Zbe filetropolis.

A Court of Aldermen was held on Tuesday, for the despatch of busi- ness. A petition was presented from Mr. D ivid Williams Wire, setting forth that he was practising as a solicitor in the Court of Chancery and -in the Courts of Law at Westminster, and he claimed therefore to be admitted as an attorney at the May or's Court of London. Similar peti- tions were presented from Mr. Davies of Coleman Street, and Mr. Hartley of New Bridge Street ; and it was said that more were likely to follow, the profession being bent upon opening the Court. Mr. Wire stated that he made the application under the authority of the 6th and 7th Victoria, cap. 73, which enacted, " That every person who should have been duly admitted an attorney of any one of the superior courts of law at Westminster should be entitled to be admitted an attorney in any other of the said courts, or in any inferior court of law in England and Wales." At present, the practice of the Court is confined to four gen- tlemen, who have either purchased or obtained the places by the gift of the Corporation : but he contended that the act of last session com- pletely destroyed any such chartered or vested rights. The petitions were unanimously referred to a committee. Sir Peter Laurie called attention to a statement made by Mr. Wells, the late Common Council- man of Farringdon Ward, before the Lord Mayor, that Mr. Barnard Gregory had been treated with cruelty in Newgate Gaol : the whole of the information in some newspapers, upon which Mr. Wells grounded his statement, was grossly false—a monstrous series of exaggerations. The Lord Mayor and other Aldermen concurred in condemning the falsehood. Sheriff Musgrove said that he had Mr. Gregory's assurance that he had every accommodation which any imprisoned person could expect ; but he regretted that in fact Mr. Gregory's health was rapidly declining. Some other business of merely local interest having been transacted, the Court adjourned.

A Court of Common Council was held on Thursday. The report of a Committee was presented, recommending an application to Parliament for a renewal of the Coal Act in the shape of a permanent measure : agreed to. A report on the expen•e of public prosecutions in the Cen- tral Criminal Court stated that steps had been taken to reduce that ex- pense. Another report, on the passing of Scotch and Irish paupers to their homes, stated that, mainly in consequence of the revival of trade, the charge under that head had decreased by about 120/. a month. Mr. Peacock gave notice of a motion to confer the freedom of the City on Lord Dudley Coutts Stuart, to mark the sense entertained by the Court of his services in the cause of public charity for the relief of distressed foreizners. A discussion arose on a motion by Deputy Conley, re- specting the moral and physical condition of the vagrant population in the Nletropolis ; but it was cut short by the counting-out of the Court ; and the motion is to be renewed on aluture day.

More parish squabbling in St. Stephen's Walbrook ! The Vestry was convened on Wednesday, to nominate Overseers for the ensuing year, and to elect a Vestry Clerk in the room of Mr. Meriscoe Pearce, who had resigned. Alderman Gibbs called upon those who were not members of the Select Vestry to withdraw ; and not being obeyed, he and the Select Vestry retired to hold their meeting at a private house. The others remained, appointed the Reverend Dr. Croly to the chair, and proceeded to business. To prove that Alderman Gibbs's published accounts were incorrect, Mr. Rock produced a receipt for 731., dated " 31st May 1839," and signed " Michael Gibbs, Churchwarden, St. Stephen's Walbrook," which had not been accounted for. The ut- most zeal was shown to carry on the law proceedings against the Churchwarden. Mr. Henry Rock and Mr. John Williams were nominated Overseers of the Poor ; Mr. James Crosby, Vestry Clerk pro tempore.

The Chartists defeated a Free-trade meeting at the Theatre of the Western Literary Institution, in Leicester Square, on 'Wednesday. The

meeting was held for die purpose of preparing a "ladies' national wee morial" to the Queen, praying for "a reduction of taxation on the necessa- ries and comforts of domestic life, particularly tea, coffee, and sugar, in order that the working millions might obtain a more plentiful supply, and thereby extensive foreign markets may be opened for British manu- facture' s and employment provided for our industrious population throughout the United Kingdom." The theatre was well filled, Mr. Ewart, M.P., was called to the chair. He dwelt on the effects of high duties, which, by doubling the price, restrict the consumption of tea, sugar, and similar articles of food ; and he pointed out the use of such articles in promoting habits of temperance. A resolution advo- cating the reduction of the duties in question was moved and seconded. Mr. Magrath moved an amendment, condemning such duties as in- stances of class-legislation, but declaring that they could only be got rid of through the Charter ; which, he said, would give political power to the people, and enable them to elect a House of Commons who would devote their energies to the improvement of the people. Mr. E wart de- clined to put the amendment. Mr. George Thompson deprecated the conduct of the Chartists, though bethought that the amendment might be put. After an hour's altercation, Mr. E wart retired from the chair ; to which Mr. Thompson was called. The amendment was then put, and carried.

A public meeting was held at the Hall of Commerce, on Monday, to take measures for the p-omotion of education according to the prin- ciples of the Established Church. Mr. Johu Labouchere was Chair- man, and a great number of clergymen were on the platform. The Chairman stated the objects of the society to be, to promote union among the several schools (particularly Sunday-schools) in connexion with the Church, in and around the Metropolis ; to supply teachers with such information upon various subjects as shall tend to the in- struction of their classes ; to collect and communicate information as to the best methods of organizing and conducting Sunday-schools ; to afford the means of collecting and recording statistical details as to the condition of Church school's throughout the country, as well as the Metropolis. The means at present to be adopted were the establish- ment of a library, in which lectures on useful subjects should be de- livered. It was stated that spacious rooms had been engaged in Fetter Lane, where scholars would be received. A committee was appointed to further the objects of the society ; whose first annual meeting is to be held in November next.

A numerous meeting of the Metropolitan Drapers Association was held on Monday at the Hanover Square Rooms ; Mr. Benjamin Bond Cabbell in the chair. The object of this society is to induce the public not to make their purchases after a certain hour of the evening, with a view to allow drapers' assistants proper time for recreation and intellec- tual improvement. Resolutions in accordance with that object were moved by Mr. Hindley, M.P., Dr. Southwood Smith, Dr. Moore, and others ; and carried unanimously.

An it:quest on a suicide, which commenced on Monday., led to some strange disclosures respecting a clergyniim. The suicide was Charlotte' Griffin, aged thirty-four, servant to Mr. George Scratchley, a surgeon of Fleet Street ; and the inquest was held before Mr. Payne, at Ander- ton's Hotel. Mr. Scratchley had suspected Griffin of theft, and had given her notice to quit his service on Monday last. Mr. Charles Scratchley, who described himself as a tutor in a private family at Peck- ham, and a "minister of the Chureh," [a year ago he was curate of a chapel in Queen Square, Bloomsbury,] deposed, that he slept in the surgery at the back of his brother's shop on Saturday. In the middle of the night, Griffin came into the surgery, and asked him to intercede with his brother, who had threatened to prosecute her. He told her that if she would confess that she had robbed her master, he would see what he could do for her. She said that she had taken poison ; but, thinking that to be an idle threat, and believing her to be intoxicated, he persuaded her to return to bed. In about a quarter of an hour, she came down stairs again, and turned on the gas in the shop. He looked through the surgery-window, and saw her in the act of swallowing laudanum from a bottle. He wrested it from her, and ample medical assistance was at once rendered ; but the died early on Sunday morning. He found several pawnbroker's duplicates in her breast. Mr. Watson, a juror, interrogated Mr. Charles Scratchley-

"Did you hear her makes charge against some person ?"—" No."

" Did you not bear her say that some person had been the cause of all her trouble."—.• Yes."

" Against whom did she make that charge?"—" I against me."

"Did she charge you with having seduced her ?"—" No; I think not. I believe the words were that I had mused her."

Mr. Watson here said that he lived next door to Mr. George Scratch- ley, and that his wife had overheard Griffin say that Mr. Charles Scratch- ley had seduced her. The Coroner questioned the gentleman as to that fact. The witness said—" I deny the charges. My impression is—(check- ing hiniself)—no, Sir, I wish to say nothing." Mrs. Watson was called; and she deposed that she heard a woman crying very bitterly in the surgery. The partition between the rooms was very thin, and she heard the deceased say, "You have seduced me ; you have brought me to this." Some one replied, "You are a liar " ; and deceased sail, "I am no liar—God and you know I am not : you alone have brought me to it." Mr. George Scratchley was also examined as to the pilfering of Griffin. He said that he had taken her into his service at his brother's recommendation. On which Mr. Charles Scratchley explained, that his recommendation rasted on his knowledge of Griffin's family ; but, be added, he did not know what she was before she entered his brother's family. The inquiry was adjourned to Thursday. On that day there were still more unexpected disclosures. Mr. Charles Scratchley was aided by Mr. Moxou, a barrister ; who said he was prepared to prove that his client had not seduced the woman. Mr. Lewis Day, a surgeon, in giving some medical evidence, said that the deceased was not pregnant at the time of her death. Rebecca Griffin, Charlotte's sister, who is in service at Canterbury, was called, and gave a history of her sister's case partly drawn from her by Mr. Minton, partly by the Coroner. In 1832, Charlotte had a child by a gentleman to whom she was to be married; and that child is still living. la 1835, she became acquainted with Mr. Charles Scratchley; whom she ISCCOLI1 Nulled to France, and there they lived together as man and wife. La

1836, sbe wrote to her family that she was actually married to Mr. Scratchley ; and the deception was not discovered till 1838, when that gentleman determined to enter the Church, and found it necessary to break off the connexion. A provision, however, (what was not stated,) was made for her by Mr. Scratchley's father, who acknowledged her excellent conduct towards his son : but the separation had a very pre- judicial influence on her mind, and seemed at times to affect her senses. The charge against her honesty was not to be believed. She always acknowledged that Mr. Charles Scratchley had behaved with the greatest kindness to her. The Coroner here remarked, that he had had a letter stating the very reverse ; and afterwards, in summing up, he observed that the language which Mr. Scratchley acknowledged, when he told her to confess that she had robbed her master, was not what might have been expected from any man situated as he was. The Jury re- turned this verdict-

" We find that the deceased, Charlotte Griffin, committed suicide while in a state of temporary insanity, induced by the cruel and heartless conduct of Mr. Charles James Scratchley, B.A.; and we are compelled to express our strong disapprobation of the flippant and unfeeling manner in which that gentleman's evidence was given on the night of Monday last." [In a letter which appeared in some of the papers this morning, Mr. Scratchley requests the public to suspend judgment until the complete evidence be published.] The wanton murder of a woman by her husband, in Marylehone, has created the usual "sensation." William Crouch, a man under thirty years of age, who had formerly been a gentleman's servant, seems latterly to have fallen into bad courses ; and in consequence, Frances Elizabeth, his wife, separated from him about three weeks ago ; but she still mended his clothes and allowed him to see her. She lived at num- ber 4 Lit:le Marylebone Street ; he at number 7 Great Chesterfield Street. On Saturday evening, Mrs. Crouch was sitting in her room suckling her baby, and Sarah Simpson, a little girl six years of age, was with her. Mrs. Lynes, a woman who was cleaning the stairs, heal d the mother singing to her infant, "Fare thee well, love ; I'm going." Crouch came in, and without saying a word, he walked up to his wife, laid his hand upon her neck, and cut her throat with a razor. She fell off the stool on which she was sitting, and died without a sound. Little Simpson raised an alarm, and a Policeman was called ; who arrested Crouch in the midst of a crowd at the door of the house. He had at- tempted to escape, but was stopped by the landlord of the house, who ran after him ; and he did not struggle much. When arrested, he said —"It served her right ; she should not have left me"—' Oh! that cursed drink ; if it had not been for that, this would not have hap- pened "—a ith such exclamations. He had before been heard to threaten that he would "hide," that is, beat his wife, and that he would cut her throat. He was found to have scratched his own throat with a razor; but he afterwards said that he had not time to take off his hand- kerchief. When the Policeman took the child from its mother's arms, it was so covered with blood that he thought that it too was killed ; but it smiled as he took it. A Coroner's inquest was held before Mr. Wak- ley, on Monday ; aud a verdict of " Wilful Murder" was returned against Crouch. He was also examined at Marylebone Police- office ; and he was committed to Newgate for trial, both on the Coroner's and the Magistrate's warrants.

A fatally destructive fire broke out a little before midnight on Thurs- day, at the Rose and Crown, a public-house which stood at the corner of Gilbert Street, Oxford Street. The landlord, Mr. Williams, was out, but most of the family had retired to bed. Some customers, how- ever, were still in the place, when flames suddenly issued from a large spirit-vat; and the people rushed out in affright, raising the alarm. The inflammable nature of the stock furnished such fuel to the conflagration, that in a few minutes the upper part of the house was enveloped, and the inmates appeared at the windows seeking escape. The first engine had scarcely arrived ere a spirit-vat broke up, and there was a fiercer burst of flame. There were in the house, Mrs. Williams, Miss Fritchley, her sister, two children, three men-servants, and two women-servants. Miss Fritchley jumped out of the counting-house window, and was saved, with slight hurt. Others were saved in fire-escapes belonging to the Royal Society for the Protection of Life from Fire ; but Mrs. Williams, the two children, the two female servants, and the pot-boy, perished : their bodies were found next day in the ruins, each of the two girls clasping a child in her arms. The accident is supposed to have arisen from the carelessness of one of the surviving servants, who had pumped some spirits into vats in the cellar, so that they overflowed, and the liquor fell on to a gas-light. The house was totally destroyed, and the neighbouring buildings were much injured.