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

.•.essor.

IF there are any classes of persons who more than
all others should be above the suspicion of nepotism
they are Bishops and Judges. The first, as the chief
teachers and examples of the religion which incul-
cates unselfishness, the second, as the special
upholders of justice and equity, ought to be peculiarly
exempt from that human weakness of preferring the
claims of kindred to the advantage of the State.
En past times, it must be confessed, bishops have too
often taken aupied de lettre the injunction to prove their
orthodoxy by providing for those of their own house-
hold. Latterly there has been considerable improve-
ment; and although there are still living proofs of
the paternal affection of right reverend fathers for
their sons, these fortunate kinsmen owe their promo-
tion to a school of prelates who have either passed
or are passing away. But recent incidents would seem
to shew that, while episcopal nepotism is dying out,
udicial nepotism is becoming flagrant. We all remem-
ber the " Westbury scandal," andthe outcry to which it

gave rise. Last year there was a good deal of strong
speaking because a gentleman raised from the bar
per saltum to the post of Chief Justice of the
Common Pleas conferred the Clerkship of Assize of
the Western Circuit, worth £1,500 a year, upon his
son, who had qualified himself for the post by
serving as a cornet iu a cavalry regiment. The
legal world has just received another shock by an
arrangement on the part of another of the Chief
Judges, who, like Sir WILLIAM BovILL, was placed
by the Conservative Government over the heads of the
puisnes without having served in the minor capacity.
Chief Baron KELLY has devised a new rule for the
appointment of revising barristers, which, singularly
enough, has worked to the great advantage of some
gentlemen of very little standing, but who compen-
sate for that defect by being near relatives of
judges. The judges have the right to appoint these
revising barristers every year from the barristers on
the circuit to which the post applies, but it has
hitherto been their custom to reappoint
those who have already held it, unless
there is some special disqualification. Sir
FITZROY KELLY has broken through that rule
for reasons which certainly require explanation. He
has superseded two gentlemen respectively of
eighteen and eleven years' standing at the Bar, and
has appointed two others, one of them the son of a
judge, and of only five years' standing, the other a
grandson of a former Conservative Chancellor and
" valued friend," although the name of the
fortunate nominee does not appear in the " Law
List," and though ho has gone on circuit for the first
time this summer. Now the number of judges has
lately been increased ; the number of ex-Chancellors
is not small ; and if kinsmanship to the wearers of
ermine or old political friendships are to regulate
these appointments it is clear that the good old rule,
whereby a man was selected as revising barrister be-
cause of his fitness, will be altogether superseded.
This is greatly to be deprecated, and the more so
because the office in question is precisely one in
which political sympathies ought not to have any
influence, however remote, Chief Justice COCKBURN
refused to let Mr. BEALES serve because of his noto-
rious partisanship. Chief Baron KELLY appoints a
gentleman whose only qualification is that he is the
son of an old political colleague. The contrast is
somewhat striking.

IT is necessary, in order to keep up with the whirl
of progress, that we should cast off much of our im-
pedimenta, and leave many of our old traditions
behind ; but it is impossible to bid farewell to some
of them without a feeling of regret. It is not, for
instance, without a touch of melancholy that
we are compelled to pronounce Greenwich
Hospital an institution which no longer
fulfils its mission properly. Such, however, is
the case. Greenwich Hospital has been found a
failure; it will in a short time be quite empty; and
though it is by no means to be given up as useless, its
functions will be materially changed for the future. Sic
transit gloria mundi. At a time of national triumph and
gratitude—just after the battle of La Hogue—the
palace began by CHARLES 11. was turned into a
hospital for seamen ; and ever since the fine edifice
on the Greenwich terraces has been held up as a
monument of England's regard for the men to whom
so much of her greatness is due. But the usefulness
of this institution has sadly diminished of late. Only
a little while ago it cost £99,000 a year to maintain
1,600 inmates—that is, £6O a head—and yet most of
the men would have preferred £3O a year at their
own homes. The fact was that £48,000 was spent
" in management," and the seamen did not get much
more than half of what was voted for them. More
than this, sailors did not easily reconcile themselves
to the restraints of hospital life, and though
they could obtain assistance in no other
way, the repugnance was so general that in 1859
out of 1,900 inmates only 500 were really mariners.
Clearly a change was needed, and it has been made.
In 1855 an Act was passed offering the inmates the
choice of remaining in the hospital, or of leaving it
with a pension of £3O 10s. So acceptable was the
chance of getting away from the glorious old institu-
tion that about 1,000 out of 1,400 left, of whom very
few changed their minds and desired to be
readmitted ; whilst the saving in " management "
was so great that the pensions of the older
men could be materially increased. Encouraged
by this success, another Act has been passed,
and an Order in Council has just been issued
for its fulfilment. It has been decided that the
iiiimbE,T of in-pensioners shall be confined to those
who can be accommodated in the infirmary ; which
is a distinct building from the Hospital; whilst on
the other hand, the money formerly spent in reckless
mismanagement and now saved will enable the
Admiralty to grant pensions to seamen who did not
come within the old conditions. Formerly ten years'
service were necessary for a claim to admission ;
now the term is reduced, and the Admiralty may
admit any seaman who is really deserving of national
aid, for whatever period he may have served. The
scandal of mariners who have been disabled on
behalf of their country being cast off because their
term wanted a few months of completion will be
prevented for the future. In brief, the money saved
from the waste of the old system will enable the
country, without additional burden, to provide for
most of its seafaring servants in case of necessity;
and if this object be attained, the disestablishment
of the old Hospital must prove a benefit.

ELECTRIC Al') INTERNATIONAL
TELEGRAPII COMPANY.

The half-yearly meeting of the shareholders of this com-
pany was held on Friday, the Hon. R. Grimston in the
chair.
The report stated that the net profit for the half-
year ending 30th June last amounted to
£89,180. From these figures an idea may be
formed as to the advantages of the bargain made
by the Government in purchasing the company's right and
plant. An income of £179,600 for the year would
make for 20 years' purchase a total of £3,592,000.
The sum which the company will actually get
is £2,038,000, which represents only about six-
teen and a half years' purchase of the value on
the 30th June. The property, however, will not be handed
over or the money paid before the Ist January next, by
which time the value will have received the further
enhancement of six months of average income. The
revenue of the half-year was £184,631 Bs. 6d., against
£172,826 6s. ltd. for the corresponding half of 1868, while
the working expenses amounted to £94,848 16s. 10d., as
compared with £101,582 12s. 7d. The directors
recommend that a bonus of £5,000 be divided
amongst the staff and a sum of £2,500 to the
secretary, after payment of which and the dividend of 25
per cent, there would remain at the credit of the trust
fund a balance of £63,308 18s. Bd., which it was proposed
to reserve for future distribution.
The CHAIRMAN first of all explained the negotiations
which had taken place between the company and the
Government, and stated that the bargain which was com-
pleted was not the favourable bargain which some persons
supposed. The Government would clear from it
nearer £60,000 than £50,000 a year, and the
company would be the loser of something like 13 per cent.
Persons in the Government had said that the demands of
the company were usurious, and that unless they accept
the terms of the Government they must take the conse-
quences. He, for one, believed that the time was
come when the company should realise their
property, in consequence of the onerous terms
imposed on them by the railway companies, and under
these circumstances he thought the terms of the Govern-
ment should have been accepted even had they been less
favourable than they were. They had maintained their
lines in the usual liberal manner, and intended as a
matter of honour to hand them over to the Government
in the highest possible state of efficiency. The directors
recommended that £5,000 bonus should be given to
the staff, as all promotion bad been at a stand-still
for a considerable time. The gift to the
secretary stood very differently.
They did not know the
large amount of money Mr. Weaver had saved the com-
pany, and as this was the last meeting but one, it was but
a simple matter of justice that they should act towards
him with their usual liberality. Ife then moved the
adoption of the report, which was seconded by Mr. Bidder
and carried.
A resolution declaring a dividend of 25 per cent. 'trap
also carried.
The CHAIRMAN then moved that abonus of £5,000 to the
staff and of £2,500 to the secretary be awarded, which
was also carried unanimously.
Votes of thanks to the chairman and directors were
unanimously carried, and after the proposal by a share-
holder to give a bonus of £5,000 to the directors, which the
chairman said could not be put to the meeting without
Previous notice, the meeting separated.

2IR. GOLDWIN SMITH ON THE ALBANIA

CLAIMS.

Mr. Smith has not altogether done with the Alabama
claims. In a recent lecture at Cleveland on "England
and Slavery," he took occasion once again to refer to it.
" I feel in a position positively to deny (he said)
she assertion so intolerably injurious to the honour of
England, that the Queen's prerogative was abused for
the purpose of a conspiracy against the integrity of a
friendly Power, and that another step in the same con-
ipiracy was the launching of the Alabama. On this question
of the Alabama, I stand before you as an Englishman,
with tolerably clean hands. It was to denounce the
Alabama that I came, in the first instance, into public
life ; and I will venture to say that no man feels more
deeply than I do the suspicion her builders and abettors
have cast upon the honour of my country. But
the truth is serious enough without rhetorical
exaggeration. It is now insinuated, or rather asserted,
that she was an English ship, and that the English
nation and the English Government connived at her
escape and were parties to her depredations. She was
built in England, and in that sense was an English ship,
just as a rifle of English manufacture in the hands of a
Federal soldier was an English rifle. But she was built
by the Confederate Government in a private yard, and
commanded by a Confederate officer, now a citizen of the
United States, who, if we quarrel about this matter,
will be, with his fellow Southerners, in the singular posi-
tion of making war on us for not having been successful
in preventing him from violating our neutrality. Her
English seamen were taken on board for a feigned voyage.
Besides which, every great maritime country has
a number of roving sailors, like the companions
of Walker, the filibuster, who are ready for
any enterprise, under any flag, and in no way represent or
commit the nation. The Alabama did not venture, as
she would have done if the English Government had
favoured her, to arm in an English port. She went out
unarmed, at the risk of capture, and met her armament
at a port in the Azores, from which port, not from any port
in British territory, she sailed forth on her career of depre-
dation. When she slipped out of Liverpool, the order for her
arrest was on its way. She was pursued to Nassau, which
was her supposed destination ; and she would have been
arrested there, but having to put into a port belonging to
another nation and there equipped herself for war, she
was, according to the opinions of the legal advisers
of our Government—an opinion which I have not the
slightest doubt was given in good faith—out of the
British jurisdiction, so that she could be pursued by us
no further. The English Government stopped her consort,
the Alexandria, and it stopped the steam rams ; though
in the case of the rams the evidence according to our law
was so weak that the Government had to pay for them
out of the public purse. Fur four years the Con-
federates were doing their utmost to violate our neu-
trality- and to entangle us in the war, and the only
case in which they were successful was the case of the
Alabama."