The Sun.
London, England, 1855-08-06 00:00:00

Naval and Military Intelligence.

The Australian Screw Company's steam-ship Aushrs.-
lian leaves Southampton to-morrow for Woolwich to
embark a siege train for the Crimea. The Royal mail
steam-ship Trent it is expected will embark her horses
and troops at Southampton, and leave for the Crimea on

Saturday next.
The Sitnoom's Russian prisoners (65 in number),
whom she brought to Portsmouth on Friday from the
Black Sea, were transferred to the steam transport Dee
on Saturday, for passage to the depot at Devonport.
Her Majesty's steam troopship Perseverance arrived at
Spithead on Saturday morning from Kamiescb, July
14th ; Constantinople, 18th ; Malta, 24 ; and Gibraltar.
29th ; with Major Radcliffe and servant, of the 20th
Regiment ; Major Foster and servant, of the 4th Dra-
goons ; Captain Milwan and servant, Royal Artillery ;
Lieutenant Mitchell, Royal Marines ; Mr. H. E. Wood,
midshipman, from her Majesty's ship Queen ; Mr. Cot-
grave, midshipman, of the General Screw Steam Ship-
ping Company's service, 22 naval invalids, and four
horses. She went into Portsmouth harbour on Saturday

evening, and into the steam basin in the dockyard yes-
terday forenoon to be docked to ascertain a leak, &c.
The steam transport Germania, No. 207, Capt. Neyuber,
arrived at Spithead on Saturday morning from the east.
She left Balaklava July 14, Scutari 17, Malta 23, Gib-
raltar 29, with Lieutenant Irby, of the 37th Regiment,
and servant from Balaklava ; Lieutenant Ilarford, of the

12th Lancers, from ditto ; Lieutenant Douglas, of the
9th Regiment, from Scutari ; Captain D. Sullivan, from
ditto ; Mr. and Mrs. Douglas, and Mr. Hunter, from
ditto ; Mr. Peacock, of the civil service ; Captain North,
of the 60th Rifles ; Mrs. North, child, and servant,
from Gibraltar ; Lieutenant Campbell, of the 92d High-
landers ; and Mrs. Elgee, child and nurse, from Gib-
raltar. _

The Hopewell and Grosvenor freight ships are now
being laden at the Royal Clarence-yard, Gosport, with
rum, coffee, cocoa, biscuit, beef, and pork, for the forces
in the Crimea, and will convey about 1,200 tons.
The screw steam-ship Sanspareil, 71, Captain Wood-
ford J. Williams, got up steam on Saturday in Hamoaze,
with the intention of making a trial trip, but in conse-
quence of some defect in her engines and machinery the
attempt failed.
Twenty additional hired joiners are ordered to be en-
tered at the Devonport Dockyard to expedite the fitting
of the Hibernia, 120, as a receiving ship at Malta. She
is expected to be ready by the 16th of September.
The Lord Dalhousie, sailing transport, No. 116, ar-
rived at Spithead, yesterday afternoon—from Constan-
tinople, June 23, and Malta, July 7—with 150 invalids
from Scutari, Captain Wragge, RA., in command ; Dr.
Laing, Medical Staff, in charge. Two deaths occurred
on the passage.
The sailing transport Saldanha, No. 209, Captain
Wild, arrived at Spithead, yesterday afternoon, from
the East, bringing Dr. Anderson, Staff-Surgeon of the
let class ; Dr. Carter, Assistant Staff-Surgeon, Dr.
Spitall, Assistant Staff-Surgeon.; Dr. Lawson, Assistant
Staff-Surgeon of the Rifle Brigade (sick) ; 256 sick and
wounded soldiers, 16 guard and hospital stewards, 1 ser-
vant, two purses, and 6 women, . under the charge of
Captain 0. Y. Cocks, of the 4th King's Own Regiment.
One officer (Lieutenant Wemyss) and 13 men died on
the passage from Balaklava.
The Mercia, sailing transport No. 2, Captain Johns,
arrived at Spithead, yesterday afternoon, from the East.
She sailed from Malta, June 27, and Gibraltar, July 20.
She brought 4 sergeants, 6 corporals, 1 drummer, and
129 privates sick or wounded, in charge of Captain
Blacklin, of the Staff. She sailed into Portsmouth har-
hour at 6 o'clock last evening. -:40
The Germania, steam-transport, raft Portsmouth har-
bour last evening at 6 o'clock, for the westward.
The screw steamer Emeu, is ordered to be in readiness
to embark on the 14th inst., at Liverpool, 23 officers
and about 600 men of the 51st Regiment, for Malta;
and the Andes, screw steamer, on the same day, 8 offi-
cers and 300 men of the 51st Foot; 9 officers and 100
men of the 3d, 4 officers and 100 men of the 31st, and 10
officers and 200 men of the 48th.
The Union sailing transport has left Woolwich for the
Black Sea ; and the Arthur Gordon screw transport has
sailed for the same destination, having on board a quan-
tity of harness for the mounted staff -corps, and several
bales of sandbags, With " a number of flannel bags or
bursters for the purpose of filling shells.
The-following appointments were made on Saturday at
the Admiralty .
Mr. C. N. B. Wilkinson, second master, to the Ha-
vannah ; Mr. George Clarke, acting second master to
Victory.
The following acting assistant-surgeons are appointed
as subjoined George Ryding, to the Royal Al-
bert ; Mr. Edward Pratt, to the Transit ; Mr. Henry
H. Cox, to -the.. Hermes ; Mr. John Robinson, to the
Indefatigable ; and Mr. Walter J. Bluett, to the Alarm.
Mr. W. W. Green, paymaster to the Alecto ; Mr. H.
J. N. Miall, paymaster to the Siren ; Mr. J. L. Thorne,
paymaster to the Havannah ; Mr. Thomas Dinnis, act-
ing paymaster in charge, to the Bloodhound ; Mr. W.
H. Hills, assistant paymaster to the Illustrious ; Mr.
Richard Sainthill, assistant paymaster to the Neptue ;
Mr. H. J. Ray, assistant paymaster to the Havannah ;
Mr. H. B. Rowe, clerk to the Waterloo ; Mr. Frede-
rick A. Keogh, acting clerk to the Siren ; Mr. Norcott
D. Roberts, assistant clerk to the Havannah ; and Mr.
J. W. Silverlock, assistant clerk to the Malacca.
Major-General Sir' Frederick Smith, K.H., Com-
manding Royal Engineer in the south west district, leaves
Portsmouth (where ha has been stationed upwards
of three years), in a few days for Aldershott, where he
will have the post of Resident Commanding Royal En-
gineer, and, as at Chatham, Instructor-General of Field
Fortifications.
The Government are making active preparations for,
again wintering the army of the Crimea. The follow-
ing firms have just entered into contracts to supply
about 1,000 huts for berthing the troops, which are to
be ready for shipment within one month from the pre-
sent time :—Mr. Luke Camwell, of Portsmouth ; Messrs.
Cubitt and Co., Hayward and Nixon, Myers, W.Piper
Jackson, Locke and Nesoam, and Lucas Brothers, of
London ; Edmund Smith, of Woolwich ; and Eassie, of
Glocester.
A further detachment of the King's Dragoon Guards,
consisting of about 86 men, rank and file, 116 horses,
and a number of officers have embarked at Liverpool on
board the screw steamer Resolute for the Crimea. The
officers were—Lieutenant-Colonel Haythorne, Ist Foot ;
Lieutenant Colonel Gloster, of the 38th Foot ; Captain
Davie, of the Grenadier Guards - Lieutenant Gascoigne,
ditto ; Lieutenant Viscount Stonors, ditto ; Brevet-
Major the Hon. P. Fielding, Coldstream Guards ;
Major Street, 57th Foot ; Captain Piers, with a detach-
ment of the 96th, to be embarked at Dublin, where she
will stay to take on board 14 officers of the sth Dra-
gsons, let Foot, 13th ditto, 14th ditto, and 90th ditto,
with 400 men and 77 horses.
Draughts of the Ist Royals, 14th, 57th, and 90th
Regiments have arrived in Dublin to await the arrival
of a transport hourly expected from Liverpool to convey
them to the scat of war.
The depot of the 60th Royal Rifles, under Captain
Frazer, has moved from Galway to Athlone.

THE POSTPONED POLISH MEETING.—Wo learn with
sincere pleasure that the meeting In behalf of Poland is

positively fixed for Wednesday, and that Lord Harring-
ton, whose whole life has been honourably and consis-
tently marked by devotion to the great principles of
rational independence, takes the chair. A letter from
the Marquis of Breadalbane leaves no room to doubt
that the contretemps of Wednesday last was simply and
solely owing to mistake. We do, therefore, hope that
all groundless suspicions and little exasperations will be
laid aside, in order that the demonstration in favour of
Poland may be worthy of the metropolis of England.

( From the Times of this day.)
In common with the whole of our countrymen,
excepting ha]f-a-dozen, if so many, we are under
the impression that we are repelling an invasion
made by Russia upon the territory of our ally, in
site of our protests, in mockery of our threats,
and in order to show that negotiation was fruitless
where Russia was in question. We believe our-
selves to have been dragged most unwillingly into
the quarrel, to have let the sword sleep in the
sheath till it must either be drawn or rust there
for ever, and to have been at last placed in such a
position that we and our gallant neighbours must
either surrender a feeble ally to the cupidity of a
Power which for a century had been contriving her
destruction, or go to war in her defence. We hold
that the exact locality of the war is a matter of in-
difference, and that we are still fighting on the
defensive, even though the eddy of the struggle
has-carried us into the enemy's country. With the
greatest simplicity and an undoubting conscience
we pray every Sunday to the Almighty to " save
and deliver us from the hands of our enemies ;"
and to "abate their pride, assuage their malice,
and confound their devices." We truly and
honestly believe the Russians to be our most dan-
gerous' enemies, to be the proudest, because most
possessed with the lust of dominion ; the most
malicious, because the most ready to shed blood ;
and the most indifferent to the repose, the
character, and the interests of Europe. If two
powerful States bordering on Russia, and with
all sorts of dangers within and without, after
professing to sympathise with the oppressed, and
doing all they could to stave off the evil day, have
fought shy of the quarrak,4l*e_ it Caine to t'lQwB:,.l
we can Understand, and;-'to a certain'eitentb taake '
allowance for their backsliding, but we cannot ad-
mit that it throws any light on the merits of the
question. In common, then, with all England,
Ireland, and Scotland, excepting just the aforesaid
half-dozen persons, if so many, we have a right to
be indignant at the total surrender of our cause and
the utter betrayal of the British name volunteered
by Mr. Gladstone on Friday night. We have a
right to protest against being shown up to the
world in the most odious colours, and drawn as the
enemies of the human race—quarrelsome, vain-

glorious, greedy, unforgiving, and a great deal be-
sides, all for protecting a feeble ally against au un-
provoked aggression. Loth as we were to enter
the quarrel, we may well be angry to find ourselves
so soon set down as responsible for a war that
threatens the impoverishment and desolation of
Europe.
Mr. Gladstone informs Europe—and the princi-
pal points of his speeches are carefully extracted
in the foreign papers in the interest of the Czar
—that it is England and France who are now
prolonging the war, and that they are doing
so for certain objects which they choose to
require, and which they stand to with wanton
obstinacy. One of these alleged objects, indeed,
Mr. Gladstone boasts the British Government has
at length been compelled to give up, whether owing
to the terror of his eloquence or our recent
" reverses" in the Crimea he leaves us to guess.
Having asserted on a former occasion, with the
most absolute disregard of facts, that the British
Government had made a particular scheme of nu-
merical " limitation" a sine qua non, an'i having
received numerous contradictions to a statement
really too groundless and worthless to call for
contradiction, lie now affects to chuckle over his
country for 'bating that demand. He charges her
Majesty's Government with " an accumulated and
peculiar responsibility ;" " not purely the respon-
sibility, although, God knows," Mr. Gladstone
piously ejaculates, " that is great enough, of
having chosen the alternative of war and rejected
the alternative of peace," but the terrible respon-
sibility of having made themselves, the British
Parliament, and the whole nation, the principals,
and all other parties only secondary and accessory
to the prolongation of this war. This " peculiar
responsibility,' which Mr. Gladstone re-asserts
a hundred times, he endeavours to fasten on the
British Government alone, which be alleges is only
dragging the French Government after it into this
Slough of Despond. He makes it no error of
temper or inadvertency, for he finds in despatches
of the Foreign Secretary " a disposition to raise
every possible objection against, to anticipate
every reasonable hope of a settlement, to place facts
and opinions in such an order, and to handle them
in such a manner, as, if possible, to justify the
carrying on of the war." In fact, whatever
crimes we have been accustomed to charge upon
Russia in its negotiations with Turkey, and upon
the wolf in its cause with the lamb, Mr. Gladstone
charges on' Lord Clarendon in his dealings towards
Russia. Mr. Gladstone tells us, or rather Europe,
that after what has happened "it is vain for us to
think of regaining the opinion of Europe." That
opinion cannot be on our side, he says, after the
weight of evidence disclosed by one particular fact.
We are making, he says, " a gigantic war for the
most paltry differences." 'These denunciations he
naturally follows up with the gloomiest forebod-
ings. Great as is the power of England and France,
he defies her Majesty's Government, speaking, as
it were, from the very ranks of the foe, to turn
the course of nature and of events so as by the
efforts of the two Western Powers to control the
" paramount destinies of Russia." Even if, by
gigantic and unheard-of efforts, they succeed for a
moment—which, however, he doubts—he tells
them it will be for a moment only. Should we
flatter ourselves, as we do, that the justice of our
cause and the downright iniquity and violence of
the Russians make, a difference in Our favour, Mr.

Gladstone takes care to disabuse us of that conceit,
by intimating that the policy of Russia in Europe
is at least not Worse than our policy in India. Ho
says, further, with immense iteration and increas-
ing fury, that for the sake of a worthless stipulation
the British Government is dissolving the combina-
tion of Europe, breaking the last link which unites
us to Germany, reducing us to a state of compara-
tive insulation, and "rejecting the golden oppor-
tunity which the mercy of Providence has placed in
our way to enable us to restore peace to. Europe."
our complaints against Russia are, he says, so forced
and frivolous that if Russia had only done what we
are doing, in guaranteeing a Turkish
.Loan, we
should probably have made it the occasion
of a fifth point. We have, lie says, regularly
duped poor Sardinia by professing to en-
gage her in -an European quarrel, and then
making her an adjunct merely in promoting French
and English policy." Having enlarged ou the sa-
crifices with which these two countries are carrying
on the war, and predicting that the French will
not stand it much longer, he warns us not to rely
on "the broken reed of speculation" in this country
as to the probable financial exhaustion of Russia.
Then, after art insinuation that the press of this
country is no longer free on the subject of the war,
he fitly concludes with a glowing picture of Russian
religion and patriotism.
We have given all the noise, all the smoke, all
the dust, all the stench of the petard. We have
faithfully quoted the pious grimace and the vin-
dictive howl. We have given specimen denun-
ciations, curses, and forebodings. Granting that
this were a true picture of England, she never
had so candid a friend as Mr. Gladstone, and, to
use his own words, there never was "a more con-
spicuous instance of the length to which freedom of
speech is carried in this glorious country." And
now for the pretence for all this declamation, splut-
ter, and bombast. On what ground does this
p-ropliet of ill proclaim that the sun of England's
honour and glory is set for ever, and that it is
time for us to hide our diminished heads before just
and holy Russia ? The whole and sole ground is as
follows,—fortunately, we are able to cut it very
short, for we have Mr. Gladstone himself as ac-
complice up to the bare proposal of the plan of
limitation :—The six columns of abuse from which
we have given the above extracts rest on the rejec-
tion of a certain offer made by Austria, to give
Russia, with the consent of the Western Powers,
the choice between two proposals, on the rejection
of both of which she was prepared to draw the
sword. With regard to the first of these proposals
Austria would give no such promise ; therefore, to
ourthat
havinglae whop
lost oft rhe ,
opinionG ds t
a support and com-
bination 's argument about
of Europe does not apply. We have dis-
cuised the proposal itself before, as also has the
House of Commons. We believe it to mean about
as little as words can possibly mean, which is say-
ing a good deal. But, as it is the combination of
the second proposal with the first that Austria
was prepared to back up with something iu the
nature of an express promise to fight for us, it is
all we have to do with. " The golden, opportunity
offered by the mercy of Providence" to this
wicked nation, through the instrumentalityr. of
Count Buol, was the following proposal, as stated
by Mr. Gladstone :—“ That the original parties to
the quarrel, Russia and Turkey, should in the first
instance agree between themselves, and should
subsequently propose to the Conference the amount
of force which they were each to maintain in the
Black Sea." Why, the proposal was utterly nuga-

, tory for all purposes of peace, anti efficient only in
compromising the allies to principles and practices
they were bound to repudiate. • Mr. Gladstone had
no occasion for his extraordinary prophetical powers
to divine that Russia would accept this proposal,
and release Austria from her engageinent to the
allies, for Russia has all along demanded this very
thing—viz. that she should be allowed to negoti-
ate with Turkey alone. What that negotiation
would come to, or how it was to be conducted in
the present situation of Turkey, or how far an
agreement extorted from the fears of Turkey would
bring us nearer peace and security, .we leave to
the common sense of our readers. The proposal,
however, amounted to nothing at all, excepting
only that the Western Powers were to surrender
their position as protectors, and leave Turkey
for the present to deal with Russia alone.
That is • all the proposal amounts to, and
the evident intention was, that we should let
the negotiation slip away into the most objection-
able form, and founder, as it were, in the shallows
of diplomady. Yet, for avoiding this shoal, and
forinsisting upon distinct and intelligible proposals,
Mr. Gladstone denounces her Majesty Ministers
as the obstinate, wilful, and deliberate protractors
of the war, as the objects of Europe's just suspicion
and hatred, and-all the rest that we have quoted
above.

( Prom the Times of this day. )
After Mr. Gladstone had proVed, on Friday
night, in perhaps the most Unpatriotic, and, un•
English speech ever heard within the, walls of
Parliament, that we were a set of barbarous and
sanguinary wretches against whom Russia was
instituting a crusade,. sanctioned,' alike by the
celemonies of religion and the dictates of
.patriotism, Mr. Cobden, dos_pairing,doubtipss, of
rivalling his' promisinvillYvillittgicriaiVeAtini:
all the glory that such an exhibition might bring
him entirely to himself, or, possibly
,remembering
that, though au advocate for peace, he was after
all an Englishman—Mr. Cobden, we say, re-
solved to have a little crusade of his own, and

singled out from the hostile ranks for deadly
combat his old friend and associate Sir William
Molesworth. Little reeked that peaceful man for
such considerations ; he saw before him one who
is not an advocate for peace, and, in the true inte-
rests and according to the invariable practice of the
pacificators of the House of Commons, addressed
himself to battle, not such as politicians wage, but
the bitter and envenomed conflict of personal hos-
tility and invective. Sir Wm. Molesworth on the
hustings at Southwark had spoken of the combina-
tion of parties against Ministers on the Turkish
loan in terms of strong reprobation, and ev,..n cha-
racterised it as a nefarious enterprise. A man of
war, such as are those ordinary mortals on whom
Mr. Cobden looks down with so much philosophical
contempt, would probably have thought it scarcely
in the interests of concord and good fellowship to
drag hustings speeches before the House of Com-
mons, and to make terms in themselves sufficiently
acrimonious the gratuitous cause of a still more
acrimonious discussion. " The beginning of strife,"
says the wise man, "is like the letting out of water,"
and in this case the head of the peace party officiated
as turncock. But, as ifth ere was not bitterness enough
as the matter stood, Mr. Cobden was careful to intro-
duce into it other irritating ingredients. In a con-
versation between Sir William Molesworth, Mr.
Cobden, and other distinguished patriots the cen-
tre of the hall of the Reform Club—some time, we
suppose, in the month of December, 1852—it ap-
pears that, being asked who was a fair representa-
tive of his opinions, Sir William Molesworth said
" Mr. Cobden." We will not stop to consider how
far such a statement, made in such a place, and
probably with that mixture of jest and earnest by
which inconvenient questions during the formation
of a new Ministry are generally parried, binds Sir
William. Molesworth to follow Mr. Cobden through
all the inexpressible absurdities which have illus-
trated his public career from that time to this, and
gradually reduced his position to one which it is
easier to pity than to envy ; but we would put it
to Mr. Cobden and his friends whether, because
they love peace above all things, they are by this
exercise of superhuman virtue in any degree dis-
charged from the ordinary obligations which attach,
we do not say to gentlemen merely, but to respec-
table members of every civilised society. Mr. Cobden
felt himself authorised to repeat on a recent occa-
sion in the House of Commons what passed in a con-
fidential meeting of members of Parliament held un-
der the express understanding that it was to be secret.
We should like to know what theory Mr. Cobden
adopts with regard to personal honour, or how he
can make out that any man can, without loss of
reputation, enter into contracts, and then delibe-
rately violate them. At the meeting at the Foreign-
office the contract was express, at the conversation
at the Reform Club it was implied, but, express or
implied, Mr. Cobden makes no scruple of violating
them. We are fortunate that the Peace Party
does not increase in this country, for we cannot ,
but feel that such increase must have been counter-
balanced by a corresponding decrease in the ease
and confidence of social intercourse, so that what
was gained in peacefulness with regard to foreign
nations would be dearly purchased by an increase
of envy, backbiting, malice, and uncharitableness
among ourselves.
Neither was Mr. CoLd en very happy in his extracts
from a speech, the main point of which was that it
doubted the existence in Russia of those aspira-
tions and tendencies towards the subjugation of
Europe which everybody is since convinced, on the
most unquestionable evidence, that she really does
entertain. Mr. Cobden says that he has done as
he wishes to be done by, but, little as we admire
his proceedings in this matter, we sincerely trust
that he will never be the occasion, by anything he
may do, of provoking any other member of the
House of Commons to betray the confidence of
private intercourse or the gossip of clubs in the
manner which he has done himself.
The next assailant was Sir James Graham, who
rises to deny the charge that he and his friends
entered into a combination against the Govern-
ment with regard to the Turkish Loan ; but, so
far from supporting this denial, the statement with
which it was accompanied goes, as seems to us,
directly to refute it. Of the support of the Peace
Party, of whom he says nothing, Sir James
Graham could not be doubtful. He learnt, he
says. before the debate came on, from the member
for Horsham, that many members of the Opposi-
tion intended to support Mr. Ricardo, and there-
fore the movement was commenced with full know-
ledge that it would have the support of the three
parties indicated, and Sir James Graham, in co-
operating with that movement, did, to all intents
and purposes, combine against the Government on
the Turkish Loan question. When he went to a
division he knew the support be would have and
the probability of success, and did not scruple to
put the permanence of the French alliance and the
very existence of the Turkish empire at issue on
a vote supported by these three parties, and on
which Government was undoubtedly surprised. It
may not be Parliamentary to call slich a proceeding
" nefarious," but the public conscience, we appre-
hend, is not much startled by the epithet. More-
over, it should be remembered that these words
were not used in Parliament, and that Parliament
is neither the arena in which their propriety should
be discussed, nor the tribunal by which their re-
tractation should be demanded. It is the duty of
the House of Commons to keep order and decorum
in its own proceedings, but it is as little compe-
tent to measure the propriety of epithets employed
in election harangues as to keep Mr. Cobden within
the honourable understanding which among less
enlightened persons insures the freedom of social
intercourse.
Then we have Dr. Phillimore, who is very angry
with Sir William Molesworth for having edited
Hobbes, an.' Mr. Gladstone, who with characteris-
tic dexterity converts the question by a wave of
his wand into one of the most abstruse metaphysics,
and invites the House of Commons to discuss, at
half-past one in the morning, after a week spent in
incessant labour, whether the "nefarious combina
tion" was a fact, or merely an impression or idea
left on the mind of the Secretary of State for the
Colonies—in fact, not to adjourn until they had
settled the question between Locke and Berkeley,
of subjective and objective materialism and ideal-
ism. This the house declined to do, and so ended
this remarkable squabble, with little damage to
the accused and little credit to the accuser, leaving
the matter pretty much as it found it—commenc-
ing in malice and concluding in metaphysics.

WAIL MOVEMENTS IN LIVERPOOL. -On Saturday
Lieutenant-Colonel Haythotne of the Ist Foot, Captain
Davie and Lieutenant Gascoyne of the Grenadier Guards,
and the Lord Viscount Stonor, with Brevet Major the
Hon. P. Feilding of the Coldstream Guards, Major
Street of the sth Foot, Captain Gloster of the 38th Foot,
and the Rev. J. Pantin, together with 1 officer, 44 men,
and 39 horses belonging to the Ist Dragoon Guards,
embarked on board the Resolute. Immediately on their
embarkation the Resolute sailed for Kingstown, where
she will take 11 officers of the sth Dragoon Guards, and
the Ist, 13th, 15th, and 19th Foot, together with 400
men and 77 horses ; she will then proceed to the seat of
war.

The Neptune, 120 guns, Captain Frederick Hutton,
bearing the flag of Vice-Admiral Sir Thomas Cochrane,
K.C.8., as Commander-in-Chief of the squadron.
The St. George, 120, Captain Harry Eyres, C. B.
The Sanspareil, 70, screw, Captain W. J. Williams.
The Malacca, 17, screw, Captain Arthur Farquhar.
The Inflexible, 6, paddle sloop, Commander G. Pop-
plewell.
The Rosamond, 6, paddle sloop, Commander Crofton
(both these are hourly expected at Spithead from the
East).
The Sealark, 8 gun brig, Lieutenant Lowther.
The Rolla, 6-gun brig, Lieutenant Fenwick.
Besides, of course, the Royal yachts Victoria and
Albert and: Fairy, under the command of Captain the
Hon. Joseph Denman.
The ships ordered to form the Royal squadron have
received their orders, and are preparing for this special
service.

The above, squadron will leave Spithead on Monday
week the 13th inst., so as to be at Boulogne by the time
of the anticipated arrival of the royal yacht with the
Queen from Dover.
The Queen and Prince Albert will leave Osborne-house
on Thursday the 16th inst., for the purpose of visiting
the Emperor and Empress of the French. They will be
accompanied by the Princess itoyal,and the. Prince of
Wales. They are expected to arrive at Paris ou Saturday
the 18th inst. Their absence from England will extend
to aboUt ten days. Her Majesty will be attended by her
fall Court, including the Marquis of Breadalbane (Lord,
Cbatulerlain) the Duke of WAlliwtpr-Agaster of the
41tIf43rtheiafrApetieer(tai*Itathielteld);:atict,
by the usual number of. Lords and Ladies in Waiting,
Maids of Honour, &c. The Ministers in attendance on
the Queen will be the Earl of Clarendon, K.G. (Secre-
tary of State for Foreign Affairs), and the Earl Granville
(Lord President of the Council).

THE BIRMINGHAM GAOL CRUELTIES.

At Warwick assizes on Friday the case of Regina v.
Austin and Blount was tried before Mr. Justice Cole-
ridge. It was a prosecution instituted by the Attorney-
General on the part of the crown against Lieutenant
Austin, R.N., late Governor of the Borough Gaol, at
Birmingham, for certain cruelties alleged to have been
practised towards the prisoners under his care. In all,
there were eight indictments ; five against the present
defendant individually ; and two against him and
Blount jointly ; the latter being at the time surgeon
at the gaol, and one against Blount individually
for omitting to keep proper books, in compliance
with the act of parliament. The whole of the indict
ments went before the 'grand jury at the last assizes.
At the instance of the prosecution the trial wan traversed
by the defendants to these assizes, and moved to the
Nisi Prius Court. The circumstances under which this
prosecution arose will be in the recollection of our
readers. In the month of April, 1853, a boy named
Andrews committed suicide in the Birmingham Gaol,
and partly in consequence of the evidence elicited at the
inquest, it transpired that many acts of cruelty had been
committed towards the inmates of the gaol ; the result
was that a commission of inquiry was instituted byLord
Palmerston, then Home Secretary. The commissioners
fat for 13 days ; a great number of witnesses were ex-
amined, and some discicsures of a very remarkable cha
racter were made, which were reported in the Sun
at the time. After various witnesses had been examined,
Mr. Justice Coleridge summed up. First, he said, the
defendant was charged with the use of illegal modes of
punishment, such as the use of the strait jacket and
collar and the use of cold water ; and, secondly, with
the excessive use of punishments which were undoubt-
edly lawful if kept within the bounds prescribed by the
law. It was no defence that the illegal modes of punish-
ment were in use, neither would even positive orders
from any superior authority justify the defendant in the
exercise of any illegal act. In case of a verdict of
guilty this might have some effect hereafter in meting
out the punishment., but it could in no way whatever
aflct the verdict to be pronounced. Having
laid down the law with great clearness, his lordship
went through the evidence most carefully, and the jury,
after a brief deliberation, returned a verdict of guilty.
On Saturday the crown prosecutions were resumed.
The first case taken was a joint indictment against the
gaoler and the surgeon, Sir Frederick Thesiger being
specially retained for the latter. The second count in
the indictment charged that the two defendants did, on
the 7th of July, 1852, make an assault upon Samuel
Hunt, a prisoner in the Birmingham Borough prison,
in binding him with straps in a strait jacket, and forcing
in his mouth quantities of salt ; the third count charged
with beating and ill-treating, and the fourth with a com-
mon assault. The jury found the prisoners not guilty.