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crA Common Hall was held on Monday, to elect Sheriffs for London and Middlesex. On Midsummer-day, Mr. Mils and Mr. Bousfield were elected without their consent; Mr. Mills paid the fine of 6001. rather than serve, and Mr. Bousfield is now sued for a similar penalty. At a second Common Hall, Mr. Chandler and Mr. Benson were elected; but those gentlemen also were unwilling, and besides unable, to act. At the third Common Hall, on Monday, Mr. Alderman Finnis and Mr. Dicey were declared elected; but a poll was demanded, and is now in progress: the numbers polled, down to yesterday, were 258 for Alderman Finnis, 246 for Mr. J. E. Goodhart, 10 for Mr. Bewley, 4 for Mr. J. Goodhart, and 2 each for Mr. Lawrence and Mr. Dicey.

A meeting of the Metropolitan Members of Parliament and delegates from the Metropolitan parishes was held on Thursday, at the Marylebone Court-house, to decide on a course of resistance to the recent demand for a large addition to the Police force, and the arming of the Police. Resolutions were adopted, protesting against the additional expense of 36,0001. on Middlesex alone; and against the arming of the Police with cutlasses in the heart of London, as changing an ancient constabulary institution into a standing army, and trusting dangerous weapons to men not controlled by officers, but acting on emergency and on their own responsibility. It was resolved also, that Sir George Grey having broken faith in the matter, "it is inexpedient that any further application be made to that functionary"; and that a deputation wait on Lord John Russell with representations. A deputation of all the Metropolitan and County Members of Middlesex, with Mr. Hume and Mr. John Williams., was ac- cordingly appointed..

On Tuesday the 1st of August, the Fishmongers Company commemo- rated the accession of the Hanoverian dynasty to the throne of these realms, by the dinner annually given to their honorary members, and usually attended by members of the Ministry. The healths of brothers Prince Albert and King Leopold of Belgium having been drunk, the health of Ministers was introduced by the Prime Warden.

" No enlogium of her Majesty's present advisers was necessary from him: they were all well aware that no great measure having for its object the real welfare of the people—whether by the diffusion of unsectarian education, the repeal of religious tests and disabilities, (and thereby the suppression of religious animosities and rancoura,) by humanizing our aforetime sanguinary criminal code, or by the en- largement of the representation and the reform of the House of Commons—had not either been originally proposed, or at least warmly and zealously supported, by the great statesmen now in power."

Lord Campbell returned thanks, with a fling at Lord Brougham— He felt sure that thanks for the praise bestowed on the party with which he was connected would have come with much better grace from the noble and

learned friend who sat next him—(A laugh)—for he had for many years been the life and spirit of that party, and had often led it on to victory; and Lord Campbell would add, that his noble and learned friend had ever, in heart, been identified with that party which, ever since it came into office, had striven to act upon the principles which it had learnt from his noble and learned friend.

Lord Brougham acknowledged the toast of his own health.

"As an old Fishmonger," " he was delighted to celebrate their own charter-day; but he was more glad to meet his brethren on that day, the anniversary of a singular providence to the English people in the accession of the house of Han

over, and of one of the most illustrious of victories ever gained by British arms, [that of Aboukir Bay,] but also of a more illustrious victory gained in the cause

of humanity, and with the entire and cordial support of that ancient fraternity

—the victory of the extinction of slavery in our West Indian Colonies. He was sorry to find that. the City did not take that front-rank position which became it in the matter of sanatory reform; and he hoped soon to see the Metropolis no longer made the only place excluded, when it, in fact, ought to be the very first included within the measures for extending the benefits of sanatory improvement to our dense masses of intramural population.

Sir William Somerville, acknowledging the toast of his name in con- nexion with Ireland, declared that the social amelioration of Ireland would be accelerated, and her prosperity advanced, if the generous ancl'enlight- ened example set by the Fishmongers Company in the management of its Irish estates were generally followed by Irish proprietors.

The Junior United Service Club gave an entertainment on Wednesday to Lieutenant-General Sir Charles Napier, on the occasion of his return to England from his Governorship of Scinde, the scene of his brilliant mili- tary services. The Earl of Ellenborough, Major-General Sir William Na- pier; and Major-General William Napier, were among the guests invited to meet Sir Charles. Sir Charles Napier, acknowledging the toast in honour of himself, transferred all the honour of victory at Meeanee and Hyderabad tes the troops who then desperately fought and desperately won against overwhelming odds. He explained and defended the policy of the Earl of Ellenborough regarding Scinde, and enlarged on the commercial advan- tages already consequent and hereafter to flow from the opening of the na- vigation of the Indus.

The thoroughfare of Holborn Hill, which has been widened forty feet and re- duced in declivity three feet, at a cost to the Corporation of London of 25,0001., was reopened to the public on Monday evening.

The houses at the North end of Castle Street and Upper St. Martin's Lane are, by order of the Mercers Company, undergoing removal, to widen the thoroughfare.

New streets are about to be formed from Seven Dials and Monmouth Street to the end of Tottenham Court Road; from the South side of Upper St. Martin's Lane through the parish of St. Paul's Covent Garden to the Strand; and from Newport Market into Soho Square and Oxford Street.

James Maxwell Bryson, a working dentist, was charged at Bow Street, on Thursday, with uttering a seditious speech on the 28th July, in the Chartist Hall, Webber Street, Blackfriars. Mr. Frederick Bond Hughes and Mr. William Counsel, Government reporters, attended the meeting, and now read verbatim the speeches that were delivered. In the course of the meeting, Bryson, who acted as chairman, hoped the speakers would be very guarded, as he was told by a lawyer in whom he had confidence that the meeting would in law be a seditious meeting. It was enough that he answered for his own language, without being answerable for the overstrained words of speakers around him. He meant to say nothing him- self that would require forensic eloquence to defend, or that he could not honestly stand by before an honest jury. Later in the evening, he replied to questions put

a speaker named Rooney, that all the Chartists belonging to Webber Street all were organized, and willing to cooperate with the Irish Confederates; and he believed that the sword was at that moment drawn and the bullet flying on the other side of the Channel. A policeman produced some documents, with a pike and dagger found at Bryson's rooms. The accused was committed for trial; and being unable to find the bail required, 3001. in all, he was sent to prison.

George Shell, a shoemaker, was charged with making a seditious speech at tlfe same meeting. Mr. Counsel read his speech at length. It contained these passages- . I would recommend to the Irish people to follow implicitly the commands of their leaders. I would can also on the English people who desire liberty, who desire justice, and who desire equality, to stand by the Irish people in the hour of need. As soon as the Irish people are up, as soon as the Insurrection In Ireland becomes general, as I believe in the course of a very few hours it will become general, I trust that the people of England will rise to support them. * * * * if, working men, you allow those men who so nobly come forward and tell you your rights and how you can obtain them—if you allow them to be picked away—If you allow them to be trans- ported, to enjoy I was going to say, or rather to be placed in a dungeon, there to suffer all the indignities It ispossible for a base, bloody, and brutal Government to inffict—you do not deserve the name of men ; but you ought to be incarcerated yourselves, your families ought to starve around you, and you ought to go howling through the streets as a base cowardly race of men."

Shell was committed for trial; bail amounting to 2001. being required, and not found.

It is stated that warrants are out against several other Chartists.

At Guildhall Police-office, on Monday, Smith, Salmon, and Harris, were charged with fraudulently obtaining goods, and Elsworthy, a cabman, with receiving them. The evidence exposed a system of wholesale plunder. Salmon and Smith were employed some two years back by Messrs. Chaplin and Horne, the car- riers; taking advantage of this, they, with Harris, have recently gone round with a van to various receiving-houses, and in many cases obtained packages of valua- ble goods on pretence of conveying them to railways. The property was taken to Elsworthy's house. All the accused are committed for trial.

The three men charged with the burglary at Knightsbridge have been fully com- mitted for trial, by the Westminster Magistrate.

The infant of a married woman named Dore, living with her mother in Lower Grosvenor Street, having died from arsenic, an inquest has been held; and though no very definite evidence was adduced, a verdict of " Wilful murder" baa been returned against Dore and Mary Spry, her mother. On an application to Baron Alderson at chambers, by their husbands, the ac- cused have been liberated on bail.

Two firemen perished last week while performing their duty at a fire in Wapping. The flames originated in the upper part of premises occupied by Messrs. Lawford and Westrup, millers and ship-biscuit bakers. Two men, Piercy and Handcock, ascended to the second floor to apply water in the most advan- tageous way; the top floor descended with a great crash, carrying away all beneath it, and burying the poor men in the ruins. Mr. Mackay, one oi the engineers, was also knocked down by the falling brick, work, and so hurt that it was necessary to carry him to the hospital. It appeared at the inquest, that the highest flow of the mill was laden with heavy machinery and other ponderous matters: when the fire had weakened the supports, the weight caused the floor to giveaway. The firemen were not aware of the weight accumulated at the to of the building, and there was no foolish temerity in their ascending to the second floor. The cause of the fire was not known: the surmise is, that it originated: by the friction of Archimedean screws. Verdict, "Accidental death."

Chase, a guard on the Brighton Railway, has been killed, at New Cross sta- tion, through his own incautiousness. He was riding on an engine drawing a number of horse-boxes; the speed of the train was lessened on approaching the station; but before the engine had stopped, Chase jumped from it on to the plat- form—he stumbled, fell backwards, and, falling beneath the train, was crushed to death.