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

DOCKYARD ECONOMY.

The spirit which led the Admiralty to sell old ships
for an extraordinary low price, and then to buy
back the copper got from them for about double the
money, seems to animate all our dockyard " bar-
gains." At Portsmouth recently there was sold for
60. per sack a large quantity of sawdust. The sacks
in which the said sawdust was packed cost ls. a piece,
and several days were spent by the labourers in filling
them. But those who laugh at the quill-pen
economy would probably think such matters beneath
notice. It should be added that the announcement
appears in the papers of the adoption in the dockyards
of Mr. Seely's system of accounts. Under the new
system the true cost of every article made and every
ship built at each will be ascertained, and a com-
parison of the economy and efficiency of different
dockyards be rendered possible.
sin JOHN ACTON ON HOMAN CATHOLIC POLITICS.

I. Sir John Acton has made a remarkable speech on
the politics of the Roman Catholic party. He pointed
to the fact that there were forty Roman Catholics
fewer in the present than in any previous Parliament
since Emancipation; but that fact did not discourage
him. It was only transitory. The Conservatives
at the late election called in the aid of a very
powerful auxiliary in the shape of the "No
Popery " cry, which served as a mask by which bad
Christians might appear good Churchmen, and a
watchword which reconciled for the moment the
clergy of the Establishment with the worst of the
population. The very serious loss which the Liberal
cause sustained in Lancashire was partly due to the
great dread of Fenianism and the artifice by 'which
the Conservatives endeavoured to confound all Irish-
men and Catholics with Fenians. lie thought they
had consolation for the small number of Catholics in
Parliament in the consideration that it was not desir-
, able for them to take an active part in the unquestion-
ably invidious work which the present Parliament
had before it in the despoiling of the Protestant
Church in Ireland. So far from being disappointed
at ithe result of the elections, he believed the Act
which had thrown open the franchise to the great
mass of the population, instead of an injury to
Catholics to be a greater benefit to them even than
the Emancipation Act. It had put an end to the
domination of one class over another, which had
been the great obstacle to civil and religious
liberty, and must inevitably be followed by
the downfall of the domination of race over
race, and religion over religion, in Ireland. Ile
regarded this as a certain and not remote conse-
quence of the Reform Act. He thought that the
Ballot was most necessary to quiet Ireland, because
the tenants vote was the root of the enmity existing
between him and the landlord. He considered the
disestablishment of the Irish Church certain to be
effected; but he did not *wish his co-religionists to
have any portion of the revenues of that Church ;
rather they should be prepared to make a sacrifice
by surrendering the Maynooth grant. lie added
an interesting incident by way of shewing
how differently Mr. Gladstone's policy was viewed
even by those who thought alike on many other
topics. Shortly before his death the late Mr. Keble
met Dr. Newman for the first time for twenty years,
and in the course of conversation on the proposal to
throw out Mr. Gladstone for Oxford, Dr. Newman
said, "If I were in Oxford I should be obliged to
vote against him, for he is going to put down the
Irish Church." Mr. Keble said, "Well; but is it not
just 1-" This story sets at rest the dispute raised a few
weeks ago as to Mr. Keble's opinion on the Irish
Church question.