Zbe Pletropolis.

A Court of Common Council was held on Thursday. In a con- versation on the decorations of the Royal Exchange, Mr. Jones, the Chairman of the Exchange Committee, stated that the encaustic paint- ings had been executed on the principle of public competition, and that more than half the artists engaged were Englishmen. He expressed a hope that the New Exchange would be opened during the present Mayoralty. A portrait of Lord Denman, painted by Mrs. Pearson, was presented by that lady to the Corporation ; and a vote of thanks was _passed for the present. The portrait will be placed in the Council-room.

A hospital for the North-west District of the Metropolis is about to be erected not far from Primrose Hill. A meeting was held on Thurs- day, at which Earl Manvers presided, when resolutions were passed authorizing the Committee to commence the building. The sum of 10,800/. had been subscribed previously to the meeting; and it was an- nounced that the Bishop of London and the Trustees of the Mary lebone Estate have granted a piece of land for the site, valued at 2,000!. ; and that Mr. Thistlethwa3 te has presented a donation of 1,000/. An anonymous donation of 2,000/. was presented in February, on condition that the building be commenced within a twelvemonth from that date.

The Fox Club had their annual white-bait dinner at the Crown and Sceptre, Greenwich, on Saturday last. The Earl of Besborough occu- pied the chair ; and among the members present were Lord Melbourne, Lord Denman, and Lord Morpeth.

The third and last exhibition of the floricultural Society took place at Chiswick on Saturday. The weather was wretched, but a large com- pany assembled notwithstanding.

There has been a church-rate contest in the parish of St. Mary Newington. The state of the poll at its close on Wednesday was—Fur She rate, 721 ; against it, 1,359.

A House of Lords Committee for Privileges sat on Thursday ; when the claim of Sir Brook W. Bridges, B,ronet, to the Fitzwalter Peerage was decided. The Solicitor-General thought the evidence of the descent of this claimant was established, but that there was some de- ficiency in the proof of the extinction of another branch of the The Lord Chancellor agreed with the observations of the Solicitor- General as to the want of satisfactory proof of the extinction of one branch of the family, but thought that in other respects the claim was made out The Committee resolved accordingly.

The Court of Chancery has been engaged eight days in hearing argu- ments on the petition of Mr. D3ce Sombre to supersede the commission of lunacy obtained against him. Mr. Dyce Sombre escaped from cus- tody and went to France, where he resided some time; but he was .advised by his counsel to return to England to await the result of the petition. Sir Thomas Wilde was leading counsel for the petitioner, and Mr. Kelly on behalf of Mrs. Sombre and in support of the commission. Sergeant Wilde's concluding speech commenced on Monday, and was not ended till Wednesday. The arguments urged on behalf of Mr. Sombre's sanity were—that the eccentricities in his conduct arose from his ignorance of European manners and customs, and the great differ- ence in the notions entertained of female propriety in the East Indies, where he had resided the greater part of his life. On this plea was ex- plained Mr. Dyce Sombre's opinion of his wife's criminality because she shook hands with a gentleman, and his offer to submit the differences between himself and his wife to the arbitration of the Jockey Club in Paris. The natural violence and jealousy of his temper were admitted; bat these, it was said, were well know n to Mrs. Sombre before her marriage; and the eccentricities which were now assumed to be proofs of insanity were also well known. The Lord Chancellor said he should see Mr. Sombre before he came Ina decision on the case. The celebrated case of Chambers and Company, the bankers, came before the Court of Bankruptcy on Thursday. A statement was made of the receipts and payments since the bankruptcy in 1824. The re- ceipts have amounted to 292,5004 the payments to 273,6001. Of the payments, 44,075/. were for law-expenses. The value of the present property of the bankrupts was estimated at 186,0001.; but the realization of a great part of this is dependent on favourable decisions of lawsuits now pending : the debts proved and to be proved against the estate amount to 285,000/. The length of time which has elapsed without a dividend being declared, was stated to have arisen from the difficulty of realizing the property, of which the Opera-house constitutes a large portion ; and until the House of Lords gives its judgment on a case before it, no dividend can be declared.

In the Court of Bankruptcy, on Monday, the case of the bankrupt solicitor Bromley was again gone into. Mr. Sturgeon addressed the Court in his behalf, and said the property he possessed would realize 120,000!. The Commissioner, Sir C. F. Williams, thought 5,000/. or 6 0001. would be the more probable sum. The Commissioner remarked at great length on the enormity of the bankrupt's frauds; also observing that the publicity given to this case would put people on their guard; and warn them not to trust any one too much. He then ordered the further hearing of the case to be adjourned till the 28th October, when an amended balance-sheet must be furnished.

At the Middlesex Sessions, on Tuesday, Samuel and Mary Salter were each sentenced to six months' imprisonment for having neglected and ill-treated their daughter, a child six years of age.

At the Bow Street Police-office, on Saturday, Mr. James Duff, M.P. for Banff, was charged with assaulting a Policeman. Mr. Duff had attempted to break through the rank of carriages at the Duke of Buc- cleuell's atte on Monday week, with the intention of getting to the gates of Montague. House before his turn arrived ; and on the Police- man preventing this by taking hold of the horse's head, he struck at him with the whip. Mr. Duff confessed his fault, and was fined five pounds. He narrowly escaped fourteen days' imprisonment ; the Magistrate thinking the constable had been injured, which was not the ease.

At Marlborough Street Police-office, on Tuesday, John Alves was charged with stealing two bills of 1,0001. each from Lord Charles Fitz- roy. Alves offered to discount these bills ; obtained them from his Lordship ; and gave him only 2001. He then passed the bills into other hands, and kept out of Lord Fitzroy's way till he was arrested on Tues- day. He was remanded.

At the Clerkenwell Police-office, on Monday, a young man named John Barrett was charged with obtaining subscriptions from various persons on the pretence that he was authorized to receive them for the Anti-Corn-law League, which he was not. The prisoner denied that he was the man ; and charged the Leaguers with conspiring to ruin him, because his father was a vigorous opponent of the League. He was remanded till Wednesday, when he was committed for trial.

At the Hammersmith Police-office, on Monday, William Stephenson was charged with throwing a large granite paving-stone, weighing from eighteen to twenty pounds, on the West London Railway.

Dalmas, the murderer, has had his sentence commuted to trans- portation for life. He is said to have been much shocked on learning that he was to be transported instead of being comfortably provided for in Bedlam as a madman. The commutation of this man's sentence has given rise to various comments on the inconsistency of the proceeding.

Last week, a man named Jolly, in descending the staircase of the Wapping shaft of the Thames Tunnel, slipped, and rolling down four- teen of the steps, received a fracture of the skull ; of which he died in a few hours.

Benjamin Cattermole, a farm-labourer, aged thirty-two, was killed on the Croydon Railway on Sunday, by falling out of a third-class carriage. He foolishly sat upon the back of the carriage, and was thrown backwards by a sudden jolt.

The inquest on the bodies of Tucker and Wright, drowned off Lam- beth last week by being ran down by the Thunder steam-boat, was concluded on Tuesday ; when a verdict of " Accidental Death " was returned, with a deodand of 1001. upon the steamer.

John Riley, valet of Lord Northland, who had been sent to West- minster Bridewell on a charge of robbing his master, banged himself in that prison on Wednesday night. He was to have appeared before the Magistrate at Marlborough Street Police-office on Thursday.

A party of coiners, consisting of a man, a woman, and a girl, were seized by the Police on Sunday morning, at Half-Moon Alley, St. Luke's. The man was making counterfeit sixpences when the officers broke in, and he offered a desperate resistance to his captors.

Tierney, an Inspector of the A division of Police, who was im- prisoned a little time back for interfering with a constable of the F division in the execution of his duty, is to be restored to his situation after a suspension of six months, with the sanction of the Home Secre- tary.