The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1859-09-20 00:00:00

ilnitu ant ?gag.

The Excellent. gunnery ship, stationed at Ports-
th, is ordered to be taken into dock to be re-
paired and overhauled. It is expected that her moor-
Ings will be taken up by Her Majesty's ship Cohost's,
80 guns, to fully test the cupola furnace with which
she has recently been fitted for firing hollow shot
filled with molten lead.

On Tuesday morning a collier brig, called the Maid
of Kent, bound for Rochester, ran into Her Majesty's
screw steamer Sleanee, at her moorings at Sheerness.
Both the brig's masts went by the board ; the
Meanee's figure-head was carried away, and she sus-
tained other damage. The Maid of Kent was towed
away • complete wreck by one of the Medway
steamers. . . .

A detachment of the Royal Engineers, consisting of

I lieutenant. 1 sergeant, a quartermaster and commis-
sary, and 12 non-commissioned officers and men, are
expected to embark at Southampton on or about the 2nl
proximo, for British Columbia, rid Panama, to join the
Boundary Surveying Expedition, under Col. J. S.
Hawkins, ILE., Her Majesty's Commissioner. The
non-commissioned officers and wen who are now being
selected will consist of topographical surveyor Hill,
and other draughtsmen, photographers, mechanics, kc.
Their working pay and allowances will be on • very
liberal scale. The expedition for the survey of the
boundary between the United States and British
America, along the 49th parallel of latitude, which
sailed in April, 1858, is making rapid progres• in
defining and marking out on the ground the disputed
boundary, and, with the exception of one casualty by
death, all enjoy excellent health.

•
A district court-martial has just been held at Chat*
ham, for the trial of a private of the Royal Engineers
stationed at that garrison, whose history affords a
practical illustration of the extent to which desertion
and subsequent re-enlistment are now carried in the
army, in order to defraud the Goverinnent of the high
bounty given to recruits, notwithstanding that the
punishment of the lash has been recently awarded for
that crime. The prisoner, a sapper. named John
Fitzer, deserted from head-quarters, Chatham, a few
mouths since, and in a few days afterwards enlisted
into the 2nd Dragoon Guards, receiving the high
bounty paid to cavalry recruits. After being • short
time in the 2nd Dragoon Guards he deserted from that
regiment, making away with the whole of his kit and
necessaries, with the intention of re-enlisting into ano-
ther regiment, but was apprehended as a deserter,
and sentenced to six months' hard labour. Previously
to his desertion and re-enlistment into the 2nd Dra-
goon Guards he deserted from the Royal Engineers
and enlisted into the 4th Dragoon Guards, receiving
the usual bounty, but immediately surrendering him-
self as a deserter. The prisoner has been in the service
barely tto year*, during which time lie has been
tried no less than five times for various Grimes,
chiefly desertion. For his desertion and re-enlistment
into the 2n.1 Dragoon Guards the Court sentenced him
to receive Al) lashes, to be imprisoned for 112 days, and
to be placed under stoppages until the sum of th. 10a,
.4 which he defrauded the Government, is made good.
. . . . . .

On the sentence being aubmitted to Major-General
EVIV for approval that officer ordered the punishment
of the lash—which is but seldom inflicted at Chathiuu
—to be commuted to 42 days' imprisonment, making
154 days' hard labour. The prisoner has been already
branded with the letter "I)." and is one of the very
worst character* in the corps of Royal Engineers.

tteNeoax.» roll THE BRITISH NAVV.—The eighteen I
gunboats of =fierier tonnage, which were ordered some
few weeks since to be built by contract at the various
yards in the Thames, Cowes, Lc., are being
rapidly proceeded with, and will be ready for launching
at no very distant period. The majority of these boats
are in the hands of Mears. Green, Wigram, Scott Bus-
*ell, and the Thames Ship Building Company, and the
remainder are being constructed by smaller builders.
The vessels will constitute a larger class of gunboats
than those at present in the service, as they will range
between 400 and 700 tons burthea, and will be fitted
with powerful screw engines.—
eta MUTINY MEDALS. We have been favoured
with a sight of one of the medals now in proems of
striking at the Mint, and intended as rewards for the
valour displayed by our force in suppressing the Sepoy
insurrection in India. It is a fine work of art. The
size of the new Indian medal is precisely that of the well-
known Crimean decoration, and, in fact, the obverse—
the head of Her Majesty, with the legend " Victoria
Regina"—sceins to he the product of the identical die
used for those too lavishly dispensed discs of silver. The
reverse, however, presents a totally different device.
The British lion, or a lion, is shown standing in all his
natural dignity beside an erect figure of Britannia, who,
with an oval quartered shield on her left arm, and a
reserve of wreaths in her left hand, is extending her
right hand as if in the act of bestowing upon • brave,
hut, so far as the medal goes, invisible warrior, one of
the leafy chaplets. The word " India" surmounts the
head of Britannia, who it is really refreshing to see re-
presented on her legs after so long • sitting on our ex-
piring coinage of copper, while the dates 1857-1858 placed
below the frieze declare the period when the immortal
deeds of arms for which the medals are to be awarded
were performed. The material of which the medals are
composed is fine silver, the weight of each precisely one
' ounce, and the number to be produced, as we are in-
formed, something like 100,000. May those for whom
they are intended long survive to wear them, and if need
be, go forth to earn others in the Celestial Empire, where
treachery, great as that of Hindostan, seems to exist,
and where British prowess must again be displayed I Mr.
L. C. Wyon designed, as his name under the frieze de.
notee, the reverse of the Indian medal, while the late
W. Wpm was the artist for the obverse,—Mediartics'
Magazine.