The Sun.
London, England, 1863-12-22 00:00:00

THE SJN. LONDON, TUESDAY EVENING, DECMIBtR 22, 1861

Royal Military Academy, Woolwich,

AWARD OF CO NIMISSIONS AND PRIZES, AND
REVIEW OF TROOPS BY THE DUKE OF CAM-
BRIDGE.

His Royal Highness the Duke of Cambridge, the Field-
Marshal Commanding-in-Chief, attended by his aide-de-
camp, Brevet Colonel C. Tyrwhitt ; General Sir J. F. Bur-
goyne, G.C.8., Inspector-General of Royal Engineers, with
his aide-de-camp, Capt. the Hon. G. Wrottesley ; General
bir G. Pollock, K.C.B. ; Major. General Hamilton, Vice-
President, and Major-General Sir F. Abbott, C. 8., of the
Council of Military Education; Major-General Bloomfield,
Inspector-General of Ordnance; General Piers, Colonel
Baker, and other officers, arrived at Woolwich yesterday
morning about 11 o'clock, to conduct the half-yearly inspec-
tion of the Royal Military Academy, and award commis-
sions and prizes to the gentlemen cadets, in accordance with
previous examination by the Council of Military Education.
Arrangements had also been made for a review of the whole
of the troops in garrison.
A royal salute of 21 guns, fired by a detachment of the
Coast Brigade Artillery, from the Green Hill Battery, an-
nounced the arrival of his royal highness and staff, who im-
mediately proceeded to the Royal Military Academy, and
were received by Major-General Sir R. J. Dacres, K.C.B.r
Commandant; Major-General Sand ham, Brigade-Major
Milward, Capt. Nangle, Deputy-Assistant •Quartermaster-
General, Major Field, &c.
The several classes of gentlemen cadets had assembled on
the lawn fronting the building in review order, and, after
inspection went through a course of manual and platoon
exercise in an excellent manner, under the direction of the
officers of the military branch of the establishment. His
royal highness and staff having visited the library, class-
rooms, and other departments of the establishment, and
inspected various drawings, plans of fortification, and other
words of art executed by the pupils during the past half-
year, proceeded to the school of arms, forming part of the
spacious gymnasium recently erected, where the whole of
the cadets had assembled, and arrangements had been made
to receive the several reports, and award commissions and
prizes to the successful condidates, The duke and staff
having taken up a position at the head of the table on which
the valuable prizes were placed, Major-General Hamilton,
Vice-President of the Council of Military Education, read
the following report of the council :
" 13, Great George-street, Dec. 19.
",The Council of Military Education have the honour to
submit to his Royal Highness the Field Marshal Command-
ing-in-Chief their report of the half-yearly examination of
the gentleman cadets of the Royal Military Academy. Of
68 gentlemen cadets who were examined for commissions
on this occasion, 6:5 have passed, a result which the council
cannot but regard as eminently satisfactory. One-third of
the commissions having been announced for the Royal
Engineers, the 22 cadets first in order of merit who elected
for that service are recommended for it accordingly;
the remainder are recommended for commissions in
the Royal Artillery. The examiner in fortification con-
siders the examination in that subject very satisfactory.
giving evidence of very careful and thorough instruction,
and generally of diligence and ability on the part of the
cadets, The examiner in surveying reports that a fair pro-
portion of the class have done their work with the required
degree of accuracy, The council are happy to observe that
there are no failures in this subject. The examiner in
chemistry considers that the result of the first division is
very fair, but reports the majority of the papers of the second
division as of very iuterior quality. In natural sciences the
examiner reports an ev:dent deficiency of reading as well as
of practical study, especially in the branch of practical geo-
logy. The above subjects were included in the examinations
for commissions. In those that follow the gentlemen cadets
ot the second or third class were finally examined, and the
marks gained in them will be carried forward to their final
examination. In mathematics the examiner considers the
result as eminently satisfactory. Some of those who have
obtained the highest marks exhibit the two conditions ot
industry and mathematical power; and should they pursue
further their mathematical studies, the examiner is Of
opinion that they are capable of attaining considerable
scient.fie distinction. The examiner in practical geometry
reports the answering of the cadets to have been better than
on any former occasion in which he had examined, In
French the examiner states that, although in this examina-
tion there were fewer instances of very superior attainment
then on any former occasion, the average attainment has
been very decidedly raised. The examiner in German re-
ports that the result was satisfactory, and that the cadets
gave evidence of more careful snicly than on any former
examinations. The examiner in landscape drawing reports
that the work done by the cadets proves they have applied
themselves witn gre at diligence to that branch of study.
(Signed) " Major- General F. W. HAMILTON,
Vice-President,
" Colonel G. ELWYN,
" Colonel J. E. ADDISON."
Colonel Yorke, R.E., then road the following report from
Major-General Sandham, lieutenant-governor of the insti-
tution :
"I have the honour to report to your Royal Highness
that the whole cf the gentlemen cadets, of the first-class,
who have been under examination, are qualified for com-
missions in regard to conduct, proficiency in military exer-
cises, and discipline. The monthly returns of the junior
classes throughout the half-year have shown that a satis-
factory emulation and exertion has existed generally
throughout the academy, and the results of the examina-
tion of the classes show that those reports were well founded.
The responsible and sub- divisional officers and corporals have
carried out their duties satisfactorily, with few exceptions,
and In a manner to uphold discipline, and to encourage and
keep up a proper feeling and bearing amongst the cadets,
and, on the whole, I feel justified in making a favourable re-
port of the company, although I had occasion to bring to
your Royal Highness's notice some irregularities which in-
curred about two months ago, and which I feel assured were
confined to a very inconsiderable number of the cadets, and
that the general feeling of the company is entirely opposed
to these irregularities ; since that period the conduct of the
company has been irreproachable. The officers throughout
the establishment have conducted their several duties with
firmness and judgment. The professors and masters have
shown a zeal and judgment in the performance of their re-
sponsible duties that has led to the favourable report I am
able to make to your royal highness. The drills and especial
military exercises, riding, gymnasium, and repository drills,
have been carried out as fully as the time that could be de-
voted to those exercises would admit.
The successful candidates for commissions were then called
to the front, and the number of marks gained by each in
the several branches of study read over, when his Royal
Highness announced that commissions would be awarded
as follows, viz, ea-For the Royal Engineers-a-Messrs.
Bucknill, Wood, Elsdale, Savage, Kirkwood, Clayton,
Corbett, Ottley, Lambert, Harrison, North, Onamanacy,
M'Artlaur, Macpherson, Denny, Dillon, Jones, Cairo w,
Dorward, Simpson, and Westaway. For the Royal Artil •
levy—Messrs, Melville, Vaughan, East, Cooper, Bowen,
‘lawbray, J. Murray, 'Waco, Law, Davies, Denison, Sal
mond, Watkin, Oliivant, Fox, Stone, Wallace, Ewing,
Hueter, Taylor, Gerard, Williams, Cripps, Took-
ington, Welke r, Ba!ley, Ridge, Downes, Dugdale, Mun-
day, Fitzgerald, S. Murray, Wynne, Milman, Nutlin, Cur-
tin, Kennedy, Baddeley, Penny, Plunkett, Hamilton, and
Browell.
The Duke of Cambridge then proceeded to distribute the
prize!: as follows : —For exemplrry conduct, to Mr. Mes-
cal], the gold Pollock medal, bearing an inscription
"Founded by the British inhabitants ot Calcutta, to com-
memorate the eminent services of Major-General Sir George
Pollock, G.C.8., and awarded to the most deserving cadets
of the season. For exemplary conduct, to Mr J. Hunter—
a regulation sword. The remaining prizes, consisting of
felescopeg, sextants, mathematical instruments, books, &c.
To Mr. Mescal], three prizes for first artillery, second artil-
lery, and first fortifications; to Mr Mowbray, three prizes
for second artillery, second topography and geology; to Mr
Bucknill, three prizes for chemistry, natural philosophy,
and practical mechanics ; to Mr Nicolson, three prizes for
second mathematics, third fortifications, and first practical
geometry ; to Mr Ottley, two prizes for first topography and
second fortifications ; to Mr Goschen, two prizes for Hin-
dostani and first mathematics; to Mr Pulford, two prizes
for first mathematics and practical geometry; to Mr Smith,
for first French; to Mr Cooke, for second French; to Mr
Studdart, for third topography; to Mr Howard, for first
landscape drawing ; and Mr O'Grady, for second landscape
drawing.

His ROYAL HIOHNESS then addressed the cadets in the
following terms. He observed that it afforded him much
pleasure to receive such favourable reports from the Council
of Military Education and the lieutenant-governor of that
institution. He wished to impress upon the minds of those
cadets who were about to receive commissions in her Ma-
jesty's service that they must not consider their education
to be completed. When they left those walls they would
enter upon a career which demanded of them to continue
their education and endeavour to keep pace with the spirit
of the age. The corps of Royal Engineers and Royal Ar-
tillery were essentially scientific, and this was in every re-
spect an inventive and scientific age ; therefore it was incum •
bent upon them, if they desired to be really efficient officers,
to make themselves acquainted with those improvements
and discoveries which were constantly arising. He knew
many officers who had made themselves truly scientific after
obtaining their commissions, and he hoped that the cadets
present would on a future occasion emulate their example,
But there was another important thing requisite to con.
stitute a good and efficient officer, and that was discipline.
—was a svtrei most
:vvoacaluteabolef discipline; Without strict discipline the efficiency of the British army
:lid not be maintained, and he believed that an officer who
'bile.edop
-was
pa,.strict disci. linarian would not only be more respected,
be Carried 'ornOt he et corps, NV
wouldhi s t ,
remindh o e v however,
them
that thp,ro
two wnyn to carry out discipline. It might
one who had the tokill
v and an endeavcur to make it as
manner, or with
tact,an. unnecessary, severe, and offensive
little offensive as
Tho most valuable officer was
t the latter plan, and who,
whilst firmly maintainin°;-
,sentiai for the
welfare
of the
strict discipline which was
clad and honoured by Faith° service, would still be re-
tie:, • vil
so th whom he came into

confect
Hi, Royal Highness and aiaff then witnessed a series of
gyaillaStie, exeroJaes, carriedout by a number of the eadeto,
under the awe eireetion of Sergeant Grifrbs; end subse-

quently proceeded, at half-past 1 o'clock, to the common,
where the troops were drawn up in review order as follows :
The batteries of Royal Horse Artillery on the right; the
field batteries on the left, in close column of batteries at
quarter intervals; and the infantry—comprising the 14th
Brigade Royal Artillery, the Royal Engineers, and the
Woolwich division of Royal Mar;nes Light Infantry—in the
centre, in contiguous quarter-distance column. The force
having been inspected, marched past at slow and quick time,
and retired to barracks. The duke and staff then proceeded
to the Royal Artillery Riding-house and witnessed the 65
cadets to whom commissions had been awarded go through
a course of equestrian exercise, and after partaking of re-
freshments at the officers' mess-room, his rcyal highness
and the officers who accompanied him left Woolwich at 3
o'clock, amidst a second salute of 21 guns from the Green
Hill Battery.

ASSIZE INTELLIGENCE.

HOME CIItCUIT.—LEAvEs, Dec. 21.
(Before Mr. Baron Pigott.)

. .„
The learned Judge opened the commission at this town
at 10 o'clock, and after attending Divine service, proceeded
to charge the grand jury and to try prisoners.

The calendar for the eastern division of Sussex contains
the names of 11 prisoners, and that for the western division
five, of whom two are charged with manslaughter, two as
accessories to manslaughter, one with rape, one with
arson, one with sacrilege, two with robbery, one with bur-
glary, one with shooting with intent to murder, one with
uttering a forged note, one with uttering counterfeit coin,
one with concealment of birth, one with perjury, and one
with making a false declaration before a magistrate.
James Leppert), 12, was charged with setting fire to a
stalk of corn at East Grinstead on the 16th of August last.
Mr. Roupell prosecuted.

The facts were clearly proved, and the boy had-, indeed,
never denied his guilt, nor assigned any reason for the act.
The learned Judge left to the jury the question whether
the prisoner was aware that he was doing that which was
wrong.
The jury returned a general verdict of guilty.
Sentence, six weeks' imprisonment with hard labour, and
to be once whipped, receiving 12 strokes with a birch rod.
Robert
killingSsu and slayingnders,2 ,navvie, was charged with felo-
niously George Goble, at Amberly, on
the 27th of October.

Mr. Wyatt prosecuted, and introduced the case as being
one of anything but an aggravated character, inasmuch as
the prisoner had received great provocation, and had
caused the death of the prisoner in a perfectly fair fight
according to the rules of the prize ring.
The jury returned a verdict of guilty, accompanied by a
strong recommendation to mercy,
,The learned Judge, in passing sentence, said that the
prisoner had been found guilty of the manslaughter of this
person, George Goble, and he was bound to say that he
thought the unfortunate deceased brought his death upon
himself. His conduct was m st provoking, and the prisoner
had done everything which could be expected from human
nature to avoid the encounter. The deceased put an offence
upon him, assaulted him with violence, and compelled him
to go from one part of the house to another, and then to go
out and fight him. His lordship added that ho was glad to
find that the prisoner had the manliness to say he did not
wish to go on with the fight, and under the circumstances
he felt justified in giving full effect to the recommendation
of the jury. The prisoner had already been in prison nearly
two months, and he should therefore only sentence him to
complete that period, being nine days' imprisonment, with
hard labour.

George Burns, 19, labourer, was charged with rape upon
Jane Bonitace, a little girl, only 11 years of age, at Poling,
on the 22d of July last.

Mr. Lumley Smith prosecuted ; tho prisoner was undo-

fended.

The case was clearly Droved, and the prisoner was gen-

t enc d to three years' penal servitude.
Nelson Hillyer, 16, labourer, AA-as charged with forging a
note l'or the payment of £lO, at Brighton, on the 15th of
August last.

scribed one symptom which he had obseried yestdrday—
viz., a sense of slaking perpendicularly downwards, which
was, more than any other, indicatiVO Of serious mischief.
Other medical evidence was given. to corroborate this
opinion.
The medical witnesses were cross-examined with the view
of showing that plaintiff had not been properly treated,
and other medical testimony was adduced to show that the
probable consequences of the accident were far from being
so serious as had been described.

The plaintiff, who had been brought forward in the course
of the case, exhibited so pitiable a spectacle that he was re •
moved without any attempt being made to examine him i
one of the wittesses, however, afterwards stated that he
attributed his present sad appearance to an attack of
hysteria, consequent on his general debility, but not re-
sulting from any organic change in the brain. On behalf
of the company it was said that they only desired a fair
estimation of the damages, and it was urged that plaintiff
was only in humble circumstances, he living in a house at
4s. weekly rent.

His Lordship having summed up, the jury returned a
verdict fur the plaintiff—damages, £1,500.

NORFOLK CIRCUIT—NoRFoLK, Dec. 21,

Mr. Baron Martin proceeded to dispose of the remainder
of the charges in the calendar, and commenced business
this morning at 10 o'clock by trying the only two cases that
appear in the city calendar, one of which is a charge of
highway robbery, the other a charge of forgery, in which
there are five indictments for separate and distinct acts of
forgery and uttering bills of exchange, preferred against
the same individual, the sum so obtain©d amounting to up-
wards of £l6O.

James Murgatroyde Hubbard was charged with forging
and uttering the acceptance of a bill of exchange for the
sum of £45.

Mr. Metcalfe and Mr. Sims Reeve appeared for the prose-
cution ; the prisoner was defended by Mr. Carlos Cooper.
The facts of the case, as stated by Mr. Metcalfe, were
simple enough. The prisoner was engaged with his father
in a small brewery business in Norwich, and the prosecutor,
Mr. Edward Mills, who is also a resident in this city, being
indbted to the brewery to the amount of £4 18s., gave a
bill at six months for £5, which included 2s. charged for
credit, stipulating at the same time that the bill was not to
be negotiated. As, however, the prisoner wished to have a
bill that could be negotiated, the fit st one was taken back and
another to the same amount and for the same period was
given in exchange which was negotiable. On giving this
the prosecutor required and obtained a receipt for a bill for
£5 at six months for account delivered for beer, signed by
the prisoner, and then the prisoner took the bill which had
been thus given, and placed it to his account at Messrs
Gurney's bank (changed, however, from £5 to £45), re-
ceiving credit for and drawing upon that amount from time
to time.

Mr. Mills (who was called to prove the principal part of
the facts above narrated, swore that the second bill was
drawn for £•V, alai that alterations had been made in it by
which the word " forty" was prefixed to the word "five"
in the body of the bill, and the figure " 4" to the figure " 5"
in the corner of it ; in addition to which the handwriting
upon the bill was sworn to by two persons who knew him
well as that of the prisoner, and evidence given of it being
placed to his credit at Messrs. Gurney's bank, having pre-
viously been taken by the prisoner's servant from Mr Mills'
house to bis counting h use, and left upon the prisoner's
desk.

Mr. C. Cooper urged that it was very doubtful from Mr.
Mills' evidence (upon whose testimony the whole case as
far as the forgry was concerned rested) whether he took
such accurate observation of it as would enable him to say
that the bill might not really have been in the shape in
which it appeared; and, as to the uttering, that them was
no evidence the prisoner dealt with this bill or had it in his
possession.

His Lordship, in his summing up, went most carefully
through the evidence, remarking upon the bill itself that
this case ought to be a warning to mercantile men not to
accept bills at all unless they are written in the ordinary
way, so as to prevent any such thing as this happening.
This bill was so drawn that the acceptance, instead of b ing
as usual, written over and upon the body, was inserted in a
space left blank in the body, and dividing it as it were in
half.

The jury found a verdict of guilty of forgery, and the
prisoner was sentenced to 20 years' penal servitude.

On the other indictments no evilence weis offered. As his

lordship observed, it was a wholesale forgery of bills.
The business for the city being over about half-past 12,
his lordship returned to the Castle, and proceeded to dispose
of the remainder of the cases in the county calendar. lie
commenced with passing sentence upon the following pri-
soners who had pleaded guilty when arraigned on Saturday.
Thos. Smith and Thoa. Bugg were indicted for two separate
act of burglary in dwelling-houses at C ngham on Oct. 12.
The learned Judge, in passing sentence, said—These are
cases of burglary of a very different nature from those that
ordinarily appear. I find that you went about in masks and
created such terror from your appearance and gestures that
the wife of one of the persons whose houses you attacked

rushed out of it in the utmost terror; and then you carried
off £27 which you round on the premises. Not content with
that you broke into another house, and there, strange to say
(for the owner of this, like the former parson, was only a
labouring man), you found and carried off £•5, Such acts

as these—aggravated not only by the fact that the persons
who are robbed are poor men, uuable to protect their houses

as strongly as those who are well oir can do, but in this par-
ticular instance by the fact that you knew these poor people,
the state of their cottages, and what pl•operty they had,
from having worked with them—must be punished in the
most severe manner. The sentence of the Court is that

each of you be kept to penal servitude for 20 years. llis
lordship, in the course of his address to the prisoners, said,
—The judges have avoided hitherto saying anything to
poor persons about depositing their money in savings-banks,
because though they have been often well conducted there
have been many instances where frauds have been com-
mitted, and those who have trusted them have lost their
savings; but now, when every one can deposit his money
with the security of the State, the case is different, and
though the interest given may be small, yet the ample and
absolute security so fully makes up for that that there is no
reason why the judges should not advise every poor person
to take advantage of the security for his savings thus offered
by the State.
Joseph Wilmot and Richard Hill having pleaded guilty
to the charge of setting fire to a black of wheat and a stack
of barley belonging to Mr. Rayner, at Litcham ma the 20th
of August,

the Lordship, in passing sentence, remarked on the num-
ber of charges of arson which had come before him during
his progress through parts of this circuit, this being the
ninth case, and of a worse complexion that any he had seen
—" for here," said the learned Judge, " you destroy the
entire produce of the land belonging to the poor man who
has suffered from your wantonness. You knew nothing of
him, nor he of you; but, b cause you were hungry and
could not get work, as you said, you commit- this atrocious
act. Now, I have no doubt that at the time you did this
deed, full harvest, time, when work was abundant and labour
in request, you could have got work enough to keep you,
but Sou preferred hanging about in idleness. This, there
fore, is so atrocious a case that I mean to break through the
scale of punishment I have given and inflict a heavier one. I
therefore sentence you each to five years' penal servitude."
George Warner, who also pleaded guilty on Saturday to
a charge of wounding, with intent to do grievous bodily
harm, was sentenced to 18 months' hard labour. "A more
scandalous act," said his Lordship, " I have never met
with. You meet with a man at a public house, and, after
drinking there, begin to boast of your skill and prowess as
a boxer, Baying that you have sparred with Jim Mace ;
then on being challenged to fight with the man who has
been injured, you fight and are knocked into the hedge,
and upon that you follow him with a knife as he is going
away and stab him with it."
The only case of any importance that is left for trial is a
charge against a man named John Lemmon for shooting at
Charles Long, gamekeeper to Mr. Fellowes, at Shottesham,
on the 29th of November. The case was going on at the
time our parcel was despatched ; but from Mr. Balwer's
statement, who appeared for the prosecution, the shot that
was fired did not do any harm in consequence of the protec-
tion afforded by the thick gaiters worn by the gamekeeper.
Mr. Metcalfe defended the prisoner, the defence being an
alibi. With this and the other charges that are left the busi-*
noes of the winter assizes for the Norfolk Circuit will cad.

MIDLAND CIRCUIT—YORE, Dec. 18.
(Before Mr. Justice Mellor.)

James Isaac Markerow was charged, under the provisions
of the Bankruptcy Act, 1861, that he, having been adjudi-
cated a bankrupt, afterwards, with intent to defraui and
defeat the rights of his creditors and to conceal the state of
his affairs, parted with and destroyed certain papers,writings,
and documents.

Mr. T. P. E. Thompson and Mr. C, Newton were for the
prosecution, which was instituted by order of Mr. Commis-
sioner Ayrton.

It appeared that the papers in question had been taken by
the officer of the Court to the office of the official assignee,
and abstracted by the prisoner, and the whole or some of
them left at the tap of the George Inn, in Hull, with the
waiter there, and these subsequently reached the hands of
the solicitor through one of the creditors, to whom they
had been entrusted by the prisoner; but these papers were
found to be of no use in explaining the prisoner's dealings
and effairs, and, therefore, not within the mischief pro-
vided against them by the act. Some other papers it was
said (part of those abstracted) were given by the prisoner
to ono Farrell for safe custody, and these the
prisoner afterwards received back, and subsequently de-
stroyed, representing to the witnessess that they were of
importance in his affairs. The question resolved itself into
this, whether these witnesses could be relied upon, or were
they telling a trumped up talc in order to get to the assizes.
The prisoner was acquitted.
This closed the business of this memorable assize, Whether
o
as regards the death of a greatly esteemed Judon—oscarlet,
went the Northern Circuit at a
t won, Williams,
ss
Brougham, Pollock, Parke, Crewell,ime
r
and Patteson were among its merobersA--lodearss relates to the
order in Council which has severed York from the Northern
Circuit and its associations.