The Express.
London, England, 1853-01-11 00:00:00

GREAT COURT OF WARDMOTE.

Yesterday the Lord Mayor and aldermen, and
principal City officers, assembled at Guildhall for the pur-
pose of holding the annual Great Court of War!mote, for
the reception of the presentments of the inquests of the dif-
ferent wards of the City.
Inquests of several wards made presentments to the
effece that proceedings should not be adopted against small
tradesmen until those pending against tradesmen in exten-
sive business should be decided upon. Several obstructions
were also presented, and complaints were made against
persons for having refused to serve the office of inquest-
men. In all instances the Lord Mayor informed the fore-
men that the Court of Wardmote would make the neces-
sary returns to the Court of Aldermen, who would doubt-
less pay due attention to them.
The foreman of the ward of Coleman-street, in handing
in the presentment of that ward, said that his brethren
complained of being called upon to examine upon their
oaths the weights and measures of the tradespeople at the
same time that they were told of the appointment of officers
for the performance of that duty. They considered the
oath te be inconsistent with the duties absolutely required
of them.
The Lord Mayor said the extended condition of trade re-
quired that new officers should be appointed to assist in the
performance of the very necessary duties, but that appoint-
ment did not render the obligation on the activity of the
inquests less necessary.
Alderman HUNTER said the city authorities bad appointed
efficient paid officers to prevent the impositions which bad
been so extensively practised upon their fellow citizens by
means of false weights and measures, but the inquests mutt
not therefore suppose that their functions were superseded.
The FOREMAN said that in all probability the paid
officers would be better able to check the evil effectively,
but the existence of the power in two differently constituted
authorities, by neither of which any control over the
other could be exercised, appeared to be quite inconsistent.
The LORD MAYOR—YOU may depend upon it that it is
duty which cannot be dispensed with. You have just as
much to do with the business as if no paid inspectors had
been appointed.
The k OILZMAN of Cornhill Word, in making the present-
men, from that office, put in a protest against the annual
call upon the citizens of London as inquestmea, upon the
obvious ground that the institution had become wholly un-
necessary. (A laugh.)
The FORMAN of \Valbrook Ward called the attention of
the great court of wardmoto to three betting-houses within
the ward, and was assured by his lordship that the most
resolute and active means should be adopted for the
suppression of such nuisances.
The court then adjourned.

RELIGIOUS LIBERTY IN FRANnE.—On Saturday
last MM. Recordon and llugand, protestant ministers, sen-
tenced to 16f. fine and costs, by the tribunal of Troyes, for
having made part, as chiefs and directors, of an association
of upwards of 20 persons, who assembled on stated days,
at Estimac, for religious purposes, appealed against that
decision to the Imperial Court of Pieria On Saturday
their case came before the court, when their advocate, M.
Rerthelin, stated that the persons who somposed the
meeting were bona fide protestant', that the two
ministers had been invested by the General Consistory of
Meaux with the necessary powers, and that the com-
munity had been actually installed by the authorities
in the hall of one of the municipal buildings. When
the new mayor was appointed, in 1152, they had been de-
prived of the use of that hall, and obliged to remove to the
house of a carpenter, named &day, where they continued
to meet until the 13th June, wh. n the prefect of the de-
partment ordered their meeting place to be closed. M. Ber-
thelin argued that since the various consiittit:ol3ll which had
succeeded each other in France since 17:9 had established
the principle of liberty of worship, the special permission of
the governmeut was not requisite in a car• like this. M.
Genial, the Attorney-General, ile'ethled the deciCon of the
Court of Troyes, contending that those protestant.; were
socialists, who assumed the mask of religion to disguise
their subversive designs, and that the priucipl of freedom
of conscience had nothing to do iu the case. The Imperial
Court rejected the appeal, and c)nlirmed the decision of the
first judges.
IMPORTATION OF OPIUSL—There has been an in-
crease in the importatiuu of opium both in tee alunthly
and yearly periuds,as appears (rum the nttieial ;Lea:aunts just
printed. Ia the month endi d the sth December, 1850,
there were 4,432ib5. imported ; in the like period of 1831,
19,1881b5. ; and in the same period of but year 55,274115.
In the eleven months of the three years the importations
were respectively 99,28611 w., L 0,7271135., and 196,416145.

IRELAND

DUBLIN. JAN. 10.

In a letter addressed to the TownCe7nLissiorers of
Galway, Mr. Keogh, the new Solicitur-Gen,ml, returns
thanks for the congratulations of that body upon his
acceptance of office, adding that they (the commis-
sioners) are perfectly correct in anticipating an on-
ward policy from the present government, notwith-
standing that it is the interest of a few factious men to
prophecy to the contrary.

The Lord Lieutenant has appointed the Rev. W.
J. H. Lefanu, Rector of St. Paul's, one of his Ex-
cellency's Chaplains, and Assistant-Chaplain to the
Very Rev. the Dean of the Chapel Royal.
The weekly organs of the Tenant League are stilt
so much engrossed with their indignation and resent-
ment against the luckless Irish members who have
taken office, that they can devote little or no atten-
tion to any other subject; and hence the Tablet,
Nation, and Freeman are filled this week, as they
were last week, with attacks upon Messrs. Keogh
and Sadleir, Mr. O'Flaherty coming in fur his share
of the abuse, on the supposition that if not ac'ually
in office he was seeking to bo so.
The Collector-General has declared the rate for 1853
to be 7s. fid. in the pound upon the yearly rated value
of the city of Dublin.
The Tablet says it has authority to deny the state-
ment that Lougheooter Castle had been resold by the
nuns. The sale may not have been vet completed,
but that it was understood to have taken place a few
days since, and that, too, at the instance of Arch-
bishop Cullen, is quite certain.

A ►ocal conservative journal states that the peti-
tion against Mr. Keogh's return for Athlone has
been withdrawn, to remove the obstsele to his ap-
pearing again before the constituents tor re-election,
but threatens him with a determined opposition, both
on the part of the tories and of a section of the
liberals.

The Limerick _Reporter, referring to Mr. Monsell's
re-election, says :
There is not the slightest symptom of opposition to the
return of Mr. Monsen on the part of any section or patty in
the county of Limerick. The general esteem in ss Inch the
hon. gentleman is personally held by those who dillsr from
him politically and religiously, press-uts anything in the
shape of a factious display by MS opponents ; whilst by the
catholic clergy his advent to place is generally regarded us
a favourable omen, and by the people he is goo:rally ad-
mired for integrity of purpose. Wednesday nes: is fixed
for the nomination.

Mr. Hughes, Q.C., the Solicitor-General for Ire-
land under the Earl of Clarendon's Government, has
addressed the following letter to the .Erening Poe,
in answer to some unfounded statements about him-
self, made in the current controversy about office-
taking :
Lower Fitewilliam-street, Ath January, 1853.
Sir,—My attention has been directed to an art:ele in the
Evening of last night, in which the following para-
graph occurs:—" Mr. Hughes took the office (the So:Witor-
Gtnerabliip), as it iv well understood, on the express con-
dition that, should any violation of the law then contem-
plated against Papal aggression he attempted by the
members of the Roman Catholic Hierarchy, he would not
shrink from his duty as a public prosecutor." 1 beg leave
to sav, the the statement that 1 accepted 0118 •c on the o
ditiou above mentioned, or on any other condition, is alto-
gether unfounded and untrue. I believe that, at the time
of my appointment as Solicitor-General, no law on the
subject referred to was contemplated ; and I can state, as a
matter within my own knowledge, that no stipulation on
that or any other subject was proposed or suggested to me,
and that I accepted office untrammeled by any c nulition
or terms whatever.—l am, sir, your obedient servant,
HENRY GEOROR HLOHES.

A reward of 1001. has been offered by government
for the detection of the murderer of Hugh Cowley,
steward to Miss Crawford of Fortwilliatn, in the
county of Tipperary.
The Limerick Chronicle has the following satisfac-
tory statistics on tho progressive improvement of the
port of Limerick:
Net Cuatoure Revenue fur the year 1852, viz
Quarter ended April 5
Ditto July 5 38,143 8 4
Ditto October 10 38,660 V' 6

Ditto Joao:try 3, 18.53

Total L 153,088 9 4

On goods cx warehouse direct, princi-
pally sugar, there is an increase of.. £1,82) 11 8
And on tobacco, ex warehouse removed 3,161 11 3
Total

Against which there is a decrease on
imports, consisting chiefly of " bread-
stuff's," amounting to £6.097 19 5

But this latter feature is also an indication of the return-
ing prosperity of the country, from the revival of the na-
tural productions of cur own soil, There are now four
powerful screw steamers, viz. Holyruod, European,
Secret, and Rose—belonging to the Limerick, London, and
Scam Ship Company, which will open up the trade be-
tween these two ports, calling at the intermediate ports in
the Channel. Both the European and the Rose cocoon•
tered the storms on their passage from London, with the
wind a-head, of the 25th and 27th ult. The Rose, the
smallest of the four, gallantly weathered the Blaskets in
the very height of the hurricane of the 27th, proving toe
superiority of the Shannon as a Transatlantic packet sta-
tion in the worst of weather.
_ _

The following statement has reference to the trade
of Dublin for the past week :
The customs' duties for the week are 13,000/. against
1.5,7001. last year, showing an improvement of 2,3001. The
amounts respectively are—tea, 7,800'.; sugar, raw, 2,3001.,
refined, 4001.; wine, tobacco, 4,5001. The total revenue
for the year shows again a slight increase on the previous
year. The amounts are as follow :-1852, 923,000/.; 1351,
904,0001. ; 18.50, 883,0001. The increase is chiefly under the
head of tea and refined sugar.