The Express.
London, England, 1867-10-16 00:00:00

FENIAN ALARMS.

The Edinburgh Courant says :—" On Monday forenoon,
telegraphic orders were received from the Home-office
by the officers in command of the Highland DepOt Bat.
telion at Aberdeen to send on at ones 50 men and offioers
to the vicinity of Balmoral, one half to be stationed
at lover, near Balmoral, and the other half at Castleton
of Braemar. Accordingly, the men in depot of the itird
Regiment were immediately paraded in preparation for
departure, and they left by the 2.45 train for Balloter in
command of three officers and three sergeants. The
unusual nature of the order soon gave rise to rumours u
to its cause of a somewhat exciting sort, the common
I averment being a Fenian alarm in the vicinity of royalty.
Considerable colour is given to thia supposition by the
fact thaithesheriff and the chief constable went also toßal.
moral, and that the police carefully watched the trains from
the south on their arrival. Another statement was that
the troops were required :as a guard of honour at the an-
covering of the Priam Consort statue by Theed. Other
twenty-five men were being kept in readiness to march at
the barracks in case of further orders._7

The Seatinnan says on the same subject:—" A rumour
was spread in Aberdeen on Monday that the Queen had
been shot at by some Irishmen while out in the neigh-
bourhood of Balmoral ; and to this alarming intelligence
was ucribed the departure of Major Roes, the chief con-
stable of the county of Aberdeen, and of Sheriff Cowrie
Thomson, by the afternoon train for Balloter, accompanied
by a body of soldiers belonging to the depots in the bar-
racks. So far, however, as we have been able
Ito learn by telegraphic inquiry at • late hour,
' there existed no foundation whatever for the startling
rumour. No alarm of the presence of Fenian,
prevails or has prevailed anywhere on Dettaide, although
in Aberdeen itself, as we are informed, rumours of in-
! tended Fenian enterprises have been very current. The
I soldiers left Aberdeen by orders from headquarters, for
the purpose of furnishing a guard of honour on the °cm-
. sion of her Majesty uncovering the statue of the Prinos
t Consort which has recently been erected near Balmoral ;
and the sheriff and chief constable presumably went to
Balmoral in connexion with the same ceremonial. Some
busy imaginations, excited by the vague talk about pas-
' Bible Fenian raids in Aberdeen, had apparently coupled
their fancies with the fact of the departure of the soldiers,
' and thus generated the painful and foolish report which it
is most gratifying to be able to deprive of a moment's
currency beyond the spot where it arose."
The extraordinary proceeding on the part of the naval
authorities at Queenstown, on Thursday night, of onlering
all the officers and men who bad been on shore to return
j on board their ships, the Mersey and gunboats, and placing
them under arms during the night, has, way s the ( 'ori. Ex-
aminer, naturally been the cause of much gossip
at Queenstown. Nothing has since transpired to
justify such precautions being taken, but the facts of
their being repeated every night since, and boats
manned by armed seamen patrolling in the harbour, leave
little doubt of their good reasons for precautionary mea-
sures. The rumours in reference to the affair are, of
course, numerous, and amongst thesis is, that a movement
was made on the faith of information which was received
from Cork that • number of Fenian* bad made a plot to
blow up the guard ship, by means of a torpedo, which was
to be carried out on Thursday night. This, however, is •
mere rumour, and cannot be, therefore, ,depended upon
for accuracy.
Yesterday morning the sth and 17th troops of Royal
Artillery left Woolwich at an early hour for the
terminus of the Great Northern Railway, King's-cross.
There trains were in readiness to convey them to Hull and
Manchester. The baggage was afterwards brought to the
same station by the Military Train, and was forwarded to
its destination by trains that left at half-past ten. At •
late hour on Monday night two other troops of the Artil-
lery left Woolwich, under orders to proceed by forced
marches to Manchester.