The Express.
London, England, 1851-06-27 00:00:00

DISGRACEFUL MILITARY OUTRAGES IN

EDINBURGH AND BELFAST.

On Sunday, and again on Tuesday, most unseemly
disturbances were occasioned in Edinburgh by soldiers be-
longing to the 33rd Regt., at present quartered there. On
Monday two of the men were sentenced each to sixty day's
imprisonment for having wantonly assaulted several persons
on the previous evening. On Tuesday night, however, the
rioting was renewed. About nine o clock, from ten to •
dozen soldiers were observed standing at the corner of
Bank-street, evidently intent on perpetrating some mischief
before retiring to their quarters in the Castle at the beating
of the "tattoo." The first direct manifestation of what
was intended by them took place (says the Scotsman) in the ,
Lawnmarket, when one of them, in passing, took up his stick
and broke a pane of glass in a shop window. Two policemen
who were r.car the spot interfered, when one of them,
in attempting to take the soldier that committed this wanton
outrage into custody, was knocked down. The other CM'
stable also shared the same fate. A number of the inha-
bitants instantly came to the rescue of the police, and •
scuffle ensued in which the soldiers would soon have been
overpowered. Curiously enough the picquet came up at
this juncture, when they lent their aid to augment rather
than, as was their duty, to repress the disturbance. The
soldiers who were engaged in the original struggle now
commenced to divest themselves of their side belts, with
which and their sticks they made a dreadful onset upon the
inhabitants and the police, inflicting severe wounds upon
a number of them. The sergeant in charge of the
piegnet was one of the most active iu the Gay. He
knocked down a policeman twice, and also drew Its
bayonet, and threatened to run him through. The
report of what was going on soon reached the police-office,
and, it being just the hour when the night watchmen as-
semble before proceeding out to duty, a large muster of
policemen, with Lieutenant M'Lclland at their head, ran
up to the spot, when the soldiers, whose numbers by this
time had been increased to some thirty or forty, began to
retreat, making a halt at the Assembly Hall, where they
picked up some large stones and commenced to throw
them at the poiiee. Tho police and citizens continued
however to press in upon them, and drove them up the
Castle-hill. Here they assailed the police with another
shower of stones, but were ultimately driven across the
esplanade and into the Castle gate. In the scuffle the po-
lice and inhabitant, were repeatedly knocked down ; and
we understand that thirteen policemen in all have been in-
jured, and six of them rather seriously, together with se-
veral of the inhabitants, who, we may remark, gave the
police the most efficient assistance throughout. A number of
the soldiers have also been injured, as the police and inha
bitants were induced to chastise them pretty severely fur
their brutality.
A sergeant and nine privates are imprisoned in the
police-office ; and it is expected that as many more will be
in custody in the Castle, for Lieutenant M'Lelland took the
precaution to cry out to the sergeant on duty at the Castle-
gate to take the names of the rioters as they entered, so
that there will be no room for that evasion by which the
offenders on Sunday evening were screened from justice.
It is deserving of notice that not a single commissioned
officer was to be seen during the whole disturbance,
although in the immediate neighbourhood of the castle.
The parties in custody will be brought before the bar of the
police court, but the charges against them will, in all like-
lihood, be remitted to a higher court, where they will be
fully investigated. In the meantime it is not unlikely but
that the attention of the authorities at the Horse Guards
will be called to the matter.

The Northern IV4ig of Tuesday contains the following
account of another military outrage near Belfast, the prin-
cipal features of w iliAt bear a remarkable resemblance to
the foregoing : Ou Sunday evening, during the heat of
the evening muster in the barracks, a number of soldiers of
the 27th Regiment, while proceeding toward their quarters,
by the Carrickfergus-road, amused themselves by jostling
against and otherwise annoying every individual whom
Mince or the love of an invigorating walk in that beautiful
locality brought in contact with them. Being evidently
labouring under the influence of spirits they were allowed
to proceed with their tricks unmolested, as it was expected
that the matter would have ended here ; hut, on their ar-
riving ut the terminus of the Ballymena Railway, one of the
party rushed upon a respectable young man, who hap-
pencil to be passing at the time, and inflicted a violent blow
on his face with a heavy stick which he carried, uttering,
at the same time, language of an irritating political charac-
ter. This unprovoked act was no sooner committed than
the assaulters took to the centre of the road, and prepared
to bring into action thtir apparently most favourite
weapon—the cross.belt—which, of late, has been an fre-
quently handled by them in their mules with the police,
&c. Fortunately, however, the few civilians present did
not appear to relish an encounter with these gentlemen
thus armed, and they were thereby allowed to make off
which they did immediately. We arc not aware whether
or not the ease will be brought under the notice of their
commanding officer by the principal sufferer from the at-
tack, but that the parties could be identified is almost
beyond doubt. On this oceasiou, as on some others of a
similar nature, the absence of the police patrol was much
to be regretted, the above not being an isolated case of
its kind in reference to parties of the same class.