The Sun. — London, England, 1863-12-18 00:00:00

THE CRAWLEY COURT-MARTIAL, The court-martial on Liente-Colonel Crawley was resumed yesterday morning at the Club-house, Aldershot, after at' adjournment of a week to enable the prisoner to pre . pare his defence. Howevermuch public interest may have flagged during the course of this lengthened inquiry, the appearance of th e court indicated that n o such fceliog was to be evinced by those who were able to gain admission to its precincts. Nearly the whole of the space hitherto devoted to the general public was appropriated to rows of reeerved seats, duly numbered, which, long of the court, began t o b e fill e d b y before the ope nin g distinguistual visitors, together with many officers and ladies. Amongst those present were Lent and Lady Chelmerlord, Sir W. Hay ter, Calouel M'Murdo and lady, Mr. Headlam, ALP., Judge Advocate- General, Sir :1 7 1 Lugard, Sir Harry Jonee, General Brook General Aitchinson, Colonel Scott, Colonel Luard,, Colonel Knox, 18th Hussars, Colonel Bentiock, Colonel .Napier, &c. Oa the Court re-assembling, Colonel Crawley said—May I ask at this stage to introduce to the court the letter which I wrote in application to the Horse Guards for the production of the historical memoir of the 6th Dragoons men tioned by Sir Hugh Rise, and also to read the reply to my application ? The President—Certainly. Colone, Pipon then read the letter of application from the prisoner for the production of the memoir in question, and the reply of the Adjutant-General, Sir James Yorke Scarlett, informing him that the Field-Marshal Commanding-in-Chief considered that the production of that document would be detrimental to the public service, and was, there fore, unable to consent to its production. A copy of an address delivered by Colonel Crawley to the officers of the Inniskillings, on the 2d March, 1863, shortly after the Mhow court martial, and also verified extracts from the court martial books of the regiment, wer e p ut in as evi dence and attached to the proceedings. The former inculcated good feeling amongst the officers, declaring that two parties n o longer existed in the regiment; and the object of the latter was to show that a far smaller number of courts-martial took place during the time he commanded the regiment than in any preceding period. Having obtai ne d leave to postpone call in g the witnesses to character until after the conclusion of his statement, Colonel Crawley then proceeded to read the fol lowing address: —At last, Sir—at last—the hour has arrived when lam permitted t o speak in my own defence. It might be supposed that, for an officer-who has the hono ur to command a regiment secon d to none in her Majesty's service—it might have been supp osed, I s ay , that the day upon which such a man was arraigned as a prisoner before this tribunal would have been t o hi m one of bitter humi liation and unmixed regret. Strange, indeed, must have been the combination ofcircumstances and cruel the caprice of fortune, by which to me, who for 30 years have f a ithf u ll y served my country and my Queen, the p ros p ect o f th i s tr i al has b een that to which alone f or many a d reary month I have been able to look forward with comfort and satisfac tion. I speak in the presence of men—of men of honour and of gentlemen—who are capable of ap preciating that which I have had so long to endure. To have been for months the mark of public scorn and the object of popular execra!ion ; to know that my name had become a byword and a disgrace in the remotest corners of that country which it was my pride and my pleasure to serve in distant lands, where in dangerous climates I daily perilled a life held upon no tenure but that of England's need; to have felt that I had been made hateful to men of my own nation whom I had never known, and that Englishwomen I had never seen heard my name with horror; to have become in those English homes whose good esteem is the great reward of soldier's arduous and ill-requited life a proverb of cruelty, cowardice, meanness, and false hood,—to know this, and to know that it is Lase, is an existence which might have been endurable to the monster I am sup posed to be, but which, being what I am, has all but crushed me beneath the overwhelming sense of unredressed injustice. It any of those in whose presence I now speak should ever know—which God forbid—the bitterness of such a life, they wiil then understand that nothing can enable a min to bear up under so great a load of misery but the con- aciousness of his own innocence and the hope of a fair trial. Up to this time I have kept silence, though I was assailed by calumnies of the fouiest kind, spread abroad by every artifice of unscrupu lous enemies, who have found others to repeat them, either knowing that they were false, or, what is little less culpable—not caring to learn whether they were true. What answer I have had to give I have given to my military superiors—the only tribunal to which a soldier is accountable, or before whom he is at liberty to plead. I, for one, what ever I may have seffered, or whatever I may have yet to suffer, have resolved not to make the disci pline of her Majesty's army a topic of newspaper recrimination. I therefore held my peace till 1 was commanded by those who alone had the right to un close my lips. I have endured too much from the efforts I have made in teaching others the lesson of subordination to permit myself to transgress the first duty of a soldier—that of military obedience. 1-low in the dark and dreary night of calumny and wrong might be have I longed for the day when the truth legitimately known, and when the foul vapour s of malice and falsehood would dissolve like a morning mist before the sun ! Punishment, it is said, cou lee by a terrible :aping late behind, but, alas! I know sleerience that justice, too, halts upon both its feet. trial has darkest hour of calumny the al has sustained and comfo r t e d me , t 'o h r ou w g i h th t ed it th l s knewri deliverance must arrive. I have yearned eve my for this painful remedy, as the man suffering under some foul corroding disease we lcomes the knife which . let length to restore him to health- and to life, Buts sir, will it be be lieved th at the insatiabl e has grudg ed me malice of my enemies tardy but in evitable redr ess ? C an e t b t ' . e credited that in England, a country proverbial for i its love b rave , of fairness. and for its humanity ev ei: to crime an open and d .e liberate attempt s hould _p on the eve of a judic ial investigation tode b rive the een made prisoner of the chances of a fair trial? x The seeds of calumny and falsehood haaileeter it is. broadcast in the furrows of th e p ress, an d tee mr7r,i crop had fructified under the congenial inteeenc:ce of credulity and spite. But none knew better than the authors of this superstructure of mendacity h ow little it was capable of bearing the test of a fair vestigatien. It was necessary, theNfore, to the U. ' complishinent of their ends to poison, if it might be, the fountains of justice, and to pervert, if not to in timidate, the tribunals which were sworn to admi • nister tho truth. I have spoken of my enem ies ; their existence will not be doubted, for their male volence and their activity sufficiently reveal their presence. They are of two classes, different in the motives which inspire their malignity, but unani mous in their desire to accomplish my destruction. The first are those whom it became my painful but paramount duty in the discharge of my military functions to punish or reprove—men whose long and obstinate habits of insubordination had taught to regard with hatred those who controlled their Passions v and punished their delinquencies. You seen them before y ou ; you may judge the spirit Whichteir by h Which they are actuated, and the end to ected. evidence and their prev.irications have bef,;(d' bc.cau,te ' r it is onl :ro those men my ruin is necessary, estatil i sh the eh i upon my ruin that they can re :Totters th e y h ave f or f e it e d. B u t I :have 6110the r is ait S but whom not the less ` of enr,mies whom you hay') not you have heard, less direct in their anittio, but far more powerful for zni,chief by their abilities, These are the self-con ptituted tiocial hangmen wh o riel or the sane euto their unlovely v cider,' W ithout the for mality o f t i ne of a fientence—men w h o, ra;ml, see : a t jealous o h and envols temperamo u t of na tural and incu rable aversion everythin g and t o everybodya o. every that is anywhere placed in autho rity.PPose t h atntend t o I i Do De , s u dispes e or condemn the li bert y of a free press—t he p ride e and the ufeguard of ft free peoPIP• I s p e eknnl only tiloB6 w ho licentiously abuse an unlimited Power I speak of the anonymous lib Airs who, like an un wholesome vermin, infest our social body, and, bur. rowing into the healthy flesh, themselves create the sores on which they feed and fatten. I do not flatter myself that, however bitter may be their attacks, they have thought me worthy of their per sonal hatred. I know that they fly et higher game than a simple colonel of dragoons. They find in me only an incidental instrument for attacking a system they dislike,and subverting an authoritythey abhor. To that object truth is sacrificed and justice is outraged. lam neither the first, nor shall I pro bably be the last victim of a system of detraction which seeks, by the rain of individual reputations, to accomplish a scheme for the transfer of the ‘ocra trol of the British army from the authority of the Crown to a self-appointed board of an onymous mriters. For the particular individue:is whom it may be necessary to sacrifice for this olaject they care es little, I know, as any secret revolutionary tri bunal ever did for the wretches it dismissed unheard to the scaffold, or handed cvec utacondemned to the fury of the mob. Their end is the destruction of military discipline, and for 'ibat object they are not likely to stick at the ruin, of personal reputations far more considerable the.n. mine. But, on this occa• sion, it seems to me that their sagacity has been inferior to their ability. They have miscalculated the extent to which. popular prejudice may b e worked upon. They have forgotten that, hi the most careless minds, the sentiment of justice and of fair play is never wholly extinguished. When it was known that I was to be brought to trial, even those who had been the loudest in their cries for ven geance were shamed into silence. The justice they I had demanded was about to be awarded, and de cency requiarteidtcheatfo, trheiagydshmoueln. Should at le s a u s c t h ap vi p a e s ar th to e n s w e ai tm tiite pen sentiment of all right-feeling men, and I desire here to acknowledge the sense of fairness and justice by which, in this respect, since my trial has been commences, the respectably-con ducted portion of the English press has been distin guished. But this did not meet the views of my re lentless assailants. They were loth to lose the 'vantage -ground of slander on which they had so long triumphed unresisted. They demanded that I should be tried in England—l suppose becanae the English military administration in India is either unwilling or unable to dispense justice. If it be so indeed, the sooner the Indian Empire is abandoned the better. Or was it because they thought that they could here more successfuly bring the arts of popular intimidation to bear against me ? Well, sir, I was to be tried in England. To me, so long as I had a fair trial—which I knew I should anywhere have—it signified little where the court might sit. But the last thing my enemies were dis posed to tolerate was that I should have a fair trial. They have spared no pains, they have hesitated at no artifices, to insure my condemnation before I could be heard. Ttie evidence to be taken on this trial has been forestalled—the constitution of the court before which I was to be arraigned has been attacked. Nay, so alarmed were they lest justice should demand my acquittal, that they have de nounced by anticipation the tribunal which should dare to absolve me. They may be—nay, they are —gifted with great abilities ; but there are some things they do not know, or which, in their per verse malignity, they cannot understand. They might have learnt from simpler minds that there is a point at which injustice defeats itself, and male volence unwillingly ministers to the cause of charity. They have forgotten, if they ever knew, that, how ever much the minds of Englishmen may be warped by prejudice or perverted by misrepresentation, there is no criminal, however heinous, whom they will willingly see defrauded of fair pzay, I pass from this revolting theme. It has left upon the _ _ honour of English literature a stain which time will with difficulty Efface. It is a transaction which, as I believe it to be without precedent, so I am sure it will be without imitators. Upon the authors of such an outrage I desire no other judgment than that which the indigna tion of their countrymen has already passed. As for me, sir, I have no cause to complain of such pro- ceedings. Nay, from the bottom of my heart I have to thank these accusers, who have laid bare the spirit by which they are actuated, and the profound distrust they entertain of the merits of their cause. To be tried was all I desired. To be fairly tried was a right of which I knew that the malice of my ene mies would be impotent to deprive me. The same reason which makes them distrust the tribuna be • fore which I stand is that which causes me to sub mit myself with eagerness to its judgment. I am an old soldier. I know courts-martial well. They are the judges which a guilty man has most reason to fear, and which an innocent man has most cause to welcome. Here I know the voice of prejudice will have no force, the influences of popular passion and private malignity will be unfelt. A soldier desires no better than to be tried by his peers. And I plead, at last, with inexpressible satisfaction and relief before a tribunal which knows by habit what are the duties of an officer, and by instinct what are the feelings of a gentleman. Hays I not a right to say, even at this stage of the proceedings. that the day of my trial was to be that of my deliverance ? Are not the very charges upon which I am arraigned in themselves an acquittal upon the greater part of the odious crimes which have been laid at my door? Let us examine precisely how this matter stands, for an exact understanding of it is essential to my complete vindication. An outcry has been raised out of doors that the charges brought out against me are too limited in their character, and that I am not put upon my trial for the real pith and substance of the offences which are imputed to me. Sir, that may or may not be true. I am not the author of the imputations, nor am I the framer of the charges. It they are too limited, that is my misfortune ; it is certainly not my fault. I have respectfully requested —I have entreated—l have supplicated that those charges should be enlarged, in order that the whole of the matters of which I have been accused should be put in issue, and that so I might be allowed to prove in evidence, and put on record, the complete and satisfactory answer to them all with which I am prepared. That request has been denied me. It is not for me to complain of that denial. I am bound to believe that it is done upon good and sufficient rea sons, and I bow with submission to that authority to which I owe implicit obedience. But, if I am refused the supreme satisfaction of meeting face to ' face my accusers upon the thousand falsehoods which calumny has heaped upon my head, at least no right thinking, no just-judging man will deny me the benefit of that complete exculpation which such a refusal carries with it. It has happened to but fe w men on this side the grave to have had their conduct and character canvassed as mine has been, with every d_lepositi on t o l a y b are and to:magnify its delinciasn :_ees and its shortcomin g s. Every act of my life, v tY 'word I have spoken, has been ransacked and V aß e t. 4 °lvn.. .Nay, the expression of my countenance inmo:Zaheziticised, and the secret motives of my was put e arl the whole investigated, i ll y ° justly condemned, but if have been interpreted. When, then, I ot 3 3 ' 2 trial, I had a right to demand that character and conduct should be vier that if I am guilty I should be ut it I am innocent I should be completely absolv e d . m y trial that t, eeyanthorities th This 13 so . obviously just, that no one will impute t o put on by whom I am 4 Could have refused to lis ten to so reasonable a r equest, , co nduct before them in CI its 'They have had my heard the charges against nie ; th a t e , hl h llB ; they have !have heard also offer, the explanations I had to iv 'some things they have thought required that f ume,. in . which this court is now conducting. ...vpsosntiglaltion rest which is not before you . they h ave u beens the did not think i t ° com pletely satisfied that they right to call upon me for any further answer, or sven _0 yield to my urgency for an opportunity of o iL rig L any further or tr.ore public justification. 4 . rii " tn who under such circumstances stands upon his p u b lic trial has a right to say to hie accusers," Speak n ow, or hereafter for ever h o ld your peace." Ile ha s a right to say, " Charge me with what you r. - . i please, charge 3 with what you can ; but, in the name of common justice and common honesty, do not keep in reserve charges which you will not ad vance so that I may meet them, and which you will not retract so that I may have the advantage of their withdrawal." Before, then, I proceed to re ply to the specific charges upon which I am arraigned, I em sore that the Court will not deny me the late but solid satisfaction of registering the 1 acquittal which may be considered as already affirmed upon all the points on which I am not now called in question. The Court may be assured that I am not going into any detail upon matters which are not immediately before them. Nevertheless, in common justice to a man who has been so griev ously assailed, they will permit me to note a f ew o f the offences of which I have been publicly accused, but of which by the very terms of this indictment I am now tacitly pronounced not guilty. In the first place, I have been accused of harsh language, over bearing conduct, and improper demeanour towards the officers and non-commissioned officers under my command, tending to the disquiet of my regiment and the injury of the service. If this had been true it was a high military misdemeanour, and I might— I will venture to say I ought—to have been charged with it. Why am I not charged with it Have I not a right to conclude —have I not a right to de mand that others shall conclude—that upon due investigation those who have brought me to trial upon other matters found that there was no sort of foundation for these accusations P Again, I have been accused of base, malicious, mean, false, and tyrannical behaviour in the matter of the Mhow court - martial. Is that true? If it is, why am I not charged with it now, in order that, if I am guilty, I may be punished, but if I am innocent, I may be absolved ? Sir, 1 say there is, and there can be, no other possible reason why I am not allowed to answer such a charge, except it be that those whose business it has been to call me to an account have satisfied themselves that there is no ground for the imputation. It has been said that in the Mhow court-mar tial I was guilty of persecution of the grossest cha ratter, that I perverted justice; that I intimidated witnesses ; that I suborned evidence. Are such things, if they be true, not grave offences for which an officer ought to be tried, if there were even a prima facie case of suspicion against him ? Are they not heinous crimes, if they were true ? Are they not malignant libels, if they be false ? In either case, ought a man in my position not to be either charged with them at once or acquitted of them altogether? And now I am come to the accusations which have been levelled against me—viz., the mat ter of the imprisonment of the three sergeant majors ; and even here I may be permitted again to claim my acquittal on the substnntial matter of which I have been publicly accused. It has been said and repeated, till I may say it has been univer sally believed, that I wickedly, cruelly, and unjustly , caused three unoffending and deserving non-com missioned officers to be imprisoned without evidence and without justification. Have I done so ? Is this, then, no offence ? It is said to be an act directly and flagrantly in contravention of the Articles of War. Then, why am I not charged with it, in order that I may be either condemned or acquitted of so grievous an offence ? Mark ! there were three sergeant-majors arrested—placed in close arrest— in an arrest of a precisely similar kind; all upon the same evidence and for the same reasons. ith respect to two of them my conduct is not questioned in these charges. With respect to the third, the propriety of his arrest is not contraverted. It is to me a matter of deep regret that the authorities who have framed these charges have not been able to find even such a prima facie case for calling in ques tion this transaction as would permit me to explain and to justify it. From the shape which these charges have taken I am precluded from tender. ing evidence on the matter. I wish to God I could. I would then undertake to satisfy you why it was that General Farrell ordered that arrest, why Sir W. Mansfield confirmed, and why Sir Hugh Rose approved it ; why the Judge- Advocate-General of India pronounced it altogether unimpeachable ; and why, now, after the matter has been sifted to the bottom, the highest military authorities, by not calling me or any one else in question for it, have given it their final sanction. Sir, it is enough for me that those who do know the facts, and the necessity from which the apparent severity of the act arose. are satisfied of its justice and propriety. Those who, not knowing the facts, choose, in the face of such authority, to condemn me, are persons whose judgment I can afford to despise. Nor let it be supposed, for one single in stant, that in this matter I am base or cowardly enough to seek shelter myself under the cover of superior orders. I am proud of the approval of those distinguished officers, but I do not wish to decline one tittle of my share of the respon sibility for an act which was mine no less than theirs. It is true I could not have done otherwise if I would. But it is equally true I would not have done otherwise if I could. lam prepared, if I were only permitted to do so, to justify my acts, as my superiors I know are persistent in the assertion of their approval ; but when I am charged with per. sonal vindictiveness and individual malice against these sergeants, I have a right to rely on the autho rity of officers who are beyond the reach of such imputations. If I owed a grudge to Sergeant- Major Lilley, did General Farrell, did Sir W. Mans• field, did Sir Hugh Rose share so wicked and despi cable a sentiment ? If I was harsh, tyrannical, oppressive, in my conduct towards those sergeants, do these epithets apply to the commander of the dhow division, to the commander of the army of the Presidency of Bombay, or the commander-in chief of the army of India ? If so, why have they not been suspended from their posts ? Why are they not at this moment standing at the bar of this tribunal? But if officers such as these were capable, upon precisely the same evidence, and for exactly the same reasons, of arriving at the conclusion that the course which I adopted was justifiable and right, I think I have some reason to claim that those who are not acquainted with the facts of the case should, in candour, allow that my act does not deserve to be condemned. It is impossible for me to vouch the sanction of these great names with out paying to them the public tribute of my grati tude and admiration. It is in the hour of danger, and the crisis of misfortune, that a subordinate officer who has dared to do his duty learns to value and esteem the superiors on whom he can rely. No man who has had the honour to serve under Sir Hugh Rose or Sir W. Mansfield can say that they ever betrayed him. Fortunate, sir, are the officers who have the honour to serve under such chiefs, and fatal will be the day when theßritish army has to look to any other source for judgment on its acts than the censure or approval of its military supe riors. Fatal indeed will be the result when officers serving the Queen in distant lands shall have to look, not to their own conscience of right—not to their own sense of duty —not to the orders of those under whose authority they are placed—but to the ephemeral ideas of what is falsely called pablio opinion, but which, in fact, is nothing more than the ignorant judgment of ill-informed and irrespon sible writers, by whose denunciations or applause their fortune or their disgrace is to be decided. Then, sir, no man in authority will dare to do his duty, for he will feel that he is at the mercy of in terested calumniators, setting in motion the treache rous engines of anonymous slander. There is no fear that under such men as Sir H. Rose and Sir W. Mansfield such a system should be inaugurated. They know well what is necessary to the discipline of the English army and to the maintenance of the Indian Empire. They know that the dominions of the Queen in Hiodostan are held by a military tenure, and that the basis of that military tenure is military discipline. They have seen one mutiny,lnd they have quelled it. They know not of what begin nings that dire cataclasm burst forth. They know how the dykes of discipline were broken down, and Lthe flood of mutiny overwhelmed us un awares. It began by pampering the insubordi nation of non-commissioned officers, and it ended in those scenes of dread and horror which are Commemorated on the stones which cover the wall of Cewnpore. 3len who have witnessed such a i Calamity aro not likely to be careless of the symp tom, which herald another. Those who have charge °I a Powder magazine do not look at sparks with inditlere r g first sign s of nee. Ikey know that in such cases an early order that they m ay severity is the truest mercy, and they punish the i nsubordination with strictness in not have finally to suppress mutiny with bloodsihteids' Close arrest may b e a se- better th an bl ow i ng your ave know that those who clamour against the of Man s fi eld are the self-same thei r acts and calumniate I gnorant and irresponsible twsvhoerelridietrieemr:ssoelafimsrcuoya7r—y;tbebh policy--but c u i n s s e . severity THE SUN, LONDON, FRIDAY EVENING, DECEMBER 18, 1863. men who denounced the clemency of Canning. We know that it is the 811'6a-sighted and the panic stricken who, acting on momentary impulses, are lax in the hour of security only to become cruel in the instant of danger. It is they alone who have the wisdom to be severe in time who have the cou rage to be merciful when severity can be safely dispensed with. Sir, to the full and proper under standing of this transaction, it is most material and relevant —as, indeed, the Court has deliberately de cided—to understand what was the condition of the 6th Dragoons at the time when these events took place. My justification, and that of those under whose authority I acted, consists in this—that the regiment at the time of the coart-martial on Mr. Smales, and of the arrest of the three sergeant majors, was in a state ofJnsubordination, as respects certain of the officers and non-commissioned officers, of the most dangerous character. That which I could have proved if I had been permitted, now that I am debarred of the means of proof I will take upon me to re-assert. What the condition of the regiment was when it came into my hands I would, had I been allowed, have demonstrated out of that letter to Colonel Shute. I would have proved it out of Sir Hugh Rose's historical memoir of the 6th Dragoons. But, sir, even in the absence of this most material document, I am not wholly without the means of satisfying you, to some extent, of that which I should have been glad more fully to have demonstrated. In the course of this weary inquiry you have had some means of judging of the materials with which I had to deal, and the diffi culties I had to encounter. You will judge by your own eyes, you will judge by your own ears —above all, you will judge as officers and gentlemen, by that inborn sense of honour which is more conclusive than reasoning, and more irresistible than logic. I speak to a body of men many of whom are, all of whom have been, commanding officers. You have seen some of my officers You have seen, you have heard enough, I think, of the men who have so com ported themselves in a court of justice to judge of what must have been my situation on the parade and iu the mess room. I ask you, after what you have seen, to place your • selves as commanding officers in my position, and to judge me as you would in like circumstances yourselves claim to be judged. Whoever else it was, sir—it is clear it was not I—who educated these officers in their ideas of what was due to military discipline and to the authority of the dupe. riors by whom they might happen to be reprimanded. These were not officers of my teaching any more than Mr. Fitz - simoa was an adjutant of my choosing. You will readily believe that, when disaffection has become chronic among the officers, it is not long before the infection begins to spread among those immediately below them, who ought to look up to them as an example. Of all the forms of insub ordination, that which descends from above into the ranks is the most fatal and incurable. Those who ought to be safeguards against mutiny are become themselves the pro pagators. What lesson do you think the sergeants of the regiment were likely to learn from such instructors? In subordinate officers naturally seek allies against their colo nel by tampering with the non-commissioned officers of the regiment. The regimental sergeant major and the two other sergeant majors had been successfully enlisted by the cabal in conspiring to overthrow my authority. The body of the regiment, it is true, was still sound. The discipline of the troops was intact. But the crisis had arrived, the danger was imminent; one step more and the flame might have kindled in the ranks, and the famous regiment of In niskilling Dragoons would have broken out into open mu tiny. Sir, I took those measures which such a condition of things seemed to the to require. I knew what was my duty, and I did it without fear and without favour. How rapidly the process of deterioration of discipline takes place in a re giment under the influence of tropical climates and tropical habits no one who has not experience of Indian military life can form any conception. The measures which are necessary to enforce discipline elsewhere are there ten times more ne cessary. I may bo permitted to quote on this subject the language of a great civilian who knew India well :—" A strong line of demarcation must be drawn between soldiers and the rest of the community. They must be subject to a sharper code and a more stringent form of procedure than are administered by the ordinary tribunals. For of all ma ladies incident to the body politic military insubordination is that which requires the most prompt and drastic reme dies." These are the true and striking words of Lord Ma caulay. I acted on those principles with that instant, ne cessary, and justifiable severity which, in my firm belief, alone prevented a great catastrophe. In a position of unex ampled diffieulty, I acted with a prudence and circumspection in which I have nothing to regret. I took the course which wisdom dictated and the rules of the service prescribed. I did nothing on my own unassisted judgment. I consulted at once my military superiors. I took evidence, as you have heard, from credible witnesses and from the culprits them selves. I took it in my orderly-room in the presence of the adjutant and two other officers. I wish I could lay that evi dence before genes laid it before General Farrell, who sub mitted it to Sir W. Mansfield. From that moment I deferred to their judgment, which I unfeignedly knew to be better than my own, and I acted in strict accordance with their directions, not more from a sense of military duty than from a profound confidence in their superior wisdom. I was ready at the time—l was always ready—to have proceeded to the trial of these men. If they were not tried it was none of my doing. If the question of the propriety of that arrest, and the justice of the decision of my superior with refer ence to it is not now tried, that again is none of my doing. I am ready—l always have been ready—and anxious to try it. Sir, the question which lies at the root of this whole matter is the question of mutiny or no mutiny. That is the key to the whole business, and you are asked to unlock the mystery while the key is withheld from you. Sir, again, that is no doing of mine. I would have laid before you the evidence which I laid before my immediate superiors, and upon my conscience-I know that that evidence would have satisfied you, as it abundantly satisfied them, Then you would have been in a position to pronounce upon the real merits of the case. You would have been able by your finding to have satisfied a nation whose judgment has been perverted by falsehood and blinded by calumny, that nothing has been done either by me or by those whose approval I have earned which was not consistent with justice and essen tial to discipline, which was not necessary to maintain the organisation of the British army, and therein to maintain the integrity of the Indian Empire. It, Sir, this wider and more real issue is not presented fcr your immediate adjudi cation, I deeply regret it ; that it is not is, as you know, no fault of mine. And now, Sir, u S i i o r h , l l co a m m e h s e p r e e ci a fi rr ca a l i l g y ne t d o , caound ed to pronounce y our sen t ence . T he o s i n d e w r h t i h o e h t y w o o u c a h r e a r a g s e k s first charge is, " for conduct unbecoming an officer and a gentleman, and to the prejudice of good order and military discipline, in having caused the order for the close arrest of Regimental Sergeant Major Lilley to be carried into effect with unnecessary and undue severity, whereby the said sergeant major and his wife were subjected to great and grievous hardships." Colonel Crawley then pro ceeded at great length to analyse the evidence, which is now familiar to our readers, and pointed out how that adduced by the prosecution, so far from supporting the charges, completely refuted them. The case, he said, had been treated as one of peculiar military barbarity—but, he asked. in what respect the execution of military law differed from that of civil sentences. Did a judge, in passing sen tence, take into account the circumstances of an offender's personal position in determining the measure of punish ment when inflicted upon him ? Did he he ask what was his habit of body, or what was the exercise he was used to ? or did he inquire whether he had a wife, and if she was sick? Equality of sentence for similar offences was the rule of both civil and military tribunals. Equality of ope ration upon the offender was beyond the reach of human justice. He arrested the three sergeant-majors for the same misconduct, the same evidence, and they were all sub jected to the same restraint. Why, then, was that which in the case of Sergeant-majors Wakefield and Duval was not called in question, made a subject of accusation in that of Sergeant-major Lilley ? On the contrary he thought it would appear that if anything was to be laid to his charge it was rather an excess of leniency than an exaggeration of severity. Of the three prisoners confined, two were placed in an arrest equally strict, with this aggravation in their punishment, that, being single men, their confinement was solitary. If, upon the receipt of the orders from his supe riors, he had sent Mrs. Lilley to the female hospital, and had placed Sergeant-major Lilley in the same arrest as that in which the two other sergeant majors were confined, who could have said that he had exceeded his orders ? But he knew the circumstances of the case, and he deliberately ab stained from exercising a severity which seemed to him ex treme and unnecessary. Having disposed of the question of the bungalows, and shown that they were in no respect unfit places for confinement, he strongly impressed on the Court that in no instance had Mrs. Lilley's privacy been outraged, and that the placing of the sentries inside the house was not for the purpose of annoyance but to protect them from the heat of the sun. Ho dwelt on the culpable neglect of AdjutantFitzsimon in having never seen the sen tries properly posted, and denied that the officer had given a true version either of the orders which were given concern ing the arrest in the first instance, or of the alleged subse quent conversation in the orderly-room. The evidence of Surgeon Turnbull he in like manner impugned as unworthy of credit; and, with regard to the general character of Ser geant Major Lilley declared that the charges had nothing whatever to do with it. If it had been a material issue, he thought they had heard enough to know that they wore in nossession of only half the case ; but as to the circumstances of Sergeant Major Lilley's death, he asked if it were not plain, beyond all manner of doubt, that there was on the part of Surgeon Turnbull at least a deliberate design, by a suppressio yen and a suggestio fast, to saddle him with personal responsibility for the death of that unfortunate man? He denied in tote corroborating the evidence of Lieutenant Davies on the point that Surgeon Turnbull had applied for a coroner's inquest on the body and—quoting, in support of his statement, the addendum to the medical report, and the testimony of Lance Corporal Holman— maintained that the predisposing cause to Sergeant Major Lilley's death was the quantity of spirits which he drank during his confinement. It had been said that Sergeant Major Lilley took the brandy during his arrest owing to depreadon of spirits. But was a commanding officer re sponsible because a prisoner was depressed by a just punish ment, or because he took au excess of liquor in consequence? He then dwelt on the absence of all complaint by Sergeant Major Lilley, and the sympathy evinced towards him by the men of the Inniskillings on his leaving Mhow to be tried by court martial in England, and thus concluded : Sir, there is one question which I think, at the close of this long in quiry, can hardly fail to be made : Whence did this mass of falsehood originate ? Who organised this foul conspiracy P Who invented, who propagated, who connived at, the story of the "bomb-proof oven and the Black Hole of Calcutta?" Who was the ingenious inventor of the indignities to Mrs. Lilley? Who thought or the "functions of nature performed in the presence of strange men ?" These sort of stories don't invent themselves. They have an author somewhere. I have not the honour of Mr. For tescue's acquaintance, but I have no reason to doubt that he a gentleman in every way worthy of the noble name he bears. I give him every credit for having sincerely be lieved the statements he was induced to make; but I think he cannot, and he will not, let this matter rest where it is. He has vouched witnesses in the ? resence of Parliament for the truth of assertions which are now proved to have been wholly false. The honour of Mr. Fortescue seems to me to demand, the dignity of Parliament seems to require, that he should help to expose the fraud of which he has been the dupe. The country is in the habit of taking for granted assertions thus vouched in public by honourable men. When such men have been deceived they owe it to themselves and to others to give up their authority. I think Mr. Fortescue will feel he owes me some explanation of this matter to the officer he has so cruelly wronged, and to the nation he has so expensively misguided. And, Sir, what I say of Mr. Fortescue, I say also of the nobler portions of the English press. They have inflicted on me great suffering and irre parable injury, but I believe they have done it unwittingly. It is, I know, the high and honourable function of a free press to call for justice upon wrongdoers, and to defend the cause of the innocent. I have no doubt that in what they have done they thought they were acting upon reliable in formation and performing a paramount duty. But I think they owe it to themselves and to the public to put others on their guard against those who have thus deceived them. I think that, when this trial is over, they will consider that there is some reparation to be made, and that there remains another injustice to redress. The press of India in this respect has already set an honourable example. The Times of India, which was one of my bit terest opponents, has expressed in the most honourable manner its regret at having given credence to the volumes of correspondence with which Mr. Smales had plied it. They say, and they say it truly, "It is the fact, we fear, that the late Sergeant Major Lilley was more the victim of Paymaster Smales than of Colonel Crawley." I know, Sir, there are journals of another stamp who will continue to repeat exploded, falsehoods and to reproduce refuted slan der. But I heed them not. These are not the legitimate exponents of the sentiments of a just and generous nation— a nation which is honourably vehement in its indignation against supposed oppression, but which is equally frank in its repentance for unintentional injustice. And now, sir, this long and tedious address must have an end. Forgive me if I have wearied you. Remember what a spring tide of obloquy I have had to roll back, and to crowd into a few hours a defence against months of calumny. Permit me, before I close, to tender to the prosecution my acknow ledgment of the fairness and courtesy with which they have performed a painful duty. That fairness and that courtesy I know I had a right to expect both from the official posi tion and the personal character of the gentlemen who have conducted it. But it is not the less fitting that I should here acknowledge it. I trust they will pardon any impa tience which I may have exhibited in a long and anxious struggle. And now, sir, this contest is over. I have fought a battle which is not mine alone, but that of everyone who may be similarly placed. I have fought the battle of the English army against secret conspiracy and anonymous slander. There is no one so high whom such treacherous blows may not reach , there is no one so low that he can escape this crawling venom. If in exhibiting the triumph of truth and exposing the machinations of falsehood I shall have contributed to deter men from the repetition of such attempts; if from this example others shall have learnt not to give too ready en ear to imputations upon the honour of absent men serving their country abroad; if the experience of this trial shall make such another event impossible—the English army and the English nation will have gained by my loss ; and, much as I have suffered, I shall have the satisfaction of feeling that I have at least not suffered in vain. 1 have fought this gigantic battle, and I have fought it alone. I have fought it with no friend but Truth, and no protector but the All-knowing and the All mighty. My enemies' name is Legion ; but against such defence their malignity was impotent for harm. They have sought my shame, and they have accomplished their own. They have attempted my ruin; I will not deny them the satisfaction of knowing that they will have partly succeeded. The cost of this tremendous struggle will have exhausted that slender fortune which is the only provision of those who are dearer to me than myself. Sir, let them enjoy their triumph ; it is the only one they will obtain. They may have ruined my fortune ; my reputation is beyond their reach. They have filched from me what is but trash ; it will be for you to give me back that without which I am poor indeed. My part is done : yours yet remains, I know what your sentence must be, because it will be in accord ance with the evidence, and according to the truth. I can not hope that you will in every detail consider my conduct faultless. I cannot expect that in the long course of these trying events you may not discover in my behaviour, under unexampled difficulties, some errors of judgment and some defects of temper. I can only say, let thUse who are with out such sins cast at me the first stone. But of these grave and serious charges I know you must absolve me, for I know lam innocent of them. You will give me back my character ; you will give me back my sword—a sword which has been for thirty years—aye, and which shall be again— at the service of a nation at whose hands, in the language of the charge, I have suffered "great and grievous hard ships." You will redeem what remains to me of life from dishonour, and you will rescue my memory from disgrace. Sir, I wait the sentence of the Court. Loud and general applause marked the close of the ad dress. It occupied two hours and three-quarters in delivery, and was listened to throughout with unflagging attention both by the members of the court and the general public. N.,t a few were affected at that pot tion of it where Colonel Crawley spoke of the ruin which would be entailed on his fortunes, no matter how the inquiry might end; and Mrs. Crawley, who was dressed in deep mourning and sat a little way from her husband, was observed to draw her veil over her face to conceal her emotions. A number of officers were then called, who gave evidence of the character borne by Colonel Crawley from the time of being a gentleman cadet in the Royal Military College at. Sandhurst, more than 30 years ago, up to the period of his leaving the 15th Hussars, a few years since. All spoke in the highest terms of his great professional merit as an efa cer, and of the high honour and kindness of heart which characterised him as a gentleman. Letters were also read from M ijor Tench and Capt. Geo. Macartney, who were unable to attend personally. On the conclusion of this evidence, which was of the most unequivocal character, Colonel Crawley said—l have no more witnesses to call, though I might call several, and I beg, with the per mission of the Court, to say that my defence is now con cluded. The prosecutor intimated that he should be prepared to make his reply at 12 o'clock to-morrow (this day), to which time the Court was then adjourned. THE GREAT SHIP. Yesterday the first meeting in connexion with the affairs of the Great Ship Company since it has been consigned to the custody of the Court of Chancery for the purpose of in vestigating and winding up the affairs was held before Mr. G. Whiting, chief clerk to the Master of the Rolls, at the Rolls-chambers, in Chancery-lane, the object being to ap point an official liquidator under the Joint-Stock Companies Winding-up Act. Mr. Hutchins, of the firm of Murray, Son, and Hutchins, said he had to propose Mr. Hawes, the late chairman of the shareholder's committee, of Skinner's place, Sise-lane, to act as official liquidator in behalf of the company. The total number of shares in favour of Mr. Hawes's appointment amounted to 30,000. The total num ber of shares in the company was 300,000 ordinary and 100,000 preference shares. There were creditors to the ex tent of £25,000, the total amount of debts being £35,000, excluding a first mortgage of £lOO,OOO, and a second mort gage. The total debts of the company, including unsecured creditors, were £142,850. Mr. Dantziger, the assistant secretary of the company, in his affidavit, stated that the nominal capital of the company was originally £330,000 in shares of £1 each, but only 303,304 shares were taken up; 100,000 preference shares of £1 each were subsequently issued, making the aggregate subscribed capital £103,304. The assets of the company consisted of the great ship, her stores and appurtenances, the office furniture in London, and the arrears of calls due, amounting to £530, which were believed to be irrecoverable. Mr. Bradlaugh, of the firm of Leverson and C 0.,. St. Helen's place, Bishopsgate-street, proposed Mr. J. Cooper, of the firm of Johnstone, Wintle, and Cooper, of Lothhury, as official liquidator, and objected to the appointment of Mr. Hawes, who, until the last meet ing of the company, was a shareholder in the company, Mr. Hawes had for some time past been in constant dis pute with the largest shareholders, the bondholders, and directors, and had spoken in violent opposition to the policy of the late directors. Mr. Hawes had declared that he was pledged to carry the great steamship on the long vo3 age to India, and had made arrangements with persons who were prepared to advance funds to carry out that object. Mr. Rose, solicitor, of Salisbury-street, Strand, proposed the appointment of Mr. R. P. Harding, of Serle street and Lathbury, to be official liquidator on be half of Mr. Anderton Rose, M.P , the late Lord Mayor, a holder of 2.50 paid-up shares and a debenture for £lOO, and, a creditor for overdue bills of £Bl3 from the time vgl , r a n! they were dishonoured. Mr. Harding was a good pracicl accountant, and perfectly conversant with the routinefall arties winding-up. He was, moreover, independent and in a position to realise the largest a mount affairs both for the o of the good management and conduct assets by a b fr : l eoutended, was creditors and the public. Mr. Hawes, by reason of disqualified for the office of official liquidator his close connection with the company's affairs. The Chief Clerk, in the course of a long summing up, said he was of opinion that Mr. Hawes ought to be appointed official liqui- dator. His knowledge of the company's affairs well quali fied him for the office, and he appeared to possess the suf frages of the largest number of the shareholders. Mr. Haws. was accordingly appointed official manager, giving £3.000 as security, it being understood that an appeal against the ap pointment would be made in favour of associating with the official liquidator either Mr. Harding or Mr. Cooper. SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS. TIMES.—On Monday last we recorded the perpe tration of a shocking murder in the Waterloo-road ; on the next day we reported the examination of toe murderer at the Southwark Police court ; on Wed nesday we published the proceedings of the Coro ner's inquest on the victim; and yes - e,day our readers saw that the prisoner had been brought to 'rid, hail pleaded guilty, and had le en sentenced to death. So rapid has been the course of just ice in this case that the offender hes actually been con demned to the gallows before the corpse ot his un happy victim has been committed to tee grave. Toe deed itself presents in its immediate circumstances only the ordinary features of such crimes. Samuel Wright, described as a bricklayer by trade, had cohabited, it seems, for some little time with a woman named Maria Green, and they had occupied together the secono floor of a lodging.house in the Waterloo-road. On Saturday last a dressmaker who rented the first floor of the house, and who was acquainted with Wright and his companion, saw them "very happy and comfortable" together in their own room, about 8 o'clock in the evening. Shortly afterwards they went out, and were seen standing for a time at the corner of the York-road, where the deceased was exchanging angry words with another woman. They left this woman, however, and re paired to a publichouse, where they had some gin ; but, though the deceased remained "excited" after her quarrel, neither she nor her paramour is said to have been intoxicated. Nothing more was known of their proceedings up the time of the catastrophe. At what hour they returned to their lodgings is un certain ; but about 4 o'clock on Sunday morning the lodger on the floor beneath them was alarmed by a loud knocking and screaming overhead. As she opened her door she met Wright coming down the stairs, and his appearance betrayed the dreadful work in tvhich he had been eegsged. His sleeves were tucked up, his arm was bloody, and his look altogether so shocking that the witness nearly tainted. She contrived, however, to ask what was the matter, and Wright told her, as she fancied, to go upstairs and see. She did so, and found the woman Green lying on the floor with her throat cut, and just able to articulate feebly that Wright bad committed the deed. A policeman was soon fetched, and Wright, who bad remained in the house without attempting to escape, end who ac knowledged himself the perpetrator of the crime, was taken into custody. That a quarrel originat ing in jealousy had led to the deed seems suffi ciently probable, and the scene witnessed in the York-road would appear to indicate that the jealousy was on the side of the woman. Otherwise, the evi dence represented them living together quietly, and with habits so generally regular as to sug gest the impression that they were man and wife. It required, however, a singular combination of cir cumstances to give this extraordinary rapidity to the course of justice. The time of the murder hap pened to coincide with the sitting of the Court, ano the self-surrender of the prisoner prevented any delay. As he made no effort to escape, no time was lost in apprehending him; and as he confessed his guilt, there was no necessity for the collection ot evidence. It was not, indeed, to be denied that his hand had deprived the woman of life, and he appears to have advisedly discarded the shelter pos sibly derivable from inquiry into his stale of mind at the time. He was at first undefended by counsel, but Mr. Sleigh appeared on his behalf before his sentence, though after his first plea of " guilty," and expressed an opinion that the plea might be advantageously retracted. The prisoner, however, deliberately refused to recall his words, or take such chance of deliverance as the forms ot law might give him ; and Mr. Justice Blackburn, after assuring himself of the man's intelligence and purpose, passed the sentence of death in due course, The case will long be memorable from the strange though fortuitous brevity of its history, though this is not without precedent in criminal annals. The capture, indeed of a murderer red-handed during the sitiings of a Court would naturally lead to such a result. It appears to us, however, that a remark able feature of the occurrence is presented in the contrast between the barbarous violence of the act and the general demeanour of the criminal. Wright, who committed this shocking murder, bad never, it seems, till that time occasioned any disturbance or disorder in the house which he and his paramour in habited, and no sooner was the deed done than he ap. pears in possession of his senses, recognising the cha racter of the act, foreseeing consequences, and pre paring himself to accept them without any kind of opposition. What were the circumstances which hurried him into crime? There was a quarrel, no doubt, and as the woman had been " excited," and they did not apparently go to bed that night alter coming in, they proceeded probably from one stage of blood to another; indeed, the prisoner spoke of the deceased as having taken up a knife to him. Still, though quarrels are naturally incidental to such a life as they led, they do not seem to have been given to quarelling ; in fact, this awful catastrophe represents, as far as we can see, the first anti last of their known disagreements. Perhaps it was in these circumstances that Mr. Sleigh discerned the chance of an advantage, had the prisoner chosen to embrace it, and the case no doubt acquires additional singu larity from his resolute refusal. A plea of " Guilty" on a capital charge is so rare that it is not even re. ceived without question. In the present instance the judge twice asked the prisoner if he knew what he was about, and explained carefully to him that by pleading " Guilty" he was confessing not simply that he inflicted the wounds of which his victim died, but that he did this deed wilfully and without excuse. The Clerk of Arraigns, too, had previously reminded the prisoner that his plea went the length of an admission that he had killed the woman " pur posely and with malice aforethought," and yet he still persisted in his course. To the public it will not improbably appear that the malice could not well have been harboured long, and that the recorded incidents of the case by no means exclude the possibility of a sudden transport of rage under provocation or temptation. Yet it must be observed, on the other hand, that the pri soner was never seen for a moment either before or after the murder in any such state of mind as would betray a suspension of self-control. Before the act he was not intoxicated, nor was he shown to have been even excited, and though he was seen and spoken to within a minute or two afterwards, and, indeed, while ais victim was still living, his manner indicated no discomposure. If there was an interval of frenzy, it was when no witness wet, by. The Judge, therefore, could find nothing in the depositions requiring him to reverse the plea of self-condemnation, and his sentence did but echo that passed by the prisoner on himself, These are the circumstances, rather than any particulars of the crime itself, which render the story a strange one, and which will carry it probably into the list of criminal cases which are marked and remernb, red. POST.—The most singular feature of the Schles wig-Holstein movement in Germany is the remark able revulsion which it has effected in the relations between the Prussian people and their Sovereign. When William I. convened the Chambers at Berlin, in the commencement of November, a con test apparent imminent, in which nothing less than unconditional submission on the part of the advisers of the Crown could stave off a revolution. I he King had already within a year dissolved two Parliaments in consequence of their refusal to sanction measures which he believed to be conducive to the interests of the State; and meeting the third he unequi vocally announced that he should consider himself the best judge of the manner in which the State should be administered, and of the means by which its safety should be secured. Of the result of such a struggle as that invited by the Prussian Monarch, the experience of past history left no room for doubt, and the well-wishers of the House of Hohenzollern viewed with alarm the recklessness which marked the conduct of its present head. However, whilst the Ministry, with their scanty supporters, and the popular leaders, with the over whelming phalanx whi c h c ons tit u t e d the Opposi tion in the Lower Chamber, were preparing for the approaching contest, an event occurred which con l i pletely banished from the mirth of the latter l a in thought of the grievances which they came to d nerrd to redress. The King of Denmark died, and Dhcfrself ing to the terms of a treaty to which was a party, Christian IX. succeeded to t l h o e succession Although, both in law and in throne to a portion o: tehhurg thought proper to lay was thus accomplished, a certainlf:Piemrtince of Angus anU some o r the late King of Denmark's d_2ll.sioet..B7n,,amely, Powers ormatillydrecognised Duchies of Schleswig and formally 7 the justice of his claiin d s. the minor German Pow than N ot soonerhe t,ione advanced th Prussian People and ti 3 D e puties forthwith Prussian De , P c ' e tPwit'd the vindi cationof their own rights, which to that time had been so seriously threatened b y lo Crown, in order to support the claims of the p tenburg. Whilst Frederick WI prince of Angus the Prussian King in vain asked of Denmark . lived, plies to maintain his army for additional sup scale of bef r ti n , ma on what he considered their, monarch tz7e p r gu l !ud"; but since the death of a readiness to vote,Ct:ambers tav, evinces whareve r might be demanded, condition that Supplies should be expended in military °pent' ---1 " 8 against Frederick's susses sor. It would, however, be incorrect to say that peace is again established between the Government ,:nd the Chamber. Such is not the case. Count Bisniark has still a powerful Opposition with which to contend, but on this occasion his opponents ore arrayed ~ , gainst him in consi- (pence or his purtAiing a pOilt,'y Whien n;.3 met wi7h the ariprov.,.l of every non-Gei man State in Europe. Count Bistwirk has declared it to by the intention of the Prus sian Government to respect international obit otions, and to observe faithfully a treat to which, after due deliberation, and without coercion, it formally assented. It is singular that, it should be one of the few ac's of the Bismark Ministry which can be supported by hr,nust itnpartial men which now pine , s that Governravnt titd the Liberal party in Prussia in ai_ , R.irewly uncom promising opposi!ion. The Condemned Murderer, Towidey. After sentence of dcNt.n had ben plssed upon Townley, on Saturday, he was removed to a private room in- the County Hall, where he made a hearty dinner immediately afterwards. Townley's mother and aunt i‘ ere in the Sheriffs gallery during the trial, but wnen Baron Martin tv.ls bringing his summing up to a close, Mr. Bourner, the acting under-sheriffs' merk, made a communica tion to them, and they withdrew, proceeding to the County Hotel, close by. The statement that Townley's father was in court during the passing of the sentence is incorrect. He had sat beside his solicitor, Mr. Leech, during the trial, but happoJed to be out of court at the time the jury gave in their verdict, and was thus spared the anguish of hearing his son condemned to die upon the scaffold. 0:1 the intelligence being broke to Mrs. Townley, she Was completely prostrated, and Mr. Gibson was called in to attend her, The condemned criminal was got away from the court by a ruse on the part of the governor, and his departure was not witnessed by the dense mob who had congregated outside the court. On arriving at the gaol his clothes were taken from aim and the prison dress substituted, and he was conveyed to the condemned cell, where two turnkeys remain with him day and night. His father and mother h: .d al interview with him the same evening, and we be- Have Mr. Mundy, 111. P., chairman of the visiting justices, has given them permission to pay frequent visits to their unhappy son, a privilege which they avail themselves of very freely, In addition to the assistance of the good che.pla.e , Townley has the privilege of selecting a spiritual adviser during the brief time he has to live, and be mentioned the name of the Rev. Mr. Gordon, of Manchester, a clergyman of the Established Church , and that gentleman arrived in Derby on Monday morning last, and had an interview with him in fits cell on that day and also on Tuesday. The Rev. ALIT Moore, the gaol chaplain, also visits him daily. His condemnation has not made the slightest site ration in his demeanour. He partakes of his meals eeartily, sleeps well, and repeatedly asserts that h e , was perfectly justified in taking away his victim life, and that he feels no remorse for the deed. We understand his friends are actively engage d in getting up memorials to the Home Secretary, 7. l ° t only from Derby, but also from Manchester. course the royal clemency is asked on the ground of insanity, and it is stated that the memorial will be influentially supported by medical men and the general. public The High Sheriff has fixed the execution to tape place at noon on Frithy, the Ist day cf 7anuer9 (New Year's-day), the interval between the sentenc e and execution being rather more protracted than 10 usually the case. COUNTRY MARKETS. ,I MANCHESTER-THURSDAY. ------------ - -------- At our market this morning the English wheat offering sold slowly at Is per qr lower. Foreign met a very limited business, at 2d to 31 per 100ibs decline for bll but the choicest sorts. Flour a slow sale, although offered at a re" duction of 6d to is per sack. Oats and oatmeal very dull. Indian corn 6d per qr in favour of buyers. Beans receded 6d to is per qr from this day si3'nnight. BRISTOL—THURSDAY. We had a good supply of English wheat today, which again sold slowly, at a decline of fully is per quarter on last week's rates; for foreign wheat scarcely any inquiry, aLd nominally at last Thursday's prices. Barley quiet, at la , e rates. O.ts met a slow trade, but were in good suptly. Beans and Indian corn without inquiry. IPSWICH-MESDAY. Supplies of wheat continue moderate, and farmers are reluctant sellers at any decline. The supply of barley has Callen off very considerably. Old white wheat..44s to 49s New do. 46s to 48s Malting barley....34s to 38s Grinding d0.....28s to 31s I Old red wheat, 428 to 438 New do. 4ls to 428 Oats 22s to ; -08 Beans 36s to 37 BIRMINGHAM—THURSDAY. at Wheat was in fair supply to-day, and sales were rode very little change in prices, and with a limited trad e * English wheat was sold at 41s to 456 for white, anti bus to 43s per 36 stone for red, Barley, new malting, 30s to 40s per qr ; grinding, 26s to 808 Oats, old, 2 4 s to 213 s per 30 stone; Irish, 18s to 245. Beans, 40s to 44s per q t * Peas, 36s to 44s per 36 stone. EDINBURGH GRAIN—DEc. 16. A fair supply of farmers' wheat to-day, which Dal t I slow sale ut is to 2s per qr lower than the prices of 138 week. Barley was also in slow demand, and prices rather lower. Oats dull, and is down. Beans and peas were altered. Wheat on the top 4s 6d down ..average 2s 5d dow n ' Barley on the top Os 6d down average Os 3d down' Oats on the top is down... , average Os Id do virio Beans on the top 3s 6d down average 3s Oct down* Total Supply and Sales. Wheat ... 769 qrs Sold 501 qrs 8ar1ey........2d85 qrs Sold 1737 qrs Oats Beans 164 qrs Sold 101 qrs Flour sells as follows :—Whites, 40s Od ; extras, 31s Oc l ; superfine, 35s Od ; fine, 34s 6d. Foreign Mail Packet List. MAILS DUE. Australia and Mauritiu s , v i a S out h amp t on ~Dec. 19 ' via Marseilles Jan. ,srazil and Cape Verds, by British packet. Jall• Cape of Good Hope, Ascension, and Si. Helena. Dec. 9 . China, Penang, and Singapore, via Southanipton.Dee . via Marseilles Dec' Palkland laland.i ilibraltar, via Southampton india kealcutta), and C e ylon, vii Southampton—Dec• 19 1 via Marbeilles Dec. 21 • ndia (Bombay), via Southampton via Mareenles Portugal.... Jan ' 19. ",ittlta, Egypt, and Aden, via Southamptol. De c ' De .c. 2 1, via MarNeilles Newfoundland Oporto and Vigo .. C. S. and Britia.h N. Atuoricu, 1,3 , Brat. nr.eltea __ Dee. 23 . . . by U.s. I,ackei .. • • 1S• by Canadian packei,Dee• , 0 • W.C. of Africa, Madeira, and Tenexiile Jan. L - Jan. 14 ' Bahamas, via New York • • •)9 !Mexico,. All parts of West Indies, including ClOli, l'eru, ; Dec. 29 ' California. and Britiel Columbia. c r tiOs' No HOME complete without a WILCOX AN D a nd SEWING-MAOHINE. Simple, compact, efficient, durable, i a noiseless. Warranted to fulfil ail the requirements° t perfect family machine. Prospectus free on application No. 135, Regent-street, W.—[ADvT.] Births. BLAXISTON.—On the 13th inst.. at liellingron, near St. Leonard's-on-Sea, the wife of Commander P e yton Blakiston, R.N., of a son• the wife of Robert Olfurd, Loa.: 015 ' D.VVIS.—On the 16th of at 8 : Cornwall-villas, West.- bourne-park, the wile of N• Boulton Davis, E w a., o f a Son. 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