The Express.
London, England, 1853-12-28 00:00:00

MURDER AND HIGHWAY ROBBERY.

A shocking murder has just been committed at
Barnsley. The victim was named Thomas Husband, a
labourer, employed at Mrs. Coalpit's at Silkstoo. He was
a widower, about forty years of mite, and has lett three
children. He was fond of representing that he bad lately
come into possession of some property, and he was other-
wise noted for boasting about the amount of money he had
in his possession, as well as for his liberality, to his pot
companions. He had made proposals of marriage to several
widow landladies in the town, and when he frequented
their houses he used to spend his money liberally. On Sun-
day night, about eight o'clock, alter drinking at two pub-
he-houses, he proceeded on the turnpike to a lonely place on
the Osborne side of Beevor Hall, followed, it is supposed,
by several of his pot companions. His body was discovered
the next day by the driver of an omnibus,
the horses of which shit d as they came up to it. He
immediately pulled up, and, the passengers alighting,
found the deceased covered with mud and dirt and his
'sockets turned inside out. Their first impression was that
the man was drunk, but on lifting him up they discovered
teat his head hung loosely on his shoulders. This led to
the belief that his neck was dislocated, and the fact was
subsequently confirmed by the evidence of the surgeon.
The omnibus drove up to the next toll-bar, about 150 yards
further on the road, and information was given to the bar-
keeper, who went to take tare of the body until assistance
arrived from Barnsley. A surgical examination rendered
it dear that the deceased's death could nut have been oc-
casioned by accident ; and it was supposed that the deceased
had been "croaked " and robbed. " Croaking "is effected
by one person going behind another, putting kis knee
agairat his victim's back and pulling his head backwards.
An inquest has been commenced, but it stands adjourned.
The deceased was seppused to have bad 'enrol pounds in
his possession when he left the last public-house he visited.

Feu ervrEoo.

TO COItitF.SPONDENTS.

shard E 01-.l'cie e.,:t..u.an the ruse eTraiwer
••t;anue,' pub:dihed every luandry and Friday night, an um"

fur port.

tiWeertteen, eve toteretwl fee °Tie Expreee," Lowlots Keening PePer.
insist be r tne t otike, lu, UOIATOTIO-OWnst, by Two o'cloei oo the
day al I. 4.. 6A:102.

1111;11 WATER AT LONDON BRIDGE.
T 11,4 I,AT —l4orntag, Uh. 00... Afterovon, vb. 7e.
turning. 00.310 Afternoon. D. 3m

LONDON, WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 24.

A NEW fleet is about to be fitted out for service (it
is said) in the Baltic, and there can be little doubt
but the name of Sir Cnsnies NAPIF.R will be found
in the list of candidates for the command of it,
Without now discussing the question whether or no
the new fleet is needed, we may well hasten to say that
any official proposition fur extra force afloat ought to
be accompanied by an official offer to get rid of some
existing naval abuses. The upper ranks of the service
are sadly overstocked, whilst good and most active
dicers are kept on the shelf. Our Navy, moreover, is
encumbered by a host of vessels, scores of which
are fit 1.. r nothing but coal-hulks. Why should
a large portion of our Navy be a costly sham?
The worthless ships should be sold out of the way
at once, that we might really know how we
stand. An immense paper fleet is a mere excuse
for keeping an inordinate number of useless officers,
whilst we have the greatest difficulty in mustering
enough able seamen. Indeed no step in naval
reform would be more valuable than one that got rid
of the " top hamper" of our Navy List,—which per-
mitted the best officers to get promotion and active
service,—which weeded out what is useless, and
which expended the money saved by getting rid of
worthless admirals and worm-eaten ships, in giving
better ray and more comforts to the able-bodied
sailors. We might have the finest fleet in the whole
world, and could, if need be, sweep the seas of all
evil-doers, come wheooe they might, if we had the
good sense to insist on putting our Navy thoroughly
to rights. We find that the Russians are taking a
wise ate;s of this kind. They have turned out the
worthless portion of their Baltic fleet, and have ordered
• large number of 'crew line-ot-battle ships—foie
Ina by t °retract. What a story this tells. The Cos
has the .vit to find out which is the cheapest sad
quickest and most business-like way of getting a
powerful fleet to sea. He goes with cash and esa
tract in hand and lets the shipbuilders of Europa
and Am: rice compete with each other for his custom.
In this way he will get his twenty or thirty sail of
the line at a fixed price, and if his contract is care-
fully worded (as it doubtless will be) no ship will be
paid fur unless it will steer, steam, and sail
well. Our plan has been totally different to
this. We have built our vessels in Govern-
anent yards by men who have been hired because
they were safe voters—not because they were good
shipwrights—and the consequence has been that ships
of war ale produced at a huge cost, some of them
rolling so enormously th►t the lower guns are
useless unless the sea is smooth as glass; others that
will not sail, and others that will net steer. Our
wasteful blunders have been innumerable, but these
proofs of mismanagement are allowed to float idly, en-
cumbering the Navy List, costing large sums of money
for repairs and superintendence, and forming a con-
stant excuse for hanging upon the taxes a host of
aristocratic idlers as Admirals and Post-Captains on
half-pay, or on nominal service. What we need is a
thoroughly efficient navy—every ship equal to the
work her size fits her for, and a body of the best sea-
men in the world, willing to man our ships
when required to do so. At present we waste a
large portion of our Naval Taxes on useless officers
and worthless ships; and then, to make both ends
meet, we so starve down the wages of the seamen that
the best A. B.'s run off to America and elsewhere for
the very simple and practical reason that in said
America and elsewhere they get better pay
and better provisions than they are offered in
the British Service. Since a new fleet is in
contemplation, the only terms on which it should
be sanctioned are that with such new force we have
also a naval reform. Sir JAMES GRAHAM is in the
position to make the needful changes, and he ought,
for his own reputation's sake, no lees than as an
honest minister, to take proper steps for the
purpose. He has an active good Reformer, the popular
Member for Middlesex, as a Secretary—a man
whom the public rely upon to see all the justice
done in these matters which a Secretary is per-
mitted to do, and surely between a Reforming
First lord and a Reforming Secretary to the
Admiralty we might well calculate upon having, in
the year before us, a good instalment of naval
reformation, as some set-off against certain
backslidings of the Cabinet in other matters.l
But do not let any mistake be made. Naval reform
does not mean any cheese-paring that may weaken the
Navy, hut wise re-arrangements that shall give us a
more efficient force by far than we have at present,
without (it may be) much extra cost. What the
country asks, and has a right to ask, is a thoroughly
efficient English fleet. Ships for the Black Sea,
ships for the Channel, ships for the Baltic, if requisite.
All these we ought to have for the 6,233,4931.
voted fur the Navy for the year 1833-4; more espe-
cially when we find the Navy List published in
January of the present year telling us that we have
no less than Mb ships of war—their names running
all through the alphabet, from the heavy Aboukir at
Davenport, to the hundred-horse steam ship Zephyr,

then of Woolwich—all built and paid for.
Surely with • force of this sort on paper,
and with the sum of mere than siz-and-
a quarter millions sterling voted for a single year's
pay, food, and repairs, we ought to be able to fit
out • fleet or two beyond those now in service.
Admiral DVNDAS has but comparatively few ships of
these five hundred and forty-five. Where are all the
rest ? There are some, we know, as usual, in the
Tagus; but if we estimated the complement of Chan-
nel and Mediterranean fleets together, at the odd
forty-five ships of war, we still have fire hundred
vessels unaccounted for. Out of these let us, if need
be, have a Baltic fleet, and a good one; and if
we are told that the whsle five hundred will
sot furnish such fleets as we ought to have afloat, or
that first class A.B. seamen and good Runners are
not to be had to man such additional fleets, without
• la►ge increase of the 6,233,4931. Navy Estimate of
last year, let us, we say, have a common sense
consmis.ion, such as the Cata recently sent to over-
haul ht. fleet in the Baltic. Let us hive the shams
picked out and sold (they will fetch a good price just
sew), and with the money so gained, and the money
saved by not manning and officering useless hulks,
and not keeping • little army of half-pay
lumber, let good ships be built by contract, and
better wages be given to the seamen. Our marines,
too, are a force of value and importance. Let them
profit by our reformation.. We may get marines
when we cannot get seamen. Let us have more
marines for our money, and (we repeat) let Sir
JAMLA 611.111.01—n0w a Cabinet Minister of consi-
derable Admiralty knowledge—inaugurate these im-
portant changes. lie should r. it try any cheese-
paring, but mash a tine liberal eco:wasy of the enor-
mous res .urees voted by the Ileum of Commons
as shall .ive England what she s'lould always enjoy
—the undoubted mastery of the Sea. Whatever else