gbe ifletropolis.
The annual Wardmotes for the election of Common Councilmen were held on Monday; Saint Thomas's Day having fallen on Sunday. Contests took place in some cases, but for the most part the retiring Councilmen were reelected. In several of the wards speeches were made on the great question of the day, Corn-law repeal, on Corporation subjects, and City grievances. At the Aldersgate meeting, after the form of reelecting the retiring Councillers had been gone through, an Anti-Corn-law resolution was unanimously adopted. At the Cordwainees, the continued rejection of Mr. Alderman Wood by the Court of Aldermen was a subject of com- plaint by Mr. Ainger junior: be thought the Alderman had been unfairly treated, seeing that Alderman Gibbs, who stood precisely in the same situation, had been allowed to pass the civic chair. Mr. Alderman Wood chimed in; asserting that he had been cruelly used, and severely punished: he declared his innocence, and offered to submit to any ordeal his accuser might devise. In this ward also the Councilmen were reelected. At Farringdon Within, speeches in favour of Corporation reform and Corn-law repeal were delivered; but nothing definitive came of them. At Farring- don Without, Dr. J. R. Lynch was returned, in place of Mr. Harding. The Doctor said that he was a Corporation reformer, and that he should devote his attention in a particular manner to subjects connected with ventilation and drainage. Reelections took place also in the following wards— Bridge, Castle Baynard, Cheap, Coleman Street, Cripplegate Without, Vintry, and Walbrook. Contests on a small scale occurred in Bread Street, Cripplegate Within, Dowgate, Queenhithe, and Farringdon Without.
The united parishes of St. Andrew Holborn and St. George the Martyr held an Anti-Corn-law meeting on Tuesday evening. The use of the hall in Gray's Inn Lane Workhouse had been granted by the Governors and Directors of the Workhouse; but when the hour of meeting arrived, no entrance could be obtained, the doors having been kept shut by an order from the Guardians. Another place of meeting had therefore to be sought; and the Queen's Square Rooms in Theobald's Road were selected. Neither of the Members for Finsbury was able to attend. Mr. Duncombe was in Yorkshire; but he conveyed an assurance in writing, that "whoever may be Minister, or whatever party may be in the ascendant," he should adhere to the principles of free trade. Mr. Wakley was detained by official duty. Mr. George Taylor presided; and resolutions describing the injurious work-
ing of the Corn-laws, and calling for the opening of the Forts and a free trade in corn, were passed without dissent.
Tha British and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society, represented by Sir George Ste. pben, have carried the ease of the Imanin of Muscat's ship before one of the Judges. A writ of habeas corpus was obtained; and on Saturday the men were brought before Mr._Justice Cege sitting in chambers. Seven of the Arabs, including a boy, were examined by the Judge with the aid of interpreters. The men all stated that they werares, and, as they expressed it, " unsFaves." They had come from Zanzibar as sailors, and had agreed to work the vessel back to that place. When the boy was questioned, his paucity of ideas rendered it very diffi-
cult to understand what he meant. He said he had been sold for sixteen dollars by his mother; and he afterwards gave a very confused account of himself. Grant, the seaman who has declared that a murder was committed on the voyage, was proffered by Mr. Lush, who appeared for the Anti-Slavery Society, as an in- terpreter. Mr. Clarkson asked the man if he was a Christian ? He said he was; but admitted that he had professed to be a Mussulman when in distress, and had thus gained money. When he questioned the lad, it appeared that the boy understood him, but he could not understand what the boy said. The Judge asked the men if any one had died on the voyage? They all denied that any one had died or been killed. They said that they had been very well treated; if they had not been, they should have complained to the law. They denied that any gerson of the name given by Grant had been on board the vessel. At Sir George Stephen's desire, his Lordship informed the seamen that slaves were all free on arriving in this country. The men reiterated, that they were not slaves; and the questioning having closed, they left the room in great glee. The Arabs are de- scribed as healthy-looking and apparently well fed.
At the Central Criminal Court, on Saturday, Edmund Thomas Yeakell, who some tune back pleaded guilty under a charge of forging a signature to the Par- liamentary deed of a railway company, was brought up for sentence. In passing judgment, Mr. Baron Alderson observed that it had been deferred on a promise that the prisoner should furnish information which would lead to the conviction of more guilty parties; and he understood that Yeakell had communicated all he knew, but that it had proved to be of no use whatever to the interests of public justice. The sentence was that Teske!' should be imprisoned and kept to hard labour in a house of correction for two years, the shortest term permitted by the law for such an offence.
Alexander Gordon, master of the ship blathesis, and John Cummins, mate, were tried for assaulting William Scott, a sailor-boy, on the high seas. Accord- ing to Scott's account, he had been grossly ill-used. He had, for instance, been sent aloft in his shirt; having been pursued by the mate, who wished to beat him, in his terror he leaped into the sea; the ship was brought-to, and he was picked up; he was then cruelly flogged by the master's order, and vitriol was applied to his bleeding back. This story was partially confirmed by witnessea; but, instead of vitriol having been used by Gordon, it seemed more probable it was some kind of ointment. The defence was' that Scott deserved punishment, and that no more was inflicted than what was called for by his misconduct. The Jury acquitted the mate; but found the master guilty on one count, that of excessive flogging. Sentence was deferred till Monday: on that day, Mr. Gordon was adjudged to be fined 10/. Mr. Commissioner Bullock, the Judge, declared that there was no evidence to show that anything like vitriol was poured on the boy's back, nor had the charge of cruelty been sustained.
George Johnstone Master of the Tory, was finally examined on Tuesday, at the Thames Police Court. The proceedings terminated in theprisoner's committal to take his trial at the next sessions of the Central Criminal Court, for the mur- der of three of his crew, and the wounding of ten others.
A ruffianly act of extortion was brought under the notice of the Magistrate at Lambeth Police-office on Tuesday. On the evening of Sunday week, a fellow knocked at the door of Mr. Hamblin, in Crayford Road, Camberwell: on its being opened by Mrs. Gallahne, a visitor, he stepped into the passage, and produced a letter which he desired her to convey to the nustress of the house. The lady hesi- tated; but the fellow snatched a pistol from his pocket, and threatened to shoot her if she did not comply. On hearing a disturbance, Mrs. Hamblin came out of her room, and took the note. It was addressed to "the lady of the house," and demanded money, under alarming threats. Mr. Hamblin was helpless from para- lysis; but his brother-in-law, Mr. Phillips, happened to be present, and advised that a ten-pound note which Mrs. Hamblin had produced should be given to the desperado; who by this time had armed himself with a dirk in addition to the pistol. The note was handed over, and the fellow made off. Some days after- wards, however, a woman who had changed the note at a pawnbroker's was appre- hended, and this led to the seizure of the man- he was found to be a notorious thief, Thomas Smith. Both prisoners were produced on Tuesday; but the case was adjourned for a week, in order that Mr. Phillips might be present.
Martha Browning, the young woman convicted of the murder at Westminster, has made a full confession of her guilt. Her motive was the desire to obtain pos- session of the "Bask of Elegance" note, which she mistook for a real five-pound note. She strangled the old woman with a cord, while in bed; and in the morn- ing placed the body on a box, to make it appear that her victim had committed suicide.
Mr. George Graham, of the firm of Graham and Adams, warehousemen, 11 Cheapside, has committed suicide in a deranged state of mind, consequent on large and unfortunate railway speculations. The commercial affairs of Graham and Adams were also in an insolvent state; • but whether entirely from the railway operations of Mr. Graham, is not stated, though such was apparently the fact. The deceased had never been a wealthy man. He had lost 2,0001. by one trans action in shares alone.
The adjourned inquest on the body of Susannah Stephens, one of the young women who came from Windsor in the last stage of pulmonary disease, and were refused admission into the Royal Free Hospital, was resumed on Tuesday, before Mr. Wakley, the Coroner, at the Lion, Gray's Inn Road. A statement made by the deceased to one of the nurses of the Workhouse as to the harsh treatment she received from the Hospital officers, when craving admission, was detailed to the Jury: but contradictory evidence was given by the persons implicated. The Chaplain and Mr. Wakley came to high words; the Chaplain accusing the Co- roner of partiality,, and invariable hostility to the Hospital. Mr. Wakley threatened to commit the Chaplain for contempt, and ordered him to leave the room; which he did. A verdict of " Natural death" was returned; the Foreman adding, that the majority of the Jury found fault with the officers of the Hospital for refusing admission to the dying woman. • A new Police-office has been erected in Vincent Square, Westminster, to super- sede the inconvenient premises in Queen Square. It is to be called "The West- minster Police Court"; and the Magistrates will take possession of it on the 1st of January.
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