Miscellaneous.
Lyttelton Times, Volume XI, Issue 649, 26 January 1859, Page 5
About this newspaper
Miscellaneous.
At the meeting of the Army Clothing Commissioners, on the 22nd, Mr. Turner, M.P., one of the commissioners, stated that the War Office had consented to placeaill the Weedon books and accounts on which Commissary-General Adams and his staff .had been employed in the hands of Mr. Jay, of the firm of Quilter, Bell, and Jay, public accountants. He hoped that by the commencement of next year the accounts would/T»e unravelled. . East India Company.—On Thursday, the 21st, a general court of the proprietors of the East India Company was held at their house in Leadenhall Street, for' the purpose of proceeding to the election of three directors in the room of Mr. William Butterworth Bayley, Mr. Russell Elice, and Mr. Henry Thoby, who have become disqualified by election to' seats in the new Indian Council. Three candidates presented themselves, and as a matter of form the ballot must be kept open until six o'clock in the evening, when, in the absence of opposition, Mr. W. H. Chichley Plowden, Major Moore, and Mr, W. Dent will be declared duly elected. The duties of directors will henceforth consist simply in the supervision of the capital, stock, and the payment of dividends. ■ ■ American Annexation,—The c Morning Post' states that negotiations which Mr. Pierce failed to complete have been resumed by Mr. Buchanan, the President of the United States, with the Chief of the Republic of St. Domingo, for the cession of tlie bay of Samaqa, at the eastern end of the island. Our contemporary saj Ts " that this port could easily be converted into a second Sebastopol, which would give its possessors the command of the neighbouring seas. The pretext alleged by Mr. Pierce was that he wished to obtain a coal depot for the accommodation of United States men-of-war." The *Post' contends that this would be a preliminary to the annexation of the island, and calls upon the English Government to stop the present negotiation.
The Alleged Deserter to the Russians.— Private Thomas Tole, 7th. Royal Fusiliers, appeared on Tuesday, the 19fch, in ths General Court Martial room, at Chatham, to take his trial on a charge of deserting to the enemy when he whs before Sebastopol, about the 15th January, 1855. From some cause, which did not transpire, the prisoner was not tried. It is understood that there is no evidence to prove that Tole deserted at all. It can be proved that he left the camp, which was on the right attack, .in front of the redoubt, one morning between nine and ten o'clock, about the 15th or 16th of January, 1855, with a comrade, named Moore, for the purpose of getting some fuel to! cook with,, and they proceeded to the ravine under the heights of Inkermann, arid neither of them came oaefc again, but they were seen, as prisoners of-war, in Sebastopol, by some prisoners of the 23rd Royal Welsh Fusiliers. Afterwards, Tole, with others, were sent to St. Petersburg, and upon' an exchange of prisoners which took place, Tole refused to be so exchanged. The prisoner was sent back to the guard-room, to await the result of the opinion at the Horse Guards, as to the course to be pursued against him by the Commander«in- Chief. ' :
The Mayor of,, Melbourne.—Sir -John Ratcliffe, Mayor of Birmingham, gave a dinner to the •Mayor-of- Melbourne, at the Royal Hotel,-Bit1' mingham, on the 19th. About two hundred gentlemen were invited to,-meet his worship's guest; amongst them were: the members of the town council and,a.nuinber .of ..merchants and manufacturers interested in the Australian trade.
: The Great Eastern.—On Wednesday, the 20th instant, it was finally agreed,, with the consent of four-fifths'of the shareholders of the Great Eastern Steam-ship Company, there being only three dissentients, that the original company should be dissolved, and anew company formed-; it being also agreed that the cost.of building and launching the Leviathan, £640,000. should in the new company be reduced one-half. Late accounts from Mexico stafod that the liberalists were forming"sin-army at Vera Cruz.: General Vidaurri was at Potosi or the 13th ultimo. Miramon had declined fighting.
Our advices from Venezuela are dated n.fc Laguayra, on the. 7th of September. General Monagas and J. Guiterez left that port on the 31st August, in compliance with the decrees of exile pronounced against them by General- Castro, and the convention entered into by the. Venezuelan Government with the Ministers of England and France.
