The Sun.
London, England, 1862-01-31 00:00:00

was not likely that the matter could be brought to
a conclusion that day unless they sat to a late hour,
and he therefore suggested that the further discus-
sion of the subject should be postponed.
The Court unanimously agreed to is sugges-
tion, and the debate was therefore adj rued for a
fortnight.

7HE WINDHAM CASE.

The adjourned inquiry into the state of mind of
Mr. W. F. Windham, of Felbrigg-hall, Norfolk,
was resumed and concluded yesterday in the West-
minster Sessions House, before Mr. Warren, Q.C.)
one of the Masters in Lunacy, and a special jury.
Previous to the examination of Mr. Windham,
which had been appointed to take place in private
at 11 o'clock, there was a little formal business done
in open court. As soon as the Master had taken
his seat on the bench Sir H. Cairns renewed his
protest against a private interview with his client,
and again expressed his wish for a public examina-
tion. The Master recorded his protest, and said
that, in deciding that the examination of the alleged
lunatic should be conducted with closed doors, he
was simply following the example set by the late
Lord Campbell in the Armstrong case. Sir H. Cairns
remarked rather curtly that he had no desire to
discuss the Armstrong case, which had frequently
been mentioned, but which had no bearing upon the
case of Mr. Windham. He added that he hoped it
would be understood that in the approaching inter-
view the jury would not be allowed to address
questions directly to Mr. Windham, but would be
required to put their interrogations through the
presiding judge. In reply to the last observation
the Master stated that, as the interview was intended
to be one of a friendly character, he had intimated
to the jury that they would be permitted to put
any questions they pleased to the alleged lunatic,
and he saw no reason to alter his determination in
that respect. The upshot was that Sir H. Cairns
formally protested against the course pursued by
the Master. We are afraid to say how many pro-
tests have been entered daring the course of these
proceedings, but happily it will not be necessary to
take further proceedings upon any one of them.
Shortly after 11 o'clock strangers were ordered
to withdraw, and the Master and the jury pro-
ceeded with the examination of Mr. Windham in
the presence of counsel alone. It is understood,
though we cannot vouch for the accuracy of the
statement, that the examination embraced all the
topics of which the public have recently heard
so much, and was of a very trying and search-
ing character. There is also a rumour to the
effect that Mr. Windham acquitted himself in a
highly creditable manner, and that the readiness
and intelligence with which he answered a multi-
tude of questions upon a great variety of subjects,
some of them of a rather difficult and delicate na-
ture, astonished every ono who heard him. So
favourable, indeed, was the impression which he
produced that the opinion formed and expressed by
more than one gentleman who witnessed the exa-
mination was that if it had taken place at the close
of the case for the petitioners neither the Master
nor the jury would have thought it necessary to
subject Mr. Windham to the expense of adducing
evidence in his defence. That the examination was
a rigorous and exhausting one may be judged from
the fact that it lasted between three and four
hours ; and yet, when the doors were thrown open,
Mr. Windham appeared to be the least wearied
person in court. While the jury were considering
their verdict in an adjoining room, to which they
had withdrawn immediately after the examination,
he chatted and laughed with his counsel and solici-
tors as freely and gaily as if he had no concern in
the result. The fact is, however, we believe, that,
like everybody else in court, he was convinced that
the verdict would be in his favour, and therefore
neither he nor his advisers were at any pains to
conceal the joy and exultation which they felt.
The jury returned into court at 25 minutes to 4
o'clock, after an absence of little more than half an
hour. When they had taken their seats and their
names had been called over,
The Master said—Are there 12 of you, gentle-
men, agreed upon a verdict ?
Sir G. Armitage—There are.
The Master—What is the verdict ?
1 Sir G. Armitage—lt is, " That the said Mr. W.
F. Windham, at the time of taking this inquisition,
WAR It person of sound mind, eo tab LO be sufficient
for the government of himself, his manners, his
messages, his lands, his tenements, his goods, and
his chattels."
Each word of the verdict as it dropped slowly
from the lips of the foreman of the jury was lis-
tened to with breathless attention by a crowded
court, and the moment the last was uttered a loud
and enthusiastic cheer, which must have been
heard outside, arose from the audience, and was
repeated again and again. The like of it has seldom
been heard in a court of justice. An attempt was
made by the Master to restore order, but in vain,
and " one cheer more," louder and more deafening
than any that had preceded it, made the Westminster
Sessions-house ring like an alehouse. Meanwhile,
everybody who could get near him was shaking
hands with Mr. Windham, and congratulating him
upon the result of the inquiry. His face glowed
with delight, and upon being introduced to Sir
George Armitage he thanked that gentleman for
the verdict he had delivered as foreman of the
jury. When he left the court he was received
outside with an enthusiastic shout, and the ad-
miring crowd almost carried him to the cab in which
he drove away amid a thundering cheer.
Inside the court-room, after the verdict had been
recorded, Master Warren closed the proceedings by
expressing his deep appreciation of the admirable
manner in which the jury had discharged their
duties.

So ended an inquiry unprecedented for its dura-
tion, for the inexpressible filthiness of its details. It
has extended over 31 days, of which between eight
and nine have been devoted exclusively to oratory ;
and no fewer than 140 witnesses have been ex-
amined-50 for the petitioners and 90 for Mr. Wind-
ham. The bill of costs must be something frightful.
It has been our disagreeable duty, during the course
of the inquiry, to publish evidence of a very dis-
gusting character; but the public may be assured
that our reports have been purity itself compared
with the horrible mass of nastiness laid before the
jury. While enumerating the more striking fea-
tures of an inquiry which may be the last of its kind,
we cannot but notice tbo temper in which it was
conducted by counsel on both sides. These gentle-
men have displayed great ability and eloquence, but
they have wasted much precious time in useless and
irritating altercations, while in their set speeches
they have abused and vilified one another in lan-
guage rarely heard in our courts of justice.

(From the Times.)
The Jury have at last found that Mr. Windham is of
sound mind, and capable of taking care of himself and his
affairs. They must have been as insane as Mr. Windham
himself was asserted to be if they had come to any other
conclusion. Yet for the next few years this Mr. Windham
will, in all probability, be a pauper. We say in all proba-
bility, for human nature is so fitful and inconsistent that it
is by no means impossible he may live a pattern to middle-
aged gentlemen, have a virtuous wife and half a score of
children, and finish up a parsimonious old age by dying
with large mortgages upon some of his neighbours' estates
in Norfolk. The present chances, however, are all the
other way. When Henry St. John was made a Minister
of State the gossip ran that an elderly woman of evil fame
exclaimed in delight, " Cinq mule livres de rente, mes
enfans, et tout pour nous !" This verdict will be received
in many similar quarters with an equal joy. The sharks
of society, the borrowers and the usurers, the toadies and
the swaggerers, the prccuresses and the courtesans, the
keepers of dens of infamy, and all the parasites which feed
upon the corrupt parts of the social body, have their prey
marked out to them. The law itself has been their pilot
fish. If this man be not changed throughout by his recent
peril, he will probably run for a short time a career of folly,
prodigality, and vice, will decline through a stage of brut-,1
dissipation and unpiticd beggary, and will die nog%eted
and forgotten.
. _

And yet this verdict was emphatically right, Society
cannot undertake to protect men against the consequences
of their own vices. Crimes and offences are repressed by
Punishment in society's own defence • but mere vice in
adult men and women must be left to the Nemesis which
itself invokes. Once or twice in our history, when it has
been thought a national object that a great name should
not go down into the dirt, the Legislature has interfered
to make a territorial possession inseparably appurtenant
to a great descent ; but what interest has society that this
Iprpcliga4 Kr, Wind A PlAiild retain, jay

rllE SUN, LONDON;

and leave to certain designated persona at his death
a certain amount of money and a given number of acres ?
Let him waste and squander as he may, the gold will not
be annihilated, the acres will not disappear from the county
map. The estate will thrive much better in the hands of
the man who will buy it, and the gold will circulate through
channels where it may chance to do good. What society
has an interest in is, that the absolute dominion of property
should bo secure in the person of its lawful possesscr. This
is the very pivot of all society, and to weaken this would
be to throw our whole system out of gear. "Nemo est hares
viventis." While a man lives he has the entire disposal of
all his property, according to our law, and according to the
spirit of our law. In some continental countries this is
different, but we have never envied them their limitation
upon the absolute disposal of property. It is unpleasant,
no doubt, to next of kin to see money wasted which might
possibly come to them, but it is unpleasant also to a nephew
when an old uncle marries and a son is born, or when any

other ordinary event happens by which the nephew's hopes
are disappointed. The law cannot help a prodigal against
himself, or his relations against his prodigality, without
violating all the securities of property in the attempt to de-
fine what is a prodigal. Every one of us can look around
and see some one or more persons of whom we can predict
the ultimate ruin as clearly as we can that of this Mr.
Windham. There is a middle-aged man who has made a
fortune by trade, who has just invested all his money in
horse racing ;—can you doubt what his end will be ? Yet
he has been a prudent, saving man, and no one doubted his
judgment in his own business. Would you have a jury sit
upon him ? There is a young professional man who has a
wife and children, but who neglects his profession to sit up

card-playing all night. He will be ruined as certainly as
Windham could be, and his wife and children will be beg-
gars; shall we lock him up and let him out only during his
working hours? There is a rich old man about to marry a girl
of the same age as his granddaughter. We all say he is an
old fool, and predict for him that he will have a few years
of disquiet, fall under the influence of mercenary people,
and die doing some frightful injustice to the children of his
youth. It is very hard, but shall we summon a jury ?
Where are we to stop if we allow a jury to take away a
man's property whenever those who think they have a
chance of inheriting it are dissatisfied with the manner in
which is using or abusing it? Life would not be worth
having if a man could be tracked by spies, all his follies
noted down, all his bargains criticized, all his vices regis-
tered, and if the whole accumulation, exaggerated, perhaps,
by some spice of perjury, could be brought forward at any
moment and placed hpfnri, a jury by persons interested in
depriving him of his property and his liberty.
It cannot be. The system of the Roman law and the
testamentary limitations of the French law are abhorrent
to all our ideas of property and liberty. Unless a man is
an idiot or a madman—a human creature entirely without
reason, or labouring under delusions which entirely refract
his reason,—we must leave him in possession of his own
money, to save it or to waste it. There is nothing wrong
in the principle of our law. The great scandal is in the
ministerial part of our law. There was no prima facie case
in favour of the lunacy of Mr. Windham. If there bad
been even a prima facie case it never could have become
such a monster process, We do not consider a few ex parte
affidavits to amount to a prima facie case, whatever they
affirm. It is notorious that any quantity of affidavits may
be obtained at any time and against any person. If any dis-
interested men of skill and experience in such examinations
had been sent by the Court of Chancery to investigate this
case in the first instance, this great opprobrium to our juris-
prudence could never have been set before Europe. Any
such men—and the Chancellor has such men specially
attached to his office—must have reported at once that air.
Windham was not an idiot, and had no delusions. They
roust have reported that he was a foolish, vicious profligate,
and nothing more. We do not say that a man ought
to be deprived of his liberty and his property without a
right to call for a jury—although hundreds aro so—but we
assert without hesitation that no man ought to bo forced
into such a battle for his prerogatives of manhood as Mr.
Windham has fought through without a previous medical
investigation, conducted by official disinterested persons.
As to the dreary process itself, we are glad to forget it, for
it is not very creditable to any one concerned ; and as to
the conduct of the moving parties, perhaps it is premature
to speak, for the topic must arise hereafter, when the ques-
tion of " Costs" comes to be discussed in court, We may
hope, however, that such a mammoth cause as this will
never again disgrace our judicature, and that some means
worthy of rational beings may be devised for discovering
whether a sane man is sane. Perhaps it is a sentence
quite thrown away ; but still we will add a hope that the
long-lasting peril may have stirred the depths of that foul
young mind, and may have purged away enough vice to
leave space for some particles of shame, and thus to afford
some possibility of repentance.

ATTEXP7 OF A POLICEMAN 10

MURDER EIS WIFE.

EDGEWARE, THURSDAY.
Yesterday afternoon the greatest excitement pre-
vailed in this village from the fact becoming known
that a police-constable of the S division was to be
brought before J. S. Tanqueray, Eeq., charged with
brutally attempting to murder his -wife. Long be-
fore the hour appointed for the examination the
court and its avenues were crowded to excess, and a
large number of persons could not gain admission.
After the disposal of the ordinary charges,
James Hamshar, a police-constable, stationed at
Hendon, was charged, on remand, with violently
assaulting and wounding with a poker, his wife, a
the Burroughs, Hendon.
Mrs. Hamshar, rather a showily dressed, goo

~-

the timber charged. to have been stolen was re-'
moved from the timber merchant's yard in Gray's-
inn-road to some premises at Notting-hill, instead
of to the works in progress in Drury-lane.
Mr. Metcalfe was proceeding to address the jury
on
the
of the prisoner, when
Common Sergeant interposed, and said that 1
he had carefully looked over the depositions, and
had been attentive to the evidence adduced in court
that day, and he felt that there was no case to go
to the jury. The prosecution had failed to complete
the proof of a felony. No evidence had been given
to show that some timber had not been- taken to
1 and used at the works in Drury-lane. On these
grounds he should direct an acquittal.
The jury accordingly, under the direction of the
court, returned a verdict of not guilty.
The prisoner was again given in charge to the
jury on an indictment charging him with obtaining
money under false pretences.
The offence imputed to the prisoner in this in-
stance was that, while engaged upon the works in
Bennett's-buildings, Drury-lane, he had charged
1 to the prosecutor larger amounts under the head of
wages than he had actually paid to the men. The
sums in question were but small. One of the men
was examined, and proved that he had received at
the rate of 18s. per week, whereas the accounts of
the prisoner set him down at £1 Is. Two other
workmen proved a similar variance between the
sums they had been paid and those charged to the
prosecutor by the prisoner.
Mr, Metcalfe addressed the jury for the prisoner
commenting upon the fact which he had elicited in
cross-examination, that the three men who had
been called had been discharged by the prisoner,
and The restoremmd to their employment by the prosecutor.
Coon Sergeant summed up the evidence
at considerable length, and
The jury, after a brief consultation, returned a
verdict of not guilty.

~,~...

MR. THACKERA it ON REP UM/17'10N
AND BLUSTER.

(From the Cornhill Magazine.)
I have talked during the last week with many English
holders of American securities, who, o f course, have been
aware of the threat held over them. " England," says the
New York Herald," cannot afford to go to war with us, for
600 millions worth of American stock is owned by British
subjects, which, in event of hostilities, would be confiscated;
and we now call upcn the companies not to take it off their
hands on any terms. Let its forfeiture be held over England
as a weapon in terrorem. British subjects have 200 or 300
millions of dollars invested in shipping and other property
in the United States. All this property, together with the
stocks, would be seized, amounting to 900 million of dollars.
Will England incur this tremendous loss for a mere abstrac-
tion ?" Whether " a mere abstraction" here means the ab-
straction of the Southern Commissioners from under our
flag, or the abstract idea of injured honour, which MOMS
ridiculous to the Herald, it is needless to ask. I have
spoken with many men who have money invested in the
States, but I declare I have not met one Englishman
whom the publication of this threat has influenced for
a moment. Our people have 900 million of dollars invested
in the United States, have they ? And the _Herald" calls
upon companies" not to take any of this debt off our hands.
Let us on our side, entreat the English press to give this
announcement every publicity. Let us do everything in
our power to make this " call upon the American" well
known in England. I hope English newspaper editors
will print it, and print it again and again. It is not we who
say this of the American citizens,but American citizens who
say this of themselves. "Bull is odious. We can't bear
Bull: He is haughty, arrogant, a braggart, and a blus-
terer ; and we can't bear brag and bluster in oar modest and
decorous country. We hate Bull, and if he quarrels with
us on a point in which we are in the wrong, we have goods
of his in our custody, and we will rob him!" Suppose your
London banker saying to you, " Sir, I have always thought
your manners disgusting, and your arrogance insupport-
able. You dare to complain of my conduct because I have
wrongfully imprisoned Jones? My answer to your vulgar
interference is that I confiscate your balance I"
What would be an English merchant's character after a
few such transactions? It is not improbable that the
moralists of the :Herald would call him a rascal. Why
have the United States been paying seven, eight, ten per
cent, for money for years past, when the same commodity
can bo got elsewhere at half that rate of interest? Why,
because though among the richest proprietor's in the world,
creditors were not sure of them. So the States
have had to pay eighty millions Yearly for the use of
money which would cost other borrowers
but
thirty. Add up this item of extra interest alone
for a dozen years, and see what a prodigious penalty
the States have been paying for repudiation here and there,
for sharp practice, for doubtful credit. Suppose the peace
is kept between us, the remembrance of this last threat
alone will cost the States millions and millions more. If
they must have money, we must have a greater interest to
insure our jeopardised capital. Do American companies
want to borrow money—as want to borrow they will ? Mr.
Brown, show the gentlemen that extract from theNeto Fork
Herald which declares that the United States will confis-
cate private property in event of a war. As the country
newspapers say, "Please, country papers, copy this para-
graph." And, gentlemen in America, when the honour of
your nation is called in question, please to remember that
it is the American press which glories in announcing that
you arc prepared to be rogues. And when this war has
drained uncounted hundreds of millions more out of the
United States exchequer, will they be richer or more inclined
to pay debts, or less willing to evade them, or more popular
with their creditors, or more likely to get money from men
whom they deliberately announce that they will cheat? I
have not followed the Herald on the stone ship question—
that great naval victory appears to me not less horrible and
wicked than suicidal, Block the harbours for ever; destroy
the inlets of the commerce of the world ; perish cities, so
that we may wreak an injury on them. It is the talk of mad-
men, but not the less wicked. The act injures the whole
republic, but it is perpetrated. It is to do harm to ages hence,
but it is done. The Indians of old used to burn women and
their unborn children. This stone-ship business is Indian
warfare. And it is performed by men who tell us every
week that they are at the head of civilisation, and that the
Old World is decrepit, and cruel, and barbarous as com-
pared to theirs.
The same politicians who throttle commerce at its neck,
and threaten to confiscate trust-money, say that when war
is over and the South is subdued, then the turn of the old
country will come, and a direful retribution shall be taken
for our conduct. This has been the cry all through the war.
46 We should have conquered the South," says an American
paper which I read this very day, " but for England."
Was there over such a heard from men who have an
array of a million, and who turn and revile a people who
have stood as aloof from their contest as we have from the
war of Troy ? Or is it an outcry made with malice pre-
pense? And is the song of the New York, Times a varia-
tion of the Herald tune ?—" The conduct of the British, in
folding their arms and taking no part in the fight, has been
so base that it has caused the prolongation of the war, and
occasioned a prodigious expense on our part. Therefore, as
we have British property in our hands, we, &c." The
lamb troubled the watec r dreadfully, and the
Of course wolf in a
k righteous indignation " onfiscated" him. we
have heard that at an undisturbed time Great Britain
would never have dared to press its claim for redress.
Did the United States wait until we were at peace with
France before they went to war with us last ? Did Mr.
Seward yield the claim which he confesses to be just,
until he himself was menaced with war ? How long
were the Southern gentlemen kept in prison ? What caused
them to be set free ? and did the Cabinet of Washington see
its error before or after the demand for redress ? The cap-
tor was feasted at Boston, and the captives in prison hard
by. If the wrong-doer was to be punished, it was Captain
Wilkes who ought to have gone into limbo. At any rate,
as " the Cabinet of Washington could not give its approba-
tion to the commander of the San jacinto," why were the
men not 'sooner set free ? To sit at the Fremont House,
and hear the captain after dinner give his opinion on inter-
national law, would have been better sport for the prisoners
than the grim salle-d-manger at Fort Warren.
Teutonia,
I read in the commercial news brought by the
and published in London on the present 13th January,
that the pork market was generally quiet on the 29th
December last ; that lard, though with more activity, was
heavy and decidedly lower; and at Philadelphia, whisky
is steady and stocks firm. Stocks are firm : that is a com-
fort for the English holders, and the confiscating process
recommended by the Herald is at least deferred. But pheerre-
-
sently comes an announcement which is not
quit
let us call
e so c
ing :—" The Saginaw Central Railway Company (
it) has postponed its January dividend on accou
ne nt of the
disturbed condition of public affairs." Ala
must bon
look for
eure.
The bond and share holders of the Saginaw
loss and depression in times of war. This is one of war's
dreadful taxes and necessities ; and al The
of innocent
people must suffer by the Misfortune. The corn was high
at Waterloo when 150,000 men came and trampled it down
on a Sabbath morning. There was no help for that calamity
and the Belgian farmers lost their crops for the year. Per-
haps lam a farmer myself—an innocent colonnsinstead
of being able to get to church with ray family, have to gee
squadrons of French dragoons thundering upon my barley,
and squares of English infantry forming and trampling
ovef my oats. (By the way, in writing of " panics,"
all
an ingious writer •
in the Atlantic Magazine says that
en
the British panics at Waterloo were frequent and notori-
ous.) Well, lam a Belgian peasant, and I see the British
running away, and the French cutting the fugitives down
What have I done that these men should bo kicking down.
my peaceful harvest for me, on which I counted to pay my
my children ? It is
rent, to feed ray horses, my household,
hard. But it is the fortune of war. But suppose the battle
over ; the Frenchman says,scoundrel why did you
Y did you stand like a
not take a part with me ?s,
and wh
double-faced traitor tooking on? I should have won the
battle but for you. And I hereby confiscate the farm you
stand on, and you and your family may go to the work-
house. The New York press holds this argument over
English people in terrorem,
«W© Americans may be ever
so wrong in the matter in
dispute; but if you push us to a
War) WO Will Otala.teeeta your gugli*ll property," Yery

.~~

good. It is peace now. Confidence of course is restored
between us. Our eighteen hundred peace commissioners
have no occasion to open their mouths ; and the little ques-
tion of confiscation is postponed. Messrs. Battery, Broad-
way, and Co. of New York, have the kindness to sell my
sactinaws for what they will fetch. I shall lose half my
loaf very likely ; but for the sake of a quiet life, let us give
up a certain quantity of farinaceous food; and half a loaf,
you know, is better than no bread at all.

SIR JOHN P.AKING7 ON ON
ENT. 2'HE VO LUN
TE.ER MOVEM

-At a meeting held at Worcester, on Tuesday, under the
presidency of Lord Lyttleton, it was determined to form a
rifle association for Worcestershire. Among the speakers
at the meeting was Sir John Pakington, who said that he
never expected that movement would be permanently
maintained at the extent and proportions it had reached.
Nor could he think it was very important it should beotism
so.
A great effect had been produced, the power and patri
of this country had been proved, and nu rational man in his
mind could doubt that if occasion were to arise, if an emer-
gency were to present itself, they would have, with
than a
e-
l-
most incredible rapidity, a force not only equal to epr
sent, but of four or five times the present numbers. The
nucleus had been established, the organisation was com-
plete, and that organisation might be acted upon to any ex-
tent. At the same time it was undoubtedly desirable that it
should be maintained at such an amount as to secure con-
tinued efficiency, and to make it certain that organisation
could be at any moment increased ; and he thought that
could not be done without some mode of securing adequate
funds. He entirely agreed with his noble friend in the
chair that it was not right, that it never could have been
contemplated as part of that movement, that the expenses
should fall upon the officers. The country was deeply in-
debted to these officers for the time they devoted to the
drilling of their respective corps. He thought that was
as much as they could be called upon to bear, and there-
fore it was desirable that funds should be provided
in the various localities where these corps existed.
It had been said that the Government had very
much advanced upon the extent of assistance they at first
agreed to give. He was glad they had done so, and he
should be very glad to see a further advance in that direc-
tion. It was very desirable, however, that this volunteer
establishment in the country should retain its voluntary
character—(cheers)—that it should not be made a Govern-
ment force, nor depend upon Government support, except
what might be called for in aid of local support. He was
glad to see that the Government had it in contemplation to
facilitate their equipment by offering to provide their cloth-
ing at the low price which the' Government aro able to
secure it by contract. He° was also pleased to hear that the
Government would only give this asoistance in one of those
colours in which they were accustomed to see the soldiers
of England equipped. (Cheers.) He thought that the
proper colour in which the volunteers, from one end of
England to the other, should be dressed, is that red in
which they had been accustomed to see British soldiers—
(cheers)—and he thought there was an argument in favour
of it absolutely unanswerable. If they were to have a great
army of volunteers—if any enemy should ever be rash
enough to think that they could succeed in the invasion of
England—that army would be infinitely better clad in the
national dress of English soldiers. How could they sup-
pose that an army amounting to 150,000 men—and that
would then amount to 400,000, or 450,000, or 500,000 men
—how could they suppose they could be regarded as mere
skirmishers and hedge poppers ? (Laughter.) If they
were to fight at all, they must be considered as a portion of
the great arwy that was to defend this country ; and what
could be more impolitic, more unwise, than to enable an
invading enemy to put his finger upon any
body of men,
and to distinguish at once to what body of soldiers they be.-
'longed ? (Cheers.)