The Sun.
London, England, 1863-12-07 00:00:00

THE VOLUNTEERS.

The distribution of prizes which have been com-
peted for during the year by the members of the
37th. Middlesex (Bloomsbury) Volunteers took place
na Saturday evening at the Music-hall, Store-
street. Calonel M'Murdo, the Inspector-General of
Volunteers, who presided, opened the proceedings
by a brief address. After expressing the pleasure
which he felt in attending upon such omissions as
the present, the gallant colonel observed that the
past year had been marked by several events of
much importance to the Volunteer cause. A Royal
Commission had been appointed to inquire into the
conditism of the Volunteer force, Parliament had de-
liberated upon the report of that Commission, and
had come to the determination of voting a certain
sum of money in aid of the Volunteer force. Those
Were in error who supposed that the acceptance of
a Parliamentary grant would deprive the force of
its volunteer character, for the unpaid services and
time of officers and men would still be given for the
public benefit. It was not to be expected that the
large expenses for drill grounds, ranges, and other
necessary arrangements, could continue to be borne
exclusively by the Volunteers and their private
friends. The Government, acting upon the report
of the Commission, obtained power to make cer-
tain grants in aid, and the creatian of that power
was followed by the passing of a new Act of Par-
liament, under which all Volunteers werenow serv-
ing. There were also new Orders in Council de-
fining the degree of efficiency to be required to
entitle the various corps to receive the public grants,
and then, came certain regulations by means of
which the Government had reason to expect that
the public money would be well and profitably
expended. (newt, hear.) Speaking of the :force
itself, he could say that although.he
,had not yet
recaia.ed the rinnual returns he believed it was
znsiataining i is strength, and it certainly was pro-
gressing in efficiency. (Cheers.) During the
year he had, as Inspector-General, attended
county musters of the Volunteers of Essex, Suf-
folk, Devonshire, Dorsetshire, Lancashire, Durham,
Woicestershire, and many other counties at which
the -various corps in each respective county had been
brigad,d and he was gratified to find that in bat-
tal ion, in brigade, and in divisions of brigade, the
Volunteers worked together efficiently as armed and
utiatiplined men should do. (Cheers.) With respect
a
the 37th Middlesex, ho had had the pleasure of
nrr'ting from the commanding officer that their
,tubers were increasing, and he could himself
toca4 of their state of efficiency as highly satisfac-
y. (Rea
.hear.)
Upon the subject of shooting,
for which the
given,
he prizes about to be distributed had
been
for skill in the use to say
a few words. Prizes
e of weapons had been given in
times before
the Christian era. The Greeks
had their Olyralm •
e games, iu which the vic-
tors were crowned with a laurel wreath ; but the
successful marksmen _s
the present day would,
aloabtless, prefer a silver cup to the wreath of laurel.
(Laughter.) Volunteers should remember that the
weapons with "...a:
beautiful
be used if"t"h
VI they were armed
were intended to
occasion should ever
ennlyhrrading our island
arise against an
when men practised shooting
target they should
bear in mind that theymlght be called upon to
in the_ shape
shoot at living targets,
He had semeti
of men equally
well armed as themselves
go.ne
Oa hooting
to see the firing of the crack shot of a _nanes
fly happened that the f corps ; but it frequently
present caused
such
of
the Inspector-General being used
rach
nervousness that no hits at all weremade. (Laugh-
ter.) Bat Volunteers should recollect in their
them to have to
practice that it might happen to
shoot not only in the presence of the Inspector-
General, but of an armed enemy, and if they were
nervous at a friendly visit, it would not do to be
Hear,
so with well-armed foes aiming at them. (Hear,
hear.) As an old soldier, he would advise them
when practising to consider that the target was
an enemy armed like themselves and advancing
upon them ; and if ever it should happen that they
were actually in the presence of armed and
advancing enemies he would recommend Volun-
teers to regard them as so many targets at which
to take good aim. (Cheers, and laughter.) In the
present day the use of marksmen was to keep down
the fire of long-range cannon and to resist cavalry.
They were aware that to meet a charge of cavalry
infantry was usually formed in square, but by that
formation a very large proportion of the fire of a
regiment was lost. Troops formed in line to resist
cavalry attacks could deal far more destruction to the
enemy; but such a formation required very steady
soldiers. At Bstaktava the late Lord Clyde, with a
Highland regiment in
line,
met and repelled the
Russian cavalry ; but that gallant general knew
that he could rely upon his men. Volunteers must
bear in mind that hood shooting was not the only
thing required from a good soldier. Discipline and
drill were very important to give the commander
cenfidence to use his men to the utmost advantage.
(Hoar, hear.) The gallant colonel then proceeded
to distribute the prizes, which were of a most varied
• including, besides hard •
description, cash, a rifle, a
tankards, engravings, tea
Bible, cups, services, cruet
h r articles. The utmost
stands, and other e good feeling
among the corps, the nen_
seemed to prevail winners
cheering the recipients of the prizes as heartily as
hough the awards had been in their own favour.
t
Lieut.-Col. Conic then proposed votes of thanks to
thanks to the donors of prizes, and to Col. M'Murdo
fur presiding, which were ado ti!cd by acclamation,
eye cup presented to
The shooting for the challenge

~.........d.
the Cambridge University Volunteers by his Royal
Highness the Prince of Wales, honorary colonel of
the corps, took place on Friday. A pre,iminary
match to select the six best shots in tilt. battalion
was held on Wednesday and Thursday, in which
the following members made the u „hest scores,
viz. :—Lieut.-Col. Baker, Capt. E. Ross, Corporal
Doe, Private Powlett, Private Thornton, Private
Stowe. The shooting on this occasion was not very
good, owing to the unfavourable state of the wea-
ther, which was boisterous and wet, but in the final
match it was remarkably good. The match took
place on the rifle ground of the corps, which is,
perhaps, one of the finest in England, having a
range of upwards of 1,000 yards.

ASSIZE INTELLIGENCE,

HOME CIRCIIIT.—HEREFORD, Dec. 5.
CROWN COURT.
(Before Mr. Justice Williams.)

The learned Judge this morning passed sentence in the
cases which had stood over for consideration from yester-
day.
The two men named Hankie and Garrett, who were yes-
terday convicted of night poaching on land belonging to
Mr. Pullen, M.P. far the county, were each sentenced to one
year's imprisonment with hard labour.
convicted on their
ThethreemennameClwn
iPeeiCooper, and Tuner, who
were confession of setting fire mali-
ciously to farm buildings, including dwelling houses, and
against whom previous convictions were proved, were san-
Penal servitude.
tenTchedreeresmpeenc,tiovneelyatotaill2oryeoafrßearton,
Yorkshire, one a tailor
of Paddington, and one a labour of Suffolk, convicted of
setting fire to two stacks of clover hay at Ware, were sen-
tenced to 10 years' penal servitude.
Two young men, one named Wright, described as a la-
bourer of Nottingham, but who appeared to belong to a
much better position in life, and looked rather like a clerk
or shopman, and the other named Rhodes, a labourer of
Rickmansworth, who had been convicted of setting fire to
stacks or crops of wheat in this county, were each sentenced
to Rix years' penal servitude.
The learned Judge was occupied the greater part of the
morning in trying a most curious case of fowl stealing, in
which not less than six men were charged with stealing 30
fowls and a pair of gloves at 011iey.
Mr. G. Taylor conducted the case for the prosecution.

1 The prisoners were not defended by counsel, but defended
themselves with considerable acuteness, and as there were
six of them, and each of them cross-eaßmuled every witness
the trial was necessarily protracted. The prisoners being so
numerous, and not having be6n seiz id in the act or on the
spot, and the fowls taken being so common, the case in-
volved some difficulty in proof, and was very complicated.
In substance the ease was this:—The fowls were all stolen
from a farm at Offiey, a place about six miles from Luton,
on Friday night, the 14th Nov. last. On the same night
the prisoners, all of whom lived at Luton, were seen four
miles away from that place in the direction of Offiey. On
Saturday they were found selling a large quantity of fowls,
six of which were identified, and several were produced in
court. On Sunday some of them were at Welwyn, a con-
siderable distance from Luton, and when two of them were
apprehended the rest fled and were taken 10 miles off.
In the course of the case the learned Judge took occasion
to observe on the improper and inconvenient manner in
which the depositions of the witnesses before the magis-
trates were written. Not only were they written in an ex-
tremely illegible hand, but on both sides of the paper, and
the result was that they were very difficult to read. In con-
sequence of this, as it was very essential in a criminal trial
that the judge should follow the evidence of the witnesses
on the depositions, the time occupied in the trial was a good
deal prolonged, and the labour of trying the cases very
much increased. He hoped that the magistrates' clerks
would really take a little more care in preparing the deposi-
tions, and if they could not themselves write them legibly,
at least get them so written by others.

The complaint thus made by the learned judge is one
which is constantly made by the judges at the assizes
all over the country, and has been made from time to

time for years past. - It may appear a trivial matter, but
those who have been at all in the habit of observing the ad-
ministration of criminal justice are aware that, practically,
it id one of great importance. The depositions of the wit-
nesses as taken before the magistrates on the committal
of the prisoners for trial are returned to the assizes for the
express purpose of being read by the judge and referred to
at the trial, in order, on the one hand, to guide the judge
in charging the grand jury, and, on the other hand, to be
compared with the oral evidence of the witnesses, in order to
detect any discrepancies, contradictions, or inconsistencies.
Any one who has ever had to read much of other persons'
handwriting is aware that it is even at the best a tiresome
operation--and when the handwriting is not only strange,
but bad Sand indistinct, especially if the lines are close
together and confik ed or straggling the difficulty of course
is much enhanced. But if to all this be added the difficulty
arising from the writing being on both sides, the writing on
one side being partly seen through tending to darken and
obscure the writing on the other, the task of reading be-
comes more arduous, and extremely trying to the temper.
And this trying task is imposed upon judges in criminal
trials—often in cases of life and death, when the very
essence of the utility of the depositions is that they should
be capable of being referred to and read in an instant, in
order to observe how far the oral evidence either tallies
or varies. The difficulty is still greater in a case like
the present, when there aro several prisoners, and it is
necessary to note very carefully how the evidence affects
each one in particular. Our reporter has often had occa-
sion to refer to the depositions, and has found them
almost always extremely difficult to read with facility, so
as to follow the evidence with the mind. This is the less
excusable because the self-ssme depositions when copied
into briefs by attorneys' clerks are found written in a large
legible hand (always on one side only of the paper) ;
and it is hard to see why magistrates' clerks should write so
badly while attorneys' clerks write so well. This is the more
important because in most criminal cases the evidence—as
in this case—is circumstantial, and depends on minute facts
and details, the due appreciation of which is inter-
fered with by the constant difficulty of reading.
After a laborious trial and a careful summing up the jury
found all the prisoners guilty of the stealing except one,
whom they found guilty of receiving. One of them was
proved to have been convicted before of felony in October
last year, another was proved to have been convicted of
felony in December last year, and another was proved to
have been convicted of felony in 1861.

The learned Judge in passing sentence said it was an ag-
gravated case, and sentenced the worst prisoner to 3 years'
penal servitude; the others to one and a half year's and one
year's imprisonment with hard labour, and the receiver to
6 mouths' imprisonment with hard labour.
The learned Judge then took the case of the burglary at
the house of the Hon. and:Rev. Chetwynd Talbot, rector of
Hatfield, in which the butler was charged as the robber.
The property stolen was plate to the value of about £650.

The case was rather remarkable as a curious instance of
circumstantial evidence. The prisoner, whose name is
Soggee, and who appeared above 40 years of age, was placed
at the bar indicted for burglary. The crime of burglary, it
should be mentioned, may be committed by breaking out of
a house as well as by breaking into it, the purpose being
robbery ; and the indictment charged that the prisoner,
having committed the robbery, " burglariously broke out"
of the house. He pleaded not guilty.
Mr. Clark and Mr. Bushby were for the prosecution;
Mr. Woollett and Mr. Ludlow for the defence.

The Hon. and Rev. Chetwynd Talbot is rector of Hatfield,
and the prisoner was his butler,and had charge of the plate,
and slept, either in the pantry, where it was kept, or a room
which adjoined, called the housekeeper's room. For some
months past he had slept in the latter room, and he did so
oa the night of the robbery, and from the head of the pri-
soner's bed to the pantry-door was only two or three feet.
Some week or so before the robbery the prisoner asked for
!_ild obtained from Mrs. Talbot some green baize to make
°Ns4 to keep the plate in, and one of these, it will be seen,
w. oli afterwards found, not with plate, but with burglarious
and some 04/4"
imPletoeut in •
at
dinner
it. On 9th Nov. last, Mr. Talbot was at home,
and
used the breadbasket, which was of silver,
going to bcdtnvo plate which was afterwards stolen. Before
with a piece or night he and his wife lighted their candles
hall, and whit:l7'2r, the remains of which they left in the
chain of drew:est:Zed out to be one of the links in the
1110 evidence, for it was found next
maid, Harrieteovnae'
morning outside th
lady's About 20 minutes past 9 the
shalt-past
over the kitchen, heard
heard
eain and wished hi:t:a, saw the prisoner in the pantry
cook, bad been out that brd,,night. Elias Milward, the
_nalt-past 10 the household
Brown, the gardener. At°0"111 and. came home at 10, with
about that time Harriet,
havemaid
, retiredw h whose
etboerzot
en, the sound being
tahpepelaadryt-'os
the cook, At a little
past 11 o'clock, Eliza, heard % nois B.f
a noise as of a chair being drawn meet brick
side as of some one walking in the
Sattdhcl,els otuhte-
rota
to
of footsteps very near her bedroomgawlodcw
the house ; and she heard a rumbling noise
towards
_ack of
and gave her the irnpressio
about 20 minutes,
pantry, as if some one were up. This noise, She
11,
thastst_ de
butler was up and in the pantry, but she gave no (e_rtbru.
About 7 o'clock in the morning of Tuesday, Nov. 44
10, the
gardener, Brown (who lived over the stable), went to the
pantry window to ask the butler if he was going to light a
fire in the sitting-room, and found the window open and
no one in the pantry. He looked in, and the bread basket
was not there, and he must have seen it if it had been there.
He went round the front of the house and in front of the
conservatory, and observed footmarks. Turning back he
met the prisoner coining round suddenly from the direc-
tion of the pantry, apparently in a very excited state,
holding up his hands and saying it Good God 1 the
house is robbed I The plate is gone 1" The gardener
pointing out to the prisoners some of the footmarks, be put
his feet on some of them until told-by the gardener not to do
so, as it would erase them. Going round to the pantry, the
prisoner said " they had left the plate-basket behind," and
which was afterwards found by him, as he said, under the
Pantryvvindow, though, as already stated, the gardener
was not there. Tho police were sent for, and the footmarks from the conservatory down to the lawn within
12 yards of the pantry -
window corresponded according to

the evidence, with the shoes of the prisoner. There were
no marks of violence indicating in any way or at any part of
nadndto
ahasvoerewbedernivforreswhalys forcedfound
the house an entrance from the outside, but the " hasp" of
aar
tdheofewt hpwaenatsrpantry. The prisoner then went and
screwdriver,u
robbery, admitting that he had left
uitt
nhopledaasdh
risaf pantry
ww
mei
art hswin t
the pantry shutters unfastened, and that he had found the
plate-basket outside the pantry. According to the evidence
of the gardener this could not have been the case, and the
basket when produced by the prisoner was found quite dry.
One or two articles suggested to be the prisoner's were
found outside the house; and sometime afterwards one of
the green baize plate bags was found with burglars' imple-
ments inside. No part of the plate, however, had been re-
covered, and the value was estimated at about £5O.
The case appeared to excite some interest. The court
was crowded, and the bench was full of country gentlemen.
Mr. Clark, in opening the case for the prosecution,
which he did with mach ability, said the case was one of
great importance, not only from the magnitude of the rob-
bery, but from its circumstances, and especially from the
positi3n of confidence in which the prisoner had been placed.
He did not believe it would be disputed that there had been
a robbery.

Mr. Woollett, fcr the prisoner, said he should not dis-
pute it.

The learned Judge remarked that in a criminal case,
and one so serious, he could not take any admissions.
Mr, Clark said it was manifest, and it could not be dis-
puted, that there had been a robbery, and he believed the
evidence, though entirely circumstantial, would, by a chain
of numerous and curious links, bring home the guilt clearly
to the prisoner. It was apparent that the robbery had not
been committed from without, and must have been com-
mitted from within. The prisoner slept in the next room to
the pantry, and was the only person who slept down stairs.
Moreover, he had isolated himself from the rest of the house
by keeping a door of internal communication with the
pantry. The noise heard by the servants upstairs he could
hardly have failed to Lear downstairs; and there could be
little doubt that it must have been at that time the robbery,
'by whomsoever it was committed, was in course of com-
mittal. It would be for the jury to consider whether the
prisoner could possibly have been ignorant of it. Of course,
the prisoner being known to be there, no alarm was felt
about the noise, and that was the very circumstance which
gave such cogency to the case. The statement as to the
finding of the plate-basket would be proved to be false, and
the only conceivable reason for the falsehood was guilt, and
the only reason for the retention and production of the
plate-basket by the prisoner was that it was part of the con-
trivance, in order to divert suspicion from himself. The
case for the prosecution was that the plate-basket was not
found, as the prisoner pretended, outside the house, but that
it had never been there at all. For if it had, as the prisoner
suggested, been left behind by the robbers, it would have been
outside all night, and, if so, it must have been covered by
the hoar frost, and when brought in would have been wet,
whereas it was quite dry. Another important part of the
case was that which related to the footmarks, which were
all the more observable because of the hoar frost upon the
ground. And the footmarks to and from the pantry
were alike, and were the prisoner's. The suggestion,
therefore, in the case for the prosecution was that the
prisoner had got out of the house with the plate and
then, of course, returned. He was seen in bed by one of
the servants only a few momenta before; just after the
gardener came to the pantry, he was nset coming from the
pantry declaring that " the plate was gone." The gardener
had already observed the footmarks before the prisoner was
out, and when the prisoner's attention was called to them he
put his foot on them and was treading them out. No one
could doubt that if the prisoner was not the actual robber
he must have "put up" the robbery, to use the expression
which the police applied to such cases—that is to say, that
others had been put up to it by some one inside the house,
and who could it have been but the prisoner? The robbery
had been planned, and skilfully planned, and who could
have planned and carried it out at that early time of night
but the prisoner ? He must have been awake between half-
past 10 and 11 o'clock at night, for he had not long retired
to rest, and no one but he would have ventured so early to
perpetrate such a robbery. Whether he was the actual rob-
ber or not was not material, for if he were privy to it, and
planned it, and took part in it, he would be guilty. Had
any one heard the noise and came down to inquire, he would
have replied from behind his locked door that he was up,
and that it was all right, and thus further inquiry would be
stopped. That was the very reason why he had managed it
at so early an hour, which no one else would have done.
The whole affair was skilfully planned, and could not have
been carried out without his aid. No doubt there were
others engaged in it. Seven hundred pounds worth of plate
could not be carried off without assistance, And very likely
the burglary would be performed by accomplished burglars.
The bag which had been found contained implements of
burglary. No doubt burglars would never go on any such
work without their implements, although it had so happened
on this occasion that by the aid of the prisoner they were
enabled to dispense with them, Having perpetrated the
robbery with his aid they would naturally throw the useless
tools aside ; and had they used them traces of violence would
have been found on the outside. There were no circum-
stances to cast suspicion on any one else in the house, and
no one else could have ventured to attempt it at such a time,
or could possibly have succeeded in it without the aid of the
prisoner.

Mr, Woollett addressed the jury, and urged upon them
that the case was one of suspicion only, even if all the facts
relied upon were proved, but that when carefully examined
they one after another melted like shadows away.
The learned Judge carefully summed up, and the jury,
after some deliberation found a verdict of not guilty.

OXFORD CIRCUIT —WoncEsTER, Dec. 4.
CROWN COURT.
(Before Mr. Justice Crompton.)
John Green was indicted for the manslaughter of William
Boughton.

Mr. Best was for the prosecution, and Mr. Richards for
the prisoner.
The prisoner was a clerk in the office of Messrs. Clifton
and Hooper, proctors, of Worcester, and had been a clerk
in the District Registry of the Ceurt of Probate, and Wm.
Boughton, the deceased, was a horsedealer, of Glocester.
On the night of the 2d September last the prisoner and the
deceased and some others formed a drinking party at the
Albion Hotel, in Worcester, andabout midnight some earlier
bickering led to a quarrel between the prisoner and deceased,
which resulted in a scuffle. The subject of the quarrel was
as to whose turn it was to pay for the last beer had. The
landlady interfered, but on her leaving the room the quarrel
was renewed, and the deceased, who was a fine, powerful,
tall man, began to follow up the prisoner, who is slight
and short of stature, as he retreated into the passage,
They got into the passage together, but in a minute or so
the deceased returned into the room where the party had
previously been, and it was discovered that he had been
stabbed in the abdomen. The prisoner had earlier in the
evening been comparing a spring clasp-knife of his with
that of a man named Corbett, and afterwards stated to
the superintendent of the police that he had had the knife
open up his sleeve, and that he supposed he had stabbed
the deceased in the scuffle. A doctor was sent for, as soon
as the wound was discovered, and the deceased was put
to bed, but he never rallied, and died on the 6th of Sep-
tember. The prisoner got a good character for peaceable-
ness from one of his employers; and, after the summing up
of the learned judge, the jury found him guilty.
His Lordship sentenced him to 15 years' penal servitude.

NORTHERN CIRCUIT.—DunizAm, Dec. 4,
(Before Mr. Justice Wightman.)
Daniel Downey and Sarah Downey, brother and sister,
aged respectively 29 and 27, were indicted for the man-
slaughter of William Thomas, at Felling, on the night of
the 30th of August last.

Mr. Campbell Foster and Mr. Laycock appeared for the
prosecution; and Mr. Blackwell defended the prisoners.
It appeared from the opening statement of the counsel for
the prosecution, and from the evidence, that a large num•
ber of Irish resided at Felling, and between those of them
who were Protestants and those of them who were Catholies
a bad feeling existed. On the night of the 30th of August
the deceased man Wm. Thomas and a friend of his named
Fox were talking on some religious question in a loud tone
in the streets of Felling, and Fox said " Well, I'm as good
a Protestant as anybody. This observation seemed to have
attracted notice. They went to the house of a man named
M'Voy, and had not been long there before several persons
came and knocked at the window shutters ; on Fox going
out soon after stones were thrown at him, a rush of a num-
ber of men was made upon him, and he was knocked down,
his head being cut and himself rendered insensible. Among
the crowd were the two prisoners, the female prisoner
having a poker or coal rake in her hand. The deceased
man Thomas then came out of M'Voy's, and shouted to
them to "stop that work," and on going up to where Fox
was lying bleeding on the ground, said " You unmanly
scoundrels, would you murder the man ?" A man named
Hagan cried out "By Jesus, we will murder you," and
immediately a man named Kelly threw a half brick at him,
which appeared to have struck him on the head and
knocked him down. Began, Kelly, and the two
prisoners and others then all rushed at the deceased while
he was down and commenced kicking him. Mrs. M'Voy
having raised a cry of " Police 1" " Murder 1" assistance
came, and the two men Fox and Thomas were removed,
Thomas to his lodgings. He became sick soon after he was
carried home and never spoke after, and died at two o'clock
the following day. A post mortem examination of his head
Showede that there was a severe bruise on the left side of his
hwthai:uh:atOttlfabberpening the skull under this bruise a clot of blood
Was un_luecl, about three ounces in weight, which, pressing
ricakintte,hihroad
ncaubsyedKheilslyd.eatEho.
proof how he Caine by this blow, but probably it was from
tended that if
had escaped 'Thereell Kelly wasand n oHdai direct
all the
into custody. But it was con.
which their acts were evidence
earl
had common. lipture persons who were kicking Thomas
and design of ill using him, of
WhTeviiid
reallyenee it was immaterial whose
'deceased, for all were alike lia
hand gave the blow
caused the death of the
For the defence it was contend.
ehd
adthat the evidence was
attr4lutable to the
not conclusive that the prisoners done anything to the
decqised, and that his death was el
blow from the half brick flung at him by Kelly.
His LoyAship, having carefully summed np the evidence,
left it to the jnry whether, in their judgment, the death of