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 ir fliction 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 Commanding •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 Royal 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 c,tmpanies 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 Goneral Warde, C. 8., commanding the garrison
at Woolwich, yesterday held what is 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.
Nangle ; Brigade Major Hay, and other officers.
The Earl of Dunmore, Lord Abinger, and other officers
on leave in England from their respective battalions or 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 second battalion of the Coldstream
Guards, under the command of Colonel Stepney, C. 8., for
a month's duty,
The Italian screw steam frigate Prince Umberto, 50,

Capt. S. Bou, from Cherbourg, with a number of naval
cadets on board for instruction, arrived in Plymouth Sound
oa 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 Estour,l, Capt.
Hassean Bey, and the Relepers Nusrett, Capt. Ahmed
Bey, yesterday entered the Thames and moored at Purfleet,
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 ot
hulks at Woolwich during the conversion of the ships, the
Turkish Ambass,clor having seat a requisition to the Board
ot Admiralty for that purpose.
The following appointments and promotions have been
made at the Admiralty :—Lieut. Philip R. H. 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, midshipmen, to the Curagoa—Henry Dyer, paymas
ter additional, to the St. George—J. H. Hewlett, chief
engineer. to the Indus, for the Encounter, when paid off—
P. AI 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, ot
the Jason, J. Nelson, of the Rinaldo, J. Ferguson (B), of
the Forte, G. Quick, of the Rattler, and J. Lurie, of the
Hcsper, promoted to be acting first class assist.-engineers
Commander W. B. Urmston, 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 Itailway Carriage,

Mr Thomas Beard, the well solicitor of Basing.
hall-street, on Tuesday evening last, entered the half-past
nine
where
h o'clocke resides.t rain
compartment of the carriage,
flrnom the Fseanme henrch-street to Snaresbrook,
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 sotaething about two feet in
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
it was its owner appeared determined to keep it
safe and tout of eight, for after the cursory
view obtained as ho enterea be kept it completely behind
him, and apparently:his hand on it. " Isn't the Grain late ?"
he asked. " I think it is," was the reply. " What is the
right time?" Mr Board took from his waistcoat pocket a
gold lever watch, suspended by a chain of like material, but
at the same instant the extrema folly and incautiousness of
such an act struck him so forcibly that he mechanically
replaced it. Ho looked up--his companion had not risen,
but was yet nearer by a foot, from the corner —his light
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." I; Anything fresh about it to-nay, ch ?"
This afforded what for the instant appeared a good oppor-
tunity, and flinging an evenin paper to the stranger Mr
Beard replied, " Look for yourself," at the same time tully
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, h
hand being still behind his back. until he gaais right
dually
faced his travelling companion, threw the paper down
without looking at it, and saying, " I can't read—getting
too old," placed his left arm completely across the
window frame. There they eat, the stranger lean-
ing forward until his left hand was within six inchee of
Mr Beard, and his attention still fixed on the gold
chain. Not for a second had that gentleman's
eyes, from the time he had taken out his watch, been
averted from that much-feared right arm, ever in the same