Zbe _Metropolis.

The Sheriffs of London and Middlesex gave a splendid entertainment, at 'Girdlers Hall, on Saturday, to the Judges. A General Court of East India Proprietors was held on Wednesday, and some routine business was transacted. Mr. George Thompson moved for a review of the Rajah of Sattarah's case; but the motion, supported by only two votes, was uegatived.

The Anti-Corn-law League held their first public meeting in Covent Garden Theatre since the Free-trade Bazaar, on Wednesday; when the Theatre was as .crowded as ever. Mr. George Wilson, the Chairman, made a statement, from which it appeared that the amount received on account of the Leave fund for 184.5 (exclusively of the 50,000/. for 1844) was, up to 31st December 1844, 86,0001.; up to 17th June 1845, 5,6321.; by Bazaar receipts, 25,0461.; total, 116,6871. In the seventeen days that the Bazaar was open, 125,000 people passed through it; and enough of the goods was left to mike a bazaar equal to any ever held in this country. The next speaker was Mr. Cobden; who reviewed the progress of Free Trade in Parliament; and answered at some length the ques- tion of the Times, why it is necessary to have immediate repeal. The policy of that principle the Government had acknowledged; but they would not apply the principle at the present moment, nor would they say when they would do it What were they thinking of, then, as a mode of repealing the Corn-laws? He knew very well. They were prepared to rep.ftl the Corn-laws at a season of scarcity, famine, and distress—at a time like the years 1839, 1840, 1841. In

those years scarcely any corn could be got from abroad; and yet these countries were to be depended on for a supply of corn, should Divine Providence think fit to punish us with a bad harvest. Where was the supply to come from? The Go- vernment ought to be called upon to answer that question. It ought to be thrust upon them. Let the whole of the responsibility be thrown upon them. Mr.

Cobden exhorted the supporters of the League to look sharply after the Parlia- mentary registrations. Speeches were delivered by Mr. Bright and by Mr. W. J. Fox; and the meeting broke up.

The first annual festival in aid of the Sheriffs Fund took place at the London Tavern on Tuesday, the Duke of Cambridge in the chair. The objects of the as- sociation are—to afford temporary relief to the distressed females and dependents of persons in prison, temporary provision for persons discharged from confinement who have no means of present subsistence, tools and materials for debtors and criminals, and an asylum for offenders on their discharge from prison. The funds amounted to 10,0001.; and the subscriptions of the evening to 1,0001.

The ;United Law-Clerks Society, an institution founded for the purpose of

affording relief to clerks when visited by sickness and old age, or when incapaci- tated from labour, for assisting widows and orphans of members and for other similar objects, celebrated its thirteenth anniversary on Friday week, by a dinner at the Crown and Anchor Tavern: Mr. Baron Alderson presided. The company numbered three hundred, including Mr. Baron Platt, Mr. Horace Twiss, Mr. Daniel Wakefield, and Sir George Stephen. The Society has a fund of 7,0001., and is very prosperous and usefuL The subscriptions of the evening amounted to 5001.

A public meeting was held at the London Tavern, on Wednesday, to found a

hospital for poor and distressed Germans. The Duke of Cambridge presided; and several distinguished persons, Foreign and British, were present. A long list of Royal patrons, "protectors," and subscribers, British and Fon, headed by

the Queen, was read. The Chairman stated, that the building for the Infant

Orphan Asylum, at Dalston, had been purchased; and that the King of Prussia had advanced 1,0001. towards the purchase-money, 300/. towards the foundation, . besides a yearly subscription of 1001, and 501. yearly towards paying the salary of a chaplain. The subscriptions of the day amounted to nearly 3,0001.

Hampton Court races began on Wednesday. The sport was not bad; but the amusement of the holyday-makers who flock to the place from town and the neighbouring country depends more upon the adjuncts of the sport—the drive down, the bustle, and the fan—than on the legitimate pursuit of the race-coarse.

In the Court of Common Pleas, on Wednesday, Mr. W. J. O'Connell, a Repeal-

Warden in London, recovered 501. damages in an action for libel against the Morning Post. In showing the confusion among the Repealers, the Post copied from a journal of that party the statement of a rumour, that Mr. W. J. O'Con- nell was only able to attend his duties as Warden on Sundays, because a lady, from whom he had embezzled money, wished to arrest him.

In the Court of Exchequer, yesterday, Mr. Wakley obtained a verdict in an

action against Messrs. Healy and Withers, for a libel in the Medical Times. The libel consisted of a letter signed " Vindicator," couched in language ob- scure, homely, turgid, and verbose, but meant to be " strong "• and affecting to suggest to Mr. Wakley means for disproving the " infamy" th;t attaches to his reputation. This was published by the journal as a " clever letter." The Jury awarded 1501. damages.

At the Central Criminal Court, on Tuesday, Mary Anne Salisbury, the young

woman who tramped-up so romantic a story of seduction, pleaded guilty to all the indictments against her for robbery. It was urged on her behalf that she was not "quite right in her head," and judgment was respited till inquiries should be made on that point.

A youth named Warburton, a butcher, was convicted of stealing money from the waistcoat-pocket of a man who was witnessing the execution of Connor; the culprit coolly taking the money at the very moment the drop fell. There were more trials for robbing Sir William Magnay. Court, Sir William's coachman, was convicted of stealing hay; and sentenced to six months' imprison- ment John Ell pleaded guilty to a charge of stealing paper; Henry Cowdrey and John Dodge, a stationer, were in the same indictment, but they were ac- quitted; as also was Cowdrey on another charge. On Wednesday, Holt, the cabman who caused the death of a man on Holborn Hill by driving against a cart in which the deceased was seated, was found guilty of manslaughter, but recommended to mercy: he was ordered to be imprisonedfor two months.

Yesterday, Thomas Jennings was tried on a charge of slave-trading. Mr.

Jennings commanded the brig Augusta, belonging to Mr. Pedro de Zulueta, who, as owner of the vessel, was tried m September 1843 on a similar charge. The case against the prisoner consisted mainly in the facts, that the brig was bound in 1839 to the Galenas, where no trade bat that in slaves then went on • and that the goods on board were consigned to persons accounted notorious slave-dealers. A great deal of the proceedings at the present trial turned upon questions respecting the admissibility of evidence; much of which, of a documentary kind, was ex- cluded on technical grounds. The evidence in defence consisted of testimony as to the respectability and humanity of Mr. Jennings's character, which was strong; and his counsel contended that there was no case to go to a Jury; but the Judges would not arrest the proceedings. The prisoner was unhesitatingly acquitted, and discharged.

On Thursday, Daniel John Cock, a man in his twenty-first year, was tried for

the murder of Hannah Moore. The prisoner and the deceased had been fellow- servants at the Bell and Crown Tavern, Holborn, but were suddenly dismissed from their situations, and agreed together to take poison; from the effects of which Moore died, and the prisoner was with difficulty- saved. Cock declared that the young woman wanted to drown herself; and that she urged him to obtain the poison, oxalic acid, and to drink it with her. He did so; but was very sick, by which means he escaped his companion's fate. The evidence did not disprove the statement of the prisoner, while it testified to the anguish he exhibited at the death of his companion. After consulting for half an hour, the Jury gave a verdict of "Not Guilty."

John Taylor, a cabinetmaker, residing in Gillingham Street, Vauxhall Road,

was brought up at Bow Street Police Court, yesterday, with stealing a quantity of plate and other valuable property from Buckingham sham Palace, wherelie had been employed as a workman for many years. The robbery was discovered i

by means of a silver vase, which Taylor left in a cab—why, does not yet appear— and which was taken by the cabman to Somerset House. On further search at the Palace, it was found that several articles, valued at 101, 401., or even 2001., were missing; while some were discovered at his lodging. In the Police-stationhouse Taylor wrote a letter to his wife, instructing her how to give false evidence as to old silver having been given to lam by a " foreue" gentleman, who " boded and loged" with them two years ago. Taylor was remanded.

George Smith, a lad of eighteen residing at Bethnal Green, in trying experi- ments in hanging has actually killedhimself. The youth was an acquaintance of Tapping's, saw him executed, and had since been very curious in ascertaining what hanging was like.

A child two years old has died in Amicable Row, Southwark, from its father's having given it a quart of periwinkles, two half-pints of beer, and a quantity of i

water, in the course of one evening ! It turned black in the face, and fell from a chair, about midnight, and died in a few minutes. The Excise-officers were in error in making the seizure of tobacco mentioned last week; for when the samples were analyzed they were found to be free from adulteration. The seizure was made at Mr. Teddy's, in the Minories.