The Wardmote elections passed off on Monday with little contest

or excitement. In most cases the sitting Councillors were re5lected. Less interest was manifested in the new municipal reform than one expected. The Wards of Bishopsgate and Farringdon-Without were the only ones where a marked anxiety on behalf of the new measure was displayed. The constituency of Bishopsgate resolved, on the motion of Mr. Bateman, that the Corporation measure is a wise and necessary reform, but that the Aldermen ought to be elected only for three years, and that " the corporate establishments, legislative, magisterial, and financial, are cum- brous and profuse" ; and that " a thorough revision is necessary, with a view to effecting large reductions in municipal taxation and expendi- ture." The constituency of Farringdon-Without requested the Common Council to watch over the bill in Parliament, " and see that it be carried out to the fullest extent, and not frittered away by amendments, but rather, if possible, made more beneficial by allotting a fair and equitable proportion of representatives to each ward according to the population of such ward."

The Wardmote of Farringdon-Without passed unanimously a resoluticsa that the Councillors and Alderman of their ward do give their support to Mr. Charles Pearson's plan of a central railway down the valley of the Fleet into Farringdon Street.

The Queen's Christmas bounty was distributed at the Royal Almoory Office, in Scotland Yard, on Monday. The participants of the ancient largess were four hundred men and women above sixty years of age, each of whom received five shillings ; the money being paid in two new half- crowns, issued for the purpose from the Mint. The average age of the re- cipients was eighty-two ; fifty of the number being upwards of ninety years of age, and three of them centenarians.

The scores of thousands of "destitute and infirm poor" who even in this year of comparative prosperity still crowd the union houses of the great metropolis, had their holyday of pleasure and good Christmas fare on Thursday. Last year, we could state that the .paupers of Lon- don were 30,000 fewer than those of the year before; this year, there is a still further diminution of the numbers, giving evidence of dimioished poverty, suffering, and, it is hoped, crime. So far as the returns go, it appears that the out-door paupers were fewer by about 530, and the in- door paupers by about 700—giving a total decrease of about 1230. Ne- vertheless, there were 80,000 poor people indebted to state charity for a dinner on the Christmas-day of this year.

The Commissioners of Woods and Forests have sold a piece of ground from Charlotte Street to Long Acre as a site for baths and washhouses for St. Giles's and St. George's parishes. The parishes have paid 20,50l. for the site.

A new police station is about to be erected within Hyde Park, near Albert Gate; and the Commissioners of Police are to defray the expenses.

The extensive new buildings at Guy's Hospital, for three hundred ad- ditional in-patients, are in rapid progress towards completion; covering immense piece of ground at the rear of that ancient institution, extending from the middle of Maze Pond, St. Thomas's Street, to ling Street, Snow's Fields. The estimated cost is 30,0140/.

A company has been formed with the view of obtaining an act of Par- liament for building a new bridge across the Thames from Fulham to Putney, and removing the present inconvenient structure. The capital, a large portion of which has already been subscribed, is ample for the purpose ; and as the shareholders in the old bridge have already shown a desire to amalgamate with those of the new, the expense and delay COP- sequent on a Parliamentary opposition will be avoided. The new com- pany propose to construct a handsome iron bridge, with Ave arches at sufficient height and open, to replace the present unsightly masa of timber, They have received the best assurapees.of support from the neighbouring proprietors, and other parties likely to be interested. In addition to the tolls obtained on the present bridge, (which will be adjusted on a. liberal principle,) there will be those derived from steam-boat passengers, a part of the plan being to erect a pier for their accommodation, as on Munger- ford Bridge.—Morning Chronicle.

The members of the Law Amendment Society aimed together at the London Tavern on Saturday, with a deOle object,--to promote a fusion between the professioiud law-ainenders and the merchant PPinoes of the City ; and to compliment as their guest Mr. Dadley Field, of New York, who about a year since expounded to the Society the principles on which the State of New York has reformed its administration of justice by blend- ing together the courts of law and equity, and establishing in all cases 4 uniform course of procedure. Mr. M. D. Hill, who came from his °Quit at Bristol to attend the meeting, was placed in the chair. In opening the after-dinner proceedings, the Chairman stated, that Mr. Field, since his late visit to London, has not only recrossed the Atlantic, but, with an alacrity which startles the sober-going inhabitants of the Old World, he has visited every country in Europe, some in Asia, and some in Africa.

Mr. Field reported hew they go on in NOW X/Alf 4440tr tho new cods, In the first place, the long bills and answers which once existed in the American Court of Chancery, and which still exist in the English, are all done away; no repetitions are necessary, and scarcely any are given, because they have got rid of the long machinery which still exists in England, where,. if the defendant does not answer every plea, there are exceptions and exceptions and exceptions ; so that what formerly occupied a year in Ame- rica is now settled in twenty days. The next effect is, that all parties are careful of the statements they put in their pleadings, because both parties are liable to be called by their adversary into the witness-box ; so they are careful of inserting in their written pleadings anything that they would de- cline to verify in the witness-box. Further, all the mischiefs that used to arise from not going before the right tribunal are now avoided, and all causes are determined on their real merits. In fact, the view taken by the Com- missioners in devising the new forms of procedure, was to make the system correspond as nearly as possible to that which takes place in a family when one member complaining of another is brought before the father, who in- quires into the facts of the case, and determines who is right, and who is wrong. Did they ask him how it had succeeded ? Perhaps it was not for him to reply, because it might be thought that he would overstate what he had contrived. But so far as he has learned from others, and so far as his own experience has gone, it is completely successful. The experience of an- other year, since he last had the honour of addressing an English audience, has not shaken the confidence of the public in its merits : many of the diffi- culties which at first surrounded it have vanished; and although there may be faults still found with the details, he does not believe that there is a respectable lawyer or ajudge in the United States who would affirm that there is any insur- mountable difficulty in making a uniform course of procedure in all cases legal or equitable. Mr. Field hopes further to see courts of conciliation adopted, and above all, to see a complete code of the laws ; and the latter hope is as certain to be realized as any fact yet in the future. In the course of his travels, as the Chairman had stated, he has visited various countries in Europe, and he has found in almost every one of them a spirit of law-reform. In Sweden and Norway, they are discussing a new code; in Russia, they have just got one ; in Greece, a new code has just been provided ; in Sicily and Sardinia, new codes are also under discussion ; and even in Turkey—benighted Turkey— the great subject of agitation there is the Tanzimat, against which certain pachas have rebelled because it takes from them the power of the bowstring. If, then, in these countries, earnest and patient thinkers are bent upon a re- form of the law in the midst of the violent throes of the times to which they are subjected, surely that ought to encourage England and America to go on in the same course. But, however that may be, England and America must go on to stimulate each other. Claiming for his own country with eloquent warmth a community of history and a community of renown with ourselves, he asked excuse as an American for saying, that if he were an English- man, while he would be proud of England's renown both old and new—of her civilization and colossal dominion—he thought he should be most proud of her dominion, scarcely less colossal, beyond the ocean—of a people sprung from her own loins, who had borne the language of Milton and the laws of Alfred from sea to sea. "We have been enemies, and have met on many a hard-fought battle-field both by land and sea. Let us have war no more •, let us denounce the tongue and the hand that would come between us ; and let us be henceforth mutual teachers and helpers. Let us be rivals not in the arts of destruction, but in acts conservative and peaceful. That is the only rivalry which leaves no sting behind ; it is the only one in which those who win and those who lose, the victors and the vanquished, may re- joice together."

Mr. James Stewart, the Society's Treasurer, put forward plainly the feature of the reunion which we referred to at the beginning—that it was intended to fuse the professional lawyers with the merchant princes of the City. If they would permit him to say one word in favour of the Law Amend- ment Society, he would say that the profession of the law, if it had stood united, might have played a pretty game in defeating law reform. The great point was to separate the profession into two parties ; and that really was the work of the Law Amendment Society. Mr. Pitt Taylor insisted that fusion of procedure would be an in- sufficient aim if the consolidation and codification of the law were not to be added. He illustrated his argument by these facts. There are thirty-eight large quarto volumes filled with statutes, and he calculated that they contain, on an average, 800 pages each of small print; so that the statute law of the realm, exclusive of all local and personal acts, fills at least 30,000 quarto pages. The object of the Commission, therefore, would be to form, in the first instance, a new edition of the statutes, from which should be omitted all the acts and the parts of acts that have been re- pealed or have become obsolete ; and they might then proceed to consolidate and classify the remainder. There are, for instance, at least forty statutes on the simple question of costs, ranging from the time of Edward L down to the last session. There are about an equal number of statutes of limitations, extending over the last two hundred years. The statutes with reference to the poor may be calculated by dozens, coming down from the time of Eliza- beth. The law respecting municipal corporations is in a state of frightful confusion, owing to the numerous amendments of the act of 1835. The statutes on many other branches of the law will be found equally numerous; and nothing in the world would so promote the benefit of the profession as to have these statutes classified, arranged, and condensed.

Mr. Dillon, of the great firm of Morrison, Dillon, and Co. expressed the surprise and delight with which he, a Reformer all his life, has seen at last the beginning of real reform in the law itself.

Mr. Robert Lowe acknowledged a toast as "a Colonial Reformer," with one of his best speeches.

It did not become him to speak of himself, but he had been successful in smuggling through the local Legislature of New South Wales several acts which had been found useful in the direction of cheap justice ; and he would have done more, but that the vigilant guardians of public abuses—the men who live and fatten on them—found out that he had already stormed the outworks of corruption, and that if he were not stopped in time he would soon gain the citadel. From that moment he had been able to accomplish nothing ; his efforts had fallen powerless. If he proposed anything that was long and elaborate, it was absurd and complicated ; if short and plain, then it was crude ; so that between the complicated and the crude all his mea- sures were rejected. He was sorry to say that gentlemen going to Australia will find the titles to land miserably complicated, and the most tortuous pro- ceedings of the courts adopted; so that he has great reason to regret his efforts were not crowned with success. He grieved to say that we are so wedded, so bigoted to whatever is English, that we would carry English forms and English technicalities, and even English absurdities, with us to the ends of the earth, and cause them to descend to our latest posterity. Those men know little of the Colonies who suppose that they are disloyal. On the contrary, the feeling of the Colonies on behalf of the Mother-country amounts to something absolutely super- stitious ; and men whose opinions are looked upon as worth nething here, are looked upon in the Colonies as irrefragable authorities. * • • • It is to the subtile and over-refining spirit that we owe the division of law and equity. Let us, then, recur to the principles of simple and natural justice. As an illustration, look to what took place when Lord Mansfield came to the bench of justice. At that time, the commercial and other relations of the country were in a state of indefinite enlargement ; and had that great man trodden in the steps of his prede- cessor, every question relating to shipping, to warehousing, to insurances, and similar questions, would have been found to be impossible to be dealt with at common law, and would have passed under the jurisdiction of the Court of Chancery. What did that great man do ? Out of the profound stores of his knowledge of the laws of all nations, he formed an enlightened and a noble eode, worthy to regulate the affairs of all nations. By doing this, he saved these questions from being thrown into the vortex of Chancery ; or rather, he saved the Court of Equity itself; for if all these questions had been brought under its cognizance, the common sense of mankind would have revolted

against it, and trodden it under foot. If Lord Mansfield saved these questions from being thrown into Chancery, can we not now take back some of those matte's which by the misconduct of former ages were al- lowed to go there; and if we can ought we not to do so ?

In returning thanks for the last toast of the evening, the Chairman ex- pressed a hope, which, however, he feared might seem somewhat ungra- cious and paradoxical—that now law reform has received sufficient mo- mentum to make it popular, it may not become a cry instead of a science.

However, for himself, whenever law reform is agitated, he will be in the thick of it—the thicker the better ; for the less there is of evasion, the less of makeshift, the more we dig down to the rock of principle, there he will be happy to wield his shovel in the cause. An incident which called forth general expressions of hearty congratu- lation, was the announcement by Mr. Pitt Taylor, that Lord Brougham has quite recovered his health ; he had written to Mr. Taylor a letter re- ceived that very morning, in excellent spirits. "In the postscript to his letter, which of course had a prescriptive right to contain the pith of the subject, he observed, My belief really is that you will carry fusion.' " At a general meeting of the Society in the rooms in Regent Street, on Monday evening, the third report of the Special Committee appointed to inquire whether the principles of law and equity can be administered in the same court, and by the same form of procedure, was brought up. The evils of the distinction between law and equity having been shown, and the outlines of a scheme for abolishing the distinction having been given in the two other reports, the preparation of a code of procedure was now con- sidered. The matter is most urgent : if a moment be lost in amending the procedure of the Superior Courts, the country may suffer the misfortune of see- ing the whole administration of justice transferred to the County Courts,— tribunals whose procedure is very imperfectly organized, and whose judges, without disparagement of them, are quite unequal to the task of undertaking the summary administration of the whole law of England. Indeed, it is mortifying to reflect, in so great an emergency, how much time and talent have recently been wasted in the researches of learned Commissioners into the separate departments of Law and Equity, when it is nianfest that they might have been so much better employed in preparing a code of procedure, which might even yet preserve Westminster Hall from the formidable com- petition of the County Courts. The Committee recommend that the co- operation of influential members of both Houses of Parliament should be earnestly sought, in order to bring the question as soon as possible, and in the most impressive manner, under the serious consideration of the Legislature ; and they further suggest, as the most effective mode of proceeding, that steps should be taken to insure, in either House, the moving of an address to her Majesty, containing resolutions to the following effect- " 1st, That the principles of law and equity ought to be administered in the same court and under the same system of procedure ; the equitable rule in cases of con- flict controlling the legal.

" 2d, That a paid Commission ought to be forthwith appointed to prepare a code of procedure for the purpose of can ying out the above reform."

Until such a code can be prepared, the Committee think the amalgamation of the jurisdictions should not be attempted ; as they believe that it would be highly vexatious to introduce a system of provisional procedure, which would of necessity be extremely imperfect, and would, moreover, be liable to be swept away just as it was beginning to be understood. But there arc many changes of procedure which need not be delayed , which it would make no embarrassment to carry out immediately, and which would give much relief to the suitor. Such alterations might be immediately effected by a number of short bills, which the Committee suggest should be introduced into Parlia- ment as early as possible after the recess. The following are some of the bills referred to- " 1st, A bill to require all pleadings, whether at law or in equity, to be verified on oath; and to abolish all objections as to the form of pleadings, except the objection that they arc calculated to embarrass or mislead. " 2d, A bill to substitute, in all cases, viva voce examinations for written interro- gatories, and the interrogating part of the bill in equity.

"3d, A bill to enable Courts of Common Law to g ant injunction and discovery, and to appoint a receiver. "4th, A bill to authorize Judges at Common Law to try questions of fact without the intervention of a jury, unless either of the parties to the action should require such intervention ; and to authorize Judges in Equity to try questions of fact with the intervention of a jury, if any of the parties to the suit should require such inter- vention.

" 5th, A bill to abolish motions in arrest of judgment and non obotante neredicto ; and to enable parties who have demurred, and have had judgment against them, to plead over.

" 6th, A bill to empower defendants in courts of law to set up equitable defences.

" 7th, A bill to enable the parties to any action or suit, at any stage of the pro- ceedings to agree upon any question or questions, either of law or of fact, to be sub- mitted to a Court or Jury, as decisive of the merits of the cause.

" 8th, A bill to consolidate and amend the law as applicable to commissions and mandamuses to examine witnesses. " 9th, A bill to direct that the evidence which, under the present system in Chan- cery, is taken by the Examiners of the Court, should henceforth be taken before the Equity Judge. " 10th, A bill to abolish the rule in equity respecting the non-publication of evi- dence."

In the discussion which ensued, a suggestion was made by Mr. Rogers, that the Judges would be very willing to assist in improving the forms of procedure in their courts, by exercising their own inherent and conferred powers on the subject. Mr. M. D. Hill thereupon observed, that it might be important to inquire what are the legislative powers of courts of jus- tice to regulate their own rules of proceeding ; and if such inquiry were to be followed up by suggesting some means by which many of the dff- fieulties now existing might be avoided, he thought that much service: would be rendered to the profession and to the public. The report is to be further considered at the next meeting.

Vice-Chancellor Kindersley gave judgment on Tuesday in the "Clapham Monastery Bells" case, of Soltau versus De Held. We reported lately how the Popish bells of the Monastery of the Redemptorist Fathers had begun to ring again, in defiance of the verdict for damages which Mr. Soltau reeovered against Father De Held some months ago; and how Mr. Soltau applied to Vice-Chancellor Kindersley for an injunction to restrain the bells and their ringers. The defendants put in a demurrer to the plaintiff's application ; first, on the general ground that the facts complained of do not constitute a pri- vate nuisance but a public nuisance, and that therefore the Attorney-General ought to have been the moving party ; and secondly, on the particular

ground, that if the form of the pr .g were correctly chosen, the plain- tiff had failed to prove the particular nuisance. On the first point, Vice- Chancellor Kindersley held that the defendants were wrong in their law : he was of opinion that the facts did not constitute a public nuisance, but a pri- vate one only ; but even if they did make a public nuisance, he held it to be law, that concurrently with the remedy of the public to be applied by the Attorney-General, there may be a remedy in the hands of particular indivi- duals for the nuisance as it especially affected themselves. On the second point also, the defendants were wrong in fact. Mr. Soltau had very fully proved that he was subject to a most serious annoyance—to one of so intoler- able a character that the enjoyment of his life was seriously diminished and the value of his property seriously lessened by it. The largest bell of the peal of six weighs nearly half a ton ; and there can be no doubt that no person who could afford to pay so large a rent as that of Mr. Soltau's house would submit to endure such a nuisance as that which is now attached to it. It is also to be remembered, that Mr. Soltau has not come to the nui- sance, but the nuisance has come to him : he bought his lease of the late pro- prietor and resident, Lord Teynmouth, in 1817; and he has lived in it, except with some intervals, ever since. It is also to be noted, that the chapel of the defendants is not "a church" properly so called ; it is no more a church than is the chapel or meeting-house of any denomination of Protestant Dis- senters: the building has not therefore any of the exclusive privileges ap- pendant by the common law to the parish-church, and by the statute law to each district church in a subdivided parish. Vice-Chancellor Kindersley pur- posely avoided giving any opinion on the point raised by the plaintiff that it is illegal for Roman Catholics to ring bells at all : that point is immaterial ; because, if it is so illegal, the injunction cannot be issued on that ground, any more than an injunction can be granted against smuggling or murder. Upon the whole, the demurrer must be overruled, and the injunction must be granted ; but it must be granted only thus,—" namely, to restrain the defend- ant, and all persons acting under his direction or by his authority, from tol- ling or ringing the bells in the plaintiff's bill mentioned, or any of them, so as to occasion any nuisance, disturbance, and annoyance to the plain- tiff and his family, residing in the plaintiff's dwelling-house in the bill mentioned."

The Court of Exchequer on Saturday tried an action by Messrs. N. M. Rothschild and others against the Royal Mail Steam-packet Company, to re- cover 23251. as the value of that box of gold-dust of theirs which, with two other boxes belonging to other parties, was stolen from the specie-train on the South-western Railway. The Attorney-General and two other gen- tlemen appeared for Messrs. Rothschild, and Sir Frederick Thesiger with four other gentlemen for the Company. The plaintiff's alleged that the de- fendants received their box of Californian gold-dust at Panama, and engaged to convey it, with others like it, safely across the Isthmus of Panama, across the seas, and over the English land, to the Bank of England in London ; but they negligently failed to perform their contract. The defendants pleaded, among other pleas, that their contract expressly saved them harm- less from losses by "robbers" or by "dangers of the road" ; and that they were prevented from executing the contract in this instance by robbers and by the dangers of the road. The plaintiffs replied, that the defendants had been specially negligent; and they urged that the exception of liability in the case of the robbers or dangers of the road applied only to the robbers and dangers which are notoriously met with in crossing the Isthmus of Panama. The Judge held that the question of negligence was not properly in issue, but he let the Jury come to a finding on that point ; and then the meaning of the words "robbery and dangers of the road" should be decided by the full Court. The Jury found that the Company had been negligent—they might have used more care with the goods on the railway. The verdict was therefore entered for the plaintiff's, subject to the determination of the full Court on the points of law.

In the Court of Bankruptcy, on Saturday, Commissioner Gpulburn gave judgment on the application of Augustus B. Granville, the well-known phy- siciuu. Dr. Granville was enjoying a large revenue from an unusually ex- tensive practice, when he unfortunately turned aside into various specula- tions,—the formation of a Thames Improvement Company, of a Benevolent Life Assurance Company, the management of extensive farming operations, and the introduction of the Seltzer water. His income was large, his ex- penses were moderate, his accouots remarkable for their perspicuity and correct- ness, and no opposition is amok by any creditor to his application for a first- class certificate. But no parties have a right to speculate without the means of meeting adverse results—to speculate upon the funds of other people. Therefore Dr. Granville must be awarded a certificate only of the second class.

At Westminster Police Office, on Saturday, Henry Smith was charged with stealing a gold watch. The circumstances were singular. Mr. Charles Milner went to a performance by the Sacred Harmonic Society at the Com- mercial Hall in Chelsea. He went away before the close of the entertain- ment, and as he pressed through the crowd his watch was taken. Ezra Chittock, shopman to Mr. Skerrett, a tradesman in the King's Road, stated , that he was one of the auditory, and was reading the printed programme of the performance when his hand was suddenly laid hold of, and in the next minute the prisoner had deposited a gold watch in it, and then, taking his check, went out, but returned again in four or five minutes. Witness then went and spoke to him, and having told him that he had the watch put in his hand, and could swear that he was the person who did it, the latter de- nied it, and said that he had only just conic in. Smith was taken into cus- tody. He gave a false address. Mr. Broderip repeatedly questioned Chit- lock as to whether he was positive of the prisoner's identity with the man who put the watch into his hand : the witness said, he had no doubt of it. Smith was committed.