The Sun.
London, England, 1855-11-24 00:00:00

The Birmingham Gaol Cruelties.

COURT OF QUEEN'S BENCH—THIS DAY.
Lieutenant William Henry Austin, late governor of
the Birmingham Borough Gaol, appeared to receive
sentence for cruelties infl►cted by him on ono of the pri-
soners in the gaol during the time he was governor of
that prison.
It will be remembered that the defendant was tried
in August last at 'Warwick, before Mr. Justice Cole-
ridge, and found guilty of the cruelties alleged against
him, which wore that in March, 1354, a boy named
Andrea's, having been committed for felony, on the
30th March, he was placed to hard labour at the
crank, performing 10,000 revolutions per diem. On
31st, being unable to do his work, he was

placed on bread and water, and repeatedly punished
afterwards. On the 16th April, the punishment jacket
(an ordinary straight waistcoat, with straps and a leather
collar) was put on Andrews, and in that state he was
strapped to the wall, in wl4ch position ho was found by one
of the warders crying. Cold water was thrown over
him, on account, as it was alleged, that he was sham-
ming fainting. On 20th April, Andrews was deprived
of his bed until 10 o'clock at night, and on the 27th of
the same month he had to perform 12,000 revolutions of

the crank. At 10 o'clock at night on that day he
was found deal in his cell, having hung himself by his
handkerchief and a strap to a bar of a cell window.
Thera were other charges relative to the defendant's
not keeping proper entries, &c., in the prison books,
with refeeence to the prison punishment, &c.
The Att6tney-General, Mr. Mellor, Q.C., Mr. Mittle-
stone, and Mr. Field appeared for the prosecution; Sir
F. Thesiger and Mr. Kettle for the defendant.
The learned Jute who tried the case having read
over the notes of the evidence taken by him on the trial,
Affidavits were put in by the defendant, and read in
mitigation of punishment, in one of which it was stated
that the deponent believed it was not the intention of
Andrews to have destroyed himself, but merely to have
made the attempt to escape punishment for an offence
he had committed against the prison discipline.
Lord Campbell asked why sentence was not passed on
the defendant at the time of conviction? He was of opi-
nion that punishment should be awarded at all times
when a conviction took place, and in the presence of the
public who heard the trials,

Mr. Justice Coleridge said the sentence was postponed
on the application of the prosecution.

Lord Campbell said that was an ample excuse.
Sir F. Thesiger then addreFsed their lordships in miti-
gation of punishment, enforcing on their consideration
the habits of the defendant, from his profession being
that of striotly complying with the orders and instructions
of his superiors, and in doing what he had done he was
not actuated by any feeling of cruelty towards the pri-
soners.

The Attorney-General, in a forcible and eloquent ad-
dress, called upon his lordship to mark the sense of the
defendant's conduct, which had been that of tyranny
over those outcasts of society over whom he tiled con•
trol, and whom it was the duty of the law to protect.
Mr. Justice Coleridge, in a lengthened address to the
defendant, pointing out the enormity of his offence,
sentenced him to three months' imprisonment in th•
Queen's Prison, in the first class misdemeanants.

NAVAL INTELLIGENCE.—(This Day.)

The following appointments were made at the Admi-
ralty this day :

SURGEONS.
Samuel S. D. Wells, to the Royal William.
Thomas .L Breen, to the Perseverance.

ACTING-CLERK.
Henry P. Houghton to the Hecla.

FRAUDS IN RUSSIA.

The Pays publishes the following letter, dated St.
Petersburg, Nov. 11 :

" In my letters I have often alluded to the fraud and
h isthweidedelay to thofevßeruy bssiar.
anh c Thiso f evil
the is
ser-
vice te
of the Czar's army, that the troops, despite the
efforts of the Sovereign, are in want of nearly every-
roo, corruptiont extendswhic so
thing. I was assured a few days since that Alexander
11., despite the usual mildness of his character, got into
a regular fury on learning what took place, and resolved
to act with extreme severity against any person, no
matter what his rank, found guilty of fraud. I know the
country well, and all his power will not be of any avail
to put a stop to these abuses. The evil is too deep-
rooted in the Muscovite soil. All will combine together
to deceive the most vigilant eye.
"The subjoined few facts of recent occurrence, the ex-
actitude of which I guarantee, will show you the extent
of the evil.

" A Livonian officer of very good family, intrusted
with the provisioning of the army in Tauris, went from
province to province buying oxen, cows, and sheep,
which he had sent to Odessa and Cherson.
" Wishing to make a rapid fortune, he hit upon the fol-
lowing fraud. He proposed to some of the peasants to
leave them their cattle for a consideration agreed upon.
The cattle were booked as delivered, and he gave a false
receipt for the price of them. He then put them down
as died on the road.' By this means he pocketed—
first, the money of the peasants ; secondly, the money of
the Government. It was clever, but not honest. Sus-
picions were at last aroused. When it was mentioned
to the Czar he would not at first believe that one of his
superior officers was capable of committing a crime the
consequences of which to the army were incalculable. The rumours, however, grew so loud that a seriousin-
vestigation was ordered. The officer was commanded
to proceed immediately to head-quarters at Odessa. He
was not so slow as net to smell a rat. He felt some
hesitation in obeying the order, but overnight ho hit
upon a plan, and, while staying at an hotel near Odessa,
his room caught fire so cleverly that the flames,
.which
purify all things, destroyed the accounts. He arrived
at head-quarters with a certificate that his papers were
burnt. 'What more could be exacted ? We are assured
that the fire spared the roubles in his pouch. He was
acquitted. Poor fellow !as Molibre would say.
" Another anecdote, the truth of which I will gua-
rantee:—

"A. dealer in flour, in the vicinity of Kiew, provides
some thousand sacks of flour to the commander of the
place, and asks an exorbitant price. He is refused pay-
ment. He is brought up for usury and fraud. The
affair is a serious one ; he is liable to a very severe
penalty and a, journey to Siberia in perspective. He was
as calm, however, as if his conscience was pure and his
cause a good one. At the appointed day he appeared
before the judge, and proved by his books, A plus B,
that to accept the supply the officers bad exacted for
themselves 80,090 silver roubles, or 240,000 francs.
Very flattering this for the officers of the Russian army!
The trader was acquitted and his honour saved ; the
money was pad ; he gained nothing by the transaction.
"Everywhere, at the very steps of the throne, the
most audacious robberies are committed. The Emperor
Alexander I. said that his sailors would steal his guns if
they dared ; Alexander 11. observed the other day that
his attendants would steal his breeches if they bad the
opportunity. The following gave rise to the observation:
—Among the Emperor's household there is a Cbamber-
lain silversmith, who has the care of the Crown plate.
He has a dozen tchinowiebes' under him. For some
time these gentlemen have amused themselves by passing
the plate through acids, by which ',recess a considerable
portion of the silver was taken off, which they afterwards
transformed into a solid state by a chemical process. This
robbery had been carried on for a long time before it was
discovered. But as all were equally guilty, no culprit
could be found fir want of proof. The Crown plate has
been ordered to be melted down and recast.

"The bourgeois and merchants are not personally sub-
jected to the recruiting tax, but they have to pay 500 f.
for each recruit asked from them. Thus they provide as
many soldiers per thousand merchants as the nobles
provide per thousand peasants. This tax brings in a
considerable revenue to the Crown. The number of
merchants in the whole extent of the empire amounts to
about 150,000, and as the State has already levied about
60 men per 1,000, it results that the merchants have
had to pay about 400,000,000 f. Thus, however good
Russians they may be, the bourgeois are beginning to
find the war taxes somewhat heavy.
" The populations who suffer most from this state of
things are precisely those who entertain the least sym-
pathy for Russia—for instance, Finland, Livonia, Estho-
ma, Courland, Poland, and the Southern provinces,
which are almost exclusively inhabited by Tartars and
Mussulmans. The provinces of the Baltic particularly
are weighed down by taxes. Whatever may be said
about the Russian party carrying on the war to the last
man and the last rouble, the Government will have to
,iiosult a Mile the Catholics, the Protestant,, and the
Mussu:mans, who, united, form more than one-third of
the population of the empire, and who liavo certainly a
right to be heard in the alattcr,"