The Express.
London, England, 1855-08-31 00:00:00

IRISH BANKRUPTS.

Thomas Henry, of Waterside, Coleraine, in the city and
county of Londonderry, grocer, dealer and chapmen, to
surrender on Tuesday, the 11th day of September neat, and
on Tuesday, the 9th day of October following.
Michael Shea, of Tralee, in the county of Kerry, mer-
chant tailor, dealer and chapman, to surrender on Tuesday,
the 11th day of September next, and on Tuesday, the 9th
day of October following.

NAVAL AND MILITARY.

WOOLWICH, AVOIMT 30.

A party of 45 gunners and drivers of the Royal
Artillery, under the charge of a sergeant, left Woolwich
to-day, and proceeded to Portsmouth, to join Major Shake-
speare's company (No. 8, of the 13th Battalion).
Bevenry of the moessfficient recruits, and more especially
Militia Artillery recruits of the Royal Artillery belonging
to the 7th Battalico, are ordered to hold themselves in readi-
ness to proceed to Btiesrnees.

CHATHAM, Avouar 30.
Oa Wedntaday Col. Eden, the commandant, Maned
orders for the young men comprising the DI/dicta Staff
corps to supply the guard for the dockyard, Fort Pitt,
and the garrison. The reason for such a step is the
pressure of the great amount of duty on the young soldiers,
who lately have been on duty two nights out of three.
These young men on sentry in their loose blue fatigue-
dress and walking stick are imsoldier.like in their appear-
moo, but otherwise smart-looking fellows.

DUBLIN, Atiorsr 30.

About 5 o'clock p.m., yesterday, a number of solun-
teen, **misting of 6 °thous and 270 men, from dragoon
regiments, embarked at the North-wall for Liverpool, en
route for the Crimea. The drafts consisted of from 30 to
60 men each, from the 2nd Dragoon Duluth, the 4th Dra-
goon Hoards, 6th Dragoon Outdo, Bth Dragoons, Bth Bus-
man, 11th Barnes, and 17th Lancers. The crowds of friends
assembled on the occasion were so great that some confusion
prevailed. The troop. were enthusiastically cheered by the
populace.
The following flacon have left Parsonstown Depot this
week to join their regiments in the Crimea, via.:—Lieut.
Henderson, 21st Fusiliers, Captain Woodall, and Bulges
Mills, Heated, and Powell, of the 67th Regiment
Major-General Sir J. C. Chatterton, Bart., K.H., accom-
panied by the Assistant Adjutant General, left Limerick on
Monday, and proceeded to Bier, where he inspected the
Depot Battalion under the command of Colonel Crutckley,
counting of the 21st, 67th, ant 63rd Regiments, who were
found in a very effective and excellent state, about 1,000

strong.
The following statement appears in the Limerick Chen.
nice : " Captain Helsham has resigned his company in the
Kilkenny Militia ; and we underst-nd I other officers
of that corps intend following his example. We have
heard that the *SUN of Captain Belsham's leaving the regi-
ment was a letter having been written by him, out ot a
joke, addressed. not to any individual by name, but to the
regiment at • Botbu Buse' (Bob, rbuoy) Barracks. This
letter, having peeped through the dead letter office, came by
some chance into the hands of Major Tighe, who charged
Captain Iffebham with being the writer of it, and, assuming
that offence was intended to him, placed Captain fielsham
;inner close west, though the latter distinctly disclsimed
say such intention. While under arrest, feeling hurt at
Major Tighe's conduct and demeanour towards him. he
resigned his commission to Colonel Tighe, colonel of the
regiment ; bat, on consideration, he nest day wrote a letter
withdrawing his resignation. This, however, Major Tighe
refused to forward, sad hence Captain lielsham's with-
drawal at preset from the Unite.

WAR MOYEMESra. LIYERPOuL, THURSDAY.—
on
Yesterday afternoon 24 officer. and 811 men embarked
board the steam transport Rana for conveyance to the
Crimea. T onsi.uid of-detachments of the 42nd, 66th,
71st, 79th, 92sd, 93rd. ant 97th Regiments, the whole
usda. the simninad of Llenterlant•Colonel Atterly, of the
Sled. Captain 11 aaaaaa ,of the 21st, proceeds in the flans&
to the Crimea. Commander Brew*, R.N., Admiralty agent,
is in charge, having been traoferred fibim the Great Britain.
Ths Byrom (paddle) and the &teat Britain (screw), trans-
port", leave deck to-day, anti will sail Willey (tsp. for the
Grimes, calling at Mslta. The former will. carry out a
large quantity of shells, and the latter will be kip with
'modes Ws. Both vowels will carry troops.

£b Oxpreitig.

1.1,Ill.11.121•1% SOW,
Illwatleoniesto holonied foe The pron." tendon Evening Mir.
east be at the Mee. 10. BooverWtn•4 by Two oakien .0 the
day of publieation.

HIOR WATIR AT LONDON BRIDGE.
Tuts MT —Mentes, 41. its. Aftersoco, Ih. 3011.
10110aiiew—Meralag. 31. Its Alterews. 33. na.

LONDON, FRIDAY, AUGUST 31.

As it will probably be a long time before we shall
see the Militia, as a national defensive force, again
dispensed with, it becomes a matter of no small interest
to the commuoity at large that it should be ordered
aed disciplined in a manner to render it worthy of
the ancient constitutional name it bears. To meet a

temporary exigency people were willing to put up
with many short-comings and irregularities which
they believed to be, if not unavoidable, at least diffi-
cult to avoid. But as days and months roll by, and
the blemishes and faults of the existing system out-
last the presence and haste in which they were sup-
posed to originate, symptoms of dissatisfaction
and expressions of discontent begin to be
manifested, of which it behoves the Govern-
ment to take heed in time. In several places,
chiefly large towns, the inhabitants have be-
come weary of the disorderly and licentious habits
for which several of the regiments are remarkable.
At Derby, Yarmouth, and other place, the conduct
of the men has been such as to call for the most se-
rictus representations from the local authorities; and
in the latter town a magistrate of the highest re-
spectability, while attempting to interpose for the
protection of some peaceable inhabitants from brutal
outrage, was ferociously assailed by three militia-
men, and, besides other injuries, had his arm
broken. The culprits were last week made amenable
to justice before the local bench ; and such punish-
ments were awarded by the magistrates as the
law enables a court of summary jurisdiction to
impose. But, as we shall presently notice,
these are hardly calculated to meet cases of the kind
in question; and after all, it is not by the exposure
and punishment of the soldiery by the ordinary tri-
bunals, however right and just proceedings of the
kind may be, that a remedy is to to found for the
mischiefs to which public attention is now very gene-
rally directed. We must look deeper, and deal with
the causes, not the mere casual results.

In the first place, then, we are compelled to notice
with regret the proofs that are day by day afforded
of the indiscriminate manner of enlistment that has
been, we tear, very widely pursued. Copying with-
out reserve the recruiting tactics adopted too
frequently for regiments of the line about
to go on foreign service, those who have
undertsken to raise militia corps have been
content to take the first half-doseu fellows of the
prescribed physical qualifications, without any re-
gard whatever to their put character or conduct, no
matter how bad it may have been. We do not set
up for puritans in these matters, and under the ex-
isting circumstances of the labour market in this
country it would be preposterous martinetism to
lay down rules of exclusion on the score of trivial
indiscretions or youthful faults. The old sew of
"the rough oolt and the good horse " seems to
have been originally suggested by the sight of a
recruiting strgeant under difficulties, with a squad of
wild and wayward young boors at his
heels. Bat want of training and amenability is
one thing, and convicted criminality and base
habit, of life are quite another. Nobody would recom-
mend that the gaol•yards should be rummaged for
the materials of • national garrison ; bat is it not
nearly as bad if the inmates of our prisons are re-
ceived into it, ranks, not in exceptional cases, but
numerously and notoriously? It was publicly stated
the other day in court, during the trial of the delin-
quents above adverted to, that a very considerable
proportion of the East Norfolk regiment were known
to be Norwich thieves, with whom the police of that
city were but too familiar; and, when referred to on
the subject, the civil authorities felt bound to confirm
the truth of the allegation. We do not mean to assert
that the officers of the regiment were cognisant before-
head of the fact; but it is clear that no sort of
adequate care or circumspection was used in the en-
rolment of the regiment, or it could have em- I
braced so disreputable and detrimental a contingent.
The instance, we have reason to believe, is nowise
peculiar. Soldiering at home, with lax discipline
and no sort of hardship or danger, is just the sort of
lazy swaggering life that a vagabond who finds his
old haunts getting too hot for him will take to for a
while, and consider rather a relaxation from the
active and hazardoua warfare he has been carrying
on against his neighbours. But is it endurable that
ecoundrelism of this description should be permitted
to strut in a red coat, and to terrorise the peaceful in-
habitants of it. own or the neighbouring town,
merely because nobody will take the trouble to make
proper inquiries es to whence it comes?

This evil, however, would possibly have long passed
unobserved, were it not for the system of billetting in
public-houses which has been hitherto pursued.,
Under this system all the original sins of the consti-,
tution of the force have been forced into shameful
maturity. It has served, like a cover of glass, to foster
their growth, and at the same time to reveal them.
Billetting of soldiers when on their march
is sometimes a necessity, though
vantage. But the permanent quartering of
half•drilled militiamen for months together is
a perfect specific for the diffusion of idleness and
intemperance, and for the mutual demoralisation of

the involuntary hosts and their unruly guests. What
would any good disciplinarian in the line say if he
were compelled to let his men disperse from the
moment they left parade until the roll-call next
morning, to spend the interval how and where they
pleased, and in whatever company their individual
tendencies or old associations might lead them to
select, in a town where they had many gossips and
familiars? Or what sort of effect must such a daily
and nightly dispersion have upon the population of a
town ? If there be any likelihood of the militia being
ever called on to act for the country's defence is the
field, it is absolutely indispensable that they should
be accustomed to act in masses, an? to execute com- 1
plicated movements with precision. For this the
assemblage of several regiments in one place for
several months at a time is confessedly essential; and
in the want of barracks on a large scale the natural
and easy alternative is the formation of large encamp-
ments. The latter are in point of fact infinitely pre-
ferable in every way to stone barracks in the neigh-
bourhood of great towns. It is not as pastime or
pleasure that men should be accustomed to shoulder
arms. Let the soldier's health and comfort,
his recomposes in Wive service and hie
pension when dimbled, be liberally provided
for ; but let me the noble profession of
arms be degraded to the lounging level of the scamps
and deems of the village, or suffered to sink still
lower into the domestic shelter of the breaded belly
or the discharged knave. The soldier boo much to

learn, and ought to be kept to his work ei a duty
which he cannot neglect with impunity. lie is
worthy of his hire—aye, and of all honour to beet
i n when his work is done; but las is fit oar no • bat
to be disbanded when he puts on the natioi livery
only as a cloak for idleness, or as a.mask profli-
gacy and debauchery. In the main, we believe our
militia form the elements of a splendid national
force; but hitherto they have not had fair play. Of
real military discipline they can know little or
nothing, for tbey have been brought anticr its
influence. It is high time that the schoolboy buta-
nes/ of playing at soldiers should be brought to an
end; and that if we are relying upon a vast nominal
home army, we should have an army worthy of being
respected and relied upon.
A word as to the summary powers of justices of
the pesos to deal with affrays and collisions, more
than ever apt to arise out of the billetting system.
In the case already referred to, we are informed that
the drunken cowards who used their belts—very for-
midable weapons in a row—to maim and injure
women as well as men, escaped the salutary punish-
ment of hard labour during the term of imprisonment
assigned them because the persons injured did not
happen to be members of the police. Had the arm
of a constable with a figure on his collar received a
braise or a scar, his assailants might have been suit-
ably punished; but by the law as it now stands it is
• less offence to break the arm of a magistrate who
risks his person in the discharge of his duty.