The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1866-10-13 00:00:00

THE VOLUNTEER VISIT TO BELGIUM.

The following has been sent to the Standarti fr publics-
tion ry '' Robert Loyd Liw'say," nel Bek Rise
Volunteers, who hi to tains the commend of our rineumn on
their approaching visit to Belgium

The English volunteers have, through their com-
mittee, requested use to take oommand of the party
during the approaching visit to Belgium for the Tu.
National. The Belgian minister has assured me
that my doing RO would be acceptable to his govern-
ment. I have therefore undertaken the duty. Our
volunteers will form only a portion of the volunteer
assembly, which is to be an international one, and
is open to volunteers of all nations. Detachments
from nearly every corps in the service have signified
their intention to join the expedition. We shall,
therefore, in the strictest sense, be the representa-
tives of the great volunteer army of England. Our
service will he judged by our appearance and conduct
during our presence in Belgium.
Those who join the expedition will bear in mind that
the visit, which is intended to be one of pleasure, will
be under military organisation, and that it will be the
bounden duty of every one to make himself acquainted
with orders and regulations, and to attend to them
carefully.
The force will he told off in ten companies each
compsny having its proper staff if officers and non-
commissioned officers. This orearisation is not
intended for any unnecessary amount of restraint, but
with a view to establish a system if responsibility for
the issue of orders and for the pr per appearance ef
the force when taking part in any fetes or processions
which may be provided by the Belgian government.
As it is not possible to bring volunteers together before
their departure from England, this organisation will
be made on the first parade the morning after arriving
its Brussels. All parades will be in full dress, with
belts and side arms, but without riles. Volunteers
competing for prizes may do so in the undress uniform
of their corps. -
You; publishing; this memorandum will be estestued
a favour. The short notice under which I have under-
taken the duty has given me no other means of com-
municating with the 900 volunteers who are to be
under my command.

The Timeg, In noticing the above TIM of the volunteers
to Belgian), remarks
- - - -

It must, we are sure, be needless for us to remind
nor Volunteers that the eyes not only of foreigners of
all nations, but f their own countrymen also, ,sill be
upon them during their appearance on this im-
portant occasion. They will be a very conspicuous
body of men. Brnezels is a very fine city, and
Belgium is, for its area, more thickly peopled
than nuy other country in Europe, lot still the Bel-
gian canital is not like the Bri•oth metropolis, and a
thiu.and F ngliehmen will make a far more prominent
flews over there than a like importation among our.
selvem. The Volunteers, too, will appear among the
Belgians really as Volunteers, and not pimply as sharp-
shooters. It is not indispensable that they should take
part in ride matches, or be competitors for any of the
prizee. Ttey go by invitation to a foreign capital as
representatives of an army which has attracted the
attention of ail Europe. Europe at first disbelieved
in our Volunteer Force. Foreigners did not think it
could be raised, still less that it could be main-
tained; least of all did they imagine that it
would show such effective and excellent
The reviews io Ride Park, it is well known,
took professional critics by surprise, and the
military expert nee of the last five years, by proving
what could be done by volunteer troops, has added to
the respect in which our force is held. Ton years
ago pitch a force was not dreamt of. We have now
135,000 Volunteer Infantry, 27,000 Volunteer Artillery,
4,000 Volunteer Engineers, and • email contingent of
Volunteer Cavalry, all well organized, well equipped,
will armed, and singularly skilled in the use of their
, weapons. It is not Pimply on paper that this army
exists. The Volunteer Force can turn out an extraor.
dinary proportion of effectivem' and at the shortest
notice. It was stated last Session in the Rouse of
, Commons. and, therefore, read Mall parte of the world,
that the Volunteer Staff Corps could, in the 'pace of
30 hoursi place 'deny given spot in the kingdom 110.000
troops, with 60,000 homes, 100 guns, and 10,000 arti-
ficers for the construction of field works. That, and
nothinglese, is the force which this expedition will re-
present at a military fete in a foreign country, and
conclusions of no light weight will inevitably be drawn
, from the carriage and conduct of the soldiers who
compose it.

EXECUTION OF JEFFERY IN LONDON
FOR THE ST. GILES'S MURDER.
John ltichard Jeffery wag execrated on Tuesday morning,
at eight o'clock, In Hoot of liewgato, for the wilful murder
of his child—a boy sit years of age, The murder was one of the
most atrocious In modern times, having regard to the relent-
less and deliberate manner in which It wee perpetrated and
the tender age of the victim, which precluded all Idea of
effective resistance. The convict was a tailor by trade, and
shoot so years of •se Re had lived for years unhappily erith
his wife, and alto eventually lets aim to cohabit with another
men. This appear. to have greatly enreged him, and he con-
tinued to brood over Ms wroup. The unfortunate child,
Trlchard Arthur Jeffery, was barely six years of age at the
time of the murder, and was reputed to he the offspring of
the marriage hot te• mind of the convict seems to hare been
continually haunted and harassed with the notion that hewn,
not the boy'e tether After the separation bet ween him and his
wife the 0.14111.0 d chlody with the wife's mother, a very
poor woman, in the neighbourhood of liolhorta the convict
coetrihuting little or nothing to its maintenance, but calling
to Nee It occasionally, and Min, harsh and kind to It by
I trim. The grandmother, thoueh In very indigent circum-
stance., wee willing to keep It without any amaistance from
the father, and she and it were endeared to each other by
mutual affection. On a Sunday evening in July last the
Convict called unexpectwely at her hours aud demanded
the child. It had then gone to bed, and she tried to per-
suade him to leave it with her over night, and to call
for It next morning, but be was obdurate and bulged
ution taking it away at once The child on being
nwakeriel, begged with a touching pathos that would pro-
' hably have moved to pity any heart but his to be &lowed to
remain with the grandmother, hut the father objected,
I and he dreesed the child end took him away, In spite of
The remonstrancel and entreaties of the grandmother. With.
wit, as the said on the trial either bonnet or shawl, she fol-
lowed them into Mahar, with a sac foreboding that the
father was heat upon taking the bor'• life, and invoked the
assietence of a policeman, but In vain, the zonetable dean.
ing to Interf-re on learning from her that the man was tire
child, father. The convict than went with the boy to the
house of his sister. ern° lived with her he Mend, a cripple,
In the neighbourhood of Seven Dials, occupying a single
room, and &eked and obtained permission to sleep there.
Toward, morning he got up, alleging that he could not
ideep for vi main, and lieslNted on leaving with the boy. His
!sister entreated him not to take the child away at that dead
hour of the night, but in vain. He then went to a cup-
board, and tektite from It some broken victuals, he said be
was going a long journey into the country, and that the boy
would never see hi, "entity" again. He had previously
gone out and bought a candle, and on returning with it he
eat it in two, ligh ing one piece in the room and putting the
tither in his pocket. The frightened child cried touch on
parting with hit aunt, but his team and her entreatiea were
:dike useless, and the father, opening the door with a heart-
less air, commanded the boy to "mach," and SO the little
martyr—for ouch he undoubtedly Was—pused to his death,
for a few hours afterwards he was found hanging by the
neck, with hie hands firmly tied behind his back and quite
dead, In • dark and lonely passage or cellar in St. Odes*
open to the streets at night*, by • young woman who had
gone there to get water from a cistern How the father fled
and some weeks afterwards voluntarily surrendered himself
to justice at • place near Halifax, how the murder was
eventuelly brnught home to him on MN trial by circum-
rturtial, hut still irresistible, evidence, and how, on receiv-
ing sentence, he declared he was guilty, are matters froth in
:he node, recollection.
After his trial, the wretched man waa removed to the
condemned cell, and during his confinement he conducted 1
himeelf In a manner imitable to a man In his awful position I
—although vet ihsolutely as one dreading to lose his life.
On the contrary, When he Was iciornoiti that there wee no
hope lee ittlo, Rnd tuat hie exaction oduld he carried Old,
he expreuen klmeelt elan, rid said the sooner he was Out of
'de morsel the hetter tie stteided the prim,., chapel resin
'alit, RIM pall re ach attti than in the estere 'flu. I the
her. Mr. JOnelr, the orditary to the prierre. Be war visited
OF soon of the geuthauto ::oriptaristeiolets who ottou.iod