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The new Metropolitan Board of Works met for the first time on Wed- nesday, in one of the large rooms of Burlington House, which for the present has been assigned to their use by the Secretary of State for the Home Department. The following is a list of the members elected by the Local Boards : Deputy Edward Harrison ; H. L. Taylor ; T. H. Hall ; J. A. Nicholay ; Thomas D'Iffanger jun. ; William Come (police magistrate); Josiah Wil- kinson; F. Doulton ; Robert Taylor ; H. A. Hunt ; Major William Lyon ; John Savage ; W. Dennis ; W. A. H. Hews; John Ware; Henry Burslem ; T. H. Bevan ; Ambrose Boyson ; A. L. Irvine; Sir John V. Shelley, M.P. ; James Pascall ; F. Chalmers ; W. Hawkes; Joseph Moreland ; Edward Col- linson ; Beriah Drew ; Philip Crellin ; W. H. Dalton ; W. E. Snow ; Lewis Davis; Thomas Turner ; G. S. Waffle; A. Wright; John Thwait,es; W. Carpmael ; George Offor; Captain Barnett, RN.; R. B. Seeley ; Charles Few ; Valentine Stevens ; Benjamin Dixon ; Simon Knight ; Charles Atkins ; and William Miskin.

Mr. Nicholay was appointed to the chair until the permanent chairman is elected ; and Mr. Josiah Wilkinson volunteered to act as honorary se- cretary. The first question was the salary of the chairman. The mini- mum salary fixed by the act is 15004, and it was unanimously agreed, nOt without some grumbling at the largeness of the sum, that 1500/. per annum should be the salary of the chairman. They next proceeded to regulate the mode of election. Some difficulty was felt as to who were candidates and who were not. It was agreed that the chairman should be elected by open voting ; that the Board should receive applications from any of its members desirous of filling the office ; that the Board should adjourn until Saturday, and that day was fixed as the last day for the reception of applications; that candidates must be nominated and seconded by members of the Board ; and that the chariman, whoever he might be, would be expected to devote the whole of his time to the du- ties of his office, At a meeting of the Court of Common Council, on Thursday, two mat- ters of some interest came under discussion. The first was the retire- ment of the Common Sergeant. That officer had been requested to resign, because his bodily infirmities rendered him incapable of perform- ing his duties. It was moved that the report of a committee fixing his retiring allowance should be received. The Retorder described how he had acted as mediator between the Common, Sergeant and the Officers and Clerks Committee ; how the former hear placed his resignation in the bends of the Recorder to deliver it td the Lord Mayor when he pleased, and how at that moment bevies not prepared to deliver it. Alderman karebrotber asked if he would hand it in should the Court agree to make the retiring allowance of the Common Sergeant 1000/. a year ? The Re- corder objected to answering the question, because he wished to avoid making anything like a condition. Mr. H. L. Taylor wished to know whether the Recorder would put in the resignation if the Court did not agree to give 10001. a year ; but the Court sharply decided that the ques- tion should not be put. Mr. H. L. Taylor and others insisted that a principle was involved ; laying it down that a judge who finds himself incapable of performing his duties should immediately resign. Mr. Tay- lor moved that the Common Sergeant should be requested to resign be- fore the Court considered the subject of his retiring allowance. This was negatived by 59 to 38; the retiring allowance was fixed at 1000/. a year ; and the Recorder handed in the resignation. The second subject of discussion was prematurely cut short. Mr. Towse, Chairman of the Coal, Corn, and Finance Committee, moved the adoption of a report, recommending the purchase of the baths and wash- houses in Goulstone Square, Whitechapel, at a cost of 11,5001. Their original cost was 27,8001.; they are largely used by the working classes; but the receipts at present are less than the expenditure ; and unless taken by the Corporation, the proprietors will have to dose them. Mr. Towse, Mr. Abraham, and Mr. Fry urged the adoption of the report. Mr. Anderton, Mr. Cox, and Mr. De Jersey opposed it, on the ground that the Corporation has at present very heavy calls on their money ; that the institution would require the expenditure of some 20,0001., besides the purchase-money, to put it into an efficient condition ; that this BUM would have to be borrowed ; and that in the present state of the money- market it would be very impolitic to go into the money-market for funds wherewith to purchase a bankrupt trading concern situated beyond the limits of the City. The discussion was abruptly brought to an end by a member pointing out that only one Alderman was present; and so no decision was come to.

At the Quarterly Court of the East India Company, held on Wednes- day,—Colonel hi`Naghten in the chair,—Mr. Whiteman, one of the late Directors eliminated from the Board under the act of 1854, moved a re- solution on behalf of himself and other late Directors in the seine pre- dicament, declaring that it was expedient that some of them should be elected to the direction at the General Court which will be held on the 6th April 1856. Mr. Lewin seconded the motion, because he wished to save discussion ; but the motion was most absurd. After brief debate, it was rejected, as an interference with the freedom of election. Mr. Lewin moved, and Mr. Jones seconded, a resolution in favour of abolish- ing the Court of Directors and intrusting the government of India to a Secretary of State.—Negatived, almost unanimously. Mr. Jones moved, and General Briggs seconded, a motion to the effect that the saving ef- fected at Haileybury College should be appropriated to the establishment of scholarships for Natives in the Universities of India.—Negatived.

A new building for the reception of the inmates of the St. Pancras and Maulebone Preventive and Reformatory Institution, at 19 New Road, was opened by a public meeting of its supporters on Wednesday; Mr. William Cowper in the chair. Founded in 1852, the institution then contained six inmates ; now there are forty. During the intervening period five of its inmates have emigrated, nineteen have been established in trade, four have been provided for by their friends, seven quitted the institution prematurely, one died, and one was dismissed. When com- plete, there will be accommodation for 100 persons ; but funds are re- quired to complete it. Mr. Cowper said the institution received those who left gaol with the disposition to act rightly, gave them a shelter and a soil where the good Reed of amendment might germinate and take root ;. and taught them a trade. Mr. Cave, the secretary, said it was true the institution could never be made entirely self-supporting ; but with the small support which the institution required from the public, it might be called self-supporting. When it was calculated that every thief cost the country 3001., and abstracted as much from the public as would educate him in Eton, or pay for a cadetship in India whereas he was fed and educated here at a cost of 251., it might be truly said that it was a self- supporting institution. An institution that converted wasps into bees • was surely a self-supporting institution. Mr. Sergeant Adams said that the meeting showed the public were beginning to be alive to the proper principle in the treatment of criminals—namely, that reform should be the consequence and conclusion of punishment. Sir Benjamin Hall,. the Reverend J. H. Gurney, and others, also spoke in support of the institution.

The church-rate contest at Hackney has ended with a triumphant ma- jority against the rate. The poll closed on Saturday, with this decisive result—For the rate, 882; against the rate, 1299; majority of votes against the rate, 417. The majority of votenergainst the rate was 1001 to 603. ann.,

Cardinal Wiseman delivered a third lecture &eke Austrian Concordat in the Moorfields Chapel on Sunday. The object of this discourse was to show that the Roman Catholic Church possesses rights independent of any secular power ; that those rights were formerly recognized even in. England, by the laws of Edward the Confessor, the laws of Henry tie First, Magna Charta—" bona fide concordats of the earliest midi-inept venerable character" ; that those rights were recognized in France ;lint that the spirit of opposition, Jansenism and Infidelity, originating in . France, and spreading to Germany, in the eighteenth century, led the Emperors Joseph and Leopold of Austria to introduce a totally new sys- tem of church-government. Leopold was succeeded by the Emperor Francis ; who made it his last and dying request to his successors that they would abrogate the Josephine and Leopoldine laws. This was not accomplished by Ferdinand the First, who in 1848 abdicated in favour of his nephew the present Emperor. He found that there was no body of ecclesiastical law in his empire ; and it was his own undirected act, the result of his own deep religious convictions, which led him, without con- Bulling anybody—without taking any advice—to abrogate in 1850 the Josephine and Leopoldine ecclesiastical laws.

A number of gentlemen connected with the Provincial Medical and. Surgical Association waited on Sir George Grey, on Thursday, with the view of ascertaining the intentions of the Government respecting the introduction of a bill on Medical Reform next session. Among the de- putation were Sir C. Hastings, Mr. Brady M.P., Dr. Webster, and Dr. O'Connor. They bitterly complained of the opposition offered by the medical corporations to medical reform ; and ea-pressed their general concurrence in a bill prepared by Mr. Headlam, giving the power of licensing medical practitioners exclusively to the medical profession through .its recognized representatives. lair George Grey promised to - give the b1ll4 when introduced, all the support in his power, but declined to pledge the Government, whom he had not consulted on the subject. Mr. R, B.. Moore delivered a lecture at Crosby Hall on Monday, on behalf of the Administrative Reform Association. He was introduced by Mr. Gassiot, one of the Reformers, who occupied the chair. Mr. Moore advocated the Civil Service scheme, put forward by the Association, by which all candidates for place would be subjected to a public competitive examination ; and he proposed to apply the same system to the Army. But, in commenting on the corruption of the existing system of patronage, he admitted that the constituencies, who beset their representatives with importunate applications for place, are the most to blame. Sir George Lewis, as a conspicuous example of unfitness for his post, and Mr. Hay- ter, as a distributor of patronage, fell under the censure of Mr. Moore.

The annual general meeting of the Royal Agritiultural Society took place on Saturday, at its offices in Hanover Square; Colonel Chaloner presiding. The report showed that the Society had during the year lost forty Members by death and gained 116 by election; that Lord Ber- ners has been elected a trustee in the room of the late Mr. Philip Pusey; that the next show of the Society will be held at Chelmsford; and that there is a balance of 2683d. at the society's bankers.

The Christmas show at the New Metropolitan Cattle Market was held on Monday. It is remarked that the beasts exhibited were very fine; and that, like the show in the Baker Street Bazaar, the most striking characteristic of the Market was the general absence of preposterously fat meat. On the contrary, there was a great preponderance of " fine healthy flesh fit for human consumption." The supply of meat was unusually large. Stall-room for about 7100 head of cattle was bespoken, and for about 26,000 head of sheep ; for all of which there was ample space and to spare.

A movement has been pretty generally set on foot, and with some sue. oess, to make Monday next, as well as Tuesday, a close holiday in Lon- don. Au appeal has been made to Lord Mayor Salomons for his support and sanction. But he states, that the 24th December is one of the heaviest business days in the year, and suggests that Wednesday the 26th would be a better day for a holiday. Personally he would like to begin Christmas on the 22d, and continue it to the 27th, but he is bound to look at the matter practically.

- Mr. Nash, the lessee of the Windsor Theatre, brought an action in the Court of Queen's Bench, against Lord Ernest Vane Tempest, for a trespass committed by him in breaking into and entering the plaintiff's premises; and he alleged special damage therefrom. The defendant pleaded "not guilty," and leave and licence. It may be remembered that Lord Ernest

intruded ntruded on the privacy of the actresses in their dressing-room and that, when compelled to retire at sight of a policeman, he committed an assault on Mr. Nash. At the trial, on Tuesday, the trespass charged in the action was made out ; but in summing up, Lord Campbell commented on the fact that the theatre had been improperly managed ; that the plaintiff, who should have set a good example, did not do so ; otherwise there would have been a case for substantial damages. Still, an offence had been com- mitted; but, under the circumstances, if the Jury found for the plaintiff, moderate damages would amply meet the demands of justice. Verdict for the plaintiff; damages 40/.

The Central Criminal Court, on Wednesday, was the scene of a new stage in the proceedings against Davidson and Gordou, with a curious result. The prisoners were tried for feloniously embezzling and secreting money belonging to their creditors after they had been adjudged bank- rupts. It will be recollected that a recent conviction of Gordon was quashed on the ground that only one notice of bankruptcy was left at the offices of the bankrupts; it appeared on Wednesday that two notices really were left ! Mr. Hamber, the messenger of the Court of Bankruptcy,

deposed to this : it seems that was a blunder in his former evidence and affidavit—Gordon reaped the benefit of it. The present charge was to the following effect. On the 17th June, the accused received large sums of money from customers of their distillery ; on the 21st June, they were de- clared bankrupts; in the interval they had fled to the Continent. After the 21st June they spent considerable sums there ; three 600/. bank-notes, part of the money paid by bankers to the prisoners on the 17th June, came to England from Continental cities where they had been passed. Of course the prosecution alleged that the prisoners had cashed those nos, and spent the money which really belonged to their creditors. But there wain° chain of proof to show that Davidson and Gordon had changed the notes;-. and Baron Alderson and Justice Coleridge held that the prisoners could not be punished for spending money abroad—Me English Court had no jurisdiction; had it been proved that they had changed the notes here, after bankruptcy,. the case would have been different. Mr. Ballantine, for the prosecution, vainly strove to combat the dicta of the Judges ; and the upshot was the withdrawal of one count of the indictment, and a verdict of "Not guilty" on another.

At the Westminster Police Office. on Saturday, Mr. Arnold gave a decision in a ease of cab-law. It was not his own, but that of the Metropolitan Ma- gistrates at their quarterly meeting. The majority of the Magistrates de- cided that a cabman cannot charge extra for one child When there are two adult passengers : if there are two children beyond the two adults, the driver can charge for one additional person.

Among the "Belle Isle nuisances" are eleven varnish-manufactories. But are these really noxious nuisances ? The chemists differ as to the inju- riousness of the vapours produced; but there is:so doubt that they are not pleasant in a dwelling-house. Proceedings. were instituted against Messrs. Wallis and Co., varnish-makers; Mi. Com ,e the Clerkenwell Magistrate, heard the conflicting evidence, visited the place and also visited Noble and Hoare's, at Lambeth : at the latter manufactorylhey he got rid of the un- pleasant odours; other people can do the same, by mei:tiring expense. Mr. Corrie has suspended judgment to give Wallis and Co. tinacto adopt reme-

dial, measures. aro It appears that three boys were drowned by the breaking tithe ice in St. James's Park last week. The Coroner's Jury appended to Ogiir verdict of "Accidental death" a recommendation, "that the Royal Hane Society should communicate with the Commissioners of the Board of boke, with a view to adopt some plan for keeping the people off the ice untilirbe certifled by the Society to be in a safe condition.' Precautions have bee,aken this week.

Three fatal railway accidents are reported. Thomas Juvey was lifiployed on the Blackwell Railway, near Stiedwell, repairing the electric t etraph ; while he was stooping down by the kide-wall a train struck him. It sppears that people employed on this line arcUin great peril, as there is littletepace between the trams and the side-walls; had Juvey seen the train, he could only have escaped it by clinging close to the wall. At the Brick Lane diPtit of the Eastern Counties Railway, Fisher, a porter, has been crushed to death between two waggons, which were suddenly driven together as he was pass- ing between them. William Barker, of Hackney, has been found dead on the line there, dreadfully mutilated : how he got on to the railway is not known.