The Sun.
London, England, 1859-09-15 00:00:00

met in the streets by one of these unmitigated
scoundrels, and being asked' Are you wanting a
job ?" What do you want me to do ?' says the boy,
Oh, come and be a soldier.' But lam too little.'

' No, you are not; you are just the right height.'
' Well, but lam only 14.' Never mind, say you
are 18,and it will be all right." Now, having
once procured with great difficulty the discharge of
a young soldier, he (Col. North) had been consider-
ably astonished at this statement, and made some in-
quiry respecting it, from which he found, that the
boy went to a sergeant of the 3d Regiment, and
Offered to enlist. No conversation took place, but he
received the shilling, was taken before the surgeon,
who passed him to the officer superintending the
recruiting district, and ultimately he joined the re-
giment. The day after the enlistment the father
and mother of the lad abused the sergeant for enlist-
ing him, but never asserted for a moment that he
was a boy only 14 years of age. The testimony of
the military surgeon who inspected him was that
his height was sft. 42in., his weight 1201b5., and
that he measured 32 inches round the chest, so that
at al events he must have been a moat precocious
boy of 14. (Laughter.) The Commander-in-Chief
could have had no interest in detaining the recruit,
except as the guardian of the public interests. Div-
ing the Russian war he (Col. North) had had occa-
sion to apply to the Horse Guards for the discharge
of a boy who had been enlisted under age, and he
found great difficulty in
„obtaining it, simply on
public grounds, but the moment he produced a cer-
tificate of birth, showing the real age of the boy, he
was at once handed over to his parents. (Hear.) All
he could say was, that from the knowledge be had
of the character of his Royal Highness the Com-
mander-in-Chief, if there had been grounds for re-
fusing the discharge of the boy referred to by the
hon. member for Birmingham, neither the urgent
remonstrances of Mr. Bright nor anything else,
would have influenced his decision. (Cheers.) With
regard to the term " unmitigated scoundrels," he
(Col, North) could only tell Mr. Bright that if he
referred to the non-commissioned officers of the army,
they were no more unmitigated scoundrels than he
(Mr. Bright) was an unmitigated scoundrel himself.
(Laughter and cheers.) Their respectability as a
class, their devotion to their Sovereign, and their
gallantry upon all occasions had secured for them
the respect and esteem of the whole country.
(Cheers.)- No regiment could exist without its non-
commissioned officers, and instead of being unmiti-
gated scoundrels, they formed one of the most effi-
cien t branches of the service. (Hear.) Adverting to
another subject connected with the army, Mr.
Bright said—" But have you tot seen within the
last day or two what they do with their recruits
when they get them ? Have you read in the papers
the account of the brutal flogging of one of these
young recruits down at Woolwich ? I am afraid
to read the extract that has been sent to me by
some gentleman who wished particularly that I
would refer to it on this occasion. There were two
soldiers; but of one of them it is stated his back
when they began with him was covered with a mass
of red inflated boils, which bled profusely at every
stroke, and reddened the ground under his feet."
Now the officer who commanded at Woolwich was
General
.Sir R. Dacres, a most humane man, and
certainly a person who could not be accused of un-
necessary harshness. The recruit's name was
Davis. He enlisted on the sth of March, 1859,
and absented himself from the regiment on the 23d
for three days. He was tried for the offence, and
being a young recruit, was sentenced to a moderate
punishment, but on the 31st of March he deserted
again, and was not brought back for some months.
He was again tried and sentenced to receive fifty
lashes, and to be imprisoned for 84 days ; but from
feelings of humanity, Sir R. Dacres remitted the
imprisonment. The man, on being taken down
from the halberds, after receiving his punishment,
to show his contempt of the authorities, began to
crow like a cock, and the moment he came out of
hospital he deserted for a third time. It was for
that third offence that he had been recently flogged,
and every one of the military surgeons who had
examined him declared that the statement of Mr.
Bright was false. The punishment of flogging
for desertion in the army had only been lately
sanctioned by Parliament in the Mutiny Act, and,
it was absolutely necessary, because during last
year alone there was no less than 11,000 deser-
tions, and it must be borne ih mind that every sol-
dier cost the country for his kit and his bounty
alone £6 18s., independently of which, a large ex-
pense wa.s incurred in drill. With regard to the punish-
ment of flogging, he had no hesitation in saying that
its was a degrading punishment, but it was intended
to be a degrading one. No doubt it was a severe
punishment, and he himself had seen both officers
and men faint while it was being inflicted, and if
Mr. Bright, or any other man, would provide an
effectual substitute, hehad no doubt the whole army
would gladly receive it. (Hear.) As to the opinions
of Mr. Bright with regard to the officers of the
army, the officers of the army cared very little for
anything he might say. (Laughter and cheers.)
In conclusion, he begged to propose " The Health
of the Army and Navy."
Several other toasts having been drunk, the pro-
ceedings were brought to a close.

BRITISII AROILJEOLOGICAL ASSO-

!`IdTION.

NEWBURY, WEDNESDAY,

The members of this association, joined by a
number of the local gentry having a taste for
archaeology, began yesterday morning the series of
excursions which had been arranged for the week.
The neighbourhood abounds with objects of historic
interest, and it will require from six to seven hours
each day to get through the programme before the
assembling. of the congress in the hall in the even-
ing. Archaeology has found many votaries in the
ladies, and some of them have evinced a consider-
able acquaintance with localities and events which
occupy a conspicuous position in the history of the
town and its environs.
The excursionists were ready by 10 o'clock, and
the cavalcade of open and close carriages, char-a-
bancs, and other vehicles, quite astonished the quiet
inhabitants of Newbury, many of whom could
scarcely imagine that their town and neighbourhood
would ever have been visited by such a number of
celebrated antiquaries and archaeologists as are now
temporarily sojourning here.
T e first place visited was Wash-common, about a
mile from the town, where two battles were fought
during the civil wars of Charles I. More than/two
centuries ago, this month, the first engagement
took place, the King commanding the Royalists in
person, and the Earl of Essex the Parliamentary
forces. The excursionists next proceeded to the
park Of the Countess of Craven, at Henstead, where
are some mounds of interest in relation to former
struggles. Avignon, a parish about six miles south-
west of the town, was afterwards reached, and the
church and vicarage were greatly admired. The
former, in the interior, is a very curious specimen
of Saxon architecture. As the weather changed to
rain and hail, with a bitterly cold wind, the caval-
cade made for Shaw-house, the residence of Mr.
Henry Richard Eyre, who gave all a cordial wel-
come, and invited them to partake of his hospitality.
The encampment at Speen and Speen Church could
not be reached, as the weather would not admit of
the party travelling any longer.
In the evening the Congress was again held un-
der the presidency of the Earl of Carnarvon. A
paper on the legends of Wayland Smith, prepared
by that celebrated antiquary Mr. Thomas Wright,
Ras read. This was succeeded by one from Mr.
Pettigrew on the death of Lady Amy Robsart, at
Cumnor, in T 560. Mr. Pettigrew sought to show
that most of what had hitherto been written in re-
ference to this subject bore more the character of
fiction and romance than real historical truth, and
that Ashmole had so far imbibed the prejudices of
the people that he asserted all as facts'Without be-
ing careful to test their accuracy. He read the
letters whica passed between Lord Robert Dudley
and his cousin Blount, with other extracts from
ancient documents, and argued from them all that
the death of Lady Dudley.was an accident, and that
Lord Robert had not incited any person to poison
her, nor, in fact,, was poison administered to her.
A careful review of the whole facts, he stated, had
led him to the belief that no murder had been per-
petrated, and he rejoiced in taking a step to rescue
the character of Dudley from the stigma of having
been connected with the commission of so foul a
crime. Mr. Blundell did not sympathiSe in the
views of Mr. Pettigrew, and regarded the letters
which passed between Dudley and Blount as being
what, in his profession, was technically called
showable," and made too much of a case. They
proved more of the guilt than the innocence of
Dudley. The sentiments expressed by Mr. Blun-
dell were warmly approved by the visitors, while a
small portion only were in favour of the views
enunciated by Mr. Pettigrew.
This morning the excursionists started off to visit
the once famous Roman city
.of Silchester. The
Congress will assemble again in the evening, when
other papers will be read.

[ADVeICTISEetENT.] —Holloway's Ointment and Pills.--
Dysentery—Diarrhoea. During the summer season these
disoa,es exact numberless victims from the thoughtless of
any age or either sex. The first derangement of the stomach
is nctlected, and first irritation, succeeded by inflammation,
soon extends to the bowels. In some severe cases medicines,
givetn internally, only aggravate the malady; what a bless-
ing is it, then, that Holloway's ointment, rubbed externally
over the abdomen, can arrest and cure the complaint ; after
being rubbed the abdomen should be loosely swathed in
flannel to afford support and uniformity of temperatnre,
Farinaceous food alone should be taken, Wlleuever prac-
ticable, Holloway's pills shpuld be administered in appro-
priate doses, unless increased irritation follow their use,
when the cure can: be accomplished by the ointment.