At a meeting of the Westminster Reform Society, held on
Thursday evening at Stannard's Hotel, it was unanimously resolved, "That a special meeting of the members be convened to take into consideration the propriety of presenting an address to the Earl of Durham on his return to this country."
The members of the " City of London Association for the Relief of the Poor" assembled on Wednesday, at the London Coffeehouse; the Lord Mayor in the chair. A report was read, showing that the receipts for the year which ended in March last were 3,2611., and the existing balance 20/. The Lord Mayor spoke of the good already effected by the Association, and the urgent necessity of continued exertion and liberality. During the last winter, 1,100 tons of coals and 200 tons of potatoes had been distributed among poor people, at three. fifths of the cost price ; and from the high price of bread, potatoes, and coals, at present, with the prospect of a severe winter, it was plain that there would be much suffering among the lubouring population, and pressing calls for relief.
Several meetings have recently been held in the parish of St. Pancras, on the subject of a resolution lately come to by the Board of Directors of the Poor, to the effect that the pauper children now in the Workhouse be placed at the disposal of the Children's Friend Society, to be conveyed to the British Colonies, in the same way and for the same purposes as those under the immediate care of the Society. On Wednesday, a special meeting of the Vestry took place ; when, after much discussion, it was moved "that a committee of twenty-five gentlemen should be formed in order to take into consideration the propriety of the emigration of the pauper children with the consent of themselves or of their parents and guardians, and that such committee should report to the Vestry the result of its inquiries." An amendment upon this motion was then proposed, to the effect that the Vestry could not lend its cooperation, or give its sanction, to a measure which bad for its object the sending into the Colonies portions of the workhouse children ; as such a measure was cruel, unjust, arbitrary, and illegal. The question being put to the vote, there appeared 26 for the original motion, and the same number for the amendment; whereupon the Chairman (Mr. Churchwarden Pickman) gave the casting-vote in favour of the latter.—Post. [The supporters of the amendment must now take care that the children are not in a worse condition in London than in a flourishing colony with the almost certainty of future prosperity.] Fifiysix of the principal banking firms in London have addressed a memorial to Mr. Spring Rice against the proposed delivery of letters on Sunday at the General Post-office. They state that " the quiet and domestic comfort which they, their clerks, and dependents have hitherto derived from the rest of Sunday, has been mainly secured to them by the total cessation of business at the London Post-office on that day." They feel assured, that if the practice of delivering any i letters on Sunday s commenced, the Post-office will soon be open as much on that day as others.
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