The Sun.
London, England, 1870-05-17 00:00:00

VESTED INTERESTS.

We understand that the Treasury have decided to
recommend Parliament to grant to the Foreign Office
clerks who at present act as agents, an annual compensa-
tion calculatad at two-thirds of their average profits
during the last three years, such annuity to continue to
each during his service in the Foreign Office, unless pro-
moted to the office of permanent secretary. If this re-
port be correct, the gentlemen in question are to be
congratulated on the luck which gives them a permanent
annuity for the loss of non-official work, when so many
other public servants have lost official posts without com-
pensation of any sort. It is now some time since Parlia-
ment decided that such private profits were incompatible
with the service of the country, and it was intimated
that Government could not recognise their past enjoy-
ment as giving a claim to compensation from the State.
It was also very roasonably thought that as the four
gentlemen who happened to have undertaken the private
agency business did not pretend to hold it as a monopoly,
and as the rules of the Foreign Offici allowed every clerk
whomsover, to say nothing of every one outside the
Office, to enter into competition for the employment, it
was too precarious to be worth in the market more
than two or three years' purchase. With some
such sum, indeed, it is probable the actual
agents might have been well contented, and
the public would not have grudged a liberality so
limited, even if not strictly due. An annuity for life of
two-thirds of the profits is the highest rate of compensa-
tion given on the abolition of an official, permanent, and
exclusive appointment ; and why it should be bestowed on
a mere withdrawal of permission to continue a non-
official, precarious, and open trade, is a question which it
may be rather difficult for Mr. Gladstone to make clear
to the House of Commons.—Pall Mall Gazette.

Pope Pius IX. entered upon his seventy-ninth year
on Saturday.

A stupid fellow at Sale offered to drink a pint of
whiskey out of bravado. He did so, and died soon after-
wards.

It is stated Count Orloff has been appointed to
succeed Count Stackelberg as Russian Ambassador at
Paris.

Another death has resulted from the Dunquin
paraffin catastrophe, Catherine Lyne having died. Three
others are not expected to recover.

Another Liverpool butcher has been heavily fined
for exposing diseased meat for sale. A Bolton baker has
also been severely dealt with for putting alum into his
bread.

A telegram from Sir Samuel Canning, at Malta,
dated May 14, 12.58 p.m., states that the shore end of the
Falmouth, Gibraltar, and Malta cable has been success-
fully laid.

During a gale of wind on Saturday, at Chelten-
ham, a plasterer was blown off from the front of a new house,
and became impaled on some iron spikes. He died soon
afterwards,

The Globe understands that Lord Skelmersdale has
become associated wsth Lord Colville and Viscount
Hawarden in conducting the business of the Conservative
party in the House of Lords.
Dr. Michael Foster, Professor of Physiology and
Histology in University College, London, has been ap-
pointed to the Prlectorship of Pure Physiology recently
established in Trinity College, Cambridge.
A. man named William Cresswell deliberately
smashed in the windows of a large shop in Newcastle
on Sunday afternoon, causing damage estimated at £4O.
It appears that the man was sent to prison a fortnight ago
for a similar offence, and that he was only released from
custody yesterday morning.
The Lord Mayor acknowledges a donation of £2O
from her Majesty towards the relief of the poor people
whose houses have been burnt down at Broadclist,
village near Exeter. Of 78 houses, of which the village
consisted, 60 have been destroyed, and 250 persons ren-
dered homeless.

The female servant of an officer stationed at
Youghal has been arrested on suspicion of being the
mother of a dead child which arrived at Cork in a parcel
from Bristol a few days ago. An inquest was held on the
body on Saturday, when the jury returned a verdict of
" Wilful murder " against some parties unknown.

Colonel Edward Tomkinson, Aide-de-Camp to the
Queen, died at his residence, Lower Seymour-street, on
Saturday, in his 45th year. He entered the army in
1843, and served with tha Bth Hussars in the Crimean
war, being present at the Battle of the Alma, Balaklava,
and before Sebastopol

The Echo mentions a rumour that the Bishop of
Ripon will speak in support of the marriage with a de-
ceased wife's sister, and that the Archbishop of Canter-
bury is in favour of it—although he cannot vote either in
person or by proxy. It is also said that Lord Derby will
support the bill.
The large screw steamer Kestrel, from London for
Hull with passengers and general cargo, was on Sunday
caught on the Cross Sand, off Yarmouth, during hazy
weather. Another steamer came up and took off the-
alarmed passengers. Eventually the 'Kestrel was got off,
little damaged.
A great open-air working men's demonstration,
under the auspices of the Central Association for Stopping
the Sale of Intoxicating liquors on Sunday, is announced
to take place at Lismore-circus, Haverstock-hill, on Satur-
day, the 28th instant. M. A. Garvey, Esq., L.L.8., will
take the chair.

A monster procession paraded the streets of Bel-
fast on Saturday afternoon, in connection with the laying
of the foundation stone of the Belfast Working Men's
Institute. Friendly and trade societies of all denomina-
tions took part in the proceedings, and numerous bands,
both Protestant and Roman Catholic, played upon the
march.

The Home Secretary has authorised the local
authorities to give notice that the Government offer a
reward of £4O for information leading to the discovery and
conviction of the murderer or murderers of the boy John
Harding, and the offer of a pardon to any accomplice, not
being the actual murderer, who may give such informa-
tion as shall lead to a like result.
ANOTHER DISTURBANCE AT THE ROCHDALE
PARISH CHURCH.—On Sunday morning St. Chad's Church,
Rochdale, was densely crowded, and throughout the service
there seemed to be a feeling of uneasiness, and especially
towards the close. Sergeant Plunket noticed Miss
Nicholson in one of the aisles swaying to and fro.
She was joined by her father, who beckoned
to his son to come out, and pulled him along
as if apprehensive of some harm happening to him.
Police-officer Wild, who went to the church at half-
past twelve, found about a hundred people in the church-
yard and the church crowded. On entering the porch he
met Miss licholson and her father, and the former
screamed out " at the top of her voice," when there was no
person near except her father and brother. Mr. Nichol-
son remarked " Don't touch her." The officer told her
she deserved locking up, when Mr. Nicholson began shout-
ing, and the people out of the yard rushed in, and a scene
of excitement, confusion, and crushing- ensued. After
considerable trouble the crowd dispersed, and the congre-
tion were enabled to leave the church.