The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1878-05-14 00:00:00

PORTLAIID.

Very recently the deck of the Boetemen treinine ship
as Portland was the scene of the punishment of one James
Corns. sentenced by court-martial to receive Si lashes
and be disteimed from the berries with igneminy for
basing • short time
_previously boxed the ears of
Commander Vander Maulen, with the desire, now
gratified, of thereby being qualified to quit • profession
not to his taste. Bet so little deterrent effect had the
dogging, which the culprit endured without & groan or
flinch, that On the Sunday following another of We crow
walked up to Lieut. Croker, who was reading on deck, by
a vigorous blow knocked him off the seat, and Wen
stripping him off his Jamey invited the astounded officer
to a bout at Batista& The second unpardonable breach
of naval discipline was also avowedly inspired by the
desire to quit the service. The healthy, rigorous youth,
who at the sound of the boatswain's pipe spring aloft
with such alacrity, and in the drill grouud aerre wield
their cutlames with an ambidexterity that would delight
Mr. Charles Ronde, have manifestly nothing to complain
of on the score of insufficiency of supply as regards the
physical requirements, or of Inattention „in the pert of the
officers to tuitions in the entire drill of their ordeal/on.
It, therefore, is a matter of national importance that the
Osumi should be sifted which drive spirited Tooth.,
evidently gifted by Nature with strength sad tempera-
ment which propfrly directed might snake them
orimments to the naval hiatory of the country, into such
deliberate and open revolt. It is useless to ;attempt to
check such actions by ineffectual Punishment; and to
draft their performers into other ship* would be only to
spread the risk of recurrence of similar freaks or worse
developments of insubordination. Hence the Admiralty
should forthwith seek to ascertain the canoes which have
suddenly aroused among • crew hitherto remarkable for
their excellence and docility • seeming spirit of chronic
dissatisfaction and distaste for the duty which they owe
and the walk of life for which they here heen carefully
trained at the national expense. Another subject for
inveatigati in also should be the conduct of the youth
who first attempted to stab a comrade in his hammock
with a bayonet, and next poisoned the tea of the mess
with oil and to, a week at two ma —Mogfair.
STALE News.— A friend riots out in • contemporary •
string of "fins old crusted paragraphs, the first referring
to • petty quibble in the time& of the "usual Butes.
, vestries," the other two (taken at locoed-hand from
another paper) re-state facia named he the Triers= of
April l and Munei tfg, while the email& es of the Break-
water Port, and the assault by a &meows', boy upon his
' commander, were given to the public in the Uprise of
March lot (0 thus these matters are re-dished and served
up to the pi r,lic by our contemporary two usonat, end ten
days after they had appeared in our columns.
A SOW UNPLEASANT DISCOTIST has Net 00110 d Out Is
connection with the defeat:a of the Portland roadstead,
which is calculated to eusrAest most disquieting suspicious
with regard to the efficiency of other sections of our coast
defences against an enemy. When the Portland Break-
water was recently inaugurated by ILK R. the Prince of
Wales stream was laid on the fact that the opening between
the two isectioes of which the work in composed was so
defended that ships peeking shelter from an enemy's
cruisers would expose the pursuer to a destructive fire
from the forts which are so situated with retard to the
batteries on the summit of the Veratehill, and on the
Nothe point at Weymouth, that their cross fire would
successfully hinder attempts to enter the road* by •
hostile squadron. Since the time when the late Prince
Consort laid the first stone ot the work, however,
artilierista have made such that the Rise of the
guns now placed in the ironclad forte at the end of Sir
John Coode's creation so far exceeds that of the cannon
tor which sccommodation was provided that it is impos-
sible to keep on heed • quantity of ammunition and
projectiles proportionate to the requirements of so im-
portant a poet, and it is said the amount has been limited
to GO rounds. Surely that number will be increased, or
the commending offirer in charge will undoubtedly, he
guilty of the indecorum of being unable to even satisfy
the numerical exigencies of Royal saluting when next the
Osborne pays Portlabd a visit —Mayfair.

OILBIII.
SHOCKING SUDDEN DEATH.
On Saturdfth last as Henry Mac Dimwit • painter. was
sitting in the lap-room of the Antelope Inn, he was seised
with • violent fit of coughing. and throwing up • large
quantity of blood expired almost at once Dr. Emery.
who happened to le near was at once called in, bat be
was too late. The deceased appsared about 10 year of
Me. but there was nothing about him to show from where
he muse. He was • Writer by trade, and was on the
tramp. It is supposed he bad been in the engineers.