The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1858-05-18 00:00:00

Zfrmg ant Nabg.

STANDARD FOR RICOROITI3.—The minimum standard
of recruits for infantry regiments in India is raised from
Meet 3 to 5 feet 4 inches.

Forty-two officers of regiments and depot battalions
have arrived at Hythe, and are now undergoing a course
of instructions at the school of musketry.
General the Right Hon. Lord Seaton, G.C.8., left
the Royal Hospital, Dublin, for England, on Thursday,
and the command of the troops in Ireland has devolved
upon Lieut. General Sir Richard England.
It is stated thnt batteries are about to be erected on
Lundy Island, and on the opposite coast, to guard the
entrance to the Bristol Channel and Barnstable Bay, now
in an entirely defenceless state.

An examination of candidates for direct oommicsions
in the army will take place at Surlington-house, Picca-
dilly, on the Ist, 2nd, 4th, and 31h, of June.
Lieutenant Geneste, R.N., the officer who was cap-
tured at Mango, was on Friday dismissed from Her
Majesty's service, by sentence of a Court-martial held at
Plymouth, for drunkenness on board the Brunswick.
The 12th company of Royal Engineers, under the
command of Captain Montague Stopford Whitmore,
have received orders to be held In readiness to embark for
the Cape of Good Hope, wlere they will relieve the
Sappers and Miners now at that station. The 12th oom-
pany numbers 120 men.
The Marlborough, 131, Captain Lord Frederick Kerr,
crossed the bar of Portsmouth harbour for the first time
on Thursday forenoon, in the presence of a large eon-
course of spectators. The Marlborough is at present the
largest man-of-war afloat, being considerably larger than
the Duke of Wellington, the flag-ship of Admiral Sir C.
Napier in the Baltic fleet during the late war. She went
outside the Island to get her engines in good working
order, and to test their qualifieations. On passing the
Platform Battery the Marlborough saluted the flag of
the Commander-in-Chief, Admiral Sir G. Seymour. She
was accompanied out of harbour by one of the tenders
attached to the port, and also by one of the government
brigs. The gallant Port Admiral was present, as well as
Captain Hastings and Commander More, and Mr.
Murray, of the engineer department. She has • mag-
nificent appearance, and seems already to be in perfect
order. The Marlborough is intended, we understand,
to be the flag-ship of Admiral Faushawe, in the Medite-
ranean.

The vast number of 1,079 iron guns captured in the
Crimea, and which were subsequently stored at Wool-
wich, is now considerably reduced by the distribution
which was ordered to be made to each of the corporate
towns of Great Britain, as well as to the various
colonies belonging to the British empire. Of the 94
brass guns from the same source a portion, it is believed,
were some time ago employed in costing a pyramid to
commeinorate the part taken in that war by the Royal
Regiment of Artillery. The pyramid or obelisk was
some months ago completed, and was destined to be
erected in the centre of the grass-plot fronting the
residence of Lieutenant-Colonel Wilmot, R.A., super-
intendent of the Royal gun factories in the Arsenal. The
Government, however, disapproved the proposal, and
the obelisk, although completed, has not been applied
to its intended purpose. A court of inquiry has as-
sembled for the purpose of investigating the matter, the
result of which has not transpired. The obelisk is 15
feet high, and of solid gun metal, containing on its four
side, the names of the officers of the Royal Artillery
who were killed in the Crimea. A brass bell, mid to
have been cast from Russian guns, and intended to have
been hung in the newly-erected clock-tower in the
Royal Arsenal, has shared a similar fate to that of the
Crimean obelisk, and the clock-tower has been ordered
to be appropriated to some other purpose, the public
clock over the principal entrance of the Royal carriage
department having been pronounced amply sufficient
for the purposes of the entire establishment.