The Sun.
London, England, 1864-01-19 00:00:00

THE ARMY.

A general full-dress parade of the companies composing
the battalion of Royal Marine Light Infantry of the Chat-
ham division took place yesterday at head• quarters to wit-
ness the ceremony of decorating seven non. commissioned
officers and men with the medals which, with gratuities in
money, have been awarded them by the Lords of the Admi-
ralty for long service and exemplary conduct. The battalion
having been formed in contiguous columns on the parade
ground, the following non-commissioned officers and men
were called to the front and presented with the rewards
ordered by the Admiralty :—Sergeant Edwin Collins and
Colour-Sergeant J. Wright, medal and £l5 each; Private
Thomas Pratt and Private John Burling, medal and £5
each. The following non-commissioned officers were each
presented with a silver medal, without gratuity, for good
conduct and long service :—Colour-Sergeant J. Reynolds,
who also wears the medal for service in China; Sergeant
W. Lucas, who is also in possession of a China medal ; and
Corporal W. C. Crow, attached to the Royal Marine Band.
The medals were distributed by Col.-Commandant T.
Lemon, C.B. Each of the non-commissioned officers and
men decorated has been upwards of 21 years in the Royal

Marines.
The sentence on William James Wightman, a private in
the Royal Marine Light Infantry, who was convicted at
Woolwich by a garrison court-martial on the 14th for
being absent and making away with his necessaries, was
yesterday promulgated. The prisoner is sentenced to be
confined in the gaol at Fort Clarence with hard labour, to
have his pay stopped, and to be branded with the letter
"D.' Notwithstanding the constant employment of the
lash in punishment of these crimes, they, as already stated
in the Sun, are proved to be considerably on the increase.
The War Department authorities,without absolutely banish-
ing corporal punishment from the decision of courts-martial,
have, it is stated, intimated that widens terms of imprison-
ment and hard labour may be substituted until further
orders. The decision of the War Department has been re-
ceived at Woolwich with much satisfaction, more especially
as petitions have been presented by the inhabitants and
corporate meetings have been held to urge the necessity of
the abolition of the " cat" from the army.
_

The new cavalry barracks at Colchester have been com-
pleted by the contractors Messrs. Lucas, and might be now
occupied by troops. The gas and water service is nearly
established and a system of roads has been formed. Messrs.
Lucas have commenced the execution of another contract;
and the canteen, reservoir, riding-school, granary, &c., are
now in course of construction,

The Alleged Harshness to the Poor in

Bethnal-green,

Last night the weekly meeting of the Bethnal-green Board
of Guardians was hold at the workhouse, Victoria-park, Mr.
Collins in the chair.
Mr. Howard, clerk to the board, read a communication
from the Poor-law Board, transmitting a letter from the
Rev. Mr. Chaffer, complaining of the conduct of Mr. Run-
cieman, relieving officer, towards a family named Cox. The
rev. gentleman stated that the man Cox, residing at No. 7,
Friar's-mount, Be' hnal-green, having become ill, applied for
medical relief, but that Mr. Runciemen refused to give it,
and insisted upon the whole family coming into the house.
The wife being in a condition to support herself declined to
do so, and it was urged that if Mr. Runcieman's object was
to prevent the sick man Cox coming to the infirmary, his
conduct was ci uel, and that if he really desired the whole
family to enter the house, he was inflicting a hardship on the
wife and child and throwing a needless burden on the rates.
Mrs. Cox was called in, and she said she had a complaint
to make. On Saturday week she applied for a medical order
for the doctor to attend her husband, who was very ill. She
did not ask for relief. Mr. Sadlier, one of the relieving offi-
cers, began to write out an order, when Mr. Runcieman en-
tered and stopped him. Mr. Runcieman said she should
have nothing but the house, and that the whole family
should come in. He gave her an order for the admission of
the whole family. Neither her husband nor herself would
consent to that, and until Monday there was no doctor. She
went on the latter day and got an order for the doctor, who
attended. Mr. Runcieman called and said to her husband,
"Do you know I could fetch a policeman and have you
taken up." He should not have said that to a sick and dying
man. Her husband said he would rather die of hunger than
consent that his wife should enter the house and become a
pauper while she could maintain herself. Mr. Runcieman
said, "You are a pauper now. Whit else are you 1" He
also said, " Make no mistake about me. You shall have
nothing from me but the house." On Saturday her husband
got worse, and Dr. Marsingham sent a certificate that he
should be taken into the house.
Mr. Fox asked whether, when application was made
merely for a medical order, an order for the whole family to
enter the house was given instead.
Mr. Runcieman said relief was asked for as well as the
order.
This tile woman Cox denied, and it was stated that if the
application was for relief, Mr. Sadlier would not have begun
to write out the order.
Mr. Runcieman said that the order was to admit the whole
family or one of them.
Mr. Fox said that could not have been. The order must
have been not for the sick man, but for the whole family.
Mr. Runcieman said he gave the order for the whole
family to be admitted, but endorsed it, "Or one to be ad-
mitted if desired." It was very easy to make these charges.
A. pauper had nothing to lose, but he had his character.
He passed this family to St. Luke's last year, and it he had
done his duty and handed them over to the police he would
not now have all this trouble.
Mr. Fox said if Mr. Runcieman had done on the Saturday
what he did on the Monday—given a medical order when
it was asked for—all the trouble would have been avoided.
Instead of doing so, he most irregularly gave an order for
the admission of the whole family to the workhouse.
Mr. Runcieman said that the whole family were drunken
and dissolute, and Mrs. Cox had given birth formerly to an
illegitimate child in the house.
In answer to a question from Mr. Collins,
Mr. Runcieman stated that the Rev. Mr. Chaffe
r. whom
he wished to treat with every respect, had been led into
telling a great untruth when he said the board gave no
out-door relief. He (Mr. Runcieman) gave out-door r elief
next to St. Philip's Church.
Mr. Collins I lso said the Rev. Mr. Chaffer was very
wrong on that point, and he denounced the rev. gentleman's
conduct in writing to the papers. The board ought to con-
tradict his statements, and show him no mercy, as he
had
shown none to the board.
The consideration of the subject of Mr. Runcieman's
order was adjourned, to see whether he had, as he alleged,
written on the back of it that the sick man alone might.
,ter the house.

" COVET AND SOCIETY," FROM ELIZABETH TO
ANNE. Edited, from the Papers at Kimbolton, by the
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to their noble editor. In them will be found scmething
new about many men and women in whom the reader can
never cease to feel an interest—mingled with a good deal
of gossip about the loves of great poets, the frailties of great
beauties, the rivalries of great wits, the quarrels of great
peers." . .

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