The Sun.
London, England, 1852-10-07 00:00:00

THE ARMY.

Lieut.-Colonel Hankey, who has for so many years so
ably commanded the Ist or King's Dragoon Guards, is
about to retire from the service by the sale of his com-
mission.
DEATH OF MAJOR-GENERAL COLBY, R.D.—We re-
gret to have to announce in our columns of this day the
death of this officer, so distinguished in his profession
and in the scientific world. For the last few weeks he
had been staying with his family in this neighbourhood,
where he had occasionally slight attacks of illness, but
nothing to create alarm till Saturday evening last, when
he was suddenly seized with a severe attack, which
speedily terminated his life. His name will ever be
associated with that great national undertaking, the
ordnance survey of this kingdom, at the head of hich
he was placed by the Duke of_. Wellington when Master-
General of the Ordnance. His was the guiding mind
which organized and successfully conducted this work
for upwards of twenty years. The compensation bars,
by which such extreme accuracy is secured in measuring
trigonometrical areas, were his invention- and it was to
the scientific skill and perseverance of 'General Colby
that the public are indebted for those invaluable maps
which are the result of the Ordnance survey, and which
were completed, so far as the survey went, even to the
engraving of the maps, by the officers and men under the
superintendence of General Colby. fie was a member
of the Royal Societies of London and Edinburgh, of the
Royal Irish Academy, Sze., and the honorary degree of
LL.D. was conferred upon him by the University of
Aberdeen. General Colby was a native of Pembroke-
shire, in Wales, where his family have long reeided.
Ho was in the 69th year of his age. General Colby Was
too
brother-in-law to the Rev. H. Carpenter, of this town,
from whose hour© the funeral will proceed o-ra ow
morning to St. James's Cemetery.—Liverpool Courier.

An alarming accident, but one fortunately un-
attended with any serious results, occurred yesterday, in
Regent-street.
A powerful and l
spirited mare, the property
of Mr. Clarke, a tallowchandler, of Little Pulteney-street,
took fright, and dragging a light cart et its heels, dashed upon
the pavement, and pursued for some distance its reckless
course, to the terror and confusion of the promenaders. Near
the corner of Beak-street the wheel of the cart came in con-
tact with an iron post, and the horse, by the sudden con-
cussion, was thrown with frightful violence through the
plate-glass front of Mr. Marion. How the truly magnificent
front of Mr. Futvoye escaped is a matter of surprise to all
who witnessed the accident, and while such was a cause of
congratulation to the well-disposed, there were evidently
many in the crowd who were prepared to have taken advan-
tage of a circumstance which would have scattered diamonds
and jewellery to an immense amount at their feet. The
horse was much cut and injured.—Morning Paper.
GOLD.—The Aden, from Launceston, Van Die-
men's Land, which arrived on Tuesday, has brought about
000 oz. of gold, 'valued At 24,0004

MERCHANT SEAMEN PE.NSION'
The following circular has lately been iss AIN
the War-office, addressed to the staff officer
sioners
" In order to insure uniformity in the app
made to this office by prsens who are auxiou =tl
mute their pensions from the Merchant Sea iddk,
Fund for the purpose of emigrating, lam directed to '441:441,
annex a form, according to which all such applica-
tions are in future to be made, and to request that
you will satisfy yourself as to the correctness of the
several points there referred to before forwarding the
application to this office.

- ;' No payment is, however, to be made on account
of such commutation till you ascertain that it has
been sanctioned, and that the parties applying for it
Ihave engaged their passage. When the transaction
has been completed, the form containing the receipt
is to he annexed as a voucher to your pay list.
" You will refer all applicants for pension, or in-
crease of pension, to the trustees or receiver of the
port on which they conceive they have a claim, as this
is a matter quite beyond your province to interfere
with.
" If any seaman or master whose pension has been
suspended in consequence of his going to sea should
apply for payment on his return, 3cu will call upon
him for a certificate from the owner or captain of the
vessel in which he has been serving, specifying the
dates of his entry and discharge, and the nature of
his employment on board ; also a certificate from
a medical practitioner, showing the present state
of his health. This, together with a statement
of his age, and any observations you may
have to offer on the case, particularly as to
his apparent capacity to earn a livelihood, you will
forward:to this office, in order that it may be sub-
mitted to the Board of Trade for their decision, and
till that decision has been communicated to you, you
will of course make no payment.
" To prevent ,complexity of accounting, the Com-
missioners of the Board of Trade have authorised
that, in all cases in which pensions from the Merchant
Seamen's Fund terminate, by widows re-marrying, or
children attaining the age of 14, or by commutation,
they may, as in the case of death, be paid for the whole
quarter, without reference to the exact period of the
quarter in which such contingency took place.
" Should you have any reason to suppose that the
pensions of the children are included with that of
their mothers, it will be necessary for you to apply to
this office for information to separate them. But
such applications are not to be forwarded after the
Ist of January next, by which time the whole of the
pensioners will be under the control of this depart-
ment.
"If, though the pensions be stated separately, the
ages of the children be not given, or you have from
their appearance reason to believe that they have stated
incorrectly, no pension is to be issued till a certificate
of birth has been obtained ; and the usual charge for
such certificate will be admitted is your contingent
account.

"After the children have been seen by you at the
first identification, it will be unnecessary for you to
see them oftener than once a year, provided their
mothers attend to receive payments for them ; but
they must be cautioned that any false statement as
to these children being in existence will certainly
involve the loss of their own pensions, besides the
ordinary penalty of such a fraud; and the certified
period of each child's death is always to be compared
with the latest date up to which the pension is drawn,
in order to check any fraud of this description.
" In case of the death of any pensioner it will be un-
necessary for, ou to put the public to the expense of re-
gistrar's or burial certificates. The certificate of any
two respectable parties who knew the deceased, and
can vouch for the fact, will be sufficient; but when-
ever the death is alleged to have taken place within
a week of the commencement of the quarter, a regis-
trar's or burial certficate must be obtained, to estab-
lish beyond a doubt that the pensioner survived till
the commencement of the quarter. The cost of such
certificate may be charged in your contingent ac-
count.

" If any information be required on minor points
connected with the indentification or first payment of
the pensioners, you may apply direct to the secretary,
to the trustees, or the receiver of the fund at the port
where the pensioners have hitherto been paid; but,
thereafter, all communications must be sent to the
War-office, together with the pensioner's name,
number, rate of pension, and port from which pen-
sioned, without which information they cannot be
traced in the books of this department."

FOUR PERSONS KILLED BY LIGH7NING

Maidstone providentially escaped any serious con-
sequences from the severe thunderstorm which passed
over us on Tuesday last ; but we are sorry to relate
that at Sutton Valence four poor hop-pickers who
had taken refuge in an oasthouse were killed in •
stantaneously by the electric fluid ; one of them, a
woman named Ashman, was in an advanced state of
pregnancy, and leaves one child motherless. Two
of the men have left widows and families, one
of six, the other nine children. The par-
ticulars of the melancholy accident will be found
in the following evidence, which was taken at the
coroner's inquest held by Mr. W. T. Neeve, at the
Queen's Head Inn, on Thursday last. The names of
eea deoaaad persons are George Birchet, John
Hogben, Stephen Kennett, and Mary Ann Ashman.
The first witness called was Richard Hearn, of
Staplehurst, labourer, who deposed—l am drying hops
for Mr. Stunt, on his farm in this parish. The four de-
ceased persons were all picking hops for Mr. Stunt. On
Tuesday last, in the afternoon, there was a heavy storm
of rain, thunder, and lightning. A number of the
hop-pickers, and among them the four deceased per-
sons, came into the oasthouse for shelter. Between
four and five o'clock, I was passing from the little
kiln into the great one, when the oasthouse was
struck with lightning, and I saw Mrs. Ashman fall
and take fire. I went up to her and put out the fire.
She was quite dead. When struck she was standing
in the doorway coming out of the great kiln. I then
found Hogben and Birchet close to the door on the
inside of the great kiln ; they were quite dead. On
going upstairs I found Stephen Kennett lying on his
face, not far from the door leading to the drying-
room ; he was quite dead. From the appearance of
the building afterwards, I believe the lightning first
struck one of the cowls and passed down by the door-
ways where the deceased were. There were more than
twenty persons in the oasthouse at the time. The
other persons were not much affected by the light-
ning. I believe all the four deceased persons came
from Brabourn. Mary Arm Ashman was about 24,
Birchet about 50, Kennett 22, and Hogben was CO.
The bodies have remained in the oasthouse ever since,
in the charge of Edward Wright. The building was
for some minutes afterwards filled with vapour. I
believe neither of the deceased spoke after they were
struck. James Pbilpot, of Sutton Valence, deposed
—I am foreman to Mr. Stunt, on his farm. At about
half-past four, on Tuesday afternoon, I was just out-
side the oasthouse, when I felt that the building was
struck. I looked up instantly, and saw portions of one of
the cowls blown into the air, and a portion of the
tiling was blown off. On going into the oasthouse, I
saw persons taking Mrs. Ashman out into the barn.
She was quite dead. I saw Hogben lying on his
back in the doorway, leading into the kiln. Birchet
was lying close to Hog into
the on his face ; they had
been sitting on the step at the doorway leading
the kiln ; they were quite dead; they did not move
at all. Birchet's steel watch-chain was decomposed
—it crumbled between my fingers—half the
watch glass was gone, and the works of
the watch were destroyed ; one of his
leather leggings was torn down. About half
an hour afterwards I went up stairs, and there
found Kennett lying quite dead. A medical man was
sent for, who arrived in about a quarter of an hour
struck. The medial man
wasbntot dead,. land attempted to
after the building. was
thoughtbleed
he trh, e
butw
e blood from her.
ocraouaknlddlgeedt byu iv.gerytnling."
d a verdict, " That
The jury returned the deceased
After the were accidentally.
in-
quest the bodies were removed for interment to their
own parish of Brabourn. It is in contemplation to
raisesubscription for the widows and orphans, hand-
sems donations towards which have already been re-
ceived from the ever- liberal family at East Sutton-
place.—Maidstone Journal.

How TO BREAK OFF A BAD HA81T.... The late
Mr. London, the celebrated writer on gardening, &c.,
during the time he was suffering so severely from the pain
in his arm, found no ease but from taking laudanum ; and
he became at last to habituated to the use of this noxious
potion that he took a IA ine-glassful every eight hours.
After the amputation of his arm, however, ho wished to
leave off taking it, as he was aware of its injurious effects
upon his general health ; and he contrived to cure himself
by. putting a wine-glassful of cold water into his quart
bottle of laudanum every time he took out a wine-glassful
of the potion, so that the mixture gradually became weaker
every day, till at last it was little more than water, and he
found that he had cured himself of this dangerous habit
without experiencing any inconvenience.
DEATH OF MR. BARNES, TIIE ENGINEEE.--We
regret to announce the death of Mr. John Barnes, which
took place on Friday, the 24th ultimo, at La Ciotat, near
Marseilles France, in the 54th year of his age, after an
illness of about six weeks. No serious apprehensions were
entertained in respect to the termination of his illness until
within a few days of his decease. Mr. Barnes a few years
since was well known in this country as the principal of
the firm of Barnes and Miller (now Miller, ilavenhill, and
Salkeld), but, at the time of his decease, he was directing
the constructing steam-engines and vessels for the service of
the groat and well-known establishment, the Messageries
National of France. Mr. Barnes held a distinguished repu-
tation as a constructor of marine steam-engines. His talents
and general acquirements were of a very high order, and, in-
deed, his usefulness as an engineer was admitted by those
who knew !Jim to be unsurpassed. The death of this gen-
tleman (who was brother-in-law of Mr. Miller) will be a
great loss to France, and, indeed, to the whole engineering
world.

LIVERFOOLI WEDNESDAY.--The United States
mail steam-ship Arctic, Luce commander, took her departure
hence to-day, at 12 30 P. M,, for New York, with 140
fassengers and a full cargo, besides the usual mails, ou
reight.

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