The Sun.
London, England, 1870-06-06 00:00:00

STRENGTH OF THE AMERICAN NAVY.

The Secretary of the Navy, in response to the House
resolution, says the number of vessels of each class now
in commission is as follows :—First rate, 2 ; second rate,
9 : third rate, 15; fourth rate, 18; receiving ships, tugs,
&c., and for quarters, 26. The number of vessels of each
rate not in commission is as follows : First rate, 2;
second rate, 27 ; third rate, 18 • fourth rate, 67. Whole
number of non-commissioned petty officers and seamen as
is estimated
the from the latest returns is 8,274. It
the current duties of the naval service, afloat and on
shore, including all the various duties imposed by law or
required for the proper administration of the service, and
making allowance for the sick list and furloughs and the
requirements of regular reliefs rendered necessary by the
nature of the naval service, it can be carried on properly
and effectively after the several grades of officers on the
active list are reduced and fixed at the following numbers,
viz.:—Lieutenant commanders, 80 ; lieutenants, 280;
masters, 100 ; ensigns, 100 ; surgeons, fib ; passed assistant
surgeons, 40 ; assistant surgeons,' 45 ; paymasters, 50;
passed assistant paymasters, 25 ; assistant paymasters,
25 ; chief engineers, 68 ; first assistant engineers, 50;
second assistant engineers, 75. The scale makes an in-
crease in the number of lieutenants corresponding to the
decrease in the number of lieutenant eommanders, and a
small increase on the number of chief and second assistant
engineers. But it reduces the whole number of officers
allowed by law to 270, and makes a decrease in the item of
pay of $450,000.

COMING HOME—A NEW SEA_ PERIL.
From the Commercial Advertiser, May 20.

The only drawback to foreign travel hereafter will be
the dread of coming home. The 'new regulations of the
Custom-house are so stringent that the returniug Ameri-
can will actually look with apprehension upon the shores
of a native land. It is a question of clothes—of a
" reasonable amount of clothing "—which the traveller
may have in his trunks. The individual may not decide
this. It is left to the Custom-house officer—a man who se
small salary has never allowed him a very liberal expendi-
ture for garments, and who is likely to regard a " reason-
able " supply as only another term for a " necessary
supply." Dr. Holmes wrote years ago :
" Three pairs of boots ; one pair if feet demands,
If polished daily by the owner's hands ;
If the dark menial's visit save from this,
Have twice that number, for he'll sometimes miss."
Now to many persons three or six pairs of boots or
shoes are a mere bagatelle—poverty and destitution. So
with coats and other garments. But who shall decide for
the ladies, and is there any " reason " in their dress ?
Shall an inspection decide for Flora M`Flimsy, who had
" nothing to wear," though a host of dresses hung upon
her walls ? The whole thing is contemptible and small,
and unworthy of a great nation. The people are not all
swindlers and smugglers. They are not all knaves and
cheats. Yet so the Government in its Custom-house and
revenue regulations regards them. As the Times well
observes : People have paid heavy taxes for some
years without a murmur, but instead of their liberality
being well appreciated, they are now subjected to a few
extra turns of the " screw." Why make any method of
raising money for Government unnecessarily odious ?
Suppose a man does bring an extra coat or two with
him, the Government can much better afford to let him
do it than authorise its officials to reckon up garments and
appraise their value, like so many second-hand clothes
dealers." Returninc, travellers should at least be allowed
to revisit home with some emotions of pleasure.

NAVAL EFFICIENCY AND NAVAL
ECONOMY.

The Naval Appropriation Bill has at at length been
passed by the House. The most noticeable feature about
the debate which ensued on several of its amendments,
was an obvious determination on the part of members to
cut down expenditures which did not confer increased
efficiency, and to sanction appropriations which did. It
is quite obvious that to attract the proper class of man
into the upper grades of the profession, its scale of nemu-
neration must bear a reasonable proportion to the time and
talent which the service demands, as well as to the re-
wards they would be likely to receive in other careers.
There is an unmistakeable and unanimous desire among
all ranks of people to keep down expenditures, but the
popular intelligence will not be deluded by a short-sighted
economy which would nitimately cripple the ener-
gies and lower the status of a noble service,
It is quite certain, on the other hand, that
Mr. Dawes pretty faithfully represents the current of
public feeling in contending as he did for diminished ex-
penditures in our navy-yards. It is impossible to explain
away the fact that a dollar will go nearly as far in a pri-
vate yard as two dollars will under Government supervi-
sion: Every one admits the necessity of a country pos-
sessing so vast a seaboard maintaining a few dockyards
for purposes of refitting and occasional construction ; but
it is plain that the Government would sacrifice neither
dignity nor efficiency, and would certainly effect a great
saving of money, by putting up its ship-building to private
competition. We make no pretence of keeping any branch
of our united service on such a footing as to be always
prepared for war, and it has yet to be shewn that
a lavish expenditure on our arsenals will com-
pensate for a lack of other resources in time
of need. There is one point, and perhaps only
one, in which we might profitably imitate the example Of
European States in our naval organisation—and that is the
formation of naval reserves. We point with just pride to
our thousands of citizen soldiers, who, without interrup-
tion to a career of peaceful industry, are trained to the
use of arms and disciplined for service in the field. We
have no counterpart to this among the sailors of our
trading ships ; but depressed as our mercantile marine is
at the moment, it can still furnish a large enough propor-
tion of 'volunteers, who would willingly undergo the
training required for manning our ships of war when such
a necessity arose. Our consistent policy has been to
maintain permanently as few fighting men as is consistent
with safety, and to place the defence of the nation as com-
pletely as possible in its own hands. The formation of a
naval reserve among our native sailors would be a very
wise extension of the Republican policy of purely defen-
sive armoments.—New York Times.

Some days ago a terrible fire broke out in the
beautiful village of Bodegspaven, situated on the Rhine,
near Gouda, in the province of South Holland. About
120 houses, the town hall, and the churches were burned.
The whole village is on heap of rubbish. The devastation
is very considerable.
AN ENEMY TO EVASION.—The Recorder of Liver-
pool has delivered a judgment upon a case arising under
the Refreshment Houses and Wine Licences Act (23 Vic.
c. 27), which appears to us to give a correct interpreta-
tion of the statutes. He has convicted a publican for
allowing prostitutes to assemble where the ostensible
object was that of dancing, Two-thirds of the
women present on the occasion were known to the police
as prostitutes, and the learned Recorder drew the
inference that the female visitors were substantially all
prostitutes, and that the men who were present were
attracted by the knowledge that they would meet 9,
number of prostitutes, and have the opportunity of dancing
with them. Therefore he came to the conclusion that
the publican had encouraged and permitted the females to
assemble as an attraction to the men, who were drawn
to the place entirely by the knowledge that they
would meet this particular class of women. He held
further that it was not necessary to prove acts of prostitu-
tion resulting. Justice, however, was in a measure
defeated upon a technical point. The conviction was a
second conviction, but the magistrates had omitted to
state on the face of it that defendant had before been con-
victed. Upon this ground he quashed the conviction.—
Law Times.

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gularity, ano energy to the most disordered or enfeebled. We ex
tract a few out of the 68,000 cures ,—"The Pope's health restored
by Du Barry's Food. Cure No. 68,413. " Rome, July 21 1866.
—The health of the Holy Father is excellent, especially since,
abandoning all other remedies, he has confined himself entirely
to Du Barry's Revalenta Arabica Food, of which he consumes
a plateful at every meal. It has produced a surprisingly bene-
ficial effect on his health, and his Holiness cannot praise this excel-
lent food too highly. —From the "Gazette du Midi," July 25. 'Cure
No. 58,216, of the Marchioness de Brehan, of seven years' liver
complaint, wasting away, debility, nervousness, with a nervous
ralpitation all over, bad digestion, constant sleeplessness, and
the most intolerable nervous agitation.." Cure No. 1,771; Lord,
Stuart de Decies, Lord-Lieutenant of Waterford, of many years'
dyspepsia. No 49,832: "Fifty years' indescribable agony from
dyspepsia, nervousness, asthma, cough, constipation, flatulency
spasms, sickness, and vomiting.—Maria Jolly." Cure No.
46,270: Mr. James Roberts, of Frimley, Surrey, of 30 years
diseased lungs , spitting of blood, liver derangement, and
partial deafness. Important Caution.—Beware of the marl
unsavoury and more than sloppy imitations to which, without
authority, Baron Liebig's name is most audaciously attached.

In anti, at Is lid; 1 2s 9d; 2lb is 6d; 51b 118.; 121 b 228;
24 lbs 4 8.--\ No Du BARRY'S BEVALENTA RAM CA. CHOCOLATE
POWDER is packed in tin canisters: for 12. cups at 2s, for 24 cups
at 3s 6d, for 48 cups at6s, for 288 cups at 30s, for 576 cups at 558
—being about one penny per cup. The 30s and 55s tins sre sent
free of carriage in England on receipt of Post Office Order.--
BARRY Du BARRY and Co., No. 77, Regent-street, London and
all Grocers and Chemists

BIRTHS.

On the 2d inst, at Cirencester, Lady Beadon, of a daughter.
On the Ist inst., at Woodcote, the wife of H. C. Wise, Esq.,
M.P., of a daughter.

MARRIAGES.

On the 2d inst., at St. Michael's, Paddington, Robert Webber
Mouro, Esq., son of the late John Boscawen Mouro, Esq.,
of the Middle Temple, to Frances Mary, second daughter
of Duncan Davidson, Esq., of Tullychetly, Aberdeenshire.
n the 2d inst., at Oakham, John Brough, son of Samuel
James Hallam, of West View, Upper Norwood, and Minc
ing-lane, London, to Alice Aldersey, eldest daughter of
Benjamin Adam, Esq., of Oakham.