The Sun.
London, England, 1870-05-30 00:00:00

The Railway Tax.

The Economist understands it is now quite settled
that the proposed alteration in the railway duty—the
change from a 5 per cent. charge on passenger traffic
to a 1 per cent. charge on all the receipts—will not
be persevered in. Clauses embodying the alteration
have been inserted in the Budget Bill, but only as a
matter of form. "As we insisted from the
first, the public have a great interest in
retaining the duty, because it is merely a
mode of reserving for the State a share
in the profits of a monopoly. To abandon it would
simply be to throw away so much property of the
State, and pro tanto burden the general taxpayer.
We are convinced that this is not what Mr. Lowe
intended, and at any rate ample time will now be left
for considering whether a tax of this sort ought to
be given away. The suggestion of the Budget has
at least had the merit of shewing that it cannot be
meddled with without its being given up altogether."
The New Halfpenny Stamp.

The Railway News states that the Post-office
authorities have finally decided upon the form of the
new halfpenny stamp to be used for the
transmission of newspapers. It will be one-

third smaller than the present postage stamp,
with the figures id. on each side of the Queen
head. The form will be oblong, the horizontal sides
being longer than the perpendicular, thus presenting
to the eye a clear and well-defined difference between
the halfpenny and the penny stamp. The colour
selected has been light pink, that having been found
after many experiments to be the most fugitive and
the most easily affected by any attempts at tamper-
ing with it. Messrs. Perkins, Bacon, and Co., who
engraved, and now print, the present postage stamp,
have received the order to engrave the new stamp
and print 1,200,000 sheets of it, to be ready for
delivery early in September.
Supercession of Colonels.
The question of the supersession of colonels
of the British army, by the colonels of
the Indian forces, has been discussed by the
military authorities at the India office with the fol-
lowing result : that every case of a colonel of Her
Majesty's army serving in India, who might be
brought into a position of official subordina-
tion to a general officer of the Indian
army junior to him as a colonel, should be
specially considered, and dealt with by granting
some compensation for the temporary loss of regi-
mental command, should he be disposed to serve
under the other's command. Considering the
small number of military appointments in
India held by Major-Generals of the Indian Army,
the Military Secretary confidently expects that the
authorities in India will be able to make such
arrangements as will render these cases very rare
indeed.

An Ecclesiastical Difficulty at Wells.
The Dean of Wells, the Rev. G. S. Johnson, was
appointed in 1854. In 1856, the vicarage of St.
Cuthbert, in that city, became vacant by the death of
the Rev. Canon Barnard. The living is in the gift
of the Dean and Chapter of Wells. The Dean was
appointed by that body to the vacant vicarage.
There being some murmurs at the time of this
appointment, and reports that it was illegal, on
account of the living being worth more
than £5OO per annum, printed circulars
were issued to some of the principal citizens, in which
certain deductions were claimed, and calculations
were entered into to shew that the living was under
£5OO a year. The Dean, as vicar, has not been at
all popular amongst a section of the citizens, and
about three months ago he and his senior curate
(the latter is a general favourite) quarrelled,
and carried the matter to such a length
as to publish manifestoes against each other,
as well as letters in the local papers. A.
memorial was got up, and was numerously
and respectably signed, praying the Bishop to make
inquiry into the matter. At the same time the
opinion of two eminent counsel was taken as to the
validity of the Dean's appointment to the vicarage.
Both learnedgentlemen gave it astheir decided opinion
that the moment the Dean accepted the appointment
of vicar the office of dean became legally vacant.
Armed with these opinions, a memorial has been sent
to the Premier, setting forth the facts of the case,
and praying that the necessary steps may be taken in
the matter.
County Court Business and the Police.
A county court officer has forwarded to the Chan-
cellor of the Exchequer and the Judicature Com-
* mission some suggestions for reorganising the exe-
cutive departments of the county courts, Among them

PRICE 1 d.
STAMPED 2d.

is one to the effect that summonses should be served
through the post, the postman to sign an endorse-
ment on the copy of the document which should.be
countersigned by the postmaster of the district.
Another is that judgment summonses should
be served by the police. He supports his
second suggestion by tha statement that the police
know more of the habits of the people, their incom-
ings . and outgoings,. than a county court bailiff
can know, while the 120,000 summonses
issued in a, year would be a very slight
addition to their labours. The scheme of the county
ourt officer is certainly an ambitious one, and the
question Of impressing postmen into the duty of
doinc, the work of private individuals is one that
may be safely left to the Government ; but the in-
troduction of police authority into the execution of
the law affecting matters of debt is a summary pro-
cedure.