The Sun.
London, England, 1865-08-05 00:00:00

The First Lord of the Admiralty, the Duke of
Somerset, has appointed Wednesday next, the 9th
inst., for a levee at the Devonport Dockyard, it
will commence at half-past 10 o'clock, and will be
limited to 30 officers, the list of whom will be closed
to-day at noon.
The Royal yacht Victoria and Albert, Capt. Prince
Leiningen, will leave Portsmouth to-morrow for the
Nore, to be in readiness for the embarkation of her
Majesty for Antwerp. The royal yacht Alberta,
Staff-Commander Welch, will leave her anchorage
off Osborne to-morrow for Woolwich to embark her
Majesty and royal party on Tuesday, and convey
them to the Victoria and Albert, which will leave
the Nore on Wednesday morning. The Osborne,
Admiralty yacht, Commander D'Arcy, will leave
Portsmouth to-morrow, and accompany the royal
yacht as far as Flushing, when she will return and
royala.t
Th
thee partydocky time-expireda
dockyard,
ld
embark the Prince and Princess of Wales for Ant-
werp. The Vivid, paddlewheel steamer, Staff-Com-
mander Sullivan, has proceeded to Cowes to be in
attendance on her Majesty during the absence of the
to
oth ate Portsmouth,Royal v Victoria
disembarked
esHteordspai
tay y,
we
Netley.is
with
yesterday
r t ahye
Alberta. It is expected that her Majesty and the
acrossndn ltehfnreon
military
broughtilOi t sabroyahrni
invalids
a iteo
bdPy
Kurrachee s Portsmouth
mr
eo u:t
in the Vivid on Monday and proceed to Windsor.
Sove-
reignfor-
warded o f India,
en from various
The ship still remains at Spithead.
The Salamanca, hired sailing transport, Capt.
Lfl
invalidsoe s aw yn ,
following
a trrraoinvodepds arrived. at
timSpithead,e-expired
ne.e
x pir Bombayed m
Major J. M. Cuppagc (in command), Capt.
regiments; the left wineol' the 89th Regiment, com-
prisingH. E. Hansel, Lieuts. Hybbersley and Fraser, En-
signs A. G. Godwin, Austyn, and G. D. H. Brooks
Surg. -Major Barrett; 177 non-commissioned officers
and privates, five soldiers' wives, and nine children.
The invalids and time-expired men are under the
charge of Lieut. Phassett, 108th Regiment, and En-
sign Machan, 89th Regiment. They will disem-
bark to-day ; the former will be sent to the Royal
Victoria Hospital, Netley, and the latter forwarded
to the depots of their respective regiments. After-
wards the Salamanca will proceed with the 89th
Regiment to Dover, where they are to be quartered..
The Walmer Castle, hired sailing transport, Capt.
Box, arrived at Spithead yesterday evening, from
Bombay and Kurrachee, with the head-quarters of
the 89th Regiment, under the command of Major
Thorp. She will leave again to-day, and disembark
the troops at Dover.

The Turkish steam screw-frigate Osman Gazi,
Capt. Arif Bey, left Plymouth Sound on Thursday
morning for Constantinople.
The iron troopship Orontes, 2, Capt. Henry W.
Hire, with aportion of the 62d Regimentfrom Ports-
mouth, arrived at Plymouth yesterday morning.
The cupola ship Scorpion, 4, Capt. J. E. Comme-
rell, V.C., left Plymouth Sound yesterday morning.
The Arethusa, 35, screw steam frigate, 500-horse
power, Capt. Reginald J. J. G. Macdonald, is still
at Sheerness. Since her return to moorings it has
been discovered that the cause of the deficiency of
vacuum on the trial trip was a large accumulation of
grease which had become hard on the copper con-
denser tubes, and prevented the proper vacuum
from being obtained. The reason that the vessel
still remains at Sheerness, instead of joining the
experimental squadron, is that these copper tubes
have been all removed to the steam factory in
Sheerness yard. They were carefully cleaned,
and are now being replaced on board the ship.
The performance of these operations necessarily re-
quires a considerable period, as the tubing mea-
sures upwards of six miles in length. The work
is, however, being prosecuted with great vigour, and
it is confidently expected that the vessel will be
again ready for trial by the 9th or 10th inst. The
report that the machinery is defective or that there
has been any breakdown is stated to be erroneous.
The engines on the late trial worked extremely well
and gave great satisfaction both to the officers of
the Government and the representative of the maker
of the engines, who were present.
The chartered troopship Hydaspes, which has been
taken up by the Hon. Council of India for the con-
veyance of Royal Artillery to Calcutta, will, in
accordance with orders to that effect received at
Chatham, be ready to embark her troops at Graves-
end on Thursday next. In addition to the Royal
Artillery, about 1,000 cavalry and infantry troops
will embark for India during the present month.
The shipment of the 12-ton 300-pounder gun on
board the iron-cased frigate Bellerophon, at Chat-
ham
afternoonpockyard'a was effected yesterday, and during
the numerous party of labourers and
mechanics were engaged in getting it into position
on the port side of the gun battery, where the ma-
chinery for working the gun has been erected.
Should the whole of the arrangements be completed,
the experimental trials to test the machinery will be
made to-day in the presence of Mr. Reed, the in-
ventor, and the officials of the establishment.

Confession of the Leicestershire Murderess.

The woman Eliza Adldns, who was committed for trial
on Tuesday last on the coroner's warrant on a charge of
wilfully murdering her son Zadok Adkins, by drowning
him-in a won at Pegg's-green, near Ashby-de-la-Zouch,
during Friday night last, was brought up before W. w.
Abney, Esq., at Ashby, on Thurslay, when the whole of
the evidence previously published was repeated, and the
following particulars of the prisoner's confession of this
shocking tragedy deposed to :

--Martha Ward, wife of Inspector Ward, of the Ashby-de-
la-Zouch police station, said, on the previous day the pri-
soner sent for her into her cell, when she stated, " I want
you to write me two letters—one to my daughter and one to
my sister. Tell them to be sure and come here to-morrow
(Thursday) at 10 o'clock, for it will perhaps be the last
time I shall have an opportunity of seeing them. When
you have done that I want you to come here again, as I
want to open my mind to you. I feel I can open my mind.
to you, and then I shall be more comfortable." She (Mrs.
Ward) then wrote the letters and returned to the cell, when
the prisoner began to cry very bitterly, and said, "It is
trouble that has brought me to this. I did not know what
to do with the child. I had no home, nothing to eat, and
no friends to go to. I could get a situation for myself, but
not if I had the child, so I did not know what to do with
it. This is what has driven me to it. But I know the poor
thing is in heaven, now out of all its suffering. I wish you
to tell the magistrates that it is poverty and distress that
has driven me to do what I have done. I was in a situa-
tion, and my child was at the time at my sister's; but my
sister said she could not keep it without some recompense.
I then applied to the Loughborough Union and asked them
to give me 2s. a week to keep the child on, and nothing
for myself, but they would not, and told me I must go into
the workhouse and bring the child with me. I went in last
Saturday week, but the treatment was so bad I could not
stay. I was constantly hearing the child cry, and on one
occasion I went and looked at it, and talked to it through
some bars which separated us. They saw me speaking to
the child, when they dragged it away from me, beat it, and
kept me without my supper. 1 was therefore determined
to leave and came out the next (Friday) morning and
walked to Whitwick. I had Ito-money nor food to give the
child, and did not know where to go, so that is the cause
of what I have done."
Mrs. Ward deposed that this statement was made by the
prisoner voluntarily, without the slightest question being
asked.
The magistra
Assizes,tealsoomilte and
shedth weparis gsloonderefd in Leicesterortrialatthe
Leicestershirenext
gaol the same night.
There can be little doubt as to the voracity of the prisoner's
statement about herpoverty, for her features are unmistak-
ably marked with the cares and troubles of this world; and
it is known that about six weeks back she called upon Mr.
B. Orton, surgeon of Colverton, and asked him to draw up
a petition for her to get something from the charitably dis-
posed in the neighbourhood of Pegg's-green, where she
formerly resided when her husband was alive, as she was
destitute. Mr. Orton, however, declined to do so, because
he did not recollect the prisoner, although he now remem-
bers attending her on the birth of the murdered child. In
reference to the prisoner wishing for parish relief for the
child, it may be remarked that she had expressed her wil-
lingness to subscribe is. a-week towards its maintenance if
the guardians would give the remainder; but this offer was
refused, it is presumed, through the prisoner living in the
1
Loughborough district, and the deceased in the Shardlow
district—another instance of the utility of the Union Charge-
ability Bill. Since the prisoner's incarceration she has been
very dejected and melancholy, but she seems to be a woman
of intelligence, and very clean and neat in her attire. Her
brother has recently died an inmate of the Leicestershire
County Asylum, where he had been confined through, it
is said, mental derangement, brought on by distress and
family troubles,