The Sun.
London, England, 1855-11-13 00:00:00

THAMES.

AN INIORRIGIBLE YOUNG PICKPOCKET.—James King,
aged 13, who has been frequently in custody of the po-
lice, was brought before Mr. Ingham, charged with
stealing a pocket-book containing a quantity of papers,
a bill of exchange, and other documents, from the per-
son cf Andrew Povelovitch, a foreigner, who described
himself as a farmer, residing in Wellclose-square.
The prosecutor stated that he was passing along Up
per East Smithfield, a thoroughfare where pickpockets
abound, when he was informed by a man that a boy
had just taken his pocket-book out of his pocket, and
pointed to the prisoner, who ran away. He pursued
him and caught hold of him, and he made a violent re-
sistance, and said he had got no pocket-book, and that
another boy had it. Whilst he was struggling with the
prisoner a
man came up and took his pocket-book from
the lad's bosom, under his shirt, where he had con-
cealed it.

William Murray, a sailor, stated that he saw the
foreigner hauling the boy about, and asked him what
was the matter. The foreigner said, "He has stolen
my purse." The boy then struggled violently, and com-
menced biting the foreigner, and said another boy had
got the pocket-book. A bystander said "He has got it in
his breast," and he opened his clothes and found the
pocket-book there.
Mr. Ingham—Does it contain any money ?
The prosecutor—No, sir, only papers and documents,
but they are of great value to me.
George Coa, a police-constable, No. 138 H, said the
prisoner was released from the House of Correction, after
an imprisonment of one month, on the sth instant, and
there were three summary convictions against him pre-
viously.
Mr. Ingham—Has he been whipped

The boy answered this question in the affirmative, and,
in answer t) another question, said he would be tried by
the magistrate.

Mr. Ingham sentenced the prisoner to be imprisoned
and kept to hard labour for three calendar months,
DEFRAUDING A SAILOR OP HIS WAGES.—Robt,
a rough and forbidding-looking fellow, described as a
ship lumper, of 12, Half Nicholi-street, Bethnal-green,
was brought before Mr. Ingham, charged wish stealing
two 51. Bank of England notes, the moneys of Eugene
O'Connor, a seaman belonging to the town of Kinsale,
in Ireland.

The prosecutor, an intelligent•looking and well-
dressed Irishman, said he had recently been paid off
from his ship, and on Saturday last he fell in with the
prisoner who began talking to him, expressed his readi-
ness to serve him, and " persevered with hint" until he
prevailed upon him to part with two 5/. notes, and he
bad kept them.
Mr. Ingbam—Why, how could you be so feolish as to
part with your money to a stranger you had never seen
before ?

O'Connor—He professed great regard for rne, your
worship. (Laughter.) .

Mr. Ingham—And displayed it by keeping your two

notes.

O'Connor—He told me there were a great many
thieves and sharpers about London.

Mr. Ingham—And he told you the truth, and they
are ever on the look-out for sailors.

(-:)'qctuiliF-4g(l4lp_saicl my notes would be: safe; in

his bands than mine—(laughter)—and I believed him
and let him have them.

Mr. Ingham—Well, I am surprised that a man appa-
rently of intelligence and respectability should have been
so easily duped.

O'Connor—l discovered him this morning in the City
and gave him into custody.
The prisoner, in defence, said he took care of the
sailor's notes while the latter went home with a female
he met with, and on his return he gave him back the
notes. In the evening they adjourned to a house where
they had sausages for supper, and gin and beer, and he
left the sailor there.

O'Connor—He kept my notes. My Lill of wages was
wrapped round them when I parted with them to that
villain.

Mr. Ingham—You gave him the notes, and you can
sue him for them in the County Court. You have bee
made the dupe of a designing villain ; but I can do
nothing in the matter, and he is discharged.

THE SUN, LONDON, TUESDAY EVENING, NOVEMBER 13,.1855

SIR COLIN CAMPBELL.

In giving publicity to the following letter from
Colonel Sterling we, Times, feel bound to admit
that the paragraph to which he has taken exception
does not do justice to the good services and well-
won claims of one of the most distinguished and
deserving officers in her Majesty's army. We have
been assured, moreover, that the return of Sir
Cohn Campbell to this country is in no way con-
nected with the promotion of Sir W. Codrington
to the office of Commander-in-Chief of the Army
in the Crimea, Sir Colin's application for leave of
absence "on urgent private affairs" having been
made b3fore the news of Sir William's appointment
could have reached the Crimea :
" Camp Kamara, Oct. 19.
"Sir,--I have read with amazement a leading
article in the Times of the 4th of October on the
subject of the command of this army. One para-
graph of it I particularly wish to remark upon. I
have italicised the parts on which I mean to
touch :

" A single year of warfare has disposed of the whole
of those veterans, with the exception of Sir Colin Camp-
bell, who has been laid up in lavender all the winter with
his Highlanders, and whose military talents, if we may
judge of them by his exploits in the Punjaub, do not en-
title him to aspire to a great command. We have seen
the result of sending a young army into the field almost
entirely led by old chiefs, who owed their rank to
seniority and brevet promotion ; the best of them have
either fallen in battle or sunk under disease, and those
who remain are mere obstructions to the real strength of
the army.'

" The first assertion here is that Sir Colin Camp-
bell and bis Highlanders were laid up in lavender
during the winter ; I was also in lavender with
them, and have better reason than the writer of
this article to know what the fact was as to our
comforts. The three regiments, the 42d, 79th, and
93d were united in front of Balaklava on the day
after the so-called action of Balaklava. Their
business was, aided by the brigade of Royal Marines,
consisting of some 1,200 men, and several thou-
sands of the poor Turks, who were driven out of
the redoubts on the day of Balaklava, and who
nearly all died during the winter of the cold and
hardship which the sturdy Scotchmen endured
without a murmur, under the cheerful, noble,
generous leading of Sir Colin Campbell,—their busi-
ness, I say, was to finish the works on the heights,
and construct .trenches in mud, and frost, and
snow, and, when made, to guard them. The guard-
ing consisted in the whole of the soldiers being
fully accoutred all night and every night ; one-half
of them lay every night in the trenches, and the
other half in the muddy tents from the 25th of
October till the Gth of December, when the Rus-
sians retired across the Tchernaya. During this
period, and for many weeks afterwards, they were
never dry. Immediately on the enemy's retreat
the fatigue parties to the front began ; on which
subject I beg to introduce an extract of a letter
from Sir Colin Campbell to Major-General Airey,
dated 'January 29, 1855, Lamp in front of Bala-
klava'

" Camp Dalaklava, Jan. 29.
" `Sir,—During the last eight weeks the European
troops under my command have been employed on fa.
tigue to a very great extent; when I understood from
the artillery officers here that the progress of the siege
would be assisted by my doing so, I employed, of my
own accord, and without any order, all the available
soldiers in carrying to the park the following ordnance
stores, besides a quantity of shot and shell, of which I
have no account—viz ,
33 platforms of 60 pieces, each being a
load for
120 large platform sleepers
Iron shoes for platforms, and 90 packets 90 "
450 packages
About 60 fascines
About 30 cwt. of coals, for platform
shoes, &c.

Total
" Besides which these men have carried to Lord
Raglan's house nearly 4,000 bags of biscuit, being 13
days' consumption Ix 25,000 men. Frequently 1,300
Europeans and from 300 to 500 Turks have been thus
employed. At the same time the troops had to carry
up from Balaklava the whole of their rations, their re-
gimental transport having been taken away from them
by the Assistant-Quartermaster-General of the First Di-
vision, and their public animals by the Commissary, the
latter for carrying the rations of the First Brigade of
the First Division. During these fatigues there fre-
quently remained to protect the position merely the or-
dinary day guard and the cooks. These fatigues usually
lasted from seven to eight hours daily, during which time
the men were mid-leg in mud. —I have, scc
" C. CAMPBELL, Major-General,
" Major• General Airey, Quartermaster-General.'

" Until the 6th of December the small British
force in the lines of Balakiava had 18 battalions of
Russian infantry and. 24 guns in position close
overhanging them, and threatening an attack at
any moment. The vigilance, the energy, and judg-
ment displayed all this time by Sir Colin Campbell
will long be remembered by those who witnessed
the exhibition. That officer during the winter
exposed himself to more cold and hardship than all
the other Generals in the army and all their Staff
officers put together ; always on parade with all his
men and officers, in rain and mud, before daylight,
he slept in his clothes regularly for eight months ;
and this is the 'lavender' you write about.
" The next point is a reference to Sir Colin
Canipbell's exploits in the Punjaub, which can be
called nothing but a depreciatory one, since the
deduction drawn is that they did not entitle him
to a great command. I should be glad to know
what does entitle a man to a great command.
See Sir Charles Napier's despatches when he
speaks of Sir Colin. The latter, when he left
India, brought with him letters from Lord Dal-
housie, containing the highest possible encomiums
on his whole military conduct in the Punjaub, &c.
His leading the 61st Regiment at the battle of
Chillianwallah decided the action and saved the
British army ; the feat of this regiment on that
day, under Sir Colin Campbell's leadership,
was pronounced by the Duke of Wellington,
as may be seen in his Grace's letter, preserved
in the erderly-room of the 61st Regiment,
to have been one of the most brilliant exploits ever
performed by the English army. Do you, sir,
know by whom and for what reason Sir Colin
Campbell was spoked against in India ? Sir Colin
Campbell resigned the lucrative appointment
which he held at Peshawur because he would not
allow the Governor-General's political agents to
dictate to him how ke should fight, and the Gover-
nor-General preferred losing his services, which he
acknowledged in the most flattering terms, rather
than have an independent man fighting the battles
of England with an energy and skill equalled by
none except Sir Charles Napier. In Hart's Army
List there are recorded some parts of Sir Colin's
exploits. His early ones were in the Peninsula,
and may well be called so, as he commanded the
storming party at St. Sebastian, and was twice
wounded in the breach ; but it is the fashion now
to laugh at Peninsula heroes. Sir Cohn com-
manded, and with' constant success against the
enemy, from five to six batteries, as many cavalry
regiments, and up to 14 battalions ; besides which,
at one time, he had also held the command of the
Punjaub Division, consisting of 54,000 men of all
arms.

" The third point is the sentence about old
chiefs who owe their rank to seniority and brevet.
It so happens that Sir Colin was promoted to a
company out of his regiment for distinguished con-
duct ; that he purchased his regimental majority
over another officer's head, and also purchased an
unattached lieutenant-colonelcy ; his rank of
colonel he got by being made Queen's Aide-de-
Camp for his service in China ; and he was selected
to be a brigadier-general in this army on its for-
mation,—so that he never got a single step either
by brevet or seniority.
" The last point is the accusation implied of
being a mere obstruction to the real strength of the
army. This is very curious. I do not believe
there are many men in the British army who could
outrun him, even now, and not one who could out-
ride him or endure more fatigue.
" With all this great experience and practice in
war, joined to a wonderful physical vigour, an un-
tiring energy and will, a care and providence for
his soldiers not to be surpassed, it seems to me that
if any man could be selected more fit than another
to command this army, that man is Sir Colin
Campbell.
" It is not a command to be wished for by a wise
man, considering the terms on which it must he
held ; it is the last thing which any friend of Sir
Colin's would wish to see him accept ; but that is no
reason for allowing him to be assailed in your
columns without a reply.

" If you really have the honest wish to keep the
English nation well informed as to facts concerning
the officers out here you will publish this letter.
I pledge my honour to the truth, or to my belief
in the truth, of them, and few people have better
means of getting at the truth than I have had in
this case. I have to assure you that Sir Colin Camp-
bell has not seen this letter, nor does he know that
1 am writing it, and
" I have the honour to be, &c.,
" A. C. STERLING, Lieutenant-Colonel,
Assistant-Adjutant-General, Highland Division.

CRYSTAL PALACE.—SHILLING DAY, Nov. 12.—Ad-
missions on payment, 1,285 ; ditto by season tickets,
239.—T0ta1, 1,524. Corresponding day last year, 1,708.
The Siren, Hellyer, has arrived from Port Natal,
whence she sailed on the 6ch of September, and is the
first vessel that has brought direct a cargo of the pro
ducts of that settlement. J'be principal item is wool,
but she also has ivory, wood, tallow, hides, and miscel•
laneous articles, in addition to a sample shipmen of
Natal sugar.