The Sun.
London, England, 1866-06-20 00:00:00

A COUNTY RATE IN THE CITY.

Alderman WILSON brought up a report from the
_Committee of Visiting Justices of the City of Lon-
don Pauper Lunatic Asylum, which stated they had
expended the £5OO which had been placed at their
disposal by the court for the purpose of making cer-
tain payments in connection with the asylum, and
asking for a further sum of £2,000. It should be
stated that this money will not eventually come out
of the funds of the corporation, but will be repaid by
the different unions who have seat patients to the
asylum. Alderman Wilson moved that the report be
agreed to.

Alderman COPELAND said he should support the
motion, but he could aot help at the same time put-
ting it to his brother magistrates whether, when the
Court of Common Council had just agreed to an
improvement rate, and large sums were required for
other matters, the time had not arrived for making
a county rate in the City of London to defray the
expense of these lunatics, police, and administration
of justice. It had long been his opinion that this
ought to have been done, and a:county rate had been
proposed in qirarter sessions many years ago by one
of his brother magistrates, which motion he sup-
ported; but although they wereat that time in a mise-
rable minority, he still thought that this was the pro-
per course to be adopted. If a county rate had been
agreed to at the time he mentioned the south side of
the Poultry would have been down long ago, and
many other important improvements would have
been effected. He concluded by stating that if he
could obtain the support of his brother magistrates
he should certainly, at their next meeting in quar-
ter sessions, propose that a county rate should be
levied in the City of London. (Hear, hear.)

Alderman J. C. LAWRENCE expressed his opinion
that, as the COurt of Common Council had already
agreed to expend a large sum of money for the pur-
pose of effecting improvements in the City, it was
hardly the right time to propose to levy a county
rate. If they were to have a county rate, the amount
proposed to be expended by the Court of Common
Council would not be required ; and he thought
that they ought, at all events, to wait until they
saw the effect of the carrying out of the proposition
of the Court of Common Councilbefore they agreed
to levy a county rate.
The motion of Alderman Wilson was then agreed
to, and after the discussion of some business of a
private character, with closed doors, the Court ad-
journed.

IRELAND,

DUBLIN, June 19.

The fracas in the county of Dublin Militia, of
which an ex parte statement was published in a
pamphlet by Lieutenant Flood, who has since gone
to Australia, and of which a summary has appeared
in The Sun, having been referred to the Lord• Lieu-
tenant, his Excellency has given his decision upon
it, and this decision has been promulgated in the
regiment, and printed for private circulation by
Captain Caulfeill It is but common justice to the
gentlemen that your readers should be made ac-
quainted with the result, which was communicated
to the Earl of Meath by Colonel Smyth, Inspector-
General of Militia. Lord Kimberley having care-
fully examined the documents and put the case
against Captain Caulfeild very strongly, came to the
following decision :
" Captain Caulfeild being the aggressor, and the whole
affair having originated by his own improper act, should
be reprimanded by his commanding officer for the unjusti-
fiable act of opening a letter with which he had no concern
whatever, and having done so, forwarding the same with a
very offensive letter from himself to Lieutenant Flood, in-
stead of bringing the matter to the notice of his command-
ing officer in the first instance, as it was his duty to have
done ; and that Lord Meath may be pleased to caution the
adjutant to refrain from such a step in future ; and that his
Lordship be good enough also to point out to the adjutant
that in a military point of view he should have rested sa-
tisfied with the decision of his commanding officer in the
case, especiallysas Mr. Flood expressed his willingness to
withdraw his offensive letter upon receiving an apology
from the adjutant, who was the original aggressor, and
therefore bound to make the first advance, relying upon his
commanding officer implicity that his character should come
out of the affair unimpeached and without reproach. That,
as the matter has been referred for the decision of higher
authority, Lord Meath should therefore make known to
the regiment that the charge against Captain Caulfeild of
conduct unbecoming the character of an officer and a
gentleman' is totally devoid of foundation in the real spirit
of the term, and that he is fully exonerated from any such
imputation. That Lieut. Flood should be informed by
Lord Meath that, even making full allowance for the irri-
tation he experienced from the act of the adjutant, and the
unjustifiable threat contained in his letter of the 22d of
Jan., he should not have charged Capt. Caulfeild with con-
duct unbecoming the character of an officer and a gentle-
man, either in his reply to Capt. Caulfeild or in his letter
to the Earl of Meath—such an imputation being applic-
able to wilful, scandalous conduct, and not to an unac-
countably mistaken notion of duty."
Prefixed to this decision is a letter from Lord
Meath, as colonel of the regiment, to Capt. Caul-
feild, referring to facts which go far to account for
the error of judgment into which Capt. Caulfeild
was, unfortunately, betrayed, and which ought to
have been frankly acknowledged at first, as he now
admits it to have been altogether unwarrantable.
These facts, the colonel says, he is fully aware mate-
rially influenced him in opening the letter. He says
that—

" Prior to our last training you reported to me that
Lieut. Flood was then confined for debt in Kilmainham
Gaol ; my directions to you then were not to bring the
matter officially before me, as I had a strong feeling that
his ffiends would pay his debts, , and thus enable him to
appear when the regiment should be called out, but that in
case it came to your knowledge that he had again beenput
in gaol for debt you were forthwith to inform me of it, so
that I might lay a statement of it before the Inspector-
General of Irish Militia. I should have refrained from
granting my sanction to the circulation of any further
observations connected with this subject, during
,the
voluntary absence from this country of one of the 'par-
ties, had I not perceived that a large circle of your
friends and acquaintances having been irregularly made
acquainted with a portion of the facts were entitled to be
put in possession of the whole, and the decision of autho-
rity on the subject. I deplore the absence of Mr. Flood, in
consequence of tho assertion he makes in page 7, line 14, of
the correspondence he has published—viz., that he had not
received one application for payment ; whereas, I am in
possession of the testimony on oath of the Paymaster-Ser-
geant that he had received letters on different occasions
from the postman directed to 'Lioutenant Flood, County
of Dublin Militia,' marked on the back or top of the enve-
lope, '3d, sth, 7th, and 10th application for a small ac-
count,' and that the three first enumerated were re-ad-
dressed and posted to Mr. Flood, Raheny-house; and the
fact of some of these having passed through the office is
corroborated on oath by the orderly room sergeant. I can-
not close this communication without referring to a subject
on which your honour and gentlemanly feeling have been
impugned (after so many years of intimate acquaintance)
without giving expression to the sincere and thorough con-
viction I entertain of the high standard of your honour and
the integrity of your mind, notwithstanding the late grie-
vous error in judgment you have committed.—Yours
faithfully, "MEATH, Colonel."

At the sitting of the court-martial yesterday the
President announced that the prosecution was
closed, and called on the prisoner for his defence.

The prisoner answered that he had no defence to
make, but he handed in a lengthened protest, which
was read. The Court then adjourned till 2 o'clock.
When it was re-opened the Deputy-Judge-Advo-
cate addressed the Court on the whole case, after
which the proceedings terminated.

At the same time another court-martial sat in the
mess-room of the 85th Regiment to try Corporal
Chambers, of the 61st Regiment, on similar
charges, and also, for having deserted with his re-
gimental clothing and necessaries. He pleaded
guilty to the charge of desertion, but with respect to
the first—not having given notice to the command-
ing officer of an intended mutiny in her Majesty's
forces stationed in Ireland—he refused to plead at
all, because it was " vague, uncertain, and indefi-
nite," and did not necessarily show an offence which
the Court had jurisdiction to entertain. After the
production of evidence the trial concluded. At this
trial Col. Sawyer, 6th Dragoon Guards, presided ;
Capt. Whelan, 61st Regiment, prosecuted ; and
Major Mein, assisted by Mr. Johnson, barrister,
officiated as Deputy-Judge-Advocate.