The Sun.
London, England, 1869-03-09 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, TCESDAY EVENING, MARCH 9, 1869,

changes effected in the Admiralty Establishments,
secondly the policy decided on by the Government
in regard to the organization and distribution of our
various fleets, and lastly the programme sketched out
in the matter of shipbuilding. As to the first point,
namely, the changes made or to be made in the Ad-
miralty Establishments, he surprised many by the
announcement that he was altogether against the
abolition of the Board, and consequently against
the notion of either reviving the old obsolete post
of Lord High Admiral of England, or the creation of
a new Secretary of State, a Sixth Secretary of State,
for the conduct of the Maritime Department of the
Administration. Instead of adventuring upon either
of those last-mentioned courses, he had resolved, as he
told the Committee yesterday, upon simply rearrang-
ing the Board of Admiralty. His plan of rearrange-
ment, including within it, in point of fact, princi-
pally this notablechange—that the Controller, hence-
forth to be seated at the Board, will have the direc-
tion of the materiel of the navy, that the personnel
will be in the charge of one of the Junior Lords, and
that the Secretary of the Admiralty will have the
control of the financ2s. Coupled with this, he
has already contrived—with a saving of some
£20,000 a year in the process, and this
moreover, without inflicting injury upon any single
individual by so doing-- he has already contrived, as
he explained, to concentrate all the administrative de-
partments of the Admiralty about Whitehall—leaving
only the accountants' work to be still done within
the precincts of Somerset-House. Another of
Mr. CIIILDERS' extraordinary announcements was
this, that he had reduced the South American, Pacific,
China, Indian, and African squadrons from 80 ships
and 11,600 men to 64 ships and 8,500 men; having
besides that arranged that the Indian Government
should pay £70,000 a year towards the expenses of
the vessels kept in Indian waters. A flying squadron,
he also described as about to be despatched, consist-
ing of some of the finest vessels in the service—
the object of which squadron is to visit in turns
one or another of the Foreign Stations. Together
with this, he has a plan for despatching a few of
the Coast Guard vessels on a cruise. The reduction
of men and boys effected in the Estimates he ex-
plained as from 66,700 to 63,000, honorably adding,
however, that to the credit of this the late Board of
Admiralty was chiefly entitled. With a view to the
reduction of the unnecessarily enormous list of
officers in the Royal Navy—a list altogether
out of proportion to any conceivable require-
ments of the service—he announced that
his colleague the Chancellor of the Exchequer would
shortly bring in a Bid for commuting the half-pay of
a certain number of officers, thus enabling the Ad-
miralty to recast the list according to the actual and
undoubted requirements of the service. Coming, in
the end, to the last subject upon which he had
to offer his official explanations to the Committee,
to wit, the matter of the Shipbuilding Programme,
he gave the welcome information to his hearers that,
by the end of the financial year, nearly all the ships
now in hand would be completed, an I, if possible,
the still more welcome intimatio❑ that, at Pembroke
and at Chatham respectively, there are about to be
laid down at once two Turret Ships which will
be the most powerful afloat ! They will
be 4,400 tons, double screws, lii knots speed, plated
with 12-inch and 14 -inch armour, carrying four 25 -ton
guns, and costing £286,000 each. Adding that, when
the existing and immediately projected arrangements
were actually carried out we should have nearly Fifty
(47) armoured vessels afloat, carrying close upon
Six Hundred (598) guns, and that these, with Sixty-
six efficient unarmoured vessels, together with a large
number of vessels of the old type, will give England
a Navy stronger than that possessed by any other na-
tion in the,world. Agreeable news, surely, that—
conplel with an appreciable reduction in OUT naval
estimates at the very same time of fully one million
sterling !

TIIE Irish Church Bill seems to have completely
taken all the heart out of the Opposition in Ireland.
Irish Churchmen are passive, and the Orange journals
in vain appeal to them to " awake, arise, or be for
ever fallen." The truth is, the clergy, who should
of course lead any agitation, are very well satisfied
with Mr. GLADSTONE'S scheme. They expected one
far less favourable. They know, as well as Mr.
DISRAELI knows, that the Church as an establish-
ment is doomed, that nothing can save it, and that
it is simply a question of terms. Those which the
PREMIER offers are not only liberal, but very hand-
some, and they think they may do much worse than
accept them. The landlords are no less satisfied
than the clergy. The opportunity afforded them
to buy up the tithe rent charge at twenty-two and
a-half years' purchase, and to spread the payment
over forty-five years, suits them exceedingly
well. Therefore, instead of seeing any longer in
disendowment an invasion of the rights of property,
they see only an occasion for increasing their pro-
perty, and that while scrupulously respecting the
rights of others. So, while a few ultra Orangemen
are writing angry letters in their organs, and calling
the PREMIER every bad name that can be found
even in the fertile Irish vocabulary, the great body
of Irish Churchmen are indisposed to offer any
serious opposition.

There is another reason why they should not do so
beside the satisfactory nature of the compensation
offered to them. Experience has taught them that
if they suffer themselves to be made the tools of a
political party, they are likely to fare very much
worse than they would fare under Mr. GLADSTONE'S
bill. The Irish Church occupies exactly the same
position now that Parliamentary Reform occupied
prior to 1807, so far as the Conservative party are
concerned. The maintenance of a Conservative
Administration before that date was impossible
until the question of Reform was got out
of the way. Similarly, the maintenance of
a Conservative Administration is impossible now
until the Irish Church question has been
settled. Two years ago the Conservatives deter-
mined to remove the first obstacle, and granted
a measure far beyond that which the Liberal party
proposed. Irish Churchmen shrewdly suspected that
if they gave the Conservatives the opportunity, the
same course would be adopted with regard to their
Church—that it would have to take a leap in the
dark, such as that which the Constitution was
compelled to take two years back. They have no
desire to witness that feat. They think that on the
whole they will do much better by accepting the
annuities which Mr. GLADSTONE offers, or by settling
down in undisturbed possession of their parsonages
and churches. True, they will be disestablished ; but
is that so very great an evil which involves their
representation in a Church convention ? True that the
one archbishop and the three bishops will no longer
be entitled to sit in the House of Lords, but is that
a matter concerning which the country parson, who
has never travelled fartherthan Dublin, need feel very
acutely ? Every consideration combines to make the
present terms acceptable. If Mr. GLADSTONE be the foe
to the Church he is reported to be, he is at least a
by no means inexorable one. Moreover, there is
high authority for agreeing with an adversary
quickly while he is in the way, lest he deliver you to
the officer, and that functionary (in the person of
Mr. DisnAELI) deliver you to the judge (the great
Conservative party), and the judge c:lst you into
prison, in the shape of a " Tory-Radical" measure.

IT will be seen from the news which we give in
another column that the Duke of BUCKINGHAM did
wisely in refusing to grant the prayer of the Nova
Scotians for the dissolution of the North American
Confederation. Instead of Nova Scotia seceding,
Newfoundland has acceded, and we may expect to

hear every day that the little adjacent settlement of
Prince Edward Island has followed the example just
set by the oldest of the British colonies.
The accession of Newfoundland is important in
itself and for the results which it will have. It
will necessarily involve that of Prince Edward Island,
and thus complete the Confederation up to the
Rocky Mountains. So long as these two islands
remained aloof they afforded opportunities for illicit
trade. In fact, it was these very opportunities,
offering, as they did, a lucrative business, which
induced Newfoundlanders to remain apart from the
Confederation until now. We do not know what
inducement has been offered to them to change their
determination. We know only that they have
changed, and that, by a large majority, a decision has
been given in favour of union. From another
source we learn that the negotiations with the
Hudson's Bay Company are progressing satisfac-
torily, that company having yielded some important
points which will render the transfer of their terri-
tory easy and certain. In all probability British
Columbia will shortly follow the example just set by
Newfoundland, and the Confederation will be
complete from the Atlantic to the Pacific.
This done, it is to be hoped that material
results will follow. It will be of small
advantage to have a Union of this kind unless it is
strong enough to initiate measures that would not
have been possible so long as British North America
was split up into seven provinces. The merging
of the Heptarchy into one Government ought to be•
succeeded by the construction of a railway from ocean
to ocean, which should make the New Dominion the
great highway between Eastern Asia and Western
Europe. The produce of China and Japan ought to
reach us yid the Intercolonial Railway.

LATEST INTELL LGENCE

(REU'^ER's TELEGRAMS.)

FRANCE.

PARIS, March 9.
M. Devienne has been appointed Chief President
of the Cour de Cassation.

Judgment was pronounced yesterday on the pri-
soners concerned in the case of wholesale infanti-
ci le at Montauban. Two women were sentenced
to the galleys; Delpech, the chief culprit, for life ;
and Coyne for ten years ; the other sentences were
Barriere, two years; Veru, four; Pauline, three ;
Eu'alie, two; and Planta-1c one years' imprison-
ment. The woman Boyer was acquitted.

CROATIA.

AGRAM, March 9.

The Emperor and Empress arrived here last
evening and were received with much enthusiasm
by the people. The town was brilliantly Illumi-
nated. Count Beust has also arrived here. The
Empress will take her departure for Pesth on Sa-
turday next.

A USTRIA.

VIENNA, March 9.

The New Free Press of to-day announces that
the French Ambassador, the Duke de Gramont, is
about to leave for Paris. The same paper states
that Miinif Effendi has been definitively appointed
Minister of the Porte at Athens, and that Server
Effendi is appointed Turkish Ambassador here.

CrEvrit
tf4Ati.,
•

IIER MAJESTY.

WINDSOR CASTLE, March 8.
The Queen, attended by the Dowager Duchess
of Athole, walked and drove in the grounds this
morning.

Princess Louise, Prince Leopold, and Princess
Beatrice, a!so went our.

THE ATTACK BY CHINESE ON THE
CREW OF THE COCKCHAFER.

The following details of thin occurrence are given
by the China Mail :—" It appears that the boats
of her Majesty's gunboat Cockchafer were exercising
in a creek about four miles beyond Swatow, when
their crew were stoned by some natives, the missiles
striking several of the men. The latter landed
and caught one of the assailants, whom they detained
with the intention of handing him over to the native
authorities, and retreated to their boats. A large mob of
Chinese, however—some 400 or 500—suddenly made their
beingappe well
armed with gingalls, opened a galling fire on thearance from the village in the neighbourhood, and
boats' crews. The latter returned the fire with their Snider
rifles, but were obliged to retreat, twelve of their number
being wounded, and two, the boatswain and gunner,
not being expected to live. The loss on the Chinese side
is said to be fourteen killed and several wounded. From
n are, especially in China.
A
private information we learn that the mob who first
partly of men and partly
tnilg composedthe Cockchafer's boats was wounded
ofbelgbra:onysst the—
everyu attack
ino
man
abno wsia e gaeriga
more or less severely; and even the man who brought the
despatches on board the Kwang-tung, although on duty, had
his arm in a sling. The gunner and boatswain are rather
dangerously hit—one having been shot through the upper
part of the body (back and breast), and the other in the
uenaaal entertained of the possi-
bility HO far from the reach of
shoulder, the ball having lodged in the chest. In the latter
Y tcbasee,the surgeon'sbul probe,
l et i fos
thatrt fears
of its being removed ; and if, as is generally the case,
the ball be an iron one, very serious consequences may
result. All the wounded men are in hospital, and
are being carefully attended to by Dr. Scott. The
gunner, who is a good marksman, is said to
unfortunately
re
have fired no less than 400 rounds of Snider ammuni-
tion before he was hit—so that the estimate of the
loss on the part of the rascally natives may probably be
under the mark. The gallant commander (Lieutenant
Kerr) was of course exposed to the fire as much as any of
his men ; but it is satisfactory to know that he is unhurt.
He had at least two very narrow escape for his life, one
bullet, passing over his head, grazed or went through his
cap, and another found a lodgment in the breast of his
coat."

Gladstone, and stated that in
In addressing his constituents at Taunton, Mr.
conducting the petition
henry James avowed himself a staunch supporter of Mr.
against Sergeant Cox he was anxious to avoid hurting the
feelings of their opponents by proving more than was neces-
sary to secure the seat.

Another attempt has been made to upset a train on
a railway passing through Shropshire. In the present in-
stance, broken chairs were placed upon the rails, near New-
port, over which the 6.15 p.m. train from Stafford was ex-
pected to pass. Two men, named Darlington and Bott,
have been committed for trial at Shrewsbury Assizes upon
the charge.

Ireland, appears in
A Protestant declaration, which is being signed in
the Dublin papers. It declares
the contemplated Church legislation to be a perfidious
violation of the Union and a spoliation of property secured
by the faith of treaties. The document is prepared
by the Defence Association, and has the signatures of the
Duke of Abercorn, Lords Ormonde, Bandon, and Crofton as
vice-presidents for the four Irish provinces, together with
the names of forty-two other noblemen and a number of
deputy-lieutenants and magistrates.
At the Cheltenham County Court a chemist sought
to recover from Mr. J. T. Agg-Gardner, the defeated Con-
servative candidate at the last election, the sum of three
guineas as remuneration for loss of time in attending
as a witness for three days on behalf of the petitioner.
Mr. Stroud, who appeared for the defendant, took an objec-
tion, in support of which he cited cases to Chow that a wit-
ness could not claim for lose of time for attending a court
in his own town. His honour concurred, and the plaintiff
was non-suited.

At a large meeting
of the electors of the borough
it has been resclvtd to invite Sir Harcourt Johnstone
to offer himself for the vacancy in the representa-
tion of Scarbro', caused by the death of his father,
and a requisition asking him to offer himself is to be
presented on an early day. Resolutions were also passed,
expressing on behalf of the constituency which for twenty-
eight years Si John represented, their deep sympathy with
Lady Johnstone and the other members of her family at the
heavy and sudden bereavement they had suffered. The
writ *was issued on- Friday night, so that the election will
probably take place tiup Week.

CORRESPONDENCE FROM PARIS.

PROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.)
PARIS, MONDAY, March 8,

In the absence or positive news rumour is unusually
active just now.] Never, it is affirmed, has the Empire had
such a narrow escape of a great, and perhaps dangerous,
Ministerial crisis. Had, it is said, the Third Party pos.
aessed a leader equal to the occasion, M. Rouher would have
fallen, and a new Ministry and a new regime would have
reigned in his stead. The enemies of the Minister of
State have bad their chance, but the invincible Rouher
bas once more proved triumphant. It is asserted that
Prince Napoleon—who always turns up in the nick of
time—urged his cousin to change his subordinates, as
the only means of preserving internal peace ; and some
go so far as to assert that an announcement containing
the dismissal of all the Ministers was sent to the Journal
Ude& Where there is smoke there is fire. It is evident
that the Empire has been rudely shaken by this City of
Paris debate. There can be no doubt, too, that the most
deadly antagonism has sprung up between M Rouher
and Baron Haussmann.
[t is officially announced that M. de la Gu6ronniize, the
Imperial Ambassador at the Court of Brussels, is about to
leave Paris. There is to be no change. Why, then,
people ask, did the Minister leave Brussels, and why has
he remained here so long? It is affirmed, and, it must be
added, with great show of truth, that the Government is

not only greatly annoyed by the action of the Belgian
Government in the affair of the railways, but is yet
making it the sulj ect of serious diplomatic communications.
The nature of these communications is, of course, warmly

disputed. Some affirm that the Imperial policy will not
hesitate to threaten the independence of Belgium ; others
content themselves with the supposition that the Luxem-
bourg line only will be dealt with, and that the
Government will attempt to dissuade the Bel-
gian Cabinet from forbidding this single concession,
without infringing upon the general principle of the bill.
The official papers, on their side, affirm that the affair is
settled, and no longer occupies the attention of the French
Ministry. But, however wide of the mark the more
alarming hypotheses may be, few persons believe that the
difficulty is at an end. The proof that it is still the
subject of epistolary interchanges between the two tour
tries is all but positive.
Although it is usual for American Presidents to com-
mence their term of office by a clean sweep in diplomatic
representation, there is reason to believe that this incon-
venient rule will not be followed in the case of General
Dix. General Grant is said to have requested the
American Ambassador here to retain his credentials. Th
offer has been accepted.
The injury wrought by the late storm has been really
phenomenal. The damage done on the whole of the west
coast is very great ; but at Saint Malo and the neighbour.
hood the effects of the hurricane have been calamitous.
Five hundreds yard of dyke were swept away, and a large
district inundated. Houses have been demolished, cattle
drowned, trees uprooted, and all hopes of the approaching
harvest destroyed. In a few minutes the labours of 30 years
were annihilated, and the scientific men who havevisited the
scene of the disaster declare that at least five years will be
required to repair the damage. No lives were lost, but
numerous families have lost all they possessed.
A murder has just been revealed in a strange way. So
far back as the 22nd of October a young man was
found murdered in the wood of Vincennes.. Fruitless
attempts were made to discover the perpetrator of this
deed. At length a sailor, who was charged with a trifling
robbery, confessed to various offences of the kind at Nice,
Lisbon, and other places. Happening to hear of this
murder, this candid criminal volunteered the opinion
that it must have been perpetrated by a baud of
thieves known as La Bande Noire, giving at the same
time such precise indications that suspicion fell
on the narrator himself. The following day he was
recognised by a person who had seen him, on Oct. 22,
not far from the place where the body was found, and the
testimony of this individual induced the sailor to confess
the crime. Strange to say, the same man had saved, at
the risk of his life, two children from the fourth storey of
a burning house, and an official certificate to that eflec
was found upon him.
An odd case has been heard before the Civil Tribunal
of the Seine. This was a suit brought by the manager of
the principal theatre in Brussels against Madame Carvalho,
the well-known opera-singer. The plaintiff engaged the
defendant, but, as I believe I told you, she declined
to fulfil her part of the engagement, alleging that as an
epidemic disease was raging in the Belgian capital her
life would be endangered. The court has now declared
the plea to be insufficient, and decided she must go there
within a fortnight, under penalty of paying £24 a day ; it
reserves M. Letellier's right to recover further damages,
and grants him £4O for the injury which he has already
sustained. The epidemic -has now ceased, so that doubt-
less the cautious lady will avoid these severe forfeitures by
at once setting out for the,Belgian capital.

THE WEATHER TABLE.-THIS DAY.