The Sun.
London, England, 1870-01-04 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, TUESDAY EVENING, JANUARY 4, 1870.

.311SCELLANEOUS NEWS.

to *drily such trivial &Welt. It will bd Attu% tbo.ll
the charge on the community of advancing duty upon
all stocks would be heavy, but this might be met by
allowing the importer to pay 50 per cent. in cash down
on landing, and 50 per cent. in a three months' bankers'
bill. The risk of loss to the revenue would be next to
nothing with such security, and nothing in proportion to
the saving. In addition to this change the Review
recommends that the duties be levied on larcrer
quantities, and that no account be taken of a few
quarters or pounds more or less. At present the sub-
divisions are infinite, and the cost involved in reckon-
ing them is proportionate.
THE MERCHANT SHIPPING RILL, 1869.

Mr. W. S. Lindsay, the large shipowner, and late
member for Tynemouth, writes to the aily .A'ews
touching the operation of this bill ; and in calling
attention to the various objections raised to it, says:
"The chief ground of complaint on the part of steam-
ship owners is the introduction, at the end of clause
393, of words whereby their responsibility will be
increased from £l5 per registered, as at present,
to per ton of the gross tonnage, without deduc-
tion on account of engine room. To a chancre of
this :character it is natural to suppose chancre
so important and influential a body, of which
I am myself a humble member, will offer
the most strenuous opposition." After advocating
the amendment of the law on the ground that while
it limits the liability of the owners of steam vessels,
it makes the owner of sailing vessels responsible for
an amount above the value of their property, the
writer adds : "But I am not sure that the Legis-
lature has not hitherto leaned too much in
favour of the owners of steam-ships in allowing as
it has done for ' all other purposes' so large a
space for the propelling power of the ship. In
his competition with the owners of sailing vessels,
whom he is fast superseding, he has had, even in
this respect, an advantage ; for though the engine-
room and coal bunkers materially curtail the capacity
of his vessel for cargo, they enable him to obtain
greatly enhanced rates of and to perform his
voyages in much less time. The Legislature cannot
forget the interests of sailing vessels, and if they are,
in the course of events, to be driven from the carrying
trade, the State must rot overweight them in their
great °cum race."

port it when proposed. The proposal seems now ceitain,
amt.-only a matter of time; and although nothing is known
of what passes in the congregations, a long delay does not
appear probable. That any decree will appear at the
sitting of the Epiphany I scarcely believe, as there has
been much and very urgent business to transact as to the
reform and reorganisation of the religious orders,
which is one of the great pre-occupations of the
bishops, and the first decrees will, it is thought,
regard the commission of monastic orders. Mgr.
Dupanloup calculates on a very strong Gallican
opposition, but as his German supporters are falling off,
it is scarcely likely that eighteen or twenty bishops can
exercise any influence on the decisions of the rest."