gave the Chief Justice another oppor- tunity of expressing his opinion on the subject, by asking him a ques- tion. Lord Campbell in consequence again discussed the point, though not so fully as on the former occasion. Mr. Phillimore had taken up the same subject, and introduced a bill still more extensive than his own. The country is under deep obligations to Mr. Phillimore ; who, however, was willing to leave it in the hands of Government, provided they would give reasonable hopes of adopting the spirit of his measure. In 1834, before he went out of office, Lord Brougham, along with the then Home Secre- tary, Lord Besborough, had made every arrangement to institute a public prosecutor for the great and populous districts of Middlesex and London.

The Reverend Frederick Maurice began his course of lectures on "Learning and Working" on Thursday, at Willis's Rooms. The at- tendance was good, but chiefly consisted of ladies and gentlemen, few artisans being present. Mr. Maurice was heard with profound attention. We avail ourselves of a summary of the lecture from the Morning Chronicle of Friday- " After a few preliminary observations, in which he urged the necessity of intimate connexion between education and the practical purposes of life for which it is intended as a preparatory training, Mr. Maurice proceeded to con- sider the proposal to found a College for the working man, and the difficulties which stood in the way of effectually carrying out this proposal. Such a proposal for educating the working man was a peculiar characteristic of the present time ; and the difficulties which stood in its way were far greater than those which had retarded the general education of children—difficulties which arose from the customs of society, from the separation of classes, and the habits which were becoming every day more inveterate in the class that would be principally benefited. From this he proceeded to consider the various sys- tems which had, during the present century, been proposed for the advancement of primary education ; and although most of these plans are open to serious ob- jections, great advantages had been derived from the movement. At a very im- portant point, however, it came to a atop, and to obviate the difficulty of passing beyond this point formed the present subject of coneideration. The ques- tion, can we educate children without educating adults ?—a question equally affecting all classes—was next considered. He admitted that there were obstacles upon every side. The Government measure for educating pu- pil-teachers was a step in the right direction ; but he considered that, unless an efficient education was provided for adults, the means of education for children in a short time would not be worth having. The measure now be- fore the Legislature for reforming the Universities proved that the game wants were felt in the highest quarters for the education of the higher class- es—the same wants which he was now urging on behalf of the labourer and the mechanic. Mr. Maurice then proceeded to show' in connexion with adult education, that education and civilization had not proceeded from chil- dren, but from adults. In order to prove and illustrate this, he sketched out the different plans of education which had been adopted from the earliest times, from the system of Bathing and the school of Thomas Aquinas, and es- pecially in this country under the monastic institutions, under the mendi- cant orders, and after them under collegiate institutions ; and lastly, un- der the grammar and public schools of the country. The further continua- tion of the question was reserved for the next lecture."

The first report to the Board of Trade by Mr. Henry Cole and Dr. Lyon Playfair' upon the proceedings of the Department of Practical Art, has been published. It appears that during the year 1853, 218 schools, —chiefly for the poor, and comprising 35,794 scholars,—purchased copies and models from the Department at half their prime coat; that 86 schools, having 7313 scholars, obtained the services of masters to teach elementary drawing ; that 921 candidates, as schoolmasters in training-schools, have been examined in elementary drawing ; and that 1050 schoolmasters and pupil teachers in public schools have studied geometrical and free hand drawing in the schools of the Department with the view of teaching it in their schools. There are 43 schools of art, in which 11,000 students, chiefly artisans, received instruction in advanced art during last Year. Upwards of 160,000 visits have been made to the Central Mu- scums of Art and Science. Through Prince Albert, the Prince of Wales,

as Duke of Cornwall, has placed two scholarships at 30/. a year each at the disposal of the Central School of Science.

The annual meeting of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals was held on Tuesday ; the Marquis of Westminster in the Chair. The report remarked upon the extension of the Society abroad as well as at home. Great interest in the subject has been manifested in Paris, Trieste, Venice, Oporto, Lisbon, Dresden, Munich, Bordeaux, and other cities on the Continent. During the past year legacies to the amount of 10301. have been received.

A case which has been for some time before the Court of Chancery was de- cided by the Lord Chancellor on Wednesday. By their next friend, the two infant children of Mr. Adrian John Hope and Mrs. Hope prayed that Mrs. Hope their mother might be ordered to deliver them up to their father. 41s Mrs. Hope is a Frenchwoman, residing in France with the children, it was objected that the Court had no jurisdiction : but the Lord Chancellor decided that it had jurisdiction. He also decided that it would be quite proper to make an order in the case which would be reported to the French courts, prefaced by a declaration that the law of England gave to Mr. Hope the right of custody of his children, and that such right was not prejudiced pend- ing a suit for a divorce instituted against him by his wife. The order would be, that Mrs. Hope give up possession of the two children to Mr. Hope, and that Mr. and Mrs. Hope take all the necessary steps in the French courts for that purpose ; that Mr. Hope allow Mrs. Hope to have access to the chil- dren at all tames, and that Mrs. Hope be at liberty to apply to the Court on the question of access.

The Court of Queen's Bench decided the case of Lumley versus (lye on Monday ; the whole bench—Mr. Justice Erie, Mr. Justice Crompton, and Lord Campbell—concurring in the opinion that the rule for a new trial should be discharged. The evidence alleged to have been improperly re- ceived at the last trial consisted of letters from Mr. (lye and Miss Wagner ; but the Judges held that they were necessary to explain the hurried visit of Mr. (lye to Hamburg and the hasty conclusion of the contract of service with him. They showed that Mr. (lye and Miss Wagner had been on inti- mate terms previously. None of the Judges were prepared to say that the verdict of the Jury was unreasonable. The Jury believed Mr. (lye when he deposed that he did not know that the contract between Mr. Lumley and Miss Wagner subsisted. Mies Wagner said she was free ; and if Mr. Gye believed that, the Jury were right in their verdict. Rule discharged.

A notable case came before the Court of Criminal Appeal on Saturday. A woman had fled with a paramour from her husband's house, taking with her some money ; the larger portion of this was subsequently found in the man's possession when he was arrested ; he was tried for stealing the pro- perty, and convicted. The conviction was appealed against, on the ground that a wife cannot rob her husband, and consequently that the convict in this case could not have received stolen property. The Court were of opinion that the conviction was right. The general rule was, that the wife for steal- ing the goods of the husband could not be found guilty of larceny if the wife took and applied to her own use the goods of the husband, for the husband and wife were one : but the law had 'qualified this—if the wife committed adultery, and then stole the goods with the said adulterer, then she had de- termined her quality of wife, and was no longer recognized as having any property in the goods of her husband; and then the person who aided her in stealing the property was guilty of felony.

The story of a murder by a man apparently insane which occurred this week, as told by witnesses at the Southwark Police Office, is very horrible. Rosina Murray, a widow, let the rooms of her house, 2 Meade's Place, Newington, to many lodgers ; among them to an "advertising agent," Henry Simmons. She slept in the back and he in the front parlour. Very early on Wednes- day morning, the lodgers were roused from sleep by screams; and one of them running out to the staircase, saw Mrs. Murray, in her night dress, trying to crawl up the stairs, and then fall backwards, Simmons standing by with a bloody knife in his hand. Puxtey, the lodger, instantly ran to the nearest surgeon, Mr. Johnson ; but he would not come. Puxtey fetched the Police, and one of them brought a surgeon, Mr. Fleming; but it was too late—Mrs. Murray was a corpse. The body was dreadfully hacked with a knife ; there was a wound on each thigh, in one case severing a large artery, which led to death from loss of blood. Mr. Fleming, however, stated that had the arteries been promptly taken up, death might not have ensued. Simmons did not run away. When Puxtey came down stairs, he said, "The great bear is dead " ; and on hearing this mentioned in evidence, he said, "The eat flew at me, and I took a knife and stuck it." When told that Mrs. Murray was dead, he said, "I know better than that ; she can change herself into any shape." Mr. A'Beckett remanded Simmons, in order that the evidence of a little girl who slept with Mrs. Murray may be taken, if she be able to give evidence.

At the Coroner's inquest, Mr. Fleming withdrew his opinion that prompt aid might have saved her life. A verdict of "Wilful murder" against Henry Simmons was returned.

The Police broke into a reputed gaming-house in St. James's Street, known as the Strangers' Club, and apprehended some gentlemen and the peop'e con- nected with the house. But strong doors had caused a delay which afforded time to conceal or destroy gaming implements—at any rate, none were found. Mr. Bingham liberated the prisoners on Monday' significantly remarking to their counsel, that he expected that this would be the very last case of the kind brought to the court,—evidently referring to the more stringent en- actments of the new bill to suppress gaming-houses.

By the Mutiny Act, any person passing himself off as a deserter from the army is liable to be deemed as having enlisted, at the discretion of the Secre- tary at War. Robert Jones, a decent-looking young fellow, made this dis- covery unpleasantly, on Saturday. In want of a night's lodging, he gave himself up as a deserter ; but when brought before the Westminster Magis- trate, he found himself placed at the disposal of Mr. Sidney Herbert.

Villiers Pearce, the returned transport, whose narrative of his great suffer- ings subsequently to his escape from Sydney. excited much interest, has re- ceived a free pardon. He is attempting to raise funds to return to Australia.

Mr. Yardley, the Thames Police Magistrate, has lent the crew of the Anne M'Allister one pound each to enable them to get home to Gloucester. The poor men, who were so scurvily treated by the Russian authorities, arrived in London quite penniless.

The admission of the Joint-Stock Banks to the Clearing House commenced yesterday, with the London and Westminster Bank. The remainder will be admitted during the next fortnight. This gradual admission has been ren- dered necessary by the fact that the business of clearing is at present car- ried on in temporary and limited apartments at the Hall of Commerce while the old Clearing House in Abchurch Lane is enlarged. By this change, and another for giving checks on the Bank of England instead of notes in cer- tain cases, the circulation will be economized by at least 1,000,000/.