The Sun.
London, England, 1861-12-13 00:00:00

THE FIILIVOOD BARRACKS TRAGEDY.

Patrick M'Caffery, a young soldier, of 20, was
indicted for the wilful murder of Capt. Hanham and
Col. Hugh Dennis Crofton, at the Fulwood Bar-
racks, Preston, on the 14th of September last.
Mr. Kaye and Mr. Gully prosecuted ; and Mr.
Russell defended the prisoner.
The court was densely crowded, and the proceed-
ings excited the deepest interest.
Mr. Kaye, in opening the case before the jury,
said the prisoner at the time of the occurrence was
a private in the 32d Regiment of Foot. Ho had
been enlisted in the year 1860, and on the 14th of
September he was present with the depot of his
regiment at Fulwood Barracks, Preston. At that
time there were in Fulwood Barracks depots of five
other regiments, forming what was called a depot-
battalion, of which Colonel Crofton was the colonel,
and Captain Hanham the adjutant. On Friday the
13th of September the prisoner was acting as
" picket sentry" near the officers' quarters. The
officers, it appeared, had been:a good deal disturbed
by the noise which children ;made near their quar-
ters, and Captain Hanham had requested the pri-
soner to see that the children were removed. The
prisoner seemed to have obeyed in a somewhat care-
less way, and the captain then requested him to go
and find out the names of the children's parents.
The prisoner went, bat did not appear to have
brought the names of more than one of the parents,
and from the way in which he obeyed the order the
captain seemed to have thought that he had neglected
his instructions, and sent him therefore to the guard
room. Between 10 and 11 o'clock the next morning
the prisoner was brought before Col. Crofton, and
Capt. Hanham preferred the charge of neglect of
duty against him. The colonel, after a short time
for consideration, ordered the prisoner to be
punished, by being confined to barracks 14 days.
Now on this same morning one of the privates, named
Levett, had taken M'Caffery's ammunition from his
pouch in the bedroom where he slept and had laid
it upon his bed. The ammunition was counted
by Levett and found to comprise two packets of
ball cartridge, each package containing about ten
rounds. When M'Caffery was sent to the guard-
room his accoutrements were sent after him ; and
when he was set at liberty he went back to his
room, which was in K passage. When he went
back Levett was still in the room, and the prisoner
did not appear to be then excited. He asked Levett
for his rifle and ammunition,' and Lovett told him
it was lying upon the bed. The prisoner asked for
a piece of rag or cloth to clean his rifle, and the rag
and cloth having been supplied to him, he appeared
to have gone and taken the ammunition from his
bed. After this he was not for a short time ob-
served, but shortly afterwards a cap was heard to
explode in K passage. Immediately after, or just
about this times one of the soldiers went into the
passage, and saw the prisoner standing there with a
rifle in his hand. No notice seemed to have been
taken of this ; but almost immediately afterwards
the wives of two colour-sergeants in the barracks
saw a man whom they were unable to identify come
out of the K passage, kneel down in front of the
door of the passage, and after taking a deliberate
aim, fire in the direction of Colonel Crofton and
Captain Hanham, who were walking side by side
across the square. The bullet unfortunately took
a fatal effect, for after .passing through Colonel
Crofton, and one of the arms of Captain Hanham,
it lodged in the lower part of the captain's spine,
and the result was that the colonel died on the
following day, and the captain on the Monday
afterwards. The man who fired the shot im-
mediately went back to K passage, and it would
be for the jury to inquire whether that man was the
prisoner at the bar. They must bear in mind that
before the shot was fired a cap was heard to explode
in K passage ; that a soldier who went into the
passage saw the prisoner with a rifle • and that a
man was seen to fire, and then go back into the
passage. The moment the explosion from the gun
was heard one of the sergeants went directly to the
passage, and found the prisoner there with a rifle
in his hand, which was still warm, and which had
an exploded cap upon the nipple. The sergeant
asked, " Who has done this ?" The prisoner replied,
" Never mind, take this" (meaning his rifle). Im-
mediately afterwards another sergeant came into
the passage, and asked, " Who has done this ?" To
which the prisoner replied, " I did." He was then
taken across from the passage to the guard-room by
the sergeant and one or two of the soldiers. On
their way thither he turned round, and said calmly
to one of the soldiers, " I could not do it with the
first cap, and I put a second on." He was then taken
to the guard-room. When he heard that the captain
and colonel were shot, he said, " Ah, I did not intend
to shoot the colonel, I meant it for the captain ; but
it does not matter much. However, I did not in-
tend to shoot the colonel, but the captain." When
searched, it was found that one round of ball cart-
ridge had been taken from his ammunition, and that
four caps were missing. Two caps were found in
his pocket, one upon the nipple of his rifle, and one
had been heard to explode in K passage. It seemed
difficult, under the circumstances, to suggest any
doubt which could arise as to the guilt of the pri-
soner, and he (Mr. Kaye) believed that, if the case
was made out against the prisoner beyond any
reasonable doubt, the jury would not shrink from
their duty, however painful it might be.
Evidence was then called in proof of the learned
counsel's statement.

Mr. Russell then addressed the jury for the de-
fence. He contended that the punishment which
M'Caffery had received at the hands of his officers
was entirely disproportionate to the offence which
he had committed.; that the prisoner had formed no
deliberate intention to murder; and that the act
was committed under a momentary impulse of rage
and vexation, when he found the authors of his
shame and punishment were before him, and when
he had the weapon in his hand.
His lordship then summed up, and the jury hav-
ing found the prisoner guilty of wilful murder, he
was sentenced to death.

FOREIGN MAIL PACKET LIST.

MAILS DUE.

Australia and Mauritius, via Southampton. Dec, 19.
via Marseilles Dec. 13.
Brazil and Cape Verds, by British packet. Jan. 4.
Cape of Good ilope, Ascension, and St. Helena Jan. 1.
China, Penang, and Singapore, via Southampton Dec. 19.
via Marseilles Dec. 13.
Falkland Islands
Gibraltar, via Southampton
India (Calcutta), and Ceylon, via Southampton. Dec. 19.

India via Marseilles Dec. 13.
(Bombay), via Southampton Dee.

via Marseilles Dec. 20:
Lisbon Dec. 21.
Malta, Egypt, and Aden, via Southampton Dec. 19.

via Marseilles Dec. 19.
Newfoundland
Oporto and Vigo
U. S. and British N. America, y Brit. packet Dec. 19.

. .
'by U.S. packet
by Canadian packet Dec. 18.
V.C. of Africa Afadeira, and Teneriffe Jan. 10.
Bahamas, via New York Dec. 19.
Mexico ...Dec. 30.
All parts of West Indies, including Chili, Peru, 1
TM, 14.
california,and )3ritis4 CQlurabiat., v 111 J •

7111? PUNJAB.

The revenue of the Punjab in the financial year
1859-60, £2,957,058, was 20 lakhs of rupees over
that of the previous year, an increase due in great
part to the imposition of the trade tax, extending
taxation over the non-agricultural population.
Large
.sums were laid out upon roads and canals;
but the entire local expenditure, including the cost
of the local corps, left a surplus of £1,187,417. The
Imperial charges, however, in respect of the reguli r
army and military public works would go far to-
wards turning this into a deficiency of as large an
amount. The correspondence carried by the post
has trebled since 1855, a proof of the value of rudi-
mental education. The number of scholars in-
creased largely.in the year. A first-class school
was established by the Government at Lahore, in
which, to meet-the views of the chiefs and courtiers
of the old Sikh monarchy resident there, a higher
department was created, into which none but the
sons of persons eligible for the Governor-General's
durbar are admissible ; without this they would not
be sent at all. The change which may be hoped for
in the Sikh aristocracy may be measured by the
fact that Runjeet Singh used to keep his Royal
accounts by cutting notches on a stick. The police
report a slight increase of crime in the year, but a
larger proportion was detected and punished than
in the previous year. Of the cases reported three-
fourths were brought to trial, and of the persons
tried three-fourths were convicted; and above a
fourth of the property stolen was recovered. The
police reports assert the gradual extinction of infan-
ticide, and the extinction of thuggee is only pre-
vented by the number of old hardened practi-
tioners at large. The returns from the district
courts show above 6,000 sentences, of which flogg-
ing was a part or the whole ; a recent change in
the penal laws had extended the list of crimes to
which this punishment is allotted. The practice
of poisoning by giving dutoora has attracted atten-
tion. Dutoora grows in many parts of the Pun-
jab, and it is given sometimes in the form of a
sweetmeat to a traveller, or mixed up in a
family dinner by the poisoner disguised as
a fakeer or a Brahmin, or administered to
a dancing girl in order to plunder her of her
ornaments, or to a cartman for the sake of his bul-
locks, the accomplices hanging back until the drug
has taken affect. One man, a Mussulman, confessed
to 17 of these murders. It was considered that it
would be necessary to make the possession of con-
cealed dutoora a criminal offence. Ignorance and
superstition cause the people to be easily imposed
upon by designing characters. Some agitation was
created in the coarse of the year by rumours of the
appearance of the "Imam Mehndee," a prophet ex-
pected by the Mahomedans at the end of the world.
Several persons were convicted of publicly uttering
sedition, and sentenced to various slight punish-
ments, which had the effect of putting an end to
the temporary excitement. It came out also that
there had been a discussion among certain Maho-
medans employed in the educational department
concerning the lawfulness, in reference to their
faith, of sewing the British Government. The
frontier tribes were a source of some trouble. A
plundering expedition of 3,000 Mahsoods, a prin-
cipal branch of the Wuzeree tribe, was most gal-
lantly checked by Ressaidar Sahadut Khan, of the
sth Punjab Cavalry, the native officer at the frontier
post of Tank, with less than 200 men at his com-
mand. He led the Mahsoods to follow him until
he reached ground where cavalry could act, and
then, in the midst of their shouts of derision and an
ill-directed matchlock fire, to their amazement the
little body of cavalry faced about, charged the wild
disunited mass of hill-men, and put them to almost
instant rout. Personally brave and of vigorous
muscular frames, these warriors wanted the power
of combination to resist a charge Effectually; and
the whole body became a helpless rabble, and lost
a tenth of their number before they regained the
safety of the mountain pass. Our loss was one
killed and 15 wounded. The officer did not go un-
rewarded for his judgment and intrepidity; a
sword of honour was presented to him, and he waft
admitted to the second class of the Order of British
India, with the title of Bahadoor. Upon the whole,
the year was one of progress and prosperity in the
Punjab. The Mahomedan population, excluded
from the city of Delhi on its capture by our troops,
were allowed to return, and the attachment was
taken off their houses.

COUNTRY litARl E 2 S.

~.. ~.

MANCHESTER-Dm. 12.

At our market to-day there was a very inactive business
doing, and prices were in favour of buyers, but holders
showed no indication to press stiles either for wheat or flour.
For oats and oatmeal a slow sale, and quotations nominally
unaltered. Indian corn is cheaper, Egyptian beans were
6d cheaper.