The Sun.
London, England, 1871-02-07 00:00:00

COURT MARTIAL ON A SHIP'S STEWARD.

A court martial assembled on Monday on board the
Duke of Wellington flagship, in Portsmouth Harbour, to
proceed with the trial of Charles Townsend, ship's
steward of the Inconstant, on twelve charges
of fraud and conspiracy to defraud the Queen
of large sums of money. The contractor, James Curtis,
was further cross-examined, and could not account for
three different entries of a quantity of meat, supplied
on the 31st of October, made in his foreman's book,
which it is alleged contained the correct account of
meat actually supplied to the Inconstant. The
Admiralty have asked him to continue the
supply for the present six months.. Prisoner had not at
any time mentioned the sum of money he was entitled to,
since he had not made payments to stewards.
Thousands of pounds of meat have been rejected, and
he had been subjected to heavy losses, although
the meat rejected was as good in quality as that before
received. He believed that the meat his foreman had
sold for the stewards at Portland was also included in the
certificates, on which he had been paid by the Admiralty.
Curtis stated that he expected the amount in
excess that he had been paid for the Inconstant
would be deducted by the Admiralty from other sums he
had to receive from them. It was proved, moreover, that
Curtis had been paid for 27,5011 b. of meat,
being 2,920 lb. more than he was entitled to, accord-
ing to the quantities entered in the contractor's and
foreman's book. The case for the prosecution was con-
cluded, and on the application of the prisoner he was
allowed until one o'clock on Tuesday to prepare his
defence.

ARE FATHERS CUSTODIANS OF YOUNG
CHILD REN 2-VACCINATION CASE.

An interesting point was raised by a defence made at
Bridgwater, on Monday, by two fathers, in answer to the
charge of refusing to have their children vaccinated.
William Henry Roberts, coach builder, and
Edwin James Bovett, veterinary surgeon, were the
defendants. Their children were each aged nearly two
years. The summons ordered the defendants to bring
their children into court. The defendants' solicitors,
Messrs. Barham and Lovybond, stated that their
-clients had conscientious objections to vaccination, and
with all clue respect to the Bench, they were
determined to resist the application to the utmost. The
children were not in attendance, and the magistrate's
clerk advised that in order to justify the Bench
in making an order, or to ensure conviction, they
must be brought there. In answer to this it was
contended that the fathers who were summoned, had not
the custody of the children, but that the mothers alone
had the control over them until they were seven
years of age, and that there was no power to
force the fathers to produce them. Mr. Reed,
clerk to the Board of Guardians, submitted that the
non-production of the children was contempt of Court, if
not a misdemeanour, and he intimated that he should
summon the mothers. Barham said this could only be
done on the hypothesis that the fathers had not the
custody of their children, but the mothers, and there would
at once be an end of the cases, and an application could not be
made against a married woman. The bench ruled that the
children should be produced, and suggested a general ad-
journment for that purpose ; which Mr. Reed agreed to,
but it was intimated by Barham that at the adjournment
next Monday, the children would probably be not forth-
coming, and that the bench would have to adopt what
course they thought proper.

VANDALISM. -- The paintings on the walls of
Whitecross-stieet Prison, supposed to be by George Mor-
land, have been damaged and defaced wilfully. It is a
regrettable circumstance that no effort to preserve them
seems to have been made by those in authority.—city.
PreSs.
THE GERMAN RAILWAYS.—A. meeting of railway
directors representing all the German lines belonging to
the association will be held in the course of this month at
Dresden to concert measures of a general and uniform
nature on which to found their claims for compensation
from the Imperial Government for the unusual wear and
tear of their rolling stock caused by the exigencies of the
war traffic, especially with the heavy siege guns, with their
shot and shells, under the pressure of which so many
of their strongest wagons have broken down.—Railway
News.

THE PORTUGUESE IN BRITISH GUIANA.--it is
said that the Portuguese inhabitants of British Guiana,
who are greatly dissatisfied with their treatment by the
Legislature of that colony, have addressed a memorial to
the Portuguese Minister in London. This memorial has
been handed to the Ambassador by Mr. Jenkins, who
acted as counsel for the Coolies during the late inquiry.
The Portuguese especially complain of the arbitrary and
vexatious manner in which the Excise Laws are enforced.
As they number 25,000 persons, they form numerically
an important element in the population. There is
reason to believe that the Viscount de Seisal, after con-
sulting with his Government, will warmly advocate their
cause.

Mn GLADSTONE AND THE BOROUGH OF GREF,N-
WICH. —The heads of the Liberal party in Greenwich
having decided to take no action in the matter of the
requisition calling upon Mr. Gladstone to resign his seat,
the Advanced Liberal Association. at their meeting on
Saturday night, confirmed the recommendation of the
executive committee to present to the Premier an address,
which was engrossed and duly signed by the chairman
(Mr. Hay) and secretary (Mr. Floyd). It stated : " While
this association considers it a high honour.that,Greenwich
should have for its representative a statesman so eminent
as the Right Hon W. E. Gladstone, and feel unabated
confidence in him as such, they respectfully hUpe that he
will see the importance of submitting to the next Parlia-
ment measures to relieve the glaring inequality between
the very rich and the very poor, by throwing a larger
share of the taxation on those people whose enormous
incomes promote a profligate expenditure, prejudicial to
the individual and to society. The association feels con-
vinced that unless some substantial measures of relief
which will ameliorate the condition of the poorer classes
are promptly brought forward by the Government, the
working classes will lose all interest and sympathy with
their Liberal leaders, and the result will be that power
will fall into the hands of a retrograde Tory party, and
thus promote a wide-spread dissatisfaction most undesirable
in the present grave political crisis."