The Sun.
London, England, 1856-10-13 00:00:00

By the reduction in the army to the half-pay list of offi-
cers belonging to regiments of infantry having 16 compa-
nies,.a7,ll which canto into operation on the Ist inst., 197
captains and 430 lieutenants, making a total of 627 officers,
are placed on half-pay. It is expected that the reduction
in cavalry regiments, the number of troops in which were
during the war augmented, will come into operation at the
end of the present mouth.
The Mayor of Clonmel has received a communication
from Lord Seaton to the effect that an entire regiment of
infantry will be ordered to garrison Clonmel iu a few days.
Her Majesty's steam frigate Retribution, Capt. Barker,
arrived at Spithead on Saturday to await sailing orders.
Her Majesty's steam sloop Fury, Commander Leckie,
went out of Portsmouth harbour on Saturday to try her
engines, prior to being reported ready for sea. She is in-
tended !or the China station, where she did much execu-
tion against the pirates of those seas, during her first com-
mission, under COM maader(aow Capt. and C. 8.) Jas. Will-
cox. The screw gunboat Bustard will accompany her.
The American frigate Merrimac is an object of much in-
terest to the naval men of Portsmouth, a great many of
whom have been to see her in the Southampton Water.
The students of the Royal Naval C.illege have visited her,
and also the Royal Naval engineers ; all speak in high
terms of the courtesy shown them. -

for Maje3ty's sloop Daring, EZ, Commander Napier,
arrived at Spithead yesterday evening from the North
American and West India stations.

Tao steam tender Advice, Master-Cimmander George
Raymond, having been fitted with new boilers at Kes -
Lain, left Plymouth Sound on Saturday to resume Ler
duties at Queenstwa n.

The defects in the steam transport Perseverance having
been made good at Devonport, she was towed on Saturday
by the Confiance and Pike steamers into Plymouth Sound,
preparatory to sailing for the West Indies.

The steam vessel Alert, lately launched at Pembroke,
having been fitted at Keyhaai with new engines and
boilers, went out of Plymouth Sound at 10 o'clock on Sa-
turday morning, and returned at four in the afternoon
after a successful trial trip in the Channel.

The Devastation, 6 guns, paddlewheel steam sloop,
Commander Edward Marshall, was put out of the fitting
basin at Sheerness on Saturday, and will be ready for sea
in a few days.

Lieutenant• Colonel Crofton, R. A. , has been presented
with a handsome epergne by the officers of the late Irre-
gular Horse Artillery, in token of their regard dialing the
period they served under his command in the East.
The following appointments were made on Saturday at
the Admiralty :
Captain W. A. Willis, Captain of Greenwich Hospital,
vice Captain George Mowbray, deceased; Lieut. S. C.
Peale, to the Satellite ; Lieut. Godfrey Taylor to the
Edinburgh ; Lieut. George Parsons (additional) to the
Victory ; Lieut. P. Saumarez to the Caesar; E. H. C.
Smith, master's assistant, to the Cesar ; Courtenay A.
Hayes, midshipman, to the Fury.

THE MILITARY FRACAS AT BRIGHTON'.

It was stated in our impression of Thursday, on the au-
thority of two local newspapers, that a series of "
as they were mildly termed, had of late been practised
by certain of the officers of the 4th or Queen's Own Regi-
ment of Light Dragoons, now stationed at Brighton, on
some of their own number, and particularly upon ono
Cornet Ames, which hail resulted in a report to the Horse
Guards, a special inquiry into the circumstances by Gen.
Lawrenson, the General commanding the brigade of which
the regiment forms part, and the cicse arrest of three offi-
cers—namely, Lord E. V. Tempest, Cornet Birt, and Lieut.
Winstanley, preparatory, as it is supposed, to a court-
martial. The account in question was in several respects
imperfect, and we are now in a position to throw addi-
tional light upon the whole transaction, so far at least as
regards the outrage upon Cornet Ames—for outrage it un-
doubtedly was, if the attendant circumstances are capable
of being established in evidence—which led immediately
to the official inquiry before General Lawrenson. Lord
E. Vane, one of the officers implicated in the affair, is
already known to fame in connection with a serious assault
he committed just about a year ago upon the manager of
the Windsor Theatre, for which he was fined 5/. before the
local magistrates, and had afterwards to pay 251. in da-
mages in an action of trespass tried in the Court of Queen's
Bench, arising out of the same transaction. Mr. Thomas
Harling Ames, the cornet on whom the "freak" in ques-
tion so-called was practised, is about 22 years of age, and
the son of an independent gentleman—not of a clergyman,
as was erroneously stated—residing in the neighbourhood
of Regent's-park, London. He only joined the regiment
so recently as the 13th of August last, and, almost from
the very day he did so, he has been subjected to a conti-
nual series of " practical jokes," as they are designated in
common parlance. These he bore good-humouredly for
the most part, and to show that he was not wanting in
esprit de corps it may be stated that on one or two occasions
when he entered his room, and unexpectedly found some
of his brother officers there—at present it does not appear
whom—taking liberties with his property, he quietly
pocketed the affront, and sat down and entertained them
for the remainder of the night. Recently, on returning to
his quarters, he discovered that his room had been forcibly
entered in his absence, and his stock of candles melted in a
♦essel on the fire, and hung outside the window, with some
of his regimentals. Even this, NV hich was only one of a
great number of al:fronts, does not seem to have exhausted
his forbearance; and it was not until au assault and great
personal indignity had been played off upon him that he
appealed to his commanding officer, Lieut.-Colonel Low,
for protection. It happened in this way, according to the
best information that can be obtained in a matter on which
so much secrecy is observed in military society at Brighton.
It ought first, perhaps, to be stated that Cornet Ames is
said to be a young man of a frank, pliant disposition, but,
though the son of a gentleman in good circumstances, not
having either the means or the inclination to launch into
extravagant courses, he seems to have given umbrage to
3uule of the younger among his brother officers by per-
sonal habits little in accordance with their own in
some respects. The regiment to which he belongs is
stationed at two separate places iu Brighton, one being
the Preston Barracks, on the outskirts of the town,
and the other the Pavilion Barracks, in its centre, and about
a mile and a half distant from the former. The officers'
mess is at the Preston Barracks, and there, too, are the
quarters of the three officers now under arrest. Cornet
Ames, on the ether hand, though called on to do duty daily
at the Preston Barracks and to dine at the mess there, has