The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1859-07-19 00:00:00

Stun anb lab.

The statement that Sir John Burgoyne had retired
from the service, and had resigned his post as luspectur-
General of fortifications, is without foundation.
An order offering a gratuity to seamen already in the
royal navy has been issued.
The French are making extraordinary efforts to pre-
pare rifled ordinance for the navy.
The Austrian brig Splendido, Captain G. Visin, from
Singapore, February 2, and the cape of Good !lope April
15, took refuge in Plymouth Sound on Saturday even-
ing. She wa.s bound with a valuable cargo of ;in, Gam-
bier pepper, cassia, hides, and rattans for Trieste, but
when about to enter the Straits of Gibraltar some three
weeks since, inet • friendly American trader, the cap-
tain of which kindly informed her of the existence of
the present war. It is stated that having kft his port
before the date of declaration the ship and cargo would
have been exempt under certain contingencies , now
that she has entered • neutral port she is open to all
liabilities should hostilities be recommenced. Several
Austrian merchant vessels which called for orders at
Fahuouth reinair. there for refuge, but two of them, the
bark Osctitel, Capt. Cetcovich, and the brig Catterina
S., l'aptain Mediu, both from Havannah, have recently
run the gauntlet, and are now discharging their cargoes
of sugar in the Plymouth Great Western Docks.
On Monday the corps of Royal Engineers and the
East India Sappers and Miners, now at Bromptin bar-
racks, Chatham, were drawn up on their parade-ground
for the purpose of hearing read the finding mid sentence
of • district court-martial, which asaseinbled on Satur-
day for the trial of • Sapper of the Royal Engineers,
named Williams, who was tried on the separate charges
, of having used highly insulting and offensive language
towards a non-commissioned officer of the corps, for
trying to knock down a corporal who was in the execu-
tion of his duty and for niaking way with his regimental
necessaries. The prisoner lia4 only been 15 months in
the service, and a short time ago was sentenced to 112
days' imprisonment for knocking down a sergeant and
corporal. The Court found him guilty of the present
charges, and adjudged him bo receive 50 lashes, and also
to be imprisoned for 56 days. On the finding and
sentence of the ('ourt being submitted to Major-General
Eyre for approval, the sentence of corporal punishment
was commuted for 42 days' hard labour, waking 98 days'
imprisonment the prisoner will have to undergo. The
infliction of corporal punishment in the corps of Royal
Engineers is exceedingly rare.
THZ NAVY.—The supplementary estimate of Her
Majesty's navy for the year 1859-60 has been published
by order of Parliament. This estimate of the sum
required to provide for the payment of gratuities
(equal to half the respective amounts of bounty granted
to volunteers into the navy under the Royal proclama-
tion, dated 30th of April, 1859) to seamen now serving
in Her Majesty's ships, who hare at least five years to
serve or who engage to serve for five years if so
required, amounts to the sum of £lOO,OOO.
On account of the extremely low rate of wages paid to
the dockyard labourers st Woolwich (recently reduced
to 12s. 6d. per week) all but the most necessitous
refuse to enter the dockyard employ in that capacity.
A notice has been affixed at the principal entrance,
signifying that labourers, caulkers, and sawyers were
required, stating the numbers, and, although the notice
has been daily hung up during the past month, the
numbers required are not yet engaged. The same class
of men employed in the arsenal are in receipt of 14a.,
16a. 4d.. and 165. per wee, and some of the Laboratory
labourers are earning aa high as 215., and are engaged,
as in the dockyard,l6 hours per week. Another objec-
tion to the dockyard employ and preference to the
Arsenal work, arises from the privileges of the half-
holyday on Saturday, accorded by the War Ikpartment
Tue ARSlT.—Ceneral Peel read a meinoranduni on
Monday evening of the niilitary forces constituting our
home establishment, which we (Globe) fear must be
strangely at variance with facts. The gallant General
said that, excluding the Marines on shore, the enrolled
pensioners, and the recruits for India, the forces in the
United Kingdom on the Is tor June were thus made up;
—"Cavalry, 11,698 ; Foot Guards, 6,184; Infantry,
30,692; Horse Artillery, 1,749 ; Foot Artillery, 12,600,•
Royal Engineers, 1,854; Military Train, 1,861 • Medical
Staff Corps, 375; and embodied Militia, 2;1,218 ; total,
109,640; or, excluding the embodied Militia, 86,472."
Now we must take leave to question the correctness of
some of the most important of these items. Take the
first—the Cavalry. 'There are in the United Kingdom
three regiments of Household Cavalry, and the follow-
ing Regiments of the Line—viz., the 4th and sth
Dragoon Guards, let and 2nd Dragoons, 3rd, 4th, and
13th Light Dragoons, sth and 16th Lancers' and the
10th, 11th, 12th, 15th, and 18th Hussars. These 16
regiments have an establishment of 520 of all ranks
each, so that if they were all up to the establishment
(which we doubt very much) the aggregate strength
would be 8,320 men. Throwing in the depfit of the 9th
Lancers, which cannot be classed under the head of
" recruits for India," inasmuch as the regiment is on
its way home, we may call the whole cavalry force at
home 8,500 men, or more than 3,000 less than it is rep-
resented to be in General Peel's memorandum. A much
more important misstatement is that respecting the
Infantry of the Line, which the memorandum makes
amount to 50,032. The Infantry regiments at home are
—the 9th (Ist battalion), 10th (2nd battalion), 11th (two
battalions), 12th (2nd battalion), 14th (2nd battalion)
15th (Ist battalion,) 16th (two battalions), 17th (2nd
battalion) 18th (2nd battalion), 19th (2nd battalion), 20th
. . .

(2nd batt'slion);2l4 (2nd battalion), 22nd (Id battalion),
24th (2nd battalion), 30th, 30th, 45th, 47th, filith, 6tith,
60th (4th battalion), 76th, 96th, and Rifle Brigade (let
battalion). These 26 battalions, with their depots, can-
not certainly be put down at more than 1,000 men each.
or 26,000 in the aggregate. Adding 32 home depots of
regiments serving in the colonies, which average about
200 men each, or 6,4430 altogether, we have a force of
Infantry of the Line of 32,000, or nearly 18,000Iess than it
is represented in the memorandum read by General Peel.
We cannot speak with equal certainty of the strength
of the embodied Militia regiments, which is stated to be
23,218; but we have very strong reasons for thinking
that it dose not come up to 16,000 men at the outside.
There are one or two other items in the memorandum
which we cannot help suspecting are incorrect, though
not to a material extent; but those we have named
make a difference of about ,I.ICO men between what
we take to be the truth and General Peel's memoran-
dum. We bold exaggeration in these matters to be as
impolitic as it is unjust. We cannot deceive Europe as
to our strength, and it is not advisable to deceive Eng-
land.

An ingenious plan has been invented by the French
Minister of War for the better feeding of cavalry horses
when on the march. M. Naudin, veterinary surgeon,
of the Imperial Guard, has succeeded in compressing
the food for the journey into small tablets like those
already in use composed of vegetable food for the army.
M. Naudin has given publicity to his process, and it is
destined no doubt to render immense service to the com-
missariat departments in every country. The hay and
straw are chopped fine, the oats and corn crushed, and
then mixed in proportion to the nutritive qualities
afforded by each. Upon the mixture is poured a mucila-
ginous residue of linseed, and the whole is pressed and
comes out in • hard cake, only requiring to be dried in
the oven. Although invented for the emergencies of
war, this method of preserving fodder may be found
most valuable in reducing the space most occupied by
the food of cattle on board ship, in distant encamp-
ments, or in the long marches of emigration parties.