The Express.
London, England, 1853-08-30 00:00:00

ASSAULT AND INTIMIDATION.

At the Manchester City Police Court, yesterday,
a man named David Bruce was charged with assaulting
and threatening a journeyman dyer. The complainant,
James Wallworth, is in the employment of Messrs. Scho-
field and Co., and stated that on Friday evening the defen-
dant followed him up Moss-lane, Hnlme, and threw mud
and stones over him till he was completely covered with
dirt, at the same time threatening to " punce" him if he
returned to work. Another person cerroborated this state-
ment. A police officer stated that he had frequently seen
the defendant on picquet near Messrs. Schofield's, and on
several occasions he had followed the officers away from
court. The defendant said he was &bricklayer ; the complain-
ant wee followed by about 150 women and children, who
were covering him with mud, and he called him to his
assistance. At his request defendant told the people it wee of
no use hurting the man, as he was going to leave work on
Saturday, and then he would pay for some drink for them.
Two other persons confirmed the defendant's statement,
and said be himself had mad thrown upon him in attempt-
ing to mese the complainant. Mr. Maude said it was
quite clear, from the complainant's statement, that the de-
fendant had been one of the leading panics in assaulting
him; and from the officer's statement it appeared that he
was one of the ringleaders in this violence. He should
commit him to hard labour for two calendar months.

THE ST. JEAN D'ACRE, 101, screw line-of-battle
ship, Capt. the Hon. H. Keppel, has completed her coaling
which has brought her down considerably. Upwards of
80 men have volunteered to join this splendid ship from the
Mao when paid off which will then nearly complete her
complemest.—Plystosa Times.

-- - •
LAST INDlA.—Yesterday a return was issued, from
which it appears that the amount disbursed by way of gra-
tuities, donations, and grants to the Civil, Military, Medi-
cal and Indian Navy Funds, at Bengal, Madras, and Bom-
bay in the last year given, was 2,223,792 Company's rupees,
in addition to which a donation el 2,5901. is annually {mid
in England on account of the Bengal Civil List. The rate
of interest allowed by the government is from four to sin
per cent.—generally live per cent.
• "

- - _
Tun SWfTII FOR:CERT.—Fresh traces are daily
discovered of the means used by the impostor Freels in
his recent attempt to claim the title and estates of the
Smyth baronetcy. In eke course of the trial a very antique
Bible, it will be recollected, was produced, in which were
the alleged certificates of his mother's marriage, and of his
own baptism. It has now been discovered that the Bible
was purchased by the impostor at a stall in London for
and at the time it was sold to him it had in it the ancient
signature so much relied upon, " John 8. Vandenburgh.'
Out of this circumstance the story of the Vandenburgh
family was doubtless woven, the title of " Count" being
prefixed by the pretended " Sir Richard" to the name, to
give it greater importance, and to favour the probabilities
of the alliance. The power of the troth will, however, we
understand, turn even this circamstence to the dis-
advantage of the prisoner; as a eon of Mr. Vandenburgh
has been discovered, who can speak to the handwriting
of his father, whose name was " John Simon," and
not " John Samuel," the name filed on by the impostor to
bear out the initial signature. When Field, the London
inspector, was conveying his prisoner to gaol, he hsppenrd
to say, alluding to the romantic incidents of the trial, that
it would make a first-class novel. "Sir Richard" sharply
replied, " You need not trouble—l shall write that myself;"
and, accordingly, the prisoner is now employing his leisure
time in wil log his life and adventures.
LIFE-BOAT AT TEIGNMOUTIL—Thu appearance of
a new life-boat, belonging to Teignmouth, amongst the
breakers on the Dawlish coast, last week, revived the an-
tieipatiorus long since telt by the residents of this delightful
watering-place, for the establishment of a similar life-pre-
server for we in cases of accident. It has been suggested
to commence a public subscription for this object, to which
occasional bathers will doubtless contribute most willingly.
—lroolnier's Exeter Gaselle.

DEATH OF GENERAL NIR CHARLES NAPIER.

Another of our Old Guard has passed sway, in the
person of General Ste Charles James Napier, of Indian re-
nown, who, at an early hour yesterday morning, went to
his final rest at the ripe age of 71—an age attained in spite
of wounds and campaigning hardships, enough to have
slain long ago two or three ordinary mortals. When the
funeral of the Duke of Wellington filled St. Paul's with
thousands of spectators, one touching incident made an
evident and deep impression on al. who witnessed it. Down
a gaping hole in the pavement, under the dome, the coffin
had been slowly lowered, and all that wee mortal of the
Duke bad sunk to its resting-place. Show, glitter, and
parade had had their way, but were eshausted
and done, when Sir Charles Napier, Lord Hardioge, Lord
Raglan, Lord Saltoun, and some other human relics of our
great wan—grey, maimed, and most of them tottering—
clustered round the grave to look down for the last time
upon the coffin of their old victorious lender. " Who's turn
will be nest?" seemed the sad but inevitable thought in
tie minds of the tier above tier of spectators wha looked on.
The inquiry has been answered too soon. Lord Saltoun
went the other day, and now we have to add to the list
the still more memorabh. name of Sir Charles Napier.

In the words of a recent biographer, Charles James
Napier—Conqueror of Scinde—was a son of the Hon.
George Napier, and cousin of the well-known admiral of
the game name. In infancy he was removed to Castletown,
Kildare, and was long treated as a delicate child. His
father, a thoroughly competent man, charged himself with
his education, and in January, 1794, before he was twelve
years old, obtains d for him a commission in the 33rd Regi-
ment. His first services to the country were rendered in
the suppression of the Irish rebellion in 1798, during which
he was aide-de,catop to Sir James Duff. In 1804 he be-
came a major in the 60th Regiment. He commanded the
60th thr.iugh Sir Jolla Muore's retreat to Corunna, as well
se at the battle. During this action a battery of the enemy's
glens was observed to be making havoc with our men—it
was the very battery by a shut from which Moore fell. To
take this battery Napier advanced over broken ground,
through walled gardens; his regiment followed. Num-
bers fell, and the regiment was foreetl to retreat. Napier
was struck by a mu‘ket•ball, which broke the outer bone
of his leg. He was compelled to throw down the musket,
and try to hobble back to his regiment, using his motel as
a walking stick. Just at this moment one of the enemy
pierced him in the back with a bayonet. The wound not
being deep he was able to tarn round, and fought his an-
tagonist, when the latter was rejoined by several of his com-
rades, whom, however,Napier kept at bay until he was felled
by another French soldier, who just then came up and
Meek him with a sabre on the skull. The soldiers were
about to despatch him, when he was saved by the interven-
Ms of a drummer, named Gibed, who had witnessed the
Mane, and Napier was taken to the rear as a prisoner. Soult
Medved him with kindness, and as soon as he was sufficiently
metered, suffered him to go to England on parole ;
mid on arriving there, he was regularly exchanged fur a
French officer. When he reached this country, he found
his friends in mourning fur his death, and found, more-
over, that they had actually administered to his estate.
Aaother curious circumstance was, that he had to go
to Doctors' Commons to get his will given back to him ! At
the Cue, Napier was again to be found fighting as a volun-
teer. Two horse, were here shot under him, and at Busaco
he was shot through the face. He was compelled to travel
a hundred miles to Lisbon for efficient surgical assistance,
when the bullet was extracted from behind his ear. He re-
covered, and was at the siege of Fuenies, and in the second
siege of Badajoz. In 1813 he 1 in the expedition to
the Chesapeake, having a year before been made lieutenant-
colonel. He was not called to take any part in the battle of
Waterloo; he, nevertheless, made all haste to join the army
as a volunteer, but arrived on the field early on the morning
of the 19th. He accompanied the English army to Paris,
and was at the storming of Cambray. In tha year 1824,
having been a year on the lonian staff, he was appointed
Lieutenant-governor of Cephalonia. In 1839 he was op.
pointed to command the northern military district of Eng-
land. In 1841 be was appointed to command the troops in
the Bombay Presidency. In 1842 he was sent to Scinde, to
keep open the communiestiens between the columns of
Generals Nott, English, and rothek, then advancing into
Affahanistan. Here he had to fight at an Immense disad-
vantage. At the battle of Meaner, on one occasion, with but
2,000 men, be encountered the Beloochee force of 35,000.
Napier defeated this dispruportioned army, with a loss of
20officers and 250 rank and file, while the enemy lost 6,000.
At the battle of Hyderabad he broke the power of the I
Amen, six of whom delivered up their costly swords,whlsh
Napier returned. His exploits in this campaign called forth
the praise of the Duke of Wellington, who declared he had
never heard of anything like them. One feature of his pro-
ceedings in Seinde should not be forgotten. Napier, for the
first time in the practice of tho British army, inserted in his
despatches the names of the private soldiers who had distin-
guished themselves in arms. Shortly after the battle of Hy-
derabad, while Napier was engaged in an expedition against
a Beloochee chief, a powder magazine blew up and killed cr
wounded all who stood round him. His own clothes were
Pinged, and his sword was broken in his henti,but he escaped
unhurt. lie was appointed governor of the newly-acquired
territory, and abolished their slavery, the suttee, and the
practice of infanticide. He opened canals, and directed com-
merce and industry into newly-discovered channels. Lord
Ellenborough said at the Cheltenham banquet,—" There
never has been, is, or will be, any name so great as Sir
Charles Napier's in Scinde, because no name but his is asso-
ciated with justice—and justice to all men in the exercise of
the most unlimited power and authority; and no man has
imputed to him sat act of injustice is the exercise of it." In
the spring of 1849, when the disasters of the last Sikh cane.
paign had awakened the anxieties of the people of Eegland
and all eyes were directed to the hero of Scinde, by the ad:
vice of the Duke of Wellington, napier was appointed to the
command of the Italian army, and on the 24th of March,
1869, set out for India, but when he arrived there, the object
of the war had been attained. Ile, however, exerted himself
Y reforming the flagrant abuses which had grown up in the
may, especially among the officers. Having remained in India
about two years, he resigned hie command and returned to
England. Sir Charles Napier did, perhaps, more to reform
the British army than any man living, and as an army re.
former deserves especially notice in the column+ of every
liberal journal. Debt and idleness in officers have bad no
greater enemy than he proved. The simplicity of his style
of living enabled him to enforce his admonition on these
heads with peculiar power. This trait was amusingly ex-
emplified on the occasion of the arrival of the messenger who
bore the despatch from the India House, announcing his ap-
pointment to the chief commandership of the Indian forces,
The door of his temporary residence in Berkeley-street was
opened by a female servant, who, in answer to the eager
inquiries of the bearer of the despatch, asserted that neither
Sir Charles Napier nor his lady was at home. This was
perplexing to the messenger, who had been charged to de-
liver the despatch into the hands of either Sir Charles or
Lady Napier. While engaged in altercation with the ser-
vant in the hall, a door at the head of the stairs was sud•

denly opened, and the veteran himself appeared. " I atnSir

Charles Napier," said be ; " but u we are at present at din•
tier, and I have no second room to show you into; you had
better call again." The surprised messenger announced
his errand, and the despatch was at once safely lodged in
Sir Charles's own hands.; In 1843 he was created a G.C.8.,
for his conduct at Menace. He was author of several
volumes, chiefly on military subjects. His contest with the
East India Company about prise money wili long be remem-
bered.
As we have already stated, his death occurred yesterday,
August 29, at Oaklands, near Portsmouth.