The Sun.
London, England, 1859-08-16 00:00:00

THE ARMY.

A partial review of the troops in Portsmouth
garrison took place on Southsea Common yesterday,
preparatory to the weekly brigading on a more
extensive scale, which will be commenced about the
18th inst.

Under the application of the new system of flog-
ging on conviction of all cases of desertion, the
‘‘ Black Monday," which some time ago obtained
its denomination in th-. 1 Artillery Garrison, Wool-
wich, has been revived with increased severity.
For several weeks past each successive Monday
has been ushered in by " punishment parade,"
and the corporal punishment of some three or
four men. Yesterday various detachments of
the batteries belonging to the depot brigade of
the Royal Artillery were mustered at six am., and
were marched to the Riding-house establishment
to witness the flogging of six men, mostly recruits,
who have recently joined the brigade, and have
since deserted. For this crime they were adjudged
by regimental and district courts-martial to receive
50 lashes, and ti suffer a term of imprisonment of
from 50 to 100 days in Fort Clarence or some other
of her Majesty's gaols. A man belonging to the
Ist Garrison Brigade, named Michael Crofton, who
only enlisted about three weeks ago, has been ar-
rested in a course of nightly depredations and
plundering, commencing from the first night of his
admission into the corps. It appears that the sys-
tem he pursued was that of a well practised hand,
and that it was commenced shortly after his enlist-
ment. One night he succeeded in robbing a ser-
geant of £l5, with which he got successfully off,
and did not make his appearance afterwards in the
daytime, but after nightfall he was in the habit of
repairing to the barracks, which he had made hi.m-
self well acquainted with, and after un dressing
himself in the corridors and pa.ssages leading.to the
sleeping-rooms, he stole softly in, and made
.himself
master of whatever money or portable articles he
could. On the last occasion, however, having been
accosted by the sentry on. attempting to pass the
gate, he was unable to give a satisfactory reply,
and was marched to the guard-room under arrest.
During his examination he treated the matter with
much apathy and carelessness, informing his com-
manding officer that he was a ticket-of-leave con-
vict, and had no fear of military regulations. The
list of prisoners now under confinement in the cells
of the Artillery Barracks is unusually long; many
of them will be tried by garrison court-martial
their crimes being held to be beyond the jurisdic-
tion
of the minor regimental and district courts.

A SERVANT GIRL COMMITTED FOR CHILD-
MURDER.—Mary Ann Gibbons, a girl of 15, was charged
before the Liverpool magistrates yesterday with the wilful
murder of a little boy 4f years of age, belonging to Mr. and
Mrs. Thompson, of Conway-street, Everton. Thompson
is an officer in the local police, and the prisoner lived at his
house as a servant. On the 21st July the little boy was
missed, and late the same night his body was found floating
in the Leeds and Liverpool Canal, about two miles from
Thompson's house. The case was brought before the coro-
ner in a day or two afterwards, and Gibbons arrested, but
after hearing the evidence the jury returned an openoyecer;
diet. Subsequent investigations, however, by the police,
resulted in the discovery of a number o 1 circumstancesrano agent,
Gb onswt:r
which tend to show that, either as a principal
strasfor trial at the
oekd eptaaritl eidn beefs:: Y hnegmt ha
ge ltrd.yhteesred circum-
stancesay and,
tallish, the prisoner will be committed .
a formal adjournment was Wade untilneat clay.