The Sun.
London, England, 1863-07-28 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, TUESDAY EVENING, JULY 28, 1863.

EDINBURGH (Reduced Fares), from Irongate-
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THE LONDON MAIN.TRUNK UNDER-
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This Company has been registered, and an influential
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the above project. Any particulars or information can be
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R. T. CARRICK begs to announce to his
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in full operation.
Cartes de Visite, 10 ,for 10s. Gd ; 21 for £l. Miniatures on
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styles.

THE FARMER'S BAROMETER, 505., a
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IRELAND.

DUBLIN, JULY 27.

The 41st report of the Inspectors-General of pri-
sons (Mr. J. Corry Connellan and Mr. John Len-
taigne), which has just beemisoed, contains some
interesting statistics. Although on the Ist of Janu-
ary, 1863, the number of prisoners of all classes
exceeded those in charge on the corresponding days
of the four years immediately preceding, they did
not amount to one-third of the aggregate number
confined on the Ist of January, 1851. In 1862 there
was an increase over 1861 of 2,344 male and 365
female prisoners. The daily average number of
prisoners presents an increase of 252 males and 12
females.

' The convictions of 1862 exceeded those of 1861 by
1,818, being 27,266 against 25,448. While the con-
victions of females at both assizes and quarter ses-
sions increased by only 8 per cent., the conviction
of males increased 17 per cent.; of the males 22
per cent. had undergone mere than one imprison-
ment, and of the females 37 per cent. had been
more than once committed to gaol. Sentences of
death and penal servitude were passed in 1861 upon
353, and in 1862 upon 595. Of six sentenced to
death two had their sentences commuted. More
than a third or those who endured the punishment
of penal servitude were sentenced for three years
and under. Only three were sentenced for life.
Four fifths of the whole number sentenced to
terms of imprisonmene were for periods not
exceeding a month, affording but an average
duration of detention for each prisoner of 11 days
and seven hours. The religious professions of pri-
soners were found to be nearly what they had been
the previous year—that is, Church Protestants,
10.39 per cent. ; Presbyterians, 2.61 per cent. ;
Roman Catholics, 83'3 per cent. ; " not ascer-
tained," o'7 per cent.

The gaols have been generally healthy, and the
inmates .free from contagious disease. The total
expenditure on gaols in 1861 was £77,714, and in
1862, £84,229. The profit on works reduced these
amounts about £2,600 in the former year, and about
£3,000 in the latter. The ayes age cost per annum
of each prisoner was £26 18s. 60.—rather less than
the previous year, the difference being caused by the
increase in the number of prisoners.
The inspectors state that every one of the abuses
with regard to the treatment of lunatics detailed in
their last report is still in force. They are still
brought to gaols tied down with ropes on cars, and
among the numbers committed from Union work-
houses sometimes very distressing cases occur.
The prosecution for slander against Mr. John
Rea by Mr. Lytle, late mayor of Belfast, commenced
on Saturday. Mr. Rea pleaded his own cause, end
he began by objecting to the judge, Mr. Justice
Hayes, as disqualified for trying the case, in conse-
quence of something which he did as Solicitor-
General years ago. Mr. Brewster, Q.C., protested
against the course adopted by Mr. Rea, and the
judge disallowed the objection. The case is still pro-
ceeding, and will probably last for several days.
A very remarkable libel case was tried at Nonagh
last week before Baron Hughes and a special jury.
The action was brought by Mr. Spring Rice, to
recover damages for an alleged libel published in
the Limerick Reporter by the Rev. Thomas Ryan,
P.P. It appeared in the form of a letter signed
" One of the People." It stated that an investi.
gation had been held at Mr. Rice's house, when the
following astounding particulars came out :—A
threatening letter had been found on his premises
warning him to prepare for death in consequence
of evicting a family. He sent for the police,
and seemed greatly alarmed. But it was stated
in the libel that the letter was written to Mr.
Rice, at hie own instigation, by Bridget Dunne,
his parlourmaid. It was to repel this foul charge
the action was brought. The maid was produced
on the trial, and deposed that she did write the
letter'under her master's direction, as stated in
the libel, and also a letter to herself, as if from a
lover in Kilkee. The latter was intended to cor-
roborate a statement which he desired her to make
—that she wrote the first in the hope of fright-
eniag the family back to Kilkee. Mr. Rice was
examined, and positively contradicted her evidence
He was corroborated by Mrs. Rice.

Baron Hughes charged the jury to the follow-
ing effect:—" The Rev. Mr. Ryan had undertaken
to satisfy 12 gentlemen upon their oaths that the
was true.
charge he preferred against Mr. Spring Rice, by
ofaltya,
elsBta6h2l,ish
his
jus-
tification his
What letter
et tveird
evidence
no of a thehad Ih9L e
el in
given
? None, in point of fact, with one ex-
ception; and yet they were asked by defendant's
counsel to affirm the truth of the charges made
against Mr. Rice upon the sole evidence of Bridget
Dunne. Her own counsel were obliged to admit
that she was a clever and an artful girl. She was
admittedly the author and composer of those docu-
ments, which the jury could take into their box
and most carefully consider. The first was a
threatening letter, the second a love-letter, pur-
porting to have been written from Kilkee, and the
third a confession. It would be the duty of the
jury to look into the contents of these documents,
and consider the dissimilarity of the handwriting
in the love-letter from the other papers written by
this girl. They would form their own epinion of
her capacity, and say, from what had taken place,
and from the demeanour of the witnesses who had
been examined during the trial, where the truth
lay. His lordship
added, in reference to the ques-
tion of damages, that
while the jury would take
into aecount the serious nature of the libel, they
would also bear in mind that the defendant was
only a parish priest, and the
incomes of parish
priests were usually small."
The jury returned a verdict for
the plaintiff, with
120 damages, and 6d. costs.
At the same assizes Philip Hayes
was tried be-
fore Mr. Justice O'Brien for shooting at Mr. Gore
Jones, with intent to murder him, on the 2d of
January, 1863. Mr. Jones, Who is a resident magis-
trate of long standing, detailed the
circumstances
of the case, and identified the prisoner as one of two
men whom he saw behind a ditch when a gun was
fired at him while riding along the road from
Thurles. He immediately pulled up and said,
"You scoundrels! I know you, and I'll make you
pay for this." The men then ran away through
the fields, and he rode after them through a lane,
which ended in a bog. He was obliged to return,
and they escaped. Two holes, as if made by a bullet,
were visible in the loose Inverness cape which he
wore at the time. The witness was severely cross-
examined by Mr. Curtis. Other evidence having
been given, the jury retired. They were locked
up all night, and discharged the next day, not being
able to agree to a verdict.
At the Mayo Assizes John M'Gregor was con-
victed of having acted as a ringleader in the riots
which occurred in the town of Castlebar on the
evening of the 10th of March, during the rejoicings

for the Prince of Wales's marriage. He was seen
marching through the streets at the head of a mob,
who halted opposite the houses of those whose loyal
displays displeased them, and, in obedience to nega-
tive but well-understood (Elections from him, dis-
charged volleys of stones at the windows. He was
sentenced to six months' imprisonment.

Ewell. As it was, the whole operation was timed
and given (fleet to as though the large and ccmpo•
site host which takes its inspiration from General
Lee were moved by machinery. The march of Gen.

Ewell against Winchester was swift, silent, and
successful; the occupation of the three great gaps in
the mountain range was timed to a minute. In vain

did General Hooker start off a body of his cavalry
to race for the possession of the northernmost road
through Soicker's Gap. They found General Fitz-
hugh Lee already in possession, and behind him
one of the finest infantry divisions in the Confede-
rate army. In vain did the Federal cavalry and
General Pleasanton race for possession of the next,
or Ashby's Gap, supported by a large boly of artil-
lery and infantry. There they found Gen. Stuart
and his cavalry thrown out in advance of the Gap
at a little place called Aldie, and here, on the 17th
and 19th inst., there were fierce skirmishes between
the antagonists, in the latter of which a Prussian
officer named Major von Borcke, the chief of Gene-
ral Stuart's staff, wall known to and much esteemed
by all English visitors who have recently repaired
to General Lee's army, received a severe wound

from a bullet in his neck, which passed between the
trachea and oesophagus and lodged in the muscles
at the back of the neck. It cannot be denied that

the wound is a very serious.one,but up to the 21st
inst., although the bullet could not be found, the
Major's condition was favourable and no bad symp-
tons had arisen ; but on the 21st the Federals had
advanced as far as a small town called Upper-
ville, in which the Major was lying, and there is
much reason to fear that he was yesterday taken
prisoner. It will be understood that Upper ville and
Aldie are considerably in advaace of—that is to say,
to the east—of Ashby's Gap, and that General Lee
is only too anxious to draw the Federals on into the
gap. For this purpose General Stuart has been
unsupported by any infantry, and has constantly
fallen back to draw his opponents on. In this there
is little chauce of his being successful, as the gap
could be held by one brigade against the whole of
General Hooker's army. Thirdly, at Chester's Gap
the road which traverses the mountain near Front
Royal has been seized by General A. P. Hill, and
with these three gaps in his possession, General
Lee can hold them if he pleases with insignificant
bodies of men, and behind the screen of the moun-
tains can play any pranks that he likes, unseen by
and beyond the reach of the baffled General
Hooker.

Although from my past experience of the long
delay which intervenes between the expedition of
each of my letters and its arrival in England
there is little encouragement to report facts of
which some knowledge, though perhaps an imperfect
one, will have reached your readers at least a month
before their perusal of this letter, and though I am
consequently thrown back upon mere comments
upon those facts, it may perhaps be not without
I interest to them to learn the exact particulars of
the attack of " Stonewall" Jackson's veterans,
under the leadership of the one-legged General
Ewell (his other leg having been left on,the
field at the second battle of Manassas), upon the
little city of Winchester. Frequently during these
last few months has the cry of agony extorted by
General and Mrs. Milroy from the unhappy resi-
dents of Winchester reached General Lee's ears,
but something has always intervened to distract
his attention, and to prolong the tenure of General
Milroy's sway. At length, when the time for medi-
tating an advance into Maryland and Pennsylvania
seemed at hand, Gen. Lee resolved to anticipate the
movement of his entire force by launching General
Ewell and his corps swiftly and suddenly against
Gen. Milroy. It the Federals lacked any further
evidence how odious and abhorred is their presence
in the eyes of the Virginians, let them seek it in the
circumstances which accompanied the advance of
Gen. Ewell. From Fredericksburg to Winchester, a
distance of more than 90 miles—through many
hamlets and villages, and through a country which,
for Northern Virginia, may be called densely peo-
pled—Gen. Ewell and his 25,000 men silently made
their way, and throughout that whole distance
neither man nor woman was found to carry to Gen.
Milroy warning that Nemesis was at hand. The
first s.ntimation that reached the Yankee tyrant of
his enemy's approach was the fire of Gen. Ewell's
advanced guard upon the pickets of the Federals.
It will be believed that it was not long before the
Yankees, finding themselves in presence of a largely
superior force, fell back into the town, and if Win-
chester, instead of being on Virginian, had been on
Pennsylvanian soil, the matter would probably have
ended upon the first day—the 13th inst.—by Gen.
Ewell's desiring the women and non-combatants to
pass out through his lines, and shelling the town
until Gen. Milroy and his men surrendered. As it
was, Gen. Ewell, wishing to get his enemy out of the
town, left open for him a bolt hole into two large forts
which overhang the town, and thither, at a very early
hour in the morning of Sunday, the 14th of June,
Gen. Milroy and his army, perhaps 7,000 strong,
hastily repaired. Upon the previous day it was
intimated to General Ewell that unless Milroy
was permitted to march out with all his stores,
cannon, and ammunition, he had resolved that be
would burn the town. Learning this General
Ewell made known that if the torch was applied
he would burn up all the Federals by driving them
back into the flames, and that if any of them
escaped he would hang them on the spot. Gaining
nothing by this motion, General Milroy earnestly
addressed himself to the consideration of the best
method open to him for escaping, and, doubtless,
although the exact details of his escape are un-
known, he displayed much ingenuity in rescuing
his neck from the halter. It is believed that in
civilian dress, and accompanied by some 2,000 men,
he struck out of the town by an old country road in
the direction of Charlestown, a place which lies on
the road from Winchester to Harper's Ferry, and
which gained some celebrity a few years ago as
having witnessed the trial and execution of the
famous John Brown. It was at a very early hour
on Monday morning that General Milroy's escape
was made, and there is little doubt that the com-
mand of General Johnson, to whose care was com-
mitted the guardianship of the road in question,
was partially taken by surprise, and was broken
through before Milroy and his companions could be
stopped. Be this as it may, it is certain that Mil-
roy escaped, nor is it less certain that if he had
been taken alive he would have forfeited his life,
having, like General Butler and others, been put
hors le roi by President Davis's proclamation.

To return to Sunday, the day preceding the
escape of General Milroy : I have mentioned that
most of the Federals in the town betook them-
selves to the two forts which impend over it, and
thence they threw shells actively against the Con-
federates during the whole morning. A little after
midday the Confederates, having planted their guns
upon a hill, which was pointed out to me last Octo-
ber by Colonel Wolseley as dangerously command-
ing the two forts, opened fire briskly upon them,
and under cover of their fire the Louisiana
brigade advanced to storm. Dashing gallantly
forward with the fire and elan specially charac-
teristic of the soldier of Louisiana, they carried two
out of the three bastions without sustaining more
than a trifling lots, and drove thaederals headlong
out of the forts. Of these fugitives no less than
3,000 were taken prisoners about four miles from
Winchester, on the road
by to
81‘tfra:lot Martinsburg, burgl
Confederate where
they were intercepted a
force commanded (if I mistake not) by General
between
urg itself,
Rhodes, and from 1,200 to 1,500 more were cap-
turedthe neighbourhood of Martinsburg
officers being included among the
or e than i n
prisoners.
Thirty pieces of artillery,
100lf,
m
and 200 waggons, large commissary clothing, and
,
medical stores, and about 400 horses) the rest hav-
ing been pressed into the service of aiding the
flight of the terrified Yankees) fell into the hands of
the Confederates in the town of Winches! er—a
weighty loss according to the computation of any