The Sun.
London, England, 1869-08-16 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, MONDAY EVENING, AuGust' 16, 1869.

MISCELLANEOUS NEWS.

THE SECRETARY FOR, SCOTLAND.

The London correspondent of the Elyin Courant
denies the truth of an idea which is prevalent, that
it is intended to make a " Secretary of State "
for Scotland. If a Secretary for Scotland be
appointed—and an inquiry into the subject is
to be made during the recess—he will, in name, be
subordinate to the Home Secretary, just as the
Secretary for Ireland is now, and may or may not
be a Cabinet Minister, according to his personal
position in his party, apart altogether from official
status. Mr. Stansfeld will conduct the inquiry, and
be in a position to report at the opening of the
session. The same authority thinks it certain the
subordinate office will be created, and Mr. Baxter
will be the first holder of it. •

TILE LATE REFORMS AT TIIE ADMIRALTY.

The United Service Gazette calls attention to the

" results " of the changes recently made at the
Admiralty. The Controller (says our contemporary)
" has now seated himself comfortably on the board.
All corrupt practices (pace Mr. Baxter) are to
be retained. Officers with interest are to have
continued employnu nt, without any regard to those
who are kept on half pay. Sir Frederick Grey
has a good-service pension ! Admiral Dacres is to
have another command ! We are to have Lord
Clarence Paget back at the Admiralty ! Mr. Reed
is to have £5OO a year more pay—£l,7oo in all—
the pay of an Admiral of the Fleet, the highest rank
in the navy, being £1,222 15s. on the active list !
Where are we going to stop ? The Admiralty dare
not carry outthese intended corruptions." In another
column, the Gazette wants to know what Sir
Frederick Grey has done to merit a good service
pension. lie has had all the sweets of the service—
he commanded the dockyard at Constantinople while
the fighting was going on in the Crimea. Sir
Frederick attempted to enter Parliament in
February 1863 as the Whig nominee at Devonport,
but was defeated by the redoubtable Mr. Ferrand by
a majority of thirty.

tne expense of senaing officers to collect tine
revenue. " May we venture to suggest," says the
Railway _News, '6 that there is a railway to Dagenham,
that the fare is not more than a few pence, and that
Custom house officers could be conveyed to and from
the scene of their labours with due regard to their
safety, and when they had made this journey
they might be employed as profitably at Dagenham
in collecting revenue as in the more favoured docks
higher up the river. It is somewhat hard upon the
shareholders who have gone to the cost of providing
a dock for foreign ships, and which merchants con-
sider sufficiently near London for the purpose of
loading and shipping goods, to be told that their
capital must be idle because it is too far for the
Government to send for the Custom duties."

A JUDGE ON RECENT PUBLIC-lIOUSE LEGISLATION.

Mr. Justice Hannen so warmly approves the course
of recent legislation in the matter of beerhouses,
that he has taken occasion to express his satisfaction
in a speech from the Bench. At the Liverpool
Assizes, on Friday, he denounced the old system
as most ineffective. In future, he pointed out,
there would be more stringent provisions, snaking
it imperative that a man who held a license should
have a good character ; he would be deprived
of his license for bad conduct with greater facility;
a disorderly house would be more directly under
control, and would be easily suppressed ; the harbour-
ing of bad characters would be prevented ; persons
found in a house after hours would, as well as the
landlord, be liable to fine; and, altogether, the Act
dealt well with an acknowledged evil in a very complete
way. In conclusion, his lordship warned his hearers
that tLey must not be disappointed if the good
results of the recent legislation were neither imme-
diate nor even speedy. A change in the habits of
the people would be a work of time, and his own
belief was that no great change would take place until
notonly the facilities but the inclination for drinking
were diminished. The latter could only be achieved
by the education of the masses, enlarging their
minds, and improving their tastes and amusements.

t,nd. Mr. Mill's new work, "The Subjection of
Women," intermixed with a couple of pages of
agony, headed " The 801 l of Wrong." We emu t
say much for the doggrel, of which the following is
a specimen :
" The false excuse he thus meanly made
For casting off the girl he'd betrayed,
Makes popular indignation stir,
To denounce him as blackest of character.'?

There is a want of both rhythm and reason in this
jumble of words. No doubt the aim of the pro-
moters is good ; but it will scarcely be furthered by
publishing such miserable rubbish as is here pre-
sented.

FOREIGN NOTES.
SPAIN.

Don Carlos is said to have declined the offer of the
French Royalists to raise a legion, as he is desirous of con.
Fining his forces to native troops. Cabrera is still in Paris,
Dut his cousin, Don Juan de Polo, commands large force
n Leon. General Prim is said to be going to Vichy this
week, to offer the throne of Spain to Prince Napoleon.
in a military point of view tho state of Spain
presents no cause for disquietude. The Carlist
;onspiracy has broken out in a great many districts at
)nce, but it has not succeeded in taking possession of a
single strong place. The army remains faithful, and
the civil guard has conducted itself with great
firmness in the struggle. The chief danger arises
from the connection of the clergy with the move-
ment. The clergy, as a body, are quite hostile to the
revolutions which has been directed quite as much against
them as against Queen Isabella. In the province of Leon
thirty-nine priests have taken. up the sword.
The opinion prevails in Spain that the bishops will not
obey the recent decree of the Regent with readiness.
They will not refuse to comply with its requests, but they
will not keep up that political surveillance over the
inferior clergy which was demanded of them. Since no
open declaration has been made on the part of the people
in favour of Don Carlos, all that can be looked for is a
sort of partisan war, which will cause loss and injuries
with no definite result, and which it would be more digni-
fied to renounce altogether.