The Sun.
London, England, 1860-11-21 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, WEDNESDAY EVENING, NOVEMBER 21, 1860.

movement could be made permanent. A better sug-
gestion than that would be to make the movement
as cheap as possible to those who joined it. Having
dwelt upon this point at some length, he stated that
the London National Rifles afforded facilities to
young men of all classes. It was not his object to
raise a class corps ; on the contrary, it was his de-
sire that all classes should be members.

The Rev. Mr. WOOD, the chaplain of the corps,
who appeared in uniform, moved a resolution to the
effect, " That
.facilities ought to be given for the
further development of the movement, and that as
the London National Rifle Corps gave such facili-
ties it was highly deserving of support." In a
brief speech he expressed his extreme surprise that
they should have been accused of raising a class
corps.

Mr. OVERTON, in seconding the motion, said he
did not blame any one, but he thought the atten-
tion of the officer had not been sufficiently called to
the necessity of bringing out the physical develop•
naent of the Aim (Much disapprobation end
laughter.) He then referred to the condition of
Europe, and said it was probable that the Pied-
montese would make an attack on Venetia, which
would cause great complications, and might draw
this country into a war with Austria or France.
(Hisses and some applause.) He was sure that in
such a case the corps would be found doing its
duty. (Cheers.)
Mr. BLANCHARD JERROLD, in supporting the
resolution, said that if the working classes did not
join heartily in the movement it would not be worth
anything.
Mr. HUME WILLIAMS said the movement had
become a great European fact. Through its in-
luence rulers had restrained their ambition, cabi-
nets had modified their policy ; indeed, he might
say, it was to it that the peace of Europe was
mainly due.

The motion was carried with great cheering.
On the motion of Mr. AUSTIN, a cordial vote of
thanks was given to the chairman, and the meeting
separated.

The various Volunteer Corps throughout the
county of Somerset are to be placed on a complete
military footing, the Lord• Lieutenant making the
necessary arrangements. The county is to be
divided into districts, and over each division a supe-
rior commanding officer will preside, taking the
command of the corps in each district, for which an
adjutant will also be appointed. By this plan divi-
sional reviews and parades can , be held in the
several districts, and greater unity secured than
where only isolated corps exist.
The Earl of Yarborough has consented to become
a patron of the Lincolnshire Rifle Association, and
Earl de Grey and Ripon will be President. Major
Amcotts has been elected a vice-president, and
several captains of local corps have announced their
willingness to serve on the council. The proposed
mounted corps formed in the county will serve as
a portion of the Lindsay battalion, the regulations
of the War-office not admitting of the organisation
of a distinct mounted force.

A Whitworth rifle, the gift of Sir J. F. Davis. and
some money prizes, were competed for by members
of the Bristol Volunteer Artillery and Rifie Corps
yesterday afternoon, at the practice ground of the
latter regiment in Sneyd-park. There were 35
competitors-5 shots each were fired at ranges of
of 300, 500, and 600 yards. The rifle was carried
off by Sergt. Hansom, of the artillery corps, who
scored 16 points. There were three ties of 15 each
for the money prizes, viz., Ensign Hassell, Sergt.
J. Baker, and Sergt. F. R. Geary, but as the two
latter gentlemen scored the highest number at the
longest ranges they were declared the victors.

STATE 07 AUSTRIei.

Every one who has visited Vienna is aware that
no European Government makes more extravagant
pretentious to extraordinary morality and virtue
than the Austrian. On almost every public build-
ing is inscribed a motto telling us that justice and
incorruptibility are the sole stable foundations of
kingdoms ; yet, be it said in passing—however
irreverent it may appear to the partisans of the Aus-
trian system—that there is no Eurnpean country,
with the single exception of Russia, in which there
is mw. Viuxu
icy
Austria. A widespread corruption exists among all
the bureaucracy, civil and military, and this corrup.
tien has been hitherto winked at, if not covertly en-
couraged, by some very high-placed functionaries.
Many circumstances have contributed to foster and
perpetuate the corruption and immorality of official
men in the Austrian dominions. In the first place,
they are inadequately remunerated, as in Russia;
and in a capital insufficiently supplied with house-
room, and in which, as a natural consequence, rent,
lodgings, and provisions are dear, it is impossible
for the employes to live on their salaries The taste
for extravagance, high living, and the pursuit of
pleasure also pervades all classes of the population.
Men and women desire to fare sumptuously every
day, to wear purple and fine linen, to drive in the
Prater in handsome equipages, to dine at the most
extensive restaurants, and to visit nightly the Hof
Theatre, or the little house where Schuster used,
in the olden time, to make the lieges laugh, in
the Leopoldstadt Faubourg. These things cannot
be done on a few hundred florins a year, in a capital
in which a first and second floor let for the rent
of a decent London house, and the consequence
is that civil and military employes levy black mail
on the public, or defraud the State by malversa-
tions and corruptions. The low teaching and
the intense Jesuitism of the clergy has never
sought to awaken to better morality the torpid
consciences of the Viennese. If the civil or mili-
tary employe attends mass on high days and holi-
days, goes to-confession a couple of times a year,
pays his ecclesiastical dues with a good grace, and
never utters anything but an orthodox political
sentiment, it is immaterial to his priest or his
bishop how he fleeces the public or robs the State.
In no country on earth is there better raw material
among the small farmers and peasants for making
a fine army than in Austria. The men are brave,
stalwart, docile, and well disposed; but if their
officers and commanders have no care for their
clothing or creature comforts, or are in complicity
with the commissariat or contractors to cheat the
men, by giving them indifferent food, cloth, leather,
hose, and cotton garments, thus interfering with
their health, strength, and efficiency on the geld
and in garrison, how can the men be blamed for
not fully performing their duty? Of what avail is it
that Austrian chair-a-canon is brave and obedient,
is ductile and easily fashioned to his work ? A great
portion of the troops who so vigorously combated
at Magenta and Solferino were 14 and 18 hours
without food, and the last meal they partook of was
insufficient in quantity and indifferent in quality.
No doubt the Austrian treasury had agreed to pay
for a sufficiency of wholesomerations, and that the
State is debited with them in the grand score, as
though they had been actually provided; but the
truth is that, what with the dishonesty of cotnmand-
ing officers, of military intendants, of commissaries-
general, of commissaries, and contractors, every-
thing was and is at sixes and sevens in the Austrian
army. Percentages and pots de vita, as our neigh-
bours in Paris call them, were granted at right and
at left, and inferior and unserviceable articles were
substituted for what ought to be good and sound
corn, flour, calico, broadcloth, and leather. A cen-
tury ago, or even less, "malversations and rogueries
of this kind were common enough among our own
commissaries and contractors. Nelson, in 1787,
wrote from the West Indies to the Comptroller of
the Navy, stating that frauds were committed to
the extent of £500,000, £300,000, and £250,000.
But though the peculators, from their interest, for
a time succeeded in basing the great commander,
yet he ultimately dragged them into day, and ex-
posed their delinquencies. But our courts of law
were then, as now, open to the public ; their
proceedings were published and commented
upon in the daily journals, and thus a flood
of light was thrown on a system which in Austria
has been insufficiently exposed. Not that we accuse
Austrian judges of venality or a desire to stifle the
truth; but Austrian tribunals are close, if not abso-
lutely secret, and there is not that canvassing of
the facts and circumstances, orally and by cross-
examination, which a civil or criminal trial before
a British jury with us so admirably supplies. We
are not therefore surprised that rot half the truth
has come out in the trial of Herr Richter, the com-
missary and contractor, which began at Vienna
quite recently, and which still continues. Enough,
however, has already transpired in evidence in this
process to fix a deceased Minister of the Austrian
Crown with a guilty knowledge of, if not a direct
complicity and pecuniary participation in, fraud.
This corruption in high places had been long ago
believed among the well-informed in England to
exist, but it is now proved beyond the possibility of
a doubt. The statesman whose memory is thus
tarnished was not a man of aristocratic birth, buta
man of humble origin, who had through all his
earlier life been engaged in commercial specula-
tions. There are doubtless hundreds of as high-

minded and honourable men in commerce as in any
other avocation in Austria; yet it is unfortunate '
that, in an aristrocratic country, such as it un-
doubtedly is, the first commercial man who was
actually promoted to office should have his memory
sullied alter his death by the proof, and his fair
fame attacked even while living by the iteration,
of such charges. Nor does the army escape scath-
less in this inquiry—or s hall we say trial ? The
name of a general officer of rank and family, and of
a once peculiar favourite of the Emperor Francis.
Joseph himself, is discreditably mixed up in con-
tracts for corn, cotton shirts, and shares ; and it is
said, whether truly or not, by the accused Richter,
that this general to whom we allude had deposited
large sums, the fruits of his illicit gain, in the
Bank of England. But whatever may have been
the guilt of the minister and the general—and we
fear both the one and the other were guilty of cor-
ruption and malversation of office—there can be
little doubt that the contractor Richter was an
unfit man for his office, and ought never to have
been employed by the Government as an agent or
adviser of the commissariat. Richter was not
merely a contractor, but a manufacturer and a
director of the Credit Institution, and in each of
these capacities he appears to have dishonestly
done something which he ought not to have done.
He was, however, a man of influence in high quar-
ters—probably he stood well in the good graces of
the Jesuits—and he appears to have had a multi-
plicity of contracts passing through his hands of
the most diverse character, varying from corn and
flour to cotton shirts. In any well-ordered financial
State of course these contracts would be put up to
competition. Sealed tenders would be called for
from the trade or trades, and the lowest tender
offering secarity for due and prompt execution,
with a penalty of forfeiture for 'aches or non-per-
morance, would be accepted. Things are differ-
ently managed in Austria. Corruption, or
favouritism, or interest—whether Jesuitical or more
fascinating—carries the day, and the consequence
is that the military service is deteriorated, damaged,
and demoralised, and Austria is vanquished in the
field by troops better fed, better led, and better or-
ganised, though in no respect braver or more en-
during. These are the things which produce
bankruptcy as well as defeat, and which tend to the
rain and overthrow of empires as well as to great
social and political revolutions. There is no proper
system of comptabilite in Austria; there is no tour
des comptes, as in France ; there is no system of
estimates laid before a representative body, as with
us; nor are there proper accounts and vouchers
laid before the Treasury Board, Audit-office, Army
Pay-office, and commissariat departments, as in
this free and commercial country. Hence a want
of probity and common honesty ; hence a want of
business-like talent and aptitude; hence pecula-
tions, frauds, and abuses of all kinds.

In France in 1843, notwithstanding the admirable
system of comptabiiite and the cours des comptes, a
frightful system of corruption was revealed on the
trial of M. Hourdequin, of the Grande Voirie er
Sewers Commission; and in the same Parliamen-
tary session it appeared that corruption in refer-
ence to contracts for railways had penetrated to
higher sources. Three years afterwards, namely,
in 1847, the fire in .the arsenal of Toulon was occa-
sioned by a desire to cloak corruption ; and the loss
in the second arsenal, the Mourillon, was estimated
at no less than three millions of francs. Pillages
and pilferings also took place at Rochefort and other
arsenals ; but the most scandalous affair of all was
the malversation of General Cubieres, twice Mini-
ster of War, and the corrupt venality of Teste, a
peer of France, Minister of Public Works, and
then .President of the Court of Cassation. Nothing
did more to ruin and destroy the Government of
Louis Philippe, and to produce the revolution of
1848, than this scandalous official corruption,
bribery, malyetsation, and what Lord Coke calls.
" abusion of office." If Austria is to be saved from
similar scenes, if the Austrian army is to be rescued
from plunderers and peculators of the worst descrip-
tion, there must be a complete change of this hideous
system. There must be a complete system of pub-
licity and audit in public accounts, a system of open
competition for contracts, and a total disregard of
those corrupt influences which have been long
undermining, can kering, and corrupting every class
in the State, from the highest to the lowest. The
trail of Jesuitism has been over everything in
Austria, and, like the trail of the serpent, it is fatal
and poisonous to everything it touches.—Morning
Post.

He then went to Thomas Billcleugh's and found '
Thomas Smith sitting by the fireside. He looked
at him, and saw he had a fresh cap, a pair of
corded trousers, and a fresh pair of boots on,
different from what he wore on Monday night.
Did not know at that time whose clothes they were.
Smith had borrowed a cap the night before of wit-
ness, as he bad lost his in the row. Smith asked
him to have a walk with him, and they went up the
fields at the high end of Winlaton towards the
Kuobley (a wood). When they got out there
Smith said to him, "I am going to tell you some-
thing, but I hope you will keep it secret. I went
down the lane with Baty last night, and gave him
a blow on the head with a Morgan Rattler.'" He
and Smith then went further on, and Smith bid the
Morgan Rattler in the Knobley hedge. Smith then
showed him a powder flask with a brass top. Wit-
ness could not tell whether he hid the powder flask
or no. He then gave Smith a shilling, and they
parted. Smith told him he took 6d. from Baty, and
that was all he had. He did not tell how he took
B ty's clothes off, but he told him that he hid his
own clothes in the hedge down the lane afterwards.
He parted with him at the Red-house, and he said
he was going right south. Witness could swear that
the clothes, the boots, cap, and trousers, worn by
Smith were Baty's. He saw them on Baty on the
Monday right. There was blood insi,le the cap
worn by Smith on Tuesday morning. Smith told
him to keep bis own counsel. Smith had his dog
with him. He wore the same coat that he had on
the night before. Witness named this matter to
Wm. Douglas, a master of a steamboat at Blaydon
on Wednesday, the 7th, the day after Baty was
found. Did not knowanything about Baty's murder
until Billcleugh's wife came in and said, " What a
bad job it was that poor Baty was found in the lane
stripped and murdered !" Smith immediately asked
him to come out and go along with him. Smith told
witness that he gave Baty a blow with the Morgan
Rattler, but did not expect that it would kill him.
Had seen the Morgan Rattler belonging to Smith.
(It was produced by the police, and was a deadly-
looking bludgeon, made of guttapercha, and heavily
loaded at the end.)
Jabez Squires, superintendent of the Durham
county police at Gateshead, accompanied Armstrong
to the Knobley-end wooda un Wednesday aftecnoun
last, and he pointed out a place where Smith hid
his " Morgan 'tattler." Witness found it among
some grass.

James Hooper, police officer of Blaydon, found a
pair of boots in a hedge in a field about 190 yards
from where the body of Baty was discovered. He
found them on Thursday last.
Superintendent William Johnson, of the rural
police, deposed that he was on Thursday Searching
the hedges in the neighbourhood of where Baty's
body was found. He found a coat, waistcoat, and
trousers in a hedge near tl'e Three-lanes-ends. The
coat and waistcoat were identified as belonging to
Baty. A shot-bag was found in one of the pockets
of Baty's coat; a dead pigeon in the other.
The pair of trousers found wrapped up in the
bundle with the coat and waistcoat found by the
police were identified by Ellen Atkinson, the person
with whom he had lodged at Blaydon before he
absconded, as Smith's. She said that Smith left
her house the night before the murder, and she had
not seen him since. She bad seen a " Morgan
Rattler" very like the one shown to her in Smith's
possession. He put it into his pocket on the Mon-
day night. From the evidence of this witness it
would appear that the " Morgan Rattler" was all
the property, besides the dog, that Smith possessed,
as he only had one shirt. She ident'fied the boots
found by the police as belonging to that person.
Armstrong lodged at her house with Smith. When
Smith left her house on Monday night he had no
money.

The inquest was adjourned until to-morrow for
the production of Smqh. Great excitement pre-
vails in the village of Winlaton and neighbourhood,
and crowds of persons were congregated about the
coroner's court to-day.

SHIP WRECK AND DREADFUL SUF.

FERINGS OF THE CREW.

The following particulars of the barque Brans-
coml e, which sailed from Bristol on the Bth Novem-
ber, and Penarth Roads on the 21st November,
last year, have been written to a lady in that city
by one of the crew :
" H.B.M. Consulate, Amoy, China, Sept. 20, 1860.
"We left Shanghai on the 3d August, and pro-
ceeded on our voyage to Manilla, and all went well
till Sunday, the 12th, when it began blowing fresh.
Soon after midnight the wind increased, and we
tried to close reef the topsails, when both split to
pieces, as did the foretopmast staysail ;we then put
preventive gaskets on the yards, but wherever the
wind could catch a bit of the sail it was gone
aitctAij. Ott muoatty, flit 10tH Ur tiUgUSE, the
typhoon was upon us at half-past eleven a.m.
Starboard' was called, and immediately land was
seen straight a-head. We squared the foreyards, in
the hope of wearing the ship, bat it was too late;
we were not a hundred fathoms from the shore.
Her starboard bow struck on a rock, and we cut
away the mainmast in the hope of easing her. We
could not get out the boats, as there was a tremen-
dous sea running. About five minutes after she
struck she broke her back, the foremast and mizen
topmast went, and she canted over to starboard,
when Mr. Gomer, second mate, and three of us
took to the water; none of the others would follow.
When I was leaving the wreck the suction was so
great that it nearly took me down, but I had the
good fortune to catch a rope, so I hung on till I
saw a piece of timber, which I made for, and took
fast hold of. The seas were now making a clean
breach over the wreck. I was washed among the
rocks, where I got terribly bruised and cut ; at
length a heavy sea washed me high and dry, and
I contrived to crawl along the rocks, where I found
two of the others, the second mate having gone
down. We than saw the captain and mate on the
bottom of the longboat, and helped them ashore.
We got under the shelter of a rock, and could see
six hands clinging to the stump of the mainmast,
the sea making a clean breach over them ; then five
of them got on to the mizenmast, where they re-
mained for about two hours; the ship then broke
up, and we never saw them more. We climbed
the rocks for two hours, but could not reach the
top, so we came down again and made a hut for the
night. Neat morning we tried again, but it was no
use. We looked among the wreck for provisions,
but only found four bruised pumpkins. We then
set off to explore the place, and found that we were
on the uninhabited isiand of Agincourt, after which
we returned and set to work building a larger hut.
Next morning we found a boat with her bilge
and stern stove in, and commenced to try and
repair her. Two hands went to look for provisions,
but found none, so we were careful of our pump-
kins, that being all the provisions we had, with
the exception of a little pig. We finished the
boat by Sunday, but could not launch her owing
to contrary winds and a heavy sea. Our pumpkins
being all done, we bad the luck to pick up two bits
of pork which the fish had turned up. We had
some of that to eat, and cut the rest up to dry. On
Thursday, the 23d, at noon, we launched the boat
and got clear of the island. On Saturday we killed
our pig, which was almost starved to death, and
drank the blood and ate the liver on that day, and
the heart, brain, lights, and entrails on the next.
On Sunday morning we saw a brig, but directly
She saw us she braced up and went away from us.
We then hove to the boat, it blowing very hard all
night. The•captain stuck at the lee oar eighteen
hours to keep her head to sea. On the 31st we
made the island of Formosa, and next morning the
natives took us round to Cahan in a boat, where we
got on board the brig North Star in a dreadful
state, being so weak that we were unable to walk.
The captain was very kind to us, supplying us
with clothes, tobacco, &c. We left Cahan, and
reached Amoy on the 17th September, so you see
we had ten days ashore on an uninhabited island,
and eight days in an open boat, almost in a sinking
state, keeping two hands continually bailing her
out. We lived all this time on about three ounces
of rotten pork per day, so that we were nearly
done for.

"List of persons Lost.—Charles Gomer, second
mate ; Charles Bryant, steward ; Thomas Jenkins,
carpenter; George Pope, 0.5.; Charles Rowland
—from Bristol ; Charles Wrinch, London ; John
Brandon, Lynn, Norfolk ; John Smith, Colchester,
Essex ; Wm. Hobbs, cook, Southampton ; Ralph
Thompson, apprentice, Liverpool.
" List of Persons Saved.—Alexander Anderson,
captain ; Thomas Martin, chief mate, Bristol ; John
Lewis, A. 8., London ; Robert Gale, 0.5., Bristol
and William Turtle, 0.5., Southampton."

According to a telegram received yesterday from
Lisbon, moat frightful weather had been experienced all
along the peninsular coast.
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