fl'be fitetropaTifi.

The London Sheriffs, Mr. John Humphery and Mr. Richard Peck, entered on their offices yesterday. The Reform festival of Bishopsgate Ward took place on Thursday, at the City of London Tavern. Alderman Copeland having declined the chair, Mr. Stevens presided. If Aldermen were annually elected, as they will be very soon, they would show more condescension. Mr. Owen's votaries are getting turbulent on his hand. !At the meeting on Thursday, there was something very like a row. Several persons, who complained of the "labour exchange system," were with great difficulty put to silence. The harmony was not restored by Mr. Stevens striking up "Begone, dull Care '-" for though the organ drowned the speakers, it did not convince, and the meeting in conse- quence broke up, in very bad humour.

The London and Greenwich Railroad is proposed to extend from London Bridge to the Prince of Orange at Greenwich, passing over Bermondsey Street, and through the gardens and meadow lands be- tween Deptford and the New Church at Bermondsey. The whole extent will he three miles and three quarters. It was stated by Mr. Landraann' the engineer, at a meeting that took place on Wednesday at Deptford, that the carriages will perform the distance in ten or twelve minutes. The estimated expense is 400,0001.; but a saving of 50,0001, is contemplated by limiting the elevated line of the road. The intended mode of constructing the railroad is by ele- vating it on arches of such height and width that if it were to cross any thoroughfare it would not offer any obstruction to the usual traffic.

Application will be made next Session for a bill to enable the Com- pany to commence their operations.

A quarterly meeting of the Proprietors of East India Stock was held on Wednesday at the India House, the Governor of the Court of

Directors in the Chair. The business was purely routine. In answer to a question of Mr. Poynder, the Chairman said the subject of Jug- gernaut was still before the Directors.

Mr. Nixon has denied that it was he who seconded the motion for excluding the reporters at the last Bank meeting.

The Lord Wellington' the East Indiaman purchased for Don Pedro, is expected to sail for Oporto next NI' e ek. She is pierced for 60 guns.

The public will, we doubt not, be gratified to learn that it is at length determined to send out an expedition for the purpose of ascertaining the fate of Captain Ross arid his enterprising crew, who left this country somewhat more than three years ago, on a voyage of discovery to the Arctic regions. This determination was announced to a meet- ing convened for the purpose on the 2,0th instant, when the success of an application to his Majesty by Mr. Ross, the brother of the Captain and father of the Commander, was also communicated. The Govern- ment proposes to grant 2,000/. in aid of the expenses of the expedition, it being certified to them that Captain Back shall have the command; that the Hudson's Bay Company will furnish the supplies aed canoes free of charge (as they have generously undertaken to do), and that the remainder of the expense (about 3,000/. ) shall be forthcoming from other quarters. It is not, we believe, decided as yet whether the Com- mittee of Management will deem it expedient to appeal to the public for assistance, or whether they depend solely on private subscriptions ; but of this there can be no doubt, that the object is one which would not only justify an application to the public, but would insure its suc- cess, connected as it is with the interest of science and the cause of humanity. Amongst the preparatory resolutions adopted at the meet- ing, is one which will afford general satisfaction—especially as it appears to have been sanctioned, if not suggested, by those experienced officers who are most capable of estimating the chances in such a case. We allude to the resolution which states " that a confident hope may still reasonably be entertained that the Captains Ross and their adven- turous companions may yet be in a place of safety." That hope ac- quires considerable support from one circumstance, that " they did not themselves calculate on returning sooner than three years, which is now but little nmre than expired." In short, there is ground enough both for hope and fear to give this undertaking a most extraordinary interest with every reflecting inind.—Monting Herald.

The master butchers of the metropolis have formed themselves into a society, for the purpose of procuring a law for the general suspension of all trade and labour on Sunday. They deserve the highest credit for the example they have shown. To say nothing of religion, com- mon sense loudly teals for the strict and universal observance of the Sunday's rest. The labouring classes are especially interested in it ; and for their sakes especially, we hope the attempt to enforce it will be judiciously made, as in that case it can hardly fail to be successful.

The Post has published a most terrible handbill, which it says has been circulated in Bethhal Green. It calls for the abolition of titles of primogeniture, and " all that sort of thing." The Post says, the Police Commissioriers are very watchful in their look-out for sedition. " The plan acted upon his been to send one or more policemen, dressed in plain clothes, technically termed reporters, to every meet- ing:, who were instructed to take particular notice of any violent expres- sions which might drop from the speakers, and to learn the name anti address of the person using such language." These reporters have not hitherto. heard much. Indeed, it is not very common for persons to speak sedition openly; but they have picked up the handbill to which the Post has given the additional publicity of its columns.

On Wednesday, a surgeon named Lomax, in attempting to remove some rubbish from a spout, unfortunately- overbalanced himself, and fell from his bed-room window, in Dorset Street, Portman Square, into the area, a height of more than thirty feet. He was taken up insensible, and dreadfully injured ; his thigh, -.rm, and several ribs being frac- tured.

A Frenchman was charged yesterday, at Marlborough Street, with creating a mob, by preaching near Apsley House. This practice, which its observers choose to denominate " serving God rather than man"—every ranting fool conceiving himself an apostle, and claiming with equal sufferance equal honour—has become very common of late.

The Policeman who took the reverend exhorter into custody said, be found him holding forth to a congregation of about fifty pickpockets and prostitutes, exhorting them in broken English to repent of their sins, for the world was about to come to an end ; but the only effect of his pious labours were the jeers and laughter of his auditors.

Mr. Conant—" Are you not aware that by creating a crowd in a public thoroughfare you commit a breach of the law?" Defendant—" I am obeying the law of God, who has commanded his minis- ters to preach his gospel." Mr. Conant—".But you should first apply at the Sessions for a licence to preach."

Defendant—" There was no disturbance there, save what the ungodly created."

Mr. Conant—" All crowds are interruptions, and the creating them by the means you have pursued constitutes an offence. Have you any friend who will become answerable for your future conduct ?" Defendant—" I am at present living at the house of a friend, Dr. Hunter, 28, Grosvenor Place ; but he cannot prevent my fulfilling the mission with which the Lord has intrusted me."

An elderly Lady—" He lives at my house. He stands there to answer for himself. He is a chosen vessel, and a servant of the Lord." A young gentleman, the son of Dr. Hunter, added, that the defendant was on a visit to his father, having only been a fortnight from Edinburgh, where he had acted as the pastor of a Dissenting congregation. Preacher—" No earthly power can prevent me obeying the call of the Lord. Blood and fire [this smells strongly of the O'Connell school] will soon be in your streets, and the word of the Lord can alone avert those judgments which are preparing. Not 10,000 policemen—not 100,000 soldiers can save this city from destruction. The word of God only can save it. I am ordained to preach the word, and my first duty is to God ; therefore, I am bound to preach the Gospel."

Mr. Conant—" But your conduct caused a number of thieves and prostitutes to assemble."

Defendant—" It is to them the Gqspel ought to be preached. Publicans and sirmers, I tell you, shall go into the kingdom of Heaven, while Pharisees shall be cast out."

Dr. Hunter at length appeared, and, notwithstanding the reverend gentleman's determination, became bound that he should not offend In a similar way again.

A pawnbroker named Cording was summoned to the Thames Police Office on Tuesday, by a woman named Collett, for compensation for the loss of a gown and shawl, which the pawnbroker declared to have been destroyed by fire. The woman stated she had afterwards seen the gown at Mr. Cording's door ; and as the gown and shawl made but one bundle, they must have been both saved. Mr. Cording said, the articles hi question might have been placed among the dead goods which were saved ; but the tickets were so destroyed by the Nvater from the engines, as to be rendered illegible.

Ballantine—" That had nothing to do xvith the case. If the articles were lost or destroyed, by fire or otherwise, Mr. Cording must make the woman com- pensatimi."

Illr. Cording—" Pawnbrokers never make good any losses by tire or burglary. Thore is a elmse in the Act of Parliament excepting them."

Mr. Ballatitine had carefully looked over the at, and could find no such ex- ception. besides, pawnbrokers were bound to insure property pledged with them.

Cording---" Only to the amount of the sum lent, that's all."

Mr. Ballantme said, the defendant must pay the Willnall for herthings, and the expenses she had been put to in taking out the two siumnonses. Th.ere was no exclaion with respect to fires, and the pawnbroker was bound to make good the loss oera‘doned thereby.

[This sc•rms a very doubtful case ; and our doubts of it are not at all lessened by the peremptory decision of the Magistrate. If a pawn- broker is bound to make good whatever is pawned with him, though destroyed by fire or stolen, who is to be the judge of the amount of the compensation ? Supposing the pawnbroker to insure, how is he to know what value the owner may choose to put upon the goods pawned? If the word or oath of the owner is to measure the value, what is to • hinder him from claiming ten times the amount of his loss ?] •

Every one knows the old Joe, where a servant throws down a second dish in answer to her mistress's angry inquiry how she contrived to 'break the first. A second robbery, by way of discovering bow the first was effected, has not, we believe, as yet appeared in the books. An 'instance of the kind occurred on Tuesday at the Tow. Hall. Miss -Elizabeth Smith having contrived on the 1:3th of February last to filch thirteen guineas from a countryman, was tried at the Old Bailey for the offence, but contrived to get off by bribing the policeman, whom the Commissionets afterwards discharged. On Tuesday, Miss Smith was brought up at the Town Hall, charged with robbing the same man. We shall let him tell his own story— George Lea, the prosecutor—" As I maw passing by the Rose and Crown, I met the prisoner coming out. I thou't I know'd her, when she euni'd up at once. "f hat's • the fellow,' says she, 'as I robbed of thirteen sovereiges,—ben't • ye, mild chap ?' So say I, Ees, I be surely ;' then says she, ' If you'll only stand a quartern fir auld acquaintance, I'd take an show von how I did it.' I thou't it was all roight, an went into house wi' her ; and wheu she had drunk the gin, and r a pint o' beer, I went home wi' her." Alderman Thorp—" Why did you accompany her home, when she hail robbed you before?-' Lea—" I doan't k.now how that war, but you see I wanted to be puf up to London rigs, and get experience like ; soa, when we got Imam she tould me to put ma purse on teablc, and I did soa, when she calif() up and said, 'Now doan't

you think you wur a fule?' says she, and I said I war—soa, says she, he as guile as ma word in a moment.' I thou't it a safe bargain : 'Now look that way,' says she. I did soa; when by gum she wur off in a twinkling."

Mr. Walker, a solicitor for Miss Smith—" Where 'WM your purse all this time ?"

IANI—" Oh, she tuk that wi' her—if she had left that behind, it wud been all roight enow. When I got the door open, she wur nowhere to be found, and I did not see her till this morning, when I gave her in charge."

Mr. Walker contended that the prosecutor had willingly lent himself to a second robbery ; and he hoped the Alderman would not commit the woman.

Mr. Alderman Thorp said, that notwithstanding. the simplicity of the country- man, in thus suffering, himself to be robbed a second time, the evidence was fully sufficient to commit Smith for trial. A simpleton must not be robbed with impunity. William Clifford, a schoolmaster, was some (lays ago charged with stealing a silver milk-jug from the shop of Mr. Mott, Pickett Street. He lifted it deliberately from the counter, and walked quietly out of the shop ; he was almost instantly seized. When brought to Bow Street, he said he had committed the act in order to convince the public of the necessity of altering the criminal laws. He had taken away a piece of plate from a shop in the Poultry with a similar view; but he was not followed, and did not therefore succeed in his wish to be ar- rested. He was farther examined yesterday when a person from Mr. Brooke's in the Poultry proved that he was followed, but without being found. A gentleman named Feddon said he had had the pleasure of the prisoner's acquaintance for a quarter of a century, and he believed him to be as honourable a man, and as pure in his intentions, as any person in existence. Mr. Mieshull—" Do you consider him quite sane?" - Mr: FerIden—" He is perfectly sensible, and a most rational and agreeable companion, except when politics, or the criminal jurisprudence of the country, happen to be the topic of conversation. He has been in the Army, and fought in the Pcninsula under the Duke of Wellington, and was present at the taking of Ciudall Rodrigo, Badajos, and Salamanca. He has also been intrusted with despatches for the British Government by the Russian Minister, Count Orloff, at St. Petersburg, and in every situation which he filled his conduct was highly creditable. Some time ago, he appeared in the Gallery of the House of Com- mOns, and threw his pamphlets from thence for the perusal of the members." He was remanded, with orders to place him in the Infirmary of the prison. His case seems a fitter one for an infirmary than a prison.

An impudent rascal, calling himself a sailor, was summoned before the Thames Street Magistrates on Monday, for destroying the cast of a Napoleon belonging to an Italian image-boy, on the make-believe pretence that Napoleon was an enemy of Old England. We thought these claptraps had ceased to be exhibited before the curtain. The sailor was fined• ten shillings under the Wilful Damage Act. The Italian applied for the money ; but Mr. Symons,•the Chief Clerk, said, that it must go to the King, the owner having given evidence of the value and the damage. Mr. Ballantine said it had better be paid to the Ita- lian, who could ill bear the loss ; but Mr. Symons said the act did not allow it. [ So much for legislation !]