The Sun.
London, England, 1865-07-14 00:00:00

rnE SUN, LONDON, FRIDAY EVEAING, ULY 14, 1865.

The Wimbledon Meeting for 1865.

FOURTH DAY.

The weather yesterday was by no means conducive to
the comfort or favourable to high quality of shooting on
the part of the Volunteers. The contest in which the
greatest interest centred was that of the continuation of
the first stage of the Queen's at 500 yards. The highest
scores made compared unfavourably with the result of last
year, when the highest mark obtained was 19. The follow-
ing is the detail of the shooting :
HIGHEST SCORES.—FIRST STAGE, QUEEN'S.
-7.. - Points.

500 Yards,

Sergeant A. Little, 3d Gloucester ... 18
Corporal Edwards, 11th Cornwall ... 18
Colour-Sergeant W. Hurst, let A. B. Flintshire ... 18
Ensign F. Jackson, Ist East York ... 18
Lieut. S. Walliker, Ist East York ... ... 18
Captain R. Morris, 9th Middlesex ... 18
Private W. Getley, Ist Cheshire ... 17
Private F. T. Poach, 15th Lincoln ... 17
Corporal W. H. Baillie, 15th Middlesex ... 17
Private T. C. Dawson, 4th West York 17
Ensign Winn, Ist A. B. North York 17
Private Walker, Ist London... 17
Sergeant Wanostrocht, Ist London... ... 17
Sergeant Chambly, 37th Lancashire ... 17.
Corporal R. Airey, 3d Durham 17
Sergeant Winstanley, 40th Lancashire 17
Captain A. Mitchell, Ist Clackmannan ... 17
Brigade-Major C. Roberts, 9th Norfolk ... ... 17
Ensign R. Harvey, 4th Derby ... 17
Captain P. F. Simcoe, Gth Cornwall • ... 16
Sergeant J. M'Bean, 2d Elgin 16
Sergeant J. Mills, 14th Suffolk „. 16
Lieutenant A. Scott, 3d Renfrewshire 16
Colour-Sergeant M'lntyre, 3d Renfrewshire 16
Corporal E. B. Blackburn, Ist Oxford 16
Captain F. J. Haddon, let Notts ... 16
Private T. Avis, Ist Devon ..• 16
Captain T. Millward, 17th Worcester 16
Sergeant W. Michie, 15th Middlesex 16
Sergeant Pattison, 19th Middlesex 16
Private Kirman, Hobart Town 16
Sergeant W. Agnew, 3d Wigton 16
Corporal H. Death, Gth Sussex 16
Sergeant Tory, 26th Middlesex 16
Corporal Ewen, 23d Middlesex ... 16
Private W. J. Mason, 22d Middlesex 16
Private T. Hall,Jst Salop 16

Captain B. Ferrer, 3d West Yorkshire ... 16
Private W. Winn, Ist North York A.B. 16
Sergeant A. 11Pliersh, 6th North Yorkshire 16
Private J. Ward, Gth East Yorkshire ~. 16

Private G. Hodgkins, Ist Surrey 16
Private J. Ivory, 19th 'Middlesex 16
Private G. James, 22d Middlesex 16
Private C. F. Lowe, 22d Middlesex... ... 16
Corporal B. Griddle, 22d Middlesex... 16
Sergeant S. Montgomery, 30th Middlesex... 16
Major S. Scott, 33d Lancashire 16
Sergeant S. Mellor, 6th Lancashire 16
Lance-Corporal H. Fowkes, 6th Lancashire 16
Sergeant J. Ogilbio, 26th Kent 16
Captain W. Davis, 7th Northampton ... 16
Private A. Bryan, 3d Leicestershire ... ... 16
Private R. Morris, 53d Lancashire ... ... 16
Private H. Parssons, Hon. Artillery. Company 16
Corporal Walters, Ist Edinburgh .. 16
The following is the result of the shooting yesterday
for the Alexandra Prize :

HIGHEST SCORES, FIRST STAGE, ALEXANDRA.

200 Yards.

Sergeant W. Allen, 35th Somerset ... ... 17
Private E. Ross, London Scottish ... 17
Corporal Little, West Middlesex „. 16
Sergeant J. Holmes, Ist Manchester ... 16
Private H. Fowkes, let Manchester... ... 16
Colour-Sergeant T. Rogers, 7th Northampton 16
Ensign J. Lockhart, 7th Ayr... 16
Private J, Milne, Perth 16
Sergeant A. Plenderleith, lst Peebles ... ... 16
Colour-Sergeant W. Dore, 6th North York ... 16
Sergeant F. Blenkhorn, West York... ... ... 16
Sergeant J. W. Smith, West York ... 16
Private T. C. Dawson, 4th York ... 16
Corporal C. F. Wase, Cambridge University 16
Private C. B. Dyer, Cambridge University 16

nature from any hitherto offered at Wimbledon, and
requires considerable exertion as well as skill on the
part of the competitor. The process is as follows :
Having fired at the target, he retires and runs round
the post 50 yards off, carrying with him rifle, ammu-
nition, rod, and everything he makes us of in firing,
loading when he likes, but not capping till he arrives
at the firing point, from which, as soon as he has
delivered his next shot, he sets off again in a similar
manner. Five minnutes are allowed for single
barrels, only four for double-barrelled rifles, but in
either caso the gun must be loaded from the muzzle
with a powder flask, and the object of the compe-
tition is to make as many marks as possible in the
time, which is counted from the first shot.
It would naturally be supposed that the conse-
quences of all this running must be to render the
shooting very wild. The Earl of Aberdeen, how-
ever, in the course of his four minutes, ran 500
yards, fired 11 shots, and made 42 marks, or within
two of the utmost maximum attainable from the
same number of shots fired without changing posi-
tion or any pressure in point of time. The range
at which the accident happened to markers on the
previous day was reopened yesterday, Captain Drake
having devised a system of falling boards or flaps,
which open-to allow the disc to pass, but close as
soon as this is withdrawn, thereby stopping up the
apertures through which the splashes succeeded in
making their way. No new accidents were re-
ported yesterday ; but towards evening a police-
constable,who had been stationed at one of the out-
posts, was found to be suffering from the effects of
the exposure to the weather, and was taken to the
hospital.

The Valley of Cashmere.

(From a Correspondent of the Times.)

'SRDIUGGITR7 May 26.

could undersell those of Russia in the great marts of Russia.
The mission which some time ago was to have proceeded
from the Punjab to Yarkand would have conferred incalcul-
able benefits on British commerce, had the Supreme Go-
vernment not at once stopped it. The marauding tribes
between Leh and Yarkand might have been subsidised, an
agent (agsakal, "greybeard")appointed to watch over Indian
commerce at Yarkand ; invaluable scientific, linguistic, and
historical information would have been obtained, and the
fact of our political existence would have been rendered pa-
tent to the races inhabiting those immense regions. It is
idle to weigh against these considerations the dangers to
life which the members of the proposed mission might have
run at the hands of robbers infesting the roads between
Ladak and Yarkand. Hundreds of native merchants cross
the roads every year, and as the mission would have been
under the especial protection either of our own feudatory,
the Maharajah of Cashmere, or of that of the Khan of
Khokan, who invited it, and was ready to give every pledge
to the British Government of its safe arrival and return—
had the members of the mission, in spite of these precau-
tions, been assassinated by some band of robbers, our
Government could not possibly have been involved in war,
as there would have been no Government to go to war
with. Ono thing is quite clear. Wo must either annex
Cashmere in order to have a safe frontier against Russia and
a secure and untrammelled commerce with Central Asia, or
force the Maharajah to open his country unreservedly to
Europeans, to give access to every information, topographi-
cal and political, which we may desire, and to abolish the
ridiculously extravagant taxation on exports and imports.
In the interests of civilization ho should also be compelled
to govern his subjects in a more merciful and, above all,
regular manner; to levy his taxes more in money than kind,
and to establish the equality before the law of the oppressed
Mussulmans with the ruling Hindoos. The prayer of every
Cashmere is that the " sahibs" would take the country from
the Maharajah. At any rate, with the outposts of Russia
almost opposite Gilghit, with every information pertina-
ciously kept from us by the Rajah under a false show of
readiness to give it, we shall, I trust, better ourselves and
an oppressed race by creating a strong frontier in an acces-
sible, defensible, and civilized Cashmere. Russia is 700
miles nearer Hindustan than in 1859 ; we must come to
some understanding with that Power, and, if practicable,
establish friendly commercial and political relations with
her. If this is not done Thibet and Cashmere will be-
come Russian provinces, as the whole of Central Asia is
already practically. Probably, even Russian civilisation,
associated though it be with the massacres in Poland, Sibe-
ria, the knout, and a quasi-Oriental despotism that has at
command all the mechanical appliances of the 19th century
and none of its spirit, is better than no civilisation at all.
If we do not force our feudatory to do what he ought to do
we shall lose India. In diplomacy we are generally no
match for Russia; Cashmere will intrigue with that power
till she becomes a slave to it. If we are to have a strong
frontier we can only have it now. In a few years, perhaps
months, it will be too late. Above all, let us not depend on
information given to us by natives, even if they be our
own agents. It is absurd to suppose that a native will re-
fuse a judicious bribe, come from what quarter it may. Let
us have European agents throughout the length and
breadth of Cashmere and Thibet. It is only in the posses-
sion of a strong frontier, a flourishing commerce, and a
liberal Government that we can afford to have a powerful
but comparatively barbarous neighbour at almost the very
doors of Hindustan.

POLICE INTELLIGENCE.—This Day.

MARLBOROUGH-STREET.