The Sun.
London, England, 1869-07-21 00:00:00

A MURDER AT ALDERSHOT.

On Tuesday afternoon a shocking murder was committed
At the South Camp. Corporal James Brett, of the 2nd
Battalion ith Royal Fusiliers, which are quartered in
the front lines of the South Camp, was shct dead by
a private soldier of the regiment, named William Dixon.
The deceased and the murderer lived in the same
hut, No. 1, A Lines, South Camp. It appears that the
company to which both belong was engaged during the
afternoon in emptying and refilling their beds at the bar-
rack stores, near the lines. It is stated that Corporal
Brett, who was in charge of the men in the room, ordered
Private Dixon to fill some extra beds, or spare ones, to
which Dixon objected, stating that he had done more than
his share of the work. Corporal Brett on this left the
room, with the supposed intention of reporting Dixon's
conduct to a superior non-commissioned officer. During
ais absence Dixon was seen to have laid hold of a breech-
toader, and to be meddling with the breech (evidently
loading it), when a man in the room remarked to Dixon,
" What are you about ?" to which Dixon replied, " Mind
your own business, or you will get it." Immediately after
corporal Brett was seen entering' the hut, and was told
..)37 one of the men to go back. However, he appears not
to have heard the man, or else not to have heeded what
was said to him, for he at once came into the room, and
on his doing so Dixon raised his rifle, which he had loaded
with ball cartridge, and shot Brett dead. '1 he bullet
entered the right side of the head, near the temple,
and passed out at the opposite side, shattering the
poor man's head in a most frightful manner. Death
was instantaneous. The bullet, after going through Brett's
head, passed out of the window close to some married
women living in the next hut, who narrowly escaped being
shot. The only cause that can at present be assigned for
tl:e terrible deed was the trifling dispute about the bed-filling.
Dixon was at once made prisoner, and walked to the guard-
__ Jom in the coolest manner. Corporal Brett was highly
....-:_spected in the regiment, and Dixon, on the centrary,is a
an of bad character, and has been several times tried bya
court-martial On leaving the hut in which he had com-
mitted the murder, Dixon is reported to have said, when
:ze found that Corporal Brett was dead, that "he was
mite satisfied now ; he did not care." Late in the even-
.ng Dixon was handed over to the civil authorities.

ANOTHER INTERNATIONAL EXHIBITION.—The
Journal de Geneve publishes the following :—" We are
requested to announce that the Chamber of Commerce
aas received, through the English Consul here, different
documents relative to an International Industrial Exhibi-
tion, to be held in London in IS7O. The object proposed
by the Committee of Organisation, comprising some of the
leading public men in England, is to make of this exhibi-
tion a sort of school of technical instruction, by a com-
parison of the methods employed in different countries for
the production of the same articles."
SHAKESPERIAN QUERIES.—The most learned
Shakesperian commentators seem to be ignorant of the
meaning of some of the most common phrases used by the
?get. What does Ophelia mean when she says
to the Queen, " Yen may wear your rue with
a difference"? What was the precise significance of
the crants laid upon. Ophelia's bier? What does
Beneclick mean when he says that if a lady is not virtuous
he will never "cheapen" her? What does Lear mean
when he describes Regatt as being of a " tender-hefted
nature "? What does Fistol mean in the much quoted
saying—" Under which King, bezon ion, speak or die "?
What is the exact meaning of the phrase used by Tranio,
to " balk logic "? What is a hilding ? What is a zany ?
ARMY FINANCE. —We have reason to believe
that the Chancellor of the Exchequer has him-
self taken the question of army finance in hand.
The grand project of placing the whole ex-
penditure of the army in the hands of military
officials, who would check their own accounts and be a
law unto themselves, free from the impertinent super-
vision of civilians, may now be regarded as knocked on
the head. Mr. Lowe, we believe, insists that the
authority of the Treasury shall be rigidly upheld.
Special arrangements are therefore, we understand,
under consideration with a view to the separation of the
stores and cash departments. The latter will be
strengthened and simplified so as to give the Secretary
for War effectual aid in revising and reducing the expen-
diture of the army.—Pall 111cdl Gazette.

Saw WMAN ELOQ UENCE. —The following is the
latest piece of showman eloquence :—" Gentlemen, this is
the celebrated boa constrictor; the finest, largest, longest,
strongest, and prettiest animal of its species on exhibition
in this country. He was caught in South Africa (as he lay
torpid after swallowing two oxen and a drove of sheep) in a
wire net, his capture affording a beautiful illustration of
successful wire-pulling. It was supposed that the sand
where he was found was hot enough to boil eggs, and that
his skin was at least well done ' there is proved by its
highly-finished appearance. his colour is supposed to com-
bine all the hues of all snakes that ever hissed or bit from
the ' old serpent' to a conger eel. His s'ze is variable, as,
like most other objects in- nature, he cxpands with heat
and contracts with cold. For every rise of five degrees in
the thermometer, he gets a foot of longitude. In his
native sands he is a hundred and fifty feet long. The warm
sewon of our own country stretches him twenty-five feet.
Last January, when the thermometer fell to sixteen
degrees, he shrank into such trifling dimensions as to be
invisible through a microscope. His present length you
can see for yourselves. His temperance principles are of
the Goughist kind. He is a dozen cold-water societies
rolled into one. His drink at his present dimensions is
three gallons of water per week, his food three m-.re
gallons. He has great natural talents for politics, which
he chews by changing his coat four times a year. Price
of aclui4sia_tailatY•ATC_mate."="ew