The Sun.
London, England, 1869-02-11 00:00:00

KNOTTY QUESTIONS FOR THE TRINITY BOARD.

Would a Welsh captain " eat the leek " if his ship
were to spring one at sea?

Are deceased sailors usually batted in the shrouds of
their ship ?

Are the dead-lights of a ship similar to " grave
candles ?"
Does a ship wear her mainstays round her waist?
Does a ship ever get tired of her own company?
Does water shipped through the portholes taste of red
wine ?
What would you do to " ease " the commodore should he
get " tight ?"
Is "scurvy " treatment equivalent to lime-juice and
vegetab:e diet?

The Commissariat Department of the army will
cease to exist as a separate establishment after the Ist of
April. Thirty of tho present staff of officers are placed on
half-pay from that date.
The consecration of Dr. Wordsworth, as Bishop of
Lincoln, Dr. Hatchard, as Bishop of Mauritius, and Dr.
Turner, as Bishop of Grafton and Armidale, takes place at
Westminster Abbey on the 24th inst.

Lady Murchison, wife of Sir Roderick I. Murchi-
son, Bart., K.G.8., died on Tuesday at her residence in
Belgrave-square. She was the only daughter of General
Hugonin, of Nursted House, Hants, and was in her 81st
year.

Colonel Kingscote, one of the members for West
Gloucestershire, has had one of his legs broken in the hunt-
ing field, while riding with the Beaufort hounds. The
accident occurred near Tetbury.

Another disaster was reported in Liverpool on
Tuesday—that of the destruction at sea by fire of the ship
Beilcarig, whilst on a voyage from Sunderland to Bombay,
with a cargo of coals. The crews are reported all safe,
The Bellcarig was a 909-ton ship, built at Quebec, and
owned in Liverpool by Mr. M. Williams.
In the Court of Queen's Bench, Dublin, on Tuesday,
Mr. Butt moved, on behalf of Lady French, for a writ of
habeas corpus to bring up her daughter, the Hon. Maria
Margaret French, at present in the Loretto Convent School,
Rathfarnham. The young lady was now over sixteen
years of age ; that she wished to reside with her mother,
who was now living apart from her husband on the
Continent, but that she had been placed in the
convent school by the direction of her father, Lord French.
The deponent had frequently written letters to her daughter,
but they had all been returned unopened. Being over 16
years of age, it was clearly her privilege to say whether
she wished to remain in the convent or join her mother, and
hence he suggested that, when the return to the writ was
his lordship should examine the young lady as to her
wishes, and dicide accordingly. His lordship granted the
application.

On Tuesday afternoon a meeting of the subscribers
to the testimonial proposed to be given by the inhabitants of
Huntingdon to General Peel was held at the Fountain Hotel,
Huntingdon, the mayor in the chair, to consider a letter which
had been received by the Earl of Sandwich from the general.
The purport of the letter was that the General desired that
the fund, amounting to £9OO, should be handed over to the
county hospital. The General added that there was no danger
of his ever forgetting his friends, and by adopting this plan
the poor and afflicted and others in the borough would per-
petually be reminded of him. It was agreed that the
General's wish should be carried out, and that a
list of the subscribers to the testimonial should
be inscribed on vellum and presented to him at
a pUblic banquet in Huntingdon, at which the Lord
Lieutenant of the county should be requested to preside.
The hospital authorities will probably invest the money,
and use it as a separate fund, to be called "The Peel Testi-
monial Fund."

THE ALABAMA CLAIMS TREATY.--A petition
to the Senate of the United States, signed by the Hon. G.
B. Upton and others, aLlainst the confirmation of the
Alabama claims treaty, has been placed at the Merchants'
Exchange, Boston, for signatures. The petitioners say :
" This so-called treaty proposes to put upon the same
footing the claims by British subjects, which have arisen
under a d'sagreement in regard to ordinary forms of neu-
trality, and claims of our own citizens, upon the British
Government for piracies cpmmitted by British built,
British manned, and British armed vessels, by vessels
and armament which left British ports under the pro-
tection of the British flag, and burned American ships
upon the high seas without taking them into port for
condemnation, and without any action being taken upon
the part of the said British Government, when these atro-
cities were laid before it, to prevent the same, but, on
the contrary, these pirates were everywhere received with
rejoicings when visiting British ports ; and when the
notorious builder of one of them boasted of the same in
the British Parliament, of which he was a member, he
was received with cheers and expressions of satisfaction.
Elie chews, in the opinion of your memorialists, the
.animus of the British Government toyards Govepk
[tint of the Vaited States:li - •