The Sun.
London, England, 1864-07-29 00:00:00

Naval and Military Intelligence,

An order was yesterday received at Chatham garrison
from the Horse Guards, directing 100 non-commissioned
officers and men to be selected from the detachments of
Royal Engineers under orders to India, the whole of whom
are to be held in readiness for immediate embarkation,
under the command of Capt. W. S. Burton, now in charge
of the 37th depot company. The order directs that the
non-commissioned officers and men required to proceed to
India are to be selected from the sappers and miners who
have completed their course of instruction in field engineer-
ing and have passed through the topographical and sur-
veying schools. The men are to be supplied with their sea
kits, in order that they may be ready to embark as soon as
the order to that effect has been received from the Horse
Guards.
In consequence of the misunderstanding which has arisen
with respect to the order issued some time since relative to
the infliction of corporal punishment in the army and the
classification of soldiers in the first and second class, a
general order has been issued from the Horse Guards, and
promulgated at Chatham garrison for general information,
in which the Field-Marshal Commanaing •in-Chief directs
that a soldier convicted of habitual drunkenness shall be
degraded to the second class, and if again convicted within
12 months shall suffer corporal punishment.
The 3d, 27th, and 33d companies of Itoyal Engineers,
serving at Gibraltar, and the 30th and 31st companies, at
Malta, having been reduced in their numbers from dis-
charges and men who have been invalided, orders have been
received at headquarters, Chatham, directing the required
number of non-commissioned officers, sappers, and buglers
to be selected from the depot companies to augment those
companies to their full strength. The men selected were
inspected at Brompten Barracks, yesterday, and are to be
held in readiness to embark forthwith.

Major General Warde, C. 8., commanding the garrison
at Woolwich, yesterday held what ie termed a dismounted
field day, to be repeated weekly, and paraded the whole of
the brigades of Royal Artillery on the Barrack-field, where
they underwent a thorough inspection and marched past.
The General was attended by his aide-de-camp, Captain
Williams ; Deputy Assistant Quartermaster General, Capt.
Nangla ; Brigade Major Hay, and other officers.
The Earl of Dunmore, Lord Abinger, and other officers
on leave in England from their respective battalions of the
Guards in Canada have received orders not to rejoin their
battalions.

Col. J. R. Farquharson is about to retire from the Scots
Fusilier Guards.

The third battalion of the Grenadier Guards, under the
command of Colonel the Prince Edward of Saxe Weimar,
C. 8., will leave London on Tuesday next for the camp at
Aldershot, to relieve the sec,nd battalion of the Coldstream
Guards, under the command of Colonel Stepney,.C.B., for
a month's duty.
The Italian screw steam frigate Prince Umberto, 50,
Capt. S. Bo; from Cherbourg, with a number of naval
cadets on board for instruction, arrived in Plymouth Sound
on Wednesday afternoon, bound to New York.
The screw steam frigate Narcisssus, 39, flag of Sir B.
W. Walker, last from Portsmouth, arrived in Plymouth
Sound on Wednesday. She was appointed to go into
Hamoaze yesterday, to be dismantled and placed in the
third division of the Steam Reserve. Her crew will be paid
off in a few days. _ .

The paddlewheel steam vessel Bulldog, 6, Capt. Charles
Wake, accompanied by the gunboat Delight, was appointed
to leave Plymouth yesterday for Bermuda, via Halifax.

The two Turkish line-of-battle frigates Estourel, Capt.
Hassean Bey, and the Relepers Nnsrett, Capt. Ahmed
Bey, yesterday entered the Thames and moored at Purfieet,
together w th her Majesty's convoy, the paddlewheel sloop
Geyser, Com. A. T. Thrupp, who proceeded to Woolwich
in his gig, and reported himself to the Commodore Supe-
rintendent of the dockyard. The Geyser was immediately
ordered to return to Portsmouth. The Turkish frigates, it
is stated, are about to be stripped and docked at Black wall,
to be fitted with steam machinery at Green and Wigram's.
The crews will probably be berthed on board a couple of
hulks at Woolwich during the conversion of the ships, the
Turkish Ambass,dor having seat a requisition to the Board
of Admiralty for that purpose.
The following appointments and promotions have been
made at the Admiralty:—Lieut. Philip It, 11. Parker,
Lieut. Paul Storr, and Lieut. John Hope to the Curagoa—
Lieut. A. T. Brooke, to the Duke of Wellington--Lord A.
C. G. Lennox, midshipman, to the Edgar—and W. Wise•
man, midshipman, to the Curagoa—Henry Dyer, Parnas.
ter additional, to the St. George— J. H. Hewlett, chief
engineer. to the Indus, for the Encounter, when paid off—
P. M Knight, assist.-engineer, to the Bulldog—J. Adams,
assist—engineer, to the Indus, for hospital treatment—G.
T. Ludlow, assist,-engineer, to the Asia, as supernumerary
G. J. Weeks, assist,-engineer, to the Himalaya—T. F.
Shelley, of the Asia, J. Taylor (B), of the Salamin,
George Purkes, and J. E. Warner, of the Marlborough,
promoted to be first class assist-engineers—A. J. Tout, of
the Jason, J. Nelson, of the Rinaldo, J. Ferguson (B), of
the Forte, G. Quick, of the Rattler, and J. Imrie, of the
Heaper, promoted to be acting first class assist.-engineers ,
Commander W. B. Unfasten, to the Styx, vice Hon. W. J.
Ward, promoted—Charles A. Pritchard, paymaster, to be
secretary to Sir Charles Fremantle—and W. J. Hubbard,
assist.-clerk, to the Urgent.

Alarming Incident in a Railway Carriage,

--......._*--
Mr Thomas Beard, the well-known solicitor of Basing-
hall-street, on Tuesday evening last, entered the half-past
nine o'clock train from Fenchurch-street to Snaresbrook,
where he resides. In the same compartment of the carriage,
we presume a first-class, were several persons, but all
alighted at the Stratford station. Just as the train was
again starting a man entered, closed the door, and sat down
next to it, Mr: Beard being
in the further and oppo-
site corner. This person was rather tall, proportionately
thick-set, dressed in black, and 'wearing a black and white
straw hat slouched over his forehead. In his right hand,
close by his side, he held something about two feet in
owner
length, about the thickness of an ordinary ruler or an iron
bar. It was encased in leather, and appeared to be
thinner at one end than the other. Whatever article
pt it completely behind
him, and apparently:his eight,
safe and tout of
hgahntd o
, r fort
t after the cursory
. " Isn't the train late ?"
he asked. " I think it is " was the reply. What is the
ivtiewwaosbtaiitnswn
ed
as
he e r ena, "
preeaarehde
kdeeterrnined to keep it
right time?" Mr Beard took from his waistcoat pocket a
gold lever watch, suspended by a chain of like material, but
at the same instant the extreme folly and incautiousness of
such an act struck him so forcibly that he mechanically
replaced it. He looked up—his companion had not risen,
but was yet nearer by a foot, from the corner —his right
hand still behind him, and his eyes fixed upon the chain
Mr Beard felt exceedingly uncomfortable. " Strange thing
that murder of Mr Briggs in the railway carriage ?" " Yes,
very." "Do you think there was more than one in it, eh ?"
" I can't say." " Anything ftesh about it to-day, eh ?"
This afforded what for the instant appeared a good oppor-
tunity, and flinging an eveniyg paper to the stranger Mr
Beard replied, " Look for yourself," at the same time fully
resolving to open the door of the carriage, if not to spring
from it while his interrogator opened the sheets of the jour-
nal—but he was disappointed. The man took up the news-
paper with his left hand, slid along the seat, his right
hand being still behind his back. until he gaadually
faced his travelling companion, threw the paper down
without looking at it, and saying, " I can't read—getting
too old," placed his left area completely across the
window frame. There they sat, the stranger lean-
ing torward until his left hand was within six inchee of
Mr Bard, and hie attention still fixed on the gold
chain. Not for a secoad land that gentleman's
eyes, from the lime he had taken out his watch, been
averted from that touch-feared right arm, ever in the same

position, and its owner's face, which, despite the slouched
hat, was now more discernible. Not another word passed.
Mr Beard would not leave his seat, although ho momentrily
expected to be grasped or struck. It was on the side of
the much-coveted, but yet distant platform ; and when there
ho could give an alarm, if prevented from getting ont of the
carriage. Still his position was becoming unbearable, and
the recollection of the recent horrible murder on the same
line of railway rendered him almost powerless. He was
becoming postively ill ; gradually, very gradually, he got
his hand as without a motive on the window space; the
whistle sounded; not a movement betokened his intention
to leave; the train eased; stranger inclined slightly back;
the platform was reached ; " Low Station" was sounded by
the guard and porters; and as one of the men passed Mrß.
started up, twisted the handle of the door at the same mo-
ment, and was out, and the next was in an adjoining com-
partment well occupied, from which as the train again
moved forward he observed the wearer of the slouches hat
walking hastily away as though in quest of some one. On
arriving at Snaresbrook, Mr. Beard made a communication
of what had occurred to Mr Wooton, the station-master,
and has since done so to Mr Superintendent Howie, K
division of police, so thoroughly convinced is he that a
murderous outrage was purposed, and would have been per-
petrated but for the plan he had adopted, or had he pro-
ceeded further in the carriage ho first occupied.