The Express.
London, England, 1861-09-20 00:00:00

[TWOP ENC

COURT OF COMMON COUNCIL.

The Council assembled yesterday, for the first
time since the adjournment for the holidays, for the des-
patch of business.

The Hight Hon. the Low) MAYOR presided.
TB! INITRNATIONAL RXHIBITION or 1862.
- _

The TOWN CLERK read the following communication that
had been sent to the Lord Mayor by the Secretary to the
Commimionera for the Management of the International
Exhibition :

06loss, 456, Wart Strand, July 27, 1861.
" My Lord,—Her Majesty', Commissioners being anxious
that there shall be a full and honourable display of the fine
. arts in the coming Exhibition, direct me to inquire whether
the Corporation of London will be disposed to allow them
to select for the Exhibition from the valuable collection in
their possession such works as the conuniseioners may wish
to obtain for the purpose of illustrating the history of
British art during the past century.
• I have the honour to be, my Lord,
" Your obedient servant,
"F. A. SANDroau, Secretary."
Deputy BOLT moved that the application he at once ac-
ceded to, bat as it apprared to be the opinion of the court
Vogul a matter of form the matter should be referred to the
City Lands Committee, that course was adopted.
Dr. A seastar, before the motion was put, observed that,
be had not the slightest wish to throw any difficulty in the
way of accedieg to the request that was made by the cora.
miasioners, bat he felt bound to observe that many of the
paintings and othersimilar objects were extremely valnabl ,e
and he though* the court ought to take care that they did.
not rut the risk of being destroyed by fire ar any other
accident.

Sevenl members observed that they must take their
chanoe with all "brother valuable, than would be romprieed
i• the Exhibition., bat Ito doubt prow prep abase wadi
be taken to prevent say accident happening to them.

- - -
THE PROPORLD MOW !MOOR AT BLACRFRIARM.
Mr. KEARNS moved that the several plans for the pro-
pord new bridge at Bleckfriars submitted to the Bridges
House Estates Committee be opal for inspection by the.
members of this court.
The motion was agreed to.
INCREASED FMB OF GAB IN THU ern.
Dr. ABRAHAM then brought forward the following•
=Air :—" That it be referred to the Law, Parliamentary.
and City Courts Committee to take into oonaideratioo,
connexion with the Great Central Gas Consumers Act,
1851, and also the Metropolis Gas Act, referred by this
court to the committee es the 4th of October, 1814 the
letter advertised in the public journals, dated the 214
September, 1861, signed by the chairman of the three City
gas companies, giving notice to the gas consumers that on
and after Michaehass neat the charge will be at' the rate
of 4s. 6d. per 1.0(10 feet for the ordinary coal gas, and that
the committee do confer with the C.ommiadoeers of Sewer's
on the whole subject of the supply of gas to the City, and,
report thereon forthwith to this court."
Alderman DARIN rid he had great plenum in seconding
the reeolutru that had just been proposed by his honourable
friend.

After a brief discussion the motion was put and carried
unanimously.
Upon the motion of Mr. Deputy Botch, Mr. B. F.
Langhem wu appointed on the Coal, Corn, and Finano►
and the Corporation loquiry Committees, in the room of
the late Deputy Barnard ; and Mr. W. Payne on the Orphan
School Committee, in the room of the same deceased;
gentleman.
The court then adjourned.

A FRENCH ABBE AND THE AMERICAN
INDIANs.

The Sahirday Retitle of last week and the Critic
of to-day give the details of a ludicrous aeries of blunders, of
which a French abbe has lately been the hero. The circum-
stances briefly told are as follows : "In the Lihaey of tire
Arsenal at Paris there has existed fur about a
century a manuscript packed in a box and labelled
• Lives den Sauvagee.' Its previous history ilia uunecessary
to relate, beyond that it once belonged to the collection of
the Manmade Paulmy, and afterwards became the property
of the French government. The manuscript lay gamey
pecked in its box until the news of its existence reached the
ears of the Abbe Domenecb, who has travelled a good deal
among the savages of North America as a missionary ; and
here was a chance to display his erudition, and to magnify
his name in the literary world by editing 'The Book of the
Savages.' The manuscript coexists of 112 leaves of mane
colonist paper, upon which are traced, by imam of a black-
lead pencil or the tip of a burnt stick, various objects sad
figures having the same relation to the fine arta as the
artistical attempts of small blackguard boys with • piece
of white chalk on a wall or paling have to the cartoons
of Raphael. But these wretched drawings, we are
gravely assured, were • traced by the hand of some
sachem initiated in all the amnia institutions of hie
tribe.' The celebrated ' Bibliographile Jacob,' or
to call him by his proper name, Paul Lacroix, keeper of the
Library of the Arserl, so far indorsed this opinion as to
point out the MS. as a most curious monument, perky),
the most unique in the world. •It belonged incoutestibly,
my' the abbe, • to the ancient populations of New Frew*,
and was executed in the 16th century.' So the ablai believed,
so did the acute librarian, and so did the French Minister of
Stateand of the Emperor's Household. • The Book of the
Savages' appeared in the form of an octavo volume, hand-
somely printed, coutainiog 119 pages of letter-press, and
RJS pages of lithographs, facaimiles of the artistic efforts of
the sachem of the Red Skins versed in all the mysterien of hie
tribe, to an evil hour for thelearned pretensions of the French
editor, nod of hi. Walewski, the work fell into the hands
of a German in Paris, the correspondent of the Voss. Gs-
retie, Berlin, who discovered, observes the Critic, in the
American pictographic manuscript of the American Rod
Skins nothing but the filthy waste-paper book of
some untaught young German backwoodsman—but
not so young that be did not know what he
was about— who bad misapplied Lis pencil in the
delineation of some of the grossest indecencies it is possible
to conceive ; end these are gravely described as the mama
symbols of sacral institutions among the Red Skins. The
abbe has the modesty to say that he cannot, in every case,
translate these symbols, rerearkieg on one of the grossest ;
'We think that this phallic scene is altogether mystical, and
embodies no obscene idea.' Thatithe pretended Red Skia
artist was a German, and every illtaught one, is obvious from
certain German words scrawled beneath his pictures ; and bad
not the French editor, like his countrymen in general, held
in contempt all languages but his own, be could not have
failed to have discovered this by the slightest investigetiou."
The French government, especially M. Walewski, an
said to be so thoroughly ashamed of this work appearing
with the imperial imprimatur, that it is buying tip copies
wherever they may have gone astray, at, as they say in the
City, fabulous mica.

At Stratford-on-Avon, on Wednesday, there was
• great gathering of the supporters of the Warwickshire
Agricultural and Horticultural Society. After the more
serious business of the day.. cold collation was provided, the
veal*. including the Right Hon. the Earl of Warwick, Lord
Willoughby de Broke, Lord Leigh, Mr. Newdegate,
M.P. ; Sir Chas. Mordauut, Bart., M.P. ,• Mr. 0. Iteptoo,
M.P.—and, of coon., the lodise. The noble earl, who pro-
sided, ixingnitulated the assembly that so good en under-
standing had sprung up between the manufacturing and
agricultural classes, and be was glad to see that they knew
how to value each other. Mr. Newdegate followed in a
speech highly spiced with toryiani, but of no particular
interest,

Slit H. MUOGERIDOZ AND THE LORD MAYORALTY.
—Sir H. Muggeridge has 'addressed the following letter to
the livery of boodon:—" St. Andrew's-bill, Sept. 19. To the
Livery of London.—Reporta having been circulated that it
is not my wish to be elected Lord Mayor for the ensuing
year, allow me most emphatically to serum you of their
untruthfulness, and that it is my most anxious desire
that you, who eight years since appointed me to the
office of sheriff, will confer a further obligation on me,
and elect me the chief magistrate of London. I therefore
most earnestly entreat you to favour me with your sup-
port on Saturday. the Hth instant ; and believe me that,
should I be elected, I will mcleavour to perform the im-
portant and responsible duties which attach to the high
office I aspire to with dignity and impartiality, and that I
shall ever remain mindful that it hu been through vour
kindness that I have been placed in so enviable and honour.
able • position.— I have the honour to be, gentlemen, your
faithful sad obedient servant, H. MOGGERIDGE."
HOW TO TRAP • RUNAWAY DEBTOR. —Strange
stratagems are often resorted to by creditors in pursuit of
runaway debtors. At a meeting in Leeds of a society for
the protection of trade one of the speakers related an in-
stance in point. A poor fellow arrived in Liverpool from
the West Riding in pursuit of a fugitive who hal carried
away 300/. of his money. He applied to an attorney to
the magistrates, and to the chief of the police in vim.
Turning sorrowfully away, a police officer offered him a bit
of advice. "Go you to the ship's side to-morrow at 10
o'clock—the Meld saila at 12—and ask your debtor ashore,
civilly. Will he come, do you think!" "Oh, yea, he'll
come, for be says I cannot teach him." " Well, that's all
right. Ask him to teem to you no the quay. As soon as
he tomes knock him down. l'U be close at band and take
you both into custody for a breach of the peace. You will
get to the police-office just as the magistrates are gone. The
next day is Sunday, and he'll have to stop till Monday.
You'll have time, then, to force him to give up your
money." The tom took the policeman's advice, knocked
the runaway rogue down, both were taken to the station-
house, awl the fellow in the end was glad to disgorge the
3004—Newport Gowns.