The Sun.
London, England, 1855-07-23 00:00:00

[LEFT SITTING.]

DEPARTURE OF DRAFTS POR INDIA.—On Satur-
day morning, several drafts, amounting to 400 young
men, from the 53d, 27th, 61st, and 32d Regiments, left.
Chatham for Gravesend, to embark on board the ships
Marion and Bristol Merchant for their respective regi-
ments in India. Amongst the officers were Captains
Greig, 61st, Sutherland 53d, Phillipps, first battalion.
60th Rifles, Lieut. Drew, 75th, for Bombay and Kur-
rachee.

PRISONERS TRIED AT ASSIZES.—A return obtained
by Mr. Cowper, 111. P., shows that the total number of
prisoners tried at the assizes of England and Wales fro m
1850 to 1855 (including a space of five years), was as
follows :—viz., on the Home Circuit, 2,501 (includi, ig
the prisoners tried before commissioners not judges.) ;
on the Mitiland Circuit, 2,740 ; on the Norfolk Circriit,
2,093 ; on the Northern Circuit, 2,235 ; on the Oxford
Circuit, 4,223 ; on the Western Circuit, 3,493 ; and on
the South Wales and Chester Circuit, 975.
ATTEMPTED MURDER.—A man named Dunn, a cabi-
net-maker, is lying at the University College Hospital,
dangerously wounded, having been stabbed, on Satur-
day night last, by a young woman, named Emma Curtis,
residing with her parents at 25, Phoenix-street. About a
twelvemonth ago Dunn induced Emma Curtis to leave
her home and to live with him as his wife. Subsequer itly
he formed an acquaintance with a woman named Gates,
with whose parents he went to live, and Curtis retui nod
to her parents, but latterly they have met at a house,
No. 10, Phoenix-place, Somers-town. They were all
talking together, when Dunn applied some opprobrious
terms to Curtis, who, in a fit of fury, seized a clasp.
knife, resembling a stiletto, and aimed a deadly blow at
his heart, inflicting a very severe wound.
FATAL ACCIDENT.—Mr. Dearden held an inquest on
Monday at Bury, on the body of John Thomas Yates,
of Wash Lane, Bury, a boy of 13, who was employed as
a doffer at the Brickhoure Mill of Messrs. Lawrence
Openshaw and Sons. While engaged in carrying some
bobbins to a woman who was winding he passed over
a horizontal shaft, fourteen inches from the floor, and
the torn portion of his trousers was caught by the shaft,
and he was thus dragged under and over the shalt re-
peatedly, his head coming in contact with the floor, in-
flicting dreadful injuries, which resulted in his imme-
diate death. No doubt was entertained respecting the
cause of death, and the chief point for inquiry was to
ascertain whether the accident was the result of culpable
and wilful neglect in not having the machinery properly
fenced off. The jury returned a verdict of " Accidental
death."
MORE MATERIAL POR THE BALAELAVA RAILWAY.—
Another instance of the promptitude and celerity with
which private firms carry out their undertaking has just
presented itself. On Tuesday instructions were for.
warded to Messrs. Peto, Brassey, and Betts, from the
War-office, requesting them to take the necessary mea-
sures for hiring a steam-vessel to convey to the Crimea
130 railway waggons, 40 drivers, 10 shoeing smiths, and
a supply of iron for shoes, the want of which has been
much felt. The North of Europe Steam Navigation.
Company's steam-ship Leipzig, of 700 tons, and 250-
horse power, was hired for the voyage, and on Saturday
was at Blackwall, with all her berths ready, and her
coals on board. The work of loading commenced imme-
diately, and on Saturday next she will sail. The men
who go out in the Leipzig are not to be confounded with
the navvy corps engaged by Sir J. Paxton for service in
the trenches before Sebastopol. These latter are in-
tended to relieve the army of some of its labours, and
will consequently be exposed, in common with it, to all
the risks of the siege, while the men sent out by Messrs.
Peto, Brassey, and Betts, are engaged for the purposes
of the railway alone.
CONFESSION OF THE ROTHWELL MURDERER.—We are
authorised to state that Isaac Pinnock has made a full
and unreserved confession of his guilt, acknowledging
himself the murderer of the unfortunate Mr. B. Cheney.
The particulars of the confession have not been handed to
us, but we are assured generally that Pinnock admits the
correctness of the evidence adduced upon his trial. He has
also informed the officers of the prison where he concealed
the money which he took from the pockets of Mr. Cheney,
and the sum has since been found on the spot indicated.
He further states that, on the Friday previous to the
day of the murder, he waited at the stile for the deceased
with the intention (prompted by revenge) of murdering
him, but that he fell asleep, and when be awoke, think-
ing Ur. Cheney must have passed, he got up and went
home. He returned to the spot, however, on the fol-
lowing Friday, and executed his fatal purpose. A. know-
ledge of these facts cannot but be extremely satisfactory
to the jury that tried the wretched man, and the judge
who awarded him the penrJty of his fearful crime. They
would seem, too, to furnish a sufficient answer to those
who would seek to shield the convict from the full con-
sequence of his act under the plea of impaired intellect.
He is proved to have been capable of harbouring re-
venge, of planning, waiting, and watching for its execu-
tion, and of concealing the evidence of his guilt. Not-
withstanding his deformity, and his apparent helpless-
ness, no one who saw him in court could doubt his
sanity for a moment, and his conduct since his condem-
nation has, we have reason to know, been that of a sane
person.—Northampton Herald.
DESTRUCTION OF AN ELEPHANT. —The large elephant
(120 years of age), late the property of Mr. Wombwell,
being incapacle of locomotion from diseased feet, the
present proprietor gave directions for its destruction in
the easiest manner possible. Accordingly, Mr. E. Price,
veterinary surgeon, and Mr. Flewitt, chemist, of Bir-
mingham, on Friday last, proceeded to carry his wishes,.
into effect. In 10 minutes, from the application of chlo-
roform, the animal became totally insensible. Prussic
acid was thee administered without effect, and two.
large doses of strychnine, without producing any per-
ceptible feeling of pain. Not succeeding in these en-
deavours, a continuous application of chloroform was%
made, in the hope that the animal might sink under it ;
but after three hours' perseverance in this course, no
difference of respiration being observed, the administra-
tion was stopped, and in one hour and a half all effefats
of it had passed away. The only known means of de-
struction left were the knife and the bullet. The latter
was first tried (the animal again being chloroformed),
End wounded a branch of the carotid artery, from which
blood flowed in a tolerably sized jet. The opening was
then enlarged by a knife, and the artery fully divided.
In a few minutes the huge animal ceased to live, having
died without a struggle, or evidencing the slightest feel-
ing of pain.
THE NON G.C.B.—We find the United Service
Gazette asserting distinctly that Admiral Sir Charles
Napier, being summoned to Court to be installed as. a
Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath, declined the dis-
tinction. The reason attributed to him, as given
very
unreservedly to his friends, is this :—" I have been a
them
offeredcen-
sured and degraded, and have been denied,
oppor-
tunity of clearing my reputation.
the value of
any precedent of such a slur castiaT)
y byte member of
British orders of knighthood, Poe
Prrsuhquestionabl i
a G.C.8." We believe that we
es_
sshlooovrueerltdooningul°oviokB
fianyvoauirn
ex-
pressed the martial calling, to whom the
themselvesusatopeurires that are on their own
th h f
e condemned, g
esw
y all
in such tokenes
been
ef3einhi
Ministers
rthewe arigdhsi.
they have injured by the lavish.
compound with those
Admiral Deans Du d
trial, or rather have YlettissniroCt hfoair.les
ing of decorations,. _ as, and even
so Sir Charles Napier was fully entitled to be bli-
the Earl of 'Away,.received different degrees of this
list of honour.
colruddeerd, in the The names of Admiral
Boxer and Capt. Christie were published to show that
they had been intended for decoration had they sur-
vived, a method of posthumous reconciliation, an offer-
ing to the manes of men sacrificed to the administrative
blunders of their superiors. But Sir Charles Napier is
neither dead nor soft-hearted. He sees that the Admi-
ralty is this year taking the utmost pains to prove that
he was in no fault in the last. He begged for gun-boats
then ; they have almost with the appearance of reluc-
tance in their niggardly sloth given a few now, and
with these Admiral Napier's successor cannot get up
to the walls that baffled the displaced commander.
When Sebastopol proved too much for Lyons, Na-
pier was thoroughly absolved for not attempting
Cronstadt, the more so as he had no land force to
mate a Russian army, and no ground to land it on,
had he been so strengthened. Instead of the
cowardly trick of endeavouring to throw the blame of
failure upon bim, Sir James Graham should have at ones
prepared the true means of vindicating British prowess
in the Baltic. It is almost plain that rafts and mortars
would have sufficed, if early provided. But every day
will show more of the truth ; and the late First Lord's
incompetency and meanness, and Sir Charles Napier's
ill-usage at his hands, will become more decisively appa-
rent. Sir James Graham was made a G.C.B. for ths
setting forth of ships utterly useless for their express
purpose. No wonder Sir Charles Napier has no great
respect for titles which may be so achieved. And let
this, we should say, be a warning to that literary pup,
pylons that slavers at the month with longing for abaciga
-kia.the new order of rawit.—Weekly Digkakit.