aittrnialts.

At a Court of Aldermen, on Saturday, Mr. Alderman Wilson moved the following resolution- " That it be referred to a special committee of the whole Court to consider the question of reform of the Corporation of London ; to confer with her Majesty's Ministers thereon, and to take such measures as they may be ad- vised; and to report from time to time to the Court."

He referred to the expectation that Government will issue a Commission of inquiry, which he believed was the most advisable alternative remain- ing ; and he was desirous of supplying the Commissioners with in- formation.

Mr. Alderman Thompson did not see why the Court should use language calculated to show that they had a lurking desire to be in favour with her Majesty's Ministers. If Ministers brought in an unjust mea- sure, there was still an appeal. [Alderman Farebrother—" We can go to the foot of the Throne."] Mr. Alderman Thompson moved that "the words implying the desire to confer with her Majesty's Ministers be omit- ted." Mr. Alderman Wire supported the original motion, and defended the Court of Aldermen. After insisting on the purity of the Corporation as evidenced by the report of the last Commission, he said-- Of what did their enemies complain ? Was it of the administration of justice by the civic bench ? What did her Majesty's Judges say of the City Magistrates ?—Those dignitaries of the law invariably spoke of their conduct in terms of the warmest approbation. Was it with the management of the funds over which they had control that fault was found ?—The Aldermen never touched the funds except for magisterial or charitable purposes. Was objection taken to the intellectual character of the Court ?—Why, he would not hesitate to say that they would not fail in the comparison with any twenty-six men who were to be seen issuing at the same time through the doorway of the House of Commons. Was it argued that they did not repre- sent the wealth of the City ?—That too was founded on error : it was well known that several members (of whom he was far from saying he was him- self one) could bear comparison as to opulence with a similar number in any large assembly. He had heard it stated as a fault that the City Magistrates were, as all other magistrates were and ought to be, elected for life. It was considered the distinguishing act of George the Third's reign that the Judges became by law independent ; and surely there could be no excuse for aban- doning a principle which had received the sanction of the Legislature, and which had so long operated to the advantage of the community. The whole of this speech wee. much applauded : but the amendment proposed by Mr. Alderman Thompson was carried,—the words "to con- fer with her Majesty's Ministers thereon" were expunged ; and, thus amended, the resolution passed.

At a subsequent meeting of the Court of Common Council, the follow- ing resolution was unanimously adopted- ' That the Lord Mayor or Recorder be requested to state to her Majesty's Government, that the Corporation of London, in the event of the appointment by her Majesty of a Commission of inquiry respecting the Corporation of London, will afford every facility, and all the information in their power upon the subject."

The foundation-stone of the first model lodging-houses of the Society for Improving the Dwellings of the Working Classes, over which Viscount Ingestre presides, was laid on Tuesday, by the Duke of Cambridge. The site of the building, in New Street, Golden Square, was formerly covered with wretched hovels, the abode of cows and pigs, and of human beings not much above them. The new Bishop of Lincoln began the ceremony with a prayer ; and Lord Ingestre read an address to the Duke of Cam- bridge, explaining the design of the new buildings, and stating that they would contain cheap and comfortable accommodation for sixty-eight families. The stone was then laid with all the customary formalities ; and the proceedings closed with prayer. Among the company were the Duchess of Sutherland, Lady Blantyre, and Earl Talbot.

lathe evening a dinner, in aid of the Society's funds, was given at the London Tavern ; the Duke of Argyll in the chair. Sir John Peking. ton, Lord Talbot, LordGrosvenor, Lord Dynevor, Lord Ingestre, and Mr. Dennison M.P., spoke after dinner. The objects of this society, as ex- plained by the chairman, are- " To purchase and improve existing dwellings, or to build new ones in densely-populated districts ; to diminish, as far as possible, the evils which arise from the present system of subletting, by which both the real owner and the occupier suffer ; to show, by periodical statements of expenditure and receipts, that the erection of new or the improvement of existing dwel- linghouses for the working classes constitutes as safe an investment as is offered by those companies whose avowed object is return for capital; to show that, by the adoption of the system acted on by this society, as regards the collection of rents and general management, landlords may greatly im- prove their property; to ameliorate generally the domestics condition of the working classes."

In the course of the evening subscriptions amounting to 9001. were collected.

To aid the funds of the Westminster Literary, Scientific, and Mechanics' Institution, a party dined at the Freemasons' Tavern, on Wednesday ; the Earl of Carlisle in the chair. Among the company were Sir William Page Wood, Sir John Shelley and Sir de Lacy Evans, the borough Mem- bers, Mr. Beresford Hope, and Mr. Scott Russell. The object of the subscription was to raise a fund to pay off a debt of 6001. which im- peded the society, now, with that exception, self-supporting. The sum of 500/. was collected at the dinner.

It appears that the purpose for which Government purchased the old House of Correction at Brixton was to form a dept for female convicts ; thus leaving the whole of the Penitentiary at Milbank for the reception of male prisoners under sentence of transportation.

The Master of the Rolls has decided that the trustees of the Manchester New College have full power to remove the institution to London ; such a course being quite within the scope of the objects of the founders. The law proceedings originated in the objection to the step entertained by some of the dissident trustees ; but it was shown that out of 195 trustees, 141 actively approved, 41 disapproved, and the remainder gave no reply. The costs of both sides, it was ruled, should be paid out of the funds of the charity—" but out of its income, not out of its capital."

Mr. Feargus O'Connor, who has been confined in an asylum since his last painful appearance in the House of Commons, comes this week again before the public. A commission of lunacy. was opened at Chiswick on Tues- day, to inquire into the state of his mind. The evidence of Mr. Ernest Jones, long a coagitator for "the Charter," of Mr. lit‘Gowan, the printer of Mr. O'Connor's newspaper, of Mr. Jacob Bell, late Member for St. Alban's, and of the medical men, clearly showed the change in the patient's mind until be became unquestionably insane. The Jury had an interview with Mr. O'Connor at the Manor House, Dr. Tuke's asylum. They assembled on the grass plat at the back of the house. "Presently the shrill voice of the maniac was heard echoing through the passages in joyous accents. On emerging from the house, he looked for a moment at the group of gentlemen forming the Jury ; and then, fixing his eye on Mr. Ernest Jones, he at once advanced to him, and grasping his hand warmly exclaimed, Here's J'onee ! I love him ! I idolize him ! I deify him ! I adore him !' The next moment, observing his former solicitor, Mr. Turner, he grasped his hand and called out loudly, 'And here's Turner! I idolize him ! He is the best solicitor that ever lived ! He is a capital fellow, is that Turner !' Mr. Bell now came in for a share of the maniac's oritioieln. The moment Mr. O'Connor caught sight of him he exclaimed, 'And here's Bell ! I love him! I idolize him ! I deify him ! What a handsome fellow he is! What beautiful eyes he has! beautiful nose! beautiful mouth! beautiful lips! beautiful teeth! beautiful ears ! beautiful arms ! beautiful legs! beautiful feet!' and so on, with a rapidity of utterance which it was almost impossible to follow." Mr. Pow- nail earnestly endeavoured to attract his mind to a rational subject, and asked the poor man of what his property consisted ? All he could obtain in reply was, that he had two newspapers ; but he would not enter into particu- lars on this head. The conversation having ceased for a moment, Mr. O'Connor drew himself up, and, striking both hands upon his thighs to mark the metre of his verse, recited with great rapidity some extravagant verses in praise of himself when he was the idol of the working classes. He was greatly :excited ; but a word from Dr. Tuke calmed him at once, and he replied—" I won't say another word, Doctor." Dr. Tuke stated that Mr. O'Connor amuses himself with the other patients very satisfactorily, and plays at cricket and whist with considerable skill. He invariably asks Dr. Tuke to take him to town each morning, and is always satisfied with the Doctor's promise to do so next day if he is better. There is no hope of his recovery. The Jury pronounced 'him to have been of unsound mind since the 10th June 1852, the day when he was committed to the custody of the Sergeant-at-Arms. The object of the inquiry was to obtain the protection of the Court of Chancery for the remains of Mr. O'Connor's property—some 13001.—that he may not end his days in a workhouse.

The Police, acting on legal authority, have recently entered upon a crusade against the stall-keepers who for many years have lined the side of the pave- ment in Tottenham Court Read: the poor people have been suddenly order- ed to quit the place. The consequence to many has been utter destitution, driving them to the workhouse. On Monday, a batch of those who persisted in gaining a livelihood in the street were brought before the Marlborough Street Magistrate. The case of Elizabeth Lake was picked, out to decide the whole. Mr. Parry attended to defend the accused. Lake has kept a fish- stall in one spot for twenty-eight years. Mr. Parry could not deny that the law was against the stall-keepers; but it was harshly enforced. Stalls did not injure shopkeepers : stalls had been removed some time back from Clare Market ; the trade of the place fell off; and the tradesmen were glad to join in a request that the stalls might again be permitted. In the present ease, eighty or ninety'of the shopkeepers in Tottenham Court Road were against the stall-keepers being molested. Mr. Bingham agreed that the proceedings against the stall-keepers were too harsh: they should be removed by degrees. Similar proceedings were formerly taken against stall-keepers on the Smith side of Oxford Street, and the authorities, after proving to the occupants that their acts were illegal, set about extinguishing the nuisance : they did not require them to go away at once, but gave them notice that as they died off their places would not be allowed to be filled up ; by which means the nuisance was made to the a natural death. He thought some such course might be taken with advantage in the present instance. Mr. Parry hoped the Police would convey the Magistrate's suggestion to the Commissioners. Mr. Bingham then required the defendant to enter into her own recognizance not to appear with her stall in Tottenham Court Road again until she had the sanction of the Police. The other defendants were discharged.

Inquiries made by the Edinburgh Police seem to prove that the self-ac- cusation of murder by a man at Marylebone Police Office was quite fictitious —the whim, probably, of a diseased brain.

At Westminster Police Office, on Tuesday, Robert Pope, formerly butler to Earl Jermyn, was charged with forging lus master's name to several bills of exchange. He pretended that Lord Jermyn wished to raise money on bills, and he produced stamps purporting to be signed by him ; these he got dis- counted. He had no authority to obtain money for his master, and the signatures were not Earl Jermyn's. Pope was committed on one charge, and remanded on others.

On Wednesday, the evidence proved the clever methods by which the ac- cused got money on false bills. On one occasion a person who had consented to lend money went to Lord Jermyn's ; Pope showed him a bill ready drawn, and then took it up-stairs for his master to sign, as he said ; in twenty minutes he returned with a forged signature attached to the bill. Pope was committed on two more charges; many others can be brought against him if necessary for the ends of justice.

William Norton, a letter-carrier in the Strand district, has been committed by the Bow Street Magistrate for stealing letters. One contained a post- office order addressed to a betting-office, a disconnected letter was returned to the sender ; and this led to the discovery that the letter had been stolen.

Powell has been fully committed for trial by the Lord Mayor, for " har- bouring " Farrell, the Bank clerk, as "an accessory after the fact" of Far- rail's forgery upon the Bank. The forger himself has as yet escaped cap- ture, in spite of the reward repeatedly advertised for his apprehension.

The "City Hospice," in West Street, Smithfield, is defunct, with debts and liabilities falling upon some one to the amount of 14001. Its latest ap- pearance is not the most decorous. It appears, from proceedings at Guild- hall Police Office, on Saturday, that there is a squabble between the mem- bers of the committee and Mr. Charles Cochrane, the treasurer, as to who shall pay the piper. The secretary and his brother were accused of "mis- appropriating documents," and obstructing Mr. Cochrane when he wished to enter the premises : but, after hearing something about the civil war among the authorities at the "hospice," Alderman Wire said he could not interfere magisterially, and he liberated the accused.

Dr. Richard Chambers was found dead last week, at his residence in Wim- pole Street. An inquest was held on Monday. The deceased had suffered from disease of the 'heart—the right ventricle was found double its natural size. He had prescribed for himself a medicine containing prussic acid: Mr. Wilson, the surgeon who made the post-mortem examination, was of opinion that death had been caused by the prussic acid acting upon the diseased heart. The Jury returned a verdict stating that fact.