The Sun.
London, England, 1870-11-18 00:00:00

'TIE CRUISE OF THE FLYING SQUADRON.

The six wooden vessels of her Majesty's navy
which have just made the tour round the world in
safety, left Plymouth on the 19th of June, 1869,
and have therefore been 616 days away
from England. Of this period the ships
were 408 days on the seas, and 108
in harbours. • The cruise has been highly advan-
tageous, in affording experience of the management
of sailors, and of war vessels on long sea voyages.
The success of the experiments made
in both respects may be judged of when
we say that not a single life was lost through
illness or accident while the vessels were away, and
only one ship met with a slight disaster, that of
having a foreyard carried off in a squall. It was on the
21st of September that the Admiral made signal to
the fleet "accept my thanks and congratulations
on having kept company round the world" and
on the 29th the news of the war was communicated
to the squadron by a Liverpool ship, the Melbourne.
The general health of the men has been excellent.
Fresh meat was issued to them 133 days, salt meat
289 days, and preserved meats 94 days.
A. supply of cocoa in the squadron
was found most useful, as the sailors
thought no beverage so sustaining and comforting as
cocoa during the night watches. The naval in-
structors of the ships changed vessels repeatedly for
the examination of the cadets—a system that was
found to work well.
JUDGES WORK..

The computation of the number of sittings by the
highest judicial functionaries in the course of the
year proves that their offices are by no means sinecures.
The Lord High Chancellor, who enjoys the comfort-
able income of £6,000 from the Court of Chancery,

and £4,000 from the Lords, sat judicially in the year
1869 on 70 days in the house of Lords, and on 76
days in the Court of Chancery. He has besides other
public duties. Lord Romilly, the next in legal rank,
as Master of the Rolls, sat iu his court orin Chancery
on 166 days, besides a few days' attendance at the
Judicial Committee of the Privy Council. Lord
Justice Giffard had no easy time. He sat 130 days
in Chancery, 33 days in the Judicial Committee, 2
days on appeal, and made 280 orders in Chambers.
Such multifarious duties are not over paid by a salary
of £6,000. The Vice Chancellors, who have £5,000
each, sat on an average more than 200 days. In the
Common Law Courts the attendance is also arduous.
The Lord Chief Baron sat on 226 days ; Mr. Baron
Martin on 297 days, of which no less than 194 were
occupied with election petitions. Even the Judge of
the High Court of Admiralty sat in court and in
chambers-133 days, besides assisting on the Julicial
Committee. Only one absence from illness is
recorded.
A WARNING TO THE PREMIER.

Mr. McCarthy Downing, M.P., hitherto a warm
supporter of Mr. Gladstone through every vicissi-
tude th:3 Prime Minister has had to encounter, has
somewhat assumed the position of censor with re-
spect to the man he hitherto has only recognised as
his leader. Speaking at the meeting held in Cork to
express sympathy with the Pope and indignation
against Victor Emmanuel, the hon. gentleman
said he trusted that Mr. ' Gladstone was
not the writer of the article in the
Edinburgh Review, which had been so much dis-
cussed by the public recently. Should it unfortu-
nately be otherwise, he, Mr. M'Carthy Downing, did
not scruple to say that the Premier was not entitled
to the confidence of Irishmen. He trusted Catholic
members would speak out boldly and plainly.
He felt it was their duty to heartily dis-
approve of any lenient view being taken by
the Government of recent events in Rome,
and to prove that they regarded the purity and
stability of their religion as their first consideration
and care. Mr. Downing added, however, that he,
for one, did not believe Mr. Gladstone had contri-
buted the objectionable paper to the Review. On the
contrary, he thought the Ministry had expressed its
opinion of the seizure of Rome with due regard to
the feelings of the Roman Catholics of the
kingdom.