The Sun.
London, England, 1865-10-21 00:00:00

General Lee at Lexington.

A letter from Lexington, Virginia, dated the 2d
inst., gives the subjoined account of the installation
of General Lee as president of Washington
College :

General Robert E. Lee was to-day installed Pre-
sident of Washington College. There was no
pomp or parade. The exercises of installation
were the simplest possible—and exact and barren
compliance with the required formula of taking the
oath by the new president, and nothing more. It was
proposed to have the installation take place in the
college chapel, to send invitations far and wide, to have
a band of music to play enlivening airs, to have young
girls, robed in white and bearing chaplets of flowers,
to sing songs of welcome, to have congratulatory
speeches, to make it a grand holiday. That the pro-
posed programme was not carried out was a source
of severe disappointment to many. But Gen. Lee
had expressed his wishes contrary to the choice and
determination of the college trustees and the multi-
tude, and his wishes were complied with. The in-
stallation took place at 9 a.m. in a recitation room
of the college. In this room were seated the faculty
and students, the ministers of the town churches, a
magistrate and the county clerk, the last two officials
being necessary to the ceremonial. Gen. Lee was in-
ducted into the room by the Board of Trustees. At
his entrance and introduction all in the room rose,
bowed, and then became seated. Prayer by the Rev.
Dr. White, of the Presbyterian church, directly fol-
lowed. To me it was a noticeable.fact, and perhaps
worthy of record, that he prayed for the President of
the United States. The prayer ended, Judge Brocken-
brough, chairman of the Board of Trustees, stated
the object of the coming together to instal General
Lee as President of Washington College. He felt
the serious dignity of the occasion, but it was a seri-
ousness and a dignity that should be mingled with
heartfelt joy and gladness. Passing a brief eulogy
on General Lee, and congratulating the Board
and the College, and its present and future students,
on having obtained one so loved and great and
worthy to preside over the college, he said he could
say a great deal more, had it not been voted
against speech makihg. During the delivery of
these few words Gen. Lee remained standing, his
arms quietly folded, and calmly and steadfastly look-
ing into the eyes of the speaker. Justice -White, at
the instance of Judge Brockenbrough, now admi-
nistered the oath of office to General Lee. For the
benefit of those curious to know the nature of this
new oath to which General Lee has just subscribed,
and as it is brief, I; give it entire. It is as follows :
—" I do swear that I will, to the best of my skill
and judgment, faithfully and truly discharge the
duties required of me by an act entitled, " An actior
incorporating the Rector and Trustees of Liberty
Hall Academy, without favour, affection, or par-
tiality. So help me God." To this Oath Gen. Lee at
once affixed his signature, with the accompanying
usual jurat of
,the swearing magistrate appended.
The document in the form stated was handed to
the county clerk for safe and perpetual custodian-
ship, and at the same time the keys of the college
were given by the rector into the keeping of the
new president. A congratulatory shaking of hands
followed, and wound up the day's brief but impres-
sive and memorable ceremonial. President Lee and
those of the trustees present with the faculty now
passed into the room set apart for the former's use
a good-sized room, newly but very plainly and taste-
fully furnished. General Lee was dressed in a plain
elegant suit of grey. His appearance indicated the
enjoyment of good health—better, I should say,
than when he surrendered his army at Appomattox
Court-house, the first and only occasion before the
present of my having seen him.

Fatal Collision on the London, Chatham,
and Dover Railway.

This (Saturday) morning Mr. Condell, the summoning
officer of Guy's Hospital, waited upon Mr. Payne, the
coroner of London and Southwark, with intelligence of the
following melancholy accident, by which an unfortunate
man was so dreadfully crushed that his death from the first
appeared inevitable :—lt appeared that on the 13th inst. a
man, named Samuel Pilgrim, twenty-four years of age, a
carman, employed by Mr. Harris, of the Angel, Farring-
don-street, was sent with a load of goods to the Black-
friars-road Station of the London, Chatham, and Dover
line, and whilst attending to his business in placing his
parcels in the train, another train came in at a gentle pace
and drove the unfortunate man against the foremost train,
by which he got terribly crushed, and it was feared from
the first that concussion of the brain had taken place. As
is usual with this company in all cases of accident., a
medical gentleman was sent for, and upon his arrival he
found the man in such a dangerous state that it was deemed
advisable to remove him to Guy's Hospital. To that in-
stitution he was removed, and he died this (Saturday)
morning from the effects of the concussion to the brain.
The accident appears to have been such that no one in
charge of the trains could have prevented it. Tho poor
fellow, it seems, got between the metals just as the hinder-
most train was coming into the station. The coroner has
appointed the inquest to be held on Monday next.

Confession of the Wigan Murder.

---0. -

A powerful young fellow, named John Healey, was
brought before R. Greaves, Esq., county magistrate of
Warwick, on Thursday evening last, by Police-sergeant
Maycock, of the Warwick Borough police force, under
the following circumstances :—The prisoner had been
admitted into the Warwick County Prison about twelve
months ago, under contract from the county of Mont-
gomery, where he had been imprisoned for a desperate
burglary at Newtown, in that shire. He had been placed
under the new strict regulations enforced for persons
repeatedly committed, and had, while undergoing them,
made a confession to the governor of the above gaol,
Mr. Anderson, that he was one of the men who, it will be
remembered, perpetrated an inhuman and diabolical out-
rage upon the engineer of a colliery at Wigan. He was
accordingly charged before Mr. Greaves with having felo-
niously and maliciously killed and slain James Barton, the
engineer referred to.

Mr. John Anderson was the first witness sworn, and he
deposed as follows:—The prisoner came into my custody
on the 7th of November last. On Sunday, the 2d
of April, he expressed a wish to see me privately, as I
was then engaged in a general inspection of the prison.
I accordingly took him into the room used by visitors
and magistrates. He said, " I have something particular
to tell you, and until I do so I cannot rest at night,
without being troubled in my dreams. I was concerned in
the Wigan outrage about eighteen months ago. I was at
the time on tramp. I met with four others in a public-
house where Barton was. He was sitting there. We
robbed him of his watch and money, and then we put him
into the fire. I was obliged to do it in self-defence, or they
would have done something terrible to me, and I was afraid
of them. I did not put him into the fire. I held his legs
while they put him in.. We all fled. I don't know what
became of the others. I got nothing for it, but some
whisky, and have been miserable ever since." As soon as
I returned to my office I put down accurately what he
said, and the above is the substance.

The priboner said he had had a sorry twelve months of it,
and was remanded for further evidence. Ho has been re-
peatedly convicted, and has been some time in a reformatory

•
Mr. Samuel Lucas, of the Times, and editor of
the Shilling Magazine, is a candidate, says the Reader, for
the Professorship of English Language and Literature in
University College, London, vacated by Professor Masson,
editor of Macmillan's Magazine, on his appointment to the
Professorship of Rhetoric and English Literature in the
University of Edinburgh.
THE FRENCH EXHIBITION PALACE OF 1867.—
Mr. George Maw, F.S.A., of Benthall-hall, Mr.
Broseley and Mr. Edward J. Payne, F.J.8.A., of Binning-
ham, lay claim to being the originators of the system of
classification and plan of arrangement that have been
adopted by the Commissioners of the French Exhibition
of 1867. In the Builder of Oct. 14 a ground plan of the in-
tended French Exhibition building is engraved side by side
with Messrs. Maw and Payne's plan which was published
in the Builder of Feb. 16, 1861. The two plans, which are
very peculiar in their arrangements and details, are, with
scarcely any exception, identical. Messrs. Maw and Payne's
design was submitted, by them between four and five years
ago to the French authorities, soliciting its adoption for
the intended universal exhibition.

A PENNY ROGUE.—One of two men who were
delivering goods on Saturday morning from a spring
van near the General Post-Office had his boots cleaned by
the little'shoeblack whose station is there. The work was
done satisfactorily, and the little fellow expected to get
paid, but instead, the person got into the van and drove
hurriedly away, leaving the boy crying bitterly. A num-
ber of gentlemen who saw the affair gave chase to the van,
and the fellow, seeing himself pursued, threw out the
penny, expecting that this would stop the chase. But
those following knew better; they took no notice of it,
stopped the horse, apprehended the man, brought him
back, made him lift the penny from the street and per-
sonally hand it to the little shoeblack, amid the hisses and
groans of the spectators. As there was no policeman near
at the time he was not given in charge, but he took him-
self off with a, very hang-dog look.--North British Daily
Hail.