The Sun.
London, England, 1871-01-09 00:00:00

NAVAL AND MILITARY INTELLIGENCE.

The Broad Arrow says Vice-Admiral G. G. Wellesley,
C. 8., the officer in command of the Channel Fleet, will be
president at the court martial which is to be held on the
ships' stewards who are charged with having defrauded
the Government —ln consequence of the death of Lieu te-
nant-General Lord Frederick Paulet, C. 8., Colonel of the
32nd Light Infantry, the following promotions in the
army will take place :—Major General R. Parker becomes
a Lieutenant-General ; Colonel the Hon. St. G.G. Foley,
C. 8., half-pay, late 44th Foot, becomes a Major-General;
Major J. P. H. Crowe, 10th Foot, becomes a Lieutenant
Colonel; and Captain Schaw, Royal Engineers, becomes
a Major.
The Army and Navy Gazette says :---We should be all
the better for an additional supply of at least two thou-
sand blue jackets to our Navy, and it is to be hoped
that, as the feeling of the country is decidedly in favour
of our having an efficient Navy, the coming Estimates
will be so framed as to enable the Admiralty
to enter either more men or boys—or both.
The authorities of the War Department have
received an intimation from the Admiralty that all re-
serves of guns for her Majesty's ships must be delivered
in the financial year 18714872. Ships aro now kept
longer on foreign stations than is prudent simply from the
fact that our reserves are so miserably low that we have
no vessels to despatch for their relief. The Lords of the
Admiralty are blameless in the matter. They are anxious
to repair and build, but they are restrained by those
in whom is entrusted the disbursement of the
public money. There must be soon a day of reckoning.
An unexpected check has been experienced in the
development of the new scheme for the reconstruction of
Sandhurst, one of the thirty-five young gentlemen who
had accepted the invitation to undergo a course of study
at that place having announced his intention.of accepting
a civil situation offered to him in India until the time
should arrive for obtaining his commission. We under-
stand that in consequence of this untoward event the
Engineer Department have been called upon to submit a
revised estimate of the charges that will be necessary to
prepare the buildings for the reduced establishment they
will now have to accommodate. Halifax, Nova Scotia,
will in future be regarded as the military head-quarters of
the North American colonies, both as respects staff and
departmental officers.
The United Service Gazetth says :—Lieutenant-Colonel
Crease, Royal Engineers, is to relieve Colonel Bent in
the command of the Royal Engineers at Gibraltar.— 1
Orders have been issued for the supply to the Plymouth
Divisien of the Royal Marine Light Infantry of a
100-pounder smooth-bore gun for drill purposes.—The
Admiralty have directed the trial on board her
Majesty's ships Excellent and Cambridge- of the short
Martini-Henry rifle and short cartridges. Captains Boys
and Foley, of these ships, are respectively called upon to
report whether the long Martini-Henry rifles and long car-
tridges or the short rifles and short cartridges are in their
opinion the best.—We are sorry to learn from Gosport
that the gallant 88th Connaught Rangers have suffered
much from bronchitis, colds, and coughs since they arrived
from India, and that many men have died of lung disease.

The Rangers landed at Portsmouth in a snowstorm last
month.—The Admiralty have directed the centre of
gravity of H.M.S. Hotspur, to be obtained at Devonport
under the superintendence of an official from the depart.
ment of the Controller of the Navy, Whitehall.
From India the death is announced of Lieutenant Parry,
37th regiment.

LIFEBOAT SERVICES.—TSVO schooners, the maid.
of Tire, of Inverness, and the Oxalis, of Macduff, were
recently totally wrecked off Boulmer, Northumberland,
in a heavy sea and bitterly cold weather, the first-
named early in the morning and the latter in the after-
noon of the same day. The Boulmer lifeboat, the Robin
Hood of Nottingham, went out to both wrecks ; but the
crew. of the Maid of Tire, who had previously left the
vessel in their own boat, managed with great difficulty to
land on the rocks. The other crew of four men were met
pulling towards the shore. They were in great peril, but
wqre taken on board the lifeboat and saved. During a
squall on Thursday a fishing-boat capsized off the. Dog-
gerbank, the two men who were in her being rescued from
drowning by the Wexford lifeboat Civil Service.
CURIOUS WILL OF AN OLD CITY WORTHY.
On New Year's-day a sermon is London-brillpreed tl
rector
of the united parishes of St. Magnus, oge ; St.
Margaret, New Fish street; and St. Michael, Crooked-
lane, in conformity with the will of Mr. Henry Cloker, a
late member of the Grocers' Company. The will is dated
1573, and contains some singular clauses, one of which
being that the master, the wardens, and court of assist-
ants of the Coopers' Company shall attend divine
service, and a sermon preached on New Year's-day, in
the afternoon, for ever. The property consists of two
small estates, the proceeds of which are divided amongst
the clergymen and the officers of the company, and for
other purposes. One of the most singular points in the
will is, that in the event of the Coopers' Company failing
to carry out the various bequests without showing suffi-
cient reason, the property shall be forfeited to the
Grocers' Company. At the conclusion of the sermon, the
clerk to the Coopers' Company reads the will, after which
the curiously antiquated proceedings terminate.—City
Press.