The Press. — London, England, 1857-12-26 00:00:00

he candidate, the marks gained thereon being reckoned n determining his position in the list of competitors. It is to be understood that these qualifications will be raised so soon as the system shall have been a sufficient time in operation to enable officers to come up for exami nation better prepared. After the year 1858 the candidate will, in addition, be expected to have a sufficient use of the pencil to be able to draw from an example or object placed before him. In regard to military history, the candidates will be re quired, when sending in their application for admission to the college, to state what has been the course and extent of their reading, in order that the Council of Military Educatior., in framing the examination papers, may be enabled to select for each candidate some one or more im portant campaigns, which he will be expected to describe in detail. . . (6) The examination of officers serving in the United Kingdom, for entrance to the Staff College, will he held in London, under the direction of the Council of Military Vocation. In the case of officers serving abroad, the examinations of such as shall be allowed to compete will be conducted by means of the same printed questions as are set for the examination of candidates in London. These questions will be answered in writing in the presence of a board of officers, which will be appointed by the general officer in command, and which will certify that the candidate has obtained no assistance from books, or help of any kind in the examination. (7) Tht. college course of study will commence annually on the Ist of February. The transmission of the printed examination papers to stations abroad will be so arranged that the claims of the candidates may be decided upon in time to admit of those who are successful in j3ining the Staff College by the Ist of February next ensuing. (8) The following will be the course of instruction at the Staff College, viz. : In mathematics, the minimum course will include Euclid, algebra, mensuration of planes and solids, trigo notnetry, and the application of those subjects, and ele. saentary mechanics. The French language, German, and Hindostanee (the two latter optional). Fortification and artillery. Topographical drawing, military survey, and sketching. Reconnaissance. Military art, military history, and geography. Military administration, including the organisation and equipment of armies in the field. Military legislation. Elements of natural philosophy, Chemistry, and geology, as applied to the military sciences, by lectures. Exercise in composition will be afforded to the student during the whole course of instruction in writing memoirs or essays en the subjects of the course. Riding. (9) The above course of study will occupy two years, which period is not to be exceeded except in cases of ill ness, with the sanction of the General Commanding-in- Chief. The yearly course will be divided into two terms—viz., from the Ist of February to the 13th of June, and from the 15th of July to the 13th of December, the intervening periods constituting the vacations. (10) As officers may be expected to join the college with very varied degrees of attainment, provision will be made to enable any student who may be well prepared in any particular subject to attend more especially to other subjects in which he may feel himself deficient. If, for instance, the student should come to the college previously well-instructed in mathematics, be will be enabled to direct his attention principally to the military sciences, or to languages, in lien of mathematical studies. - - „ - (11) During the whole course monthly reports of the progress of each student will be forwarded by the Com mandant of the Staff CAlege, through the Governor of the Royal Military College, to the Council of Military Educa tion. There will be examinations at the end of every half year, the summer examination being conducted by the pro fessors of the college, and the winter examination by ex aminers independent of the establishment. The winter examination at the termination of the first year of the student's coarse will be probationary, and any students who may appear unlikely to qualify themselves for the final examination at the close of the second year will be removed. Should, however, any marked case of deficiency or neglect he brought under the notice of the Council of Military Education at any half-yearly examina tion, or at any other period, such student will be also liable to removal. (l 2) The following will be the marks allotted to each subject at the final examination : Marks. Mathematics .. • • • • • • 010 ------------ - _ - Theory 400 Fortification and artillery { Drawing 100 600 Memoir 100 Military drawing and surveying .. .. 300 Reconnaissance .. .. .. 400 Military art, military history, and geography, .. 600 with memoirs .. . . Military administration and legislation 310 French 300 • • In the above subjects the officers will be expected to obtain at least one-half of the number of marks allotted to them. The following subjects can be taken up or not at the option of the candidate; but one-third of the marks assigned to each must be gained, in order that it may be allowed to count in determining the candidate's place on the list, viz. ;---• Marks. German 3110 • . H indostanee . . , .. 3 0 0 ?O.tural philosophy, chemistry, and geology, as appal to sat,t,itary sotooce , 0() THE PRESS, DECEMBER 26, 1857. (13) Any officer may, with the sanction of the General ' Commanding-in-Chief, compete at the annual final exami nation without previously passing through the college; and further, any officer who desires to enter the college for one year only will be permitted, if there be a vacancy, to pre sent himself at the first annual examination of the junior division of students ( who will then have completed their first year), and if qualified, may join the college accord ingly. In each case the qualifications noted in paragraph 3 (above) will be required. (14) After the final examination the Council of Military Education will draw up and submit for the consideration of the General Commanding-in-Chief a list of the success ful candidates, arranged in three classes according to merit, with a special report of those who particularly distinguish themselves, whose names will also be mentioned by the council in its annual report. (15; The first annual college examination under the system above described will be held in December, 1858. (10 Officers who shall have passed their final examina tions at the Staff College will be attached to each of the arms successively in which they have not previously served. They will be required to attend drills, parades, and field-days, and they will avail themselves of every practicable means of making themselves generally ac quainted with the discipline, interior economy, field movements, and duties of those arms. Certificates to this effect will be forwarded to the Adju tant-General—in the case of officers attached to the Artil lery, by the inspector of drills at Woolwich ; and in the case of officers attached to regiments of cavalry or infantry, by the officers commanding such corps. It is presumed that a period of six months with each arm will be the utmost that will be required in this re spect. (17) The order of the 9th of April, 1857, relative to the qualifications of officers for staff appointments, will continue in force until the lat of January, 1860, when the sjstem which has been above detailed will have fully come into operation ; and the examinations referred to in that order will be conducted under the direction of the Council of Military Education. Officers, however, who have attained the rank of lieu tenant-colonel will be exempted from the operation of that order. After the Ist of January, 1800, no officer will be ap pointed to the staff who shall not have gone through the Staff College, or passed the final examination of that col lege (paragraph 13,, with exception of those who shall have attained, at that date, the rank of lieutenant-colonel, and in every case excepting officers of proved ability in the field. (18) Although the course of mathematics at the college has been limited to that amount of knowledge which is considered essential to complete the education of the staff officer, it is probable that many officers may desire to pursue their mathematical studies to a much higher point, and any candidates, therefore, who shall have proved their fitness for employment in the ordnance survey or in the topographical department, by superior progress in the science of geodesy, as well as of topography, will be named in the annual report of the Council of Military Education to the Secretary of State for War, as deserving employ ment in those services. By order of his Royal Highness the General Command• ing-in•Chiet; G. A. WETHERALL, Adjutant• General. A GENERAL ORDER has been issued by his Roya Highness the Commander-in-Chief, reprehending the lenity of members of general courts-martial on the trial of officers convicted of grave offences. His Royal Highness the Duke of Cambridge most ear nestly desires that where officers are called upon to adjudicate upon matters involving serious offences, they will " pause and seriously reflect before they recommend to her Majesty's clemency individuals who have been found guilty, and who thereby have been proved unworthy of serving their Queen and country in a profession which must be upheld by the principles of honour and discipline." The order is understood to apply especially to the recommenda tion appended to the results of recent courts-martial held at Woolwich. THE COLONELCY of the 3rd Buffs, vacant by the death of Lieutenant-General Wodehouse, will be conferred on Major General Sir Henry Havelock. MAJOR GENERAL MAUNSELL has assumed the com mand of the troops at Shorncliffe, consisting of three batteries of the Royal Artillery, one company Royal Engineers, one battalion Military Train, 2nd (Queen's) Regiment, 2nd battalion; West York, North Cork, and North Down Militia Regiments. THE Ist battalion of the Military Train at Wo6l - and the 3rd battalion at Shorncliffe, exchanged quarters on Monday last. Ph) au THE COURT OF QUEEN'S BENCH has this week been occupied three entire days with the case of " The Queen v. Robinson," a prosecution for perjury, alleged to have been committed in a certain suit in the Ecclesiastical Court for adultery. The painful facts out of which this prosecution arises have often been before the public. The case of " Evans v. Robinson," in which they first transpired, was an action for criminal conversation, and on the first trial the verdict was given for the defendant. A new trial was successfully applied for, and resulted iu a verdict for the plaintiff, with damages 5001. 1251 The Court of Exchequer was then applied to by the defendant to grant a new trial, but this was re fused. The plaintiff subsequently took proceedings for the purpose of obtaining a divorce a mensa et thoro, a necessary measure to enable him to apply to the House of Lords for a divorce, and in January, 1850, a suit was instituted in the Arches Court between Mr. Evans and his wife. In that suit the defendant in this case was a witness, and swore as follows : I am now prepared solemnly to swear I never did on any occasion, either before or after her marriage, take indecent liberties with the produceant (Mrs. Evans) ; nor have I ever committed an act of adultery with her. On that occasion Mrs. Evans had produced wit nesses to prove an alibi on the part of Mr. Robin son—that was, to prove that having been at some house or other at a certain time, he could not have been at her lodgings at the periods alleged. Under these circumstances, Sir John Dodson thought the evidence in proof of the adultery insufficient to outweigh the positive oath of Mr. Robinson ; so he refused the divorce a menea et thoro. Upon this Mr. Evans indicted the defendant for perjury, assigning as perjury, besides the words given above, the de fendant's denial that he had a latch-key at the house of Mr. Phillips, in the Edg,eware-road, at which Mrs. Evans bad lodged. Lord Campbell, in sum ming up, said the case comprised the following questions, upon which the verdict of the jury would depend :- 1. Did illicit intercourse take place between the defendant and Miss Carrington in the fly, on the road at Chelten ham, in July, 1849 ? 2. Did the defendant speak the words alleged in the club at Cheltenham, in 1850, respect ing the marriage of Miss Carrington to Mr. Evans? 3. Had the defendant a latch-key when Mrs. Evans was lodging at Mr. Phillips's in the Edgeware-road, in the year 1853 ? 4. Did illicit intercourse take place between the defendant and Mrs. Evans, as stated by the witness Munn, in August, 1853? 5. Did illicit intercourse take place between defendant and Mrs. Evans on the 4th and sth of July, 1854, when Mrs. Evans was lodging in Bryanston street ? And Othly. T ,d the defendant attempt to tamper with Mrs. King on the 10th of August, 1854, before the first trial, as stated by 1,1? The jury retired at half-past three p.m. At seven o'clock the following letter was sent in to Lord Campbell : My Lord,—We cannot agree in the affirmative on any one of the six questions submitted to us. On the general question of whether there should be a ♦erdict for the de fendant we are equally divided, and there is little or no probability of an agreement. Lord Campbell said that, under these circumstances, he should, of his own authority, discharge the jury. his lordship added that the case would be tried by another jury, who, he hoped, would be unanimous. The jury were then: discharged, and the decision on the case is still pending. Sir Frederic Thesiger was counsel for the defendant, and Mr. Sergeant Byles for the plaintiff. During the absence of the jury Lord Campbell received intelligence of the relief of Lucknow, which he ordered to be announced to the court. AN INQUEST was held on Monday upon the bodies of the man and woman found dead with their throats cut in their room at Harper's Coffee-house, Drum mond-street, Euston-square. A letter was read from Messrs. Rossen and Son, a firm at Rotterdam, stating that their clerk, T. Oechler, had a few days previous to Dec. 16th run away from Rotterdam, and that in all probability the two persons were identical. Two persons of similar desc. iption were also traced from Dover to the Penton Hotel, Haymarket, be tween the 20th and 20th November, and the linen of the man was marked T.D. The coroner in summing up said it was difficult to decide that the man bad murdered the woman, and the jury returned a verdict to the effect that both persons died from the effect of certain wounds, but that how those wounds were inflicted there was no evidence to show. JOHN BEALE, charged with the murder of Charlotte Pugsley in Leigh Woods, on 11th of September last, was tried at Taunton, before Mr. Justice Willes, on Tuesday, found" Guilty," and sentenced to death. FRANCES Harms, who lay under sentence of death at Winchester for the murder of her child at Portsmouth, has had her sentence commuted to penal servitude for life. Mn. F. Knx,v, who was on the 17th inst. charged by Mr. Francis Worrell Stevens, stock-broker, of 3, Royal Exchange, with having attempted to rob him of several hundreds of pounds, although discharged, without the slightest stain upon his character, was so deeply, affected at the idea of having been locked up in a station upon such a charge, that on Sunday morning he put an end to his existence by cutting his throat. Mr. Payne held an inquest at the Vestry. hall, Horselydown, on the deceased, on Tuesday, when the jury returned a verdict that the deceased destroyed himself while in a fit of temporary insanity brought on by the traumetim with the bro4T,