27 JANUARY 1866, Page 2

The story which has been told that one of the

officers in Jamaica set his men to practise with their rifles at 400 yards at a condemned prisoner, is so far believed here that we understand Sir Henry Storks had special instructions to investigate its authenticity. If this is the kind of training soldiers get from their officers, what will they not do after their discharge ? There was a case in the paper the other day of a discharged soldier murdering another working man who had just been treating him to ale, and taking from him his wages, his boots, and his waistcoat, like a modern rogue, or an ancient Homeric hero. There is no vice more proper to ignorant soldiers than cruelty, and their officers have ordinarily been thought likely to reatraiu them from it by force of gentle- manly feeling. What would Sir Robert Wilson or Sir William Napigi have done to any officer who had ordered his men •to practise at a condemned criminal at 400 yards? . Would they not have tried him immediately .by court-martial, and if guilty dis- missed him the service at least? We must still hope this horrible story will prove tube fictitious.