The Sun.
London, England, 1860-05-01 00:00:00

AUSTRIA.

VIENNA, April 28.--Feldzeugmeister von Bene-
dek, the Commanding-General in Hungary, yester-
day issued a proclamation, which in substance is
as follows :—" As a faithful veteran, and as a native
of Hungary, 1 will conscientiously carry out the
benevolent intentions of the Emperor. Con-
fidence is necessary to the successful development
of the organisation of Hungary, and I will
therefore, in the interest of the country, oppose
with firmness and decision any attempt to disturb
the minds of the people by means of demonstra-
tions. I count on the co-operation of every man of
honour in my efforts to serve and benefit my dear
native country and the empire at large." The ap-
pointment of a military man—Lieut.-Gen. Count
Louis Crenneville—to be Adlatus to General von
Benedek, and the somewhat menacing procla-
mation of the latter, have given rise to a re-
port that Hungary will be placed under martial
law should the resistance of its inhabitants to the
will of the Imperial Government be continued. On
Monday, the 30th inst., there will be a grand reli-
gious ceremony in honour of the late Count Stephen
Szechenyi in the principal church of the city of
Pesth, and it is thought probable that some distur-
bance may occur, as the Hungarian students are
in an exceedingly ill-humour because the police
would not allow them to come to this city on Thurs-
day last. A fortnight ago there was a conflict be-
t weeen the troops and the inhabitants of a village
called Szucsag, near Clausenberg, but it is only now
that we have received detailed in formation on the sub-
ject. The peasants in the neighbourhood of Szucsag
having offered resistance to the Government officials
who were occupied with the new division of the land,
the authorities resolved to arrest the ringleaders,
and to that end sent 29 horse and 36 foot soldiers,
under the command of a lieutenant of gendarmes,
to the village. The men sought were found and
taken into custody, but their arrest so exasperated
their friends that they sounded the tocsin. The
"ding dong" of the church bell soon brought a
great many peasants to the scene of action, and
they, one and all, imperiously demanded the re-
lease of the prisoners. The lieutenant three times
summoned the crowd to disperse, but as no atten-
tion was paid to what he said, he ordered the in-
fantry to fire " high." The soldiers did as they
were bid, and the peasants, seeing that no one
was hurt, laughed and cried out that the troops
had received orders not to injure the people.
Emboldened by their own shouts and cheers, the
tillers of the soil then advanced, and attempted
to rescue the prisoners, but they were received
with a volley which killed one man outright
and wounded several more or less severely.
Although the peasants had no arms they did not
disperse until they had been more than once
charged by the cavalry. When the appointment
of General von Benedek to bo Commander in
Hungary was first mooted it was very generally
said that his enemies had advised the Emperor to
send him there, as they foresaw that he would lose
his popularity, and speedily be " used up.'' A
general officer, however, who has known Benedek
intimately for many years, has informed me that the
Feldzeugmeister is a man of great strength of dia-
-1 racter and energy, " who well knows what he is

_RAILWAY INTELLIGENCE.

CORK AND YOUGHAL.

A special meeting of this company was held yes-
terday at the office, Gresham-house, Old Broad-
street, Sir C. P. Roney in the chair.
The Secretary read the notice convening the
meeting.

On the motion of the CHAIRMAN a formal resolu-
tion, confirming the forfeiture of 2,525 shares, and
authorising the directors to dispose of the same,
was passed unanimously.
It was stated that the works were progressing
satisfactorily, and the meeting separated.

about." On inquiring what was meant by the I VISIT OF PRINCE ALFRED TO if 00L-
words quoted, the reply received was :—" Benedek WICK AND BLACK WALL.
is aware that the system of ultra-centralisation can-
not possibly be maintained in Austria, and you may
therefore be sure that he made conditions before he
consented to go to Hungary. He will insist on the
promises which have been made to the Hungarians
being kept, but he will also insist on more respect
being paid to the law of the land than has recently
been the case."

His Royal Highness Prince Alfred, accompanied
by Lieut.-Colonel F. Cavendish, arrived at Wool-
wich by the North Kent Railway, at two o'clock
yesterday afternoon, and immediately proceeded to
the Dockyard, where he was received by Commo-
dore Superintendent the Hon. J. K, Drummond,
C.B. After taking refreshment at the Commodore's
residence, his Royal Highness proceeded to the
steam factory department, for the purpose of in-
specting a vertical boiler, made at Birmingham,
from a design of the Earl of Dundonald, and for-
warded to Woolwich for experimental purposes.
After visiting the numerous factories and inspect-
ing the ponderous machinery of the department,
the improvements in which were pointed out by
Mr. Atherton, chief engineer, his Royal Highness
proceeded to the basin, for the purpose of viewing
the Ranger, the first of a new class of gunboats now
completed, and other vessels in a forward state.
Having expressed his intention to visit the pri-
vate shipbuilding yards at Blackwall, the Bustler
steam vessel was manned by the crew of the Admi-
ralty steam yacht Black Eagle, Commander Petley,
and at half past three o'clock his Royal Highness,
attended by Col. Cavendish, Commodore Drum-
mond, Mr. Macdonald, master-attendant of the
Fisgard flagship, &c., embarked on board, and sub-
sequently landed at the Blackwall Pier, from
whence the party proceeded to the works of the
Thames Iron Shipbuilding Company, and his Royal
Highness was much interested in minutely inspect-
ing the enormous steam-ram vessels now building
for the Government at Bow-creek, His Royal
Highness and party also visited Messrs. Green's
and other establishments, where several gun vessels
for the Admiralty are now being constructed. He
then visited the East India Docks, in order to in-
spect the diagonal principle of shipbuilding, as
exhibited in Mr. Robert Taylerson's iron clipper
ship, Fanny Maud.
Mr. Taylerson, together with two or three of his
friends, received the Prince on board, and then the
royal guest and visitors having gone below and
inspected the sides of the vessel, assembled on deck
to hear Mr. Taylerson's very interesting explana-
tion of his new mode of shipbuilding. Mr. Tayler-
son commenced by saying, that it was in conse-
quence of the great sacrifice of life by the breaking
up of ships on rocks, shoals, ashore, or by collision,
that his attention was first directed to a mode by
which vessels could be immensely strengthened
with very little increase of expense. Curiously
enough, the very ship they were in, built lately at
Port Glasgow, bad sustained a very severe
collision in coming round, and had received
scarcely any injury at all. She had actually been
run down by a large vessel, which struck her nearly
amidships, and beyond some injury to the deck bul-
warks, she was perfectly scathless, the iron plates
not having been driven in at all. But for her novel
construction she would most probably have been
sunk from that collision. Mr. Taylerson then
pointed out the mode of building by models, old
and new. He gave a happy illustration of the way
in which our ships, built vertically in the old
fashion, are liable to be torn asunder like postage
stamps. The Fanny Maud is 2,000 tons burden.
By the new system all mist go or nothing. It is a
combination of strength. It may not be generally
known that on board eight of the vessels which are
mentioned as having lately gone to pieces, up-
wards of 1,600 lives were lost. These eight include
the Birkenhead, the Taylenr, the Hungarian, and
the Royal Charter. It was the loss of the Birken-
eead, when the troops displayed such fortitude,
that first induced Mr. Taylerson's experiments.
When we saw his plan of shipbuilding, the only
feeling was one of surprise that it had not been
thought of before. His Royal Highness was ex-
tremely attentive to Mr. Taylerson's explanations,
and won golden opinions of all present by his ear-
nest, urbane, and ingenuous manners. After par-
taking of some slight refreshment he left, amidst
the warm cheering of the few accidental passers by
who had gathered near the ship, and took boat at
Blackwell with his military and naval attendants.

A MODERN 'TACK SHEPPARD.

NEWCASTLE-ON-TYNE, MONDAY.

Walter Scott Douglas, a notorious housebreaker,
has made a second escape from the town gaol. Last
autumn Douglas with two other persons since tran-
sported, committed several extensive jewel rob-
beries, and he and they were captured and lodged
in Newcastle Gaol. Under his leadership they all
escaped from the gaol. His two companions were
recaptured, but Douglas did not fall into the hands
of the police until about a fortnight ago, when two
detectives captured him at the " hopping," and had
a narrow escape from being shot, as he had two
loaded pistols on him. Douglas was brought before
the magistrates, and remanded to gaol, with
what results the undermentioned narrative will
disclose. Douglas was confined in a cell in a
department of the prison on the right of the
entrance, and at ten minutes past seven yesterday
morning he was, according to custom, allowed to
pass from his sleeping cell, where he had
passed the night, into a larger apartment, called
the day-room. This room contained a four-legged
table, about four feet long, and three benches
of the same length: The door of this room opens
into a court-yard, the entrance to which, from the
Governor's house, is by an iron gate through rail-
ings of iron, strongly spiked. In the day-room
Douglas was supplied with breakfast at the usual
hour on Sunday morning, and at 25 minutes before
9 o'clock an officer of the prison named Porter went
into this room and brought out the tin on which
the prisoner had had breakfast. He shut the door
after him, but it is not quite clear whether he had
turned the key, by which the door would have been
more securely fastened. The padlock on the out-
side of the door was not fastened, it being the cus-
tom to leave it unfastened during the day. When.
the officer left, Douglas was left alone in the day-
room, and about this time the other prisoners and
the officers of the gaol all proceeded to the chapel
in the Governor's house to engage in Divine wor-
ship. Douglas must now have commenced his ope-
rations, and his first act was to force back the sin-
gle bolt of the door of his prison. This he seems to
have effected by the use of two pieces of iron—one
a hooped piece about eight inches long, and the
other shorter and stronger, both of which he left
in the day-room. The door being thus opened, he
would find himself in the prison-yard, barred at the
north end by the gate and high iron rails already
mentioned, and at the other by a strong wall
not less than 15 feet high, while the other
two sides were the walls of the prison. At the
south end of the yard, however, and about a yard.
and a half from the wall, is the water-closet,
a small square building roofed with slate, and stand-
ing about half the height of the wall. To this
place the prisoner seems to have directed his atteu-
tion ; but it was impossible to gain the top of the
wall from the top of this building without having
something to span the space between. For this
purpose Douglas availed himself of the tables and
forms in the day-room. These he brought out, and
placing one of the forms on the top of the other
would thus be able, by making extraordinary exer-
tions, to fix the table with one end on the top of the
water-closet, and to place the feet at the other end
on the side of the wall, within reach of the top. By
crawling up to the end of the table as it was now
placed, Douglas could easily reach the top of the
wall, and could drop down thence into the outer
court yard beneath, being a distance of about 15
feet. By far the most insurmountable obstacle to
the prisoner's escape here presented itself, viz., the
outer wall of the prison, about 30 feet high. To
scale this would seem to be practically impossible,
but Douglas finding a pole of sufficient length,
which had been used by the masons, he must have
reared it against the wall, and fixed it firmly at a
part of the wall opposite the Church Jubilee Charity
School, which stands in a small quiet lane at the
back of the gaol. At this point the wall rises
higher, not only gradually with the rising ground,
but a cornice rises alaruptly on the top about a foot
in height. This corner or end the prisoner would
be able to reach by climbing up the pole just men-
tioned; but of course the chief difficulty would
now be to get down into the back lane. How
the means for effecting this object were attained
will probably be a matter of inquiry. As soon
as he reached the bottom he ran up a lane, and
turning into an alley on the right hurried down into
Pandon Dene, where he was lost to view. Imme-
diately on seeing him one of the little girls belong-
ing to the school had run to the porter of the gates
of the gaol and informed him of the man's escape.
The porter at once communicated the intelligence
to Mr. Wood, the Governor of that part of the gaol,
who was then in chapel ; information was given to
the police, and the pursuit of the prisoner was im-
mediately commenced. Parties were started in
different directions, and all yesterday and last night
the police were scouring the country in search of
him, but so far he has eluded them.

FATAL ACCIDENT.—On Thursday afternoon last,
as a detachment of the 29th regiment of foot, which is at
present stationed at Sunderland, was returning along the
line of the Seaham Railway from the beach towards Ry-
hope, where the men had been for ball practice, a coal train
was observed approaching them, and they immediately
stepped out of the way. Unfortunately, at the same mo-
ment there happened to be a passenger train owning in an
opposite direction on the other line, and one of the officers,
Ensign Evorard, not observing this, stepped on to it, and
did not percei',e his danger until too late. He was knocked
down by the buffer, and when picked up was quite insen-
sible. He afterwards partially recovered, and was removed
to the barracks, at Sunderland, where he died on the fol-
lowing morning. This melancholy event has cast a gloom
over the town.