The Sun.
London, England, 1866-04-25 00:00:00

Naval and Military Intelligence.

His Royal Highness the Field-Marshal Com-
manding-in-Chief will hold a levde at 1 o'clock on
Tuesday, May 1.
Rear-Admiral the Hon. James R. Drummond,
C. 8., was yesterday appointed Admiral-Superin-
tendent of Devonport dockyard, vice Rear-Admiral
T. M. C. Symonds, C. 8., promoted to Vice-Admiral.

It was currentlyreported at Portsmouth that Capt.
W. C. Chamberlain, at present commanding the iron-
cased screw frigate Resistance on the Mediterranean
station, has been offered by the Admiralty the com-
mand of her Majesty's ship Asia and the Steam Re-
serve at Portsmouth, vice Capt. H. Caldwell, C. 8.,
Aide-de-Camp to the Queen, appointed to the
senior naval command at the Cape of Good Hope.
The iron armoured screw frigate Bellerophon,
Capt. E. Tatham, is preparing for her cruise with
the competitive broadside gun carriages and their
12- ton guns. Sir W. Armstrong's iron carriage has
been received on board and placed in position in the
ship's battery. Capt. Scott's and the Woolwich
Arsenal iron carriages have yet to be received, as
also the Admiralty pattern wooden carriage. The
guns for all four carriages are lying ready for ship-
ment on the jetty alongside the ship.
The Rinaldo, 7, unarmoured screw sloop, 951
tons, 200 horse power, has had her bows and top-
sides entirely reconstructed, and other extensive re-
pairs in the remaining portions of her hull effected
in dock at Portsmouth-yard. She will shortly be
undocked, stored, rigged, and otherwise brought
forward for commission.

The Cruiser, 5, screw unarmoured sloop, 750 tons,
60 horse power, having undergone a thorough re-
pair to her hull and machinery at Portsmouth-yard,
has since been completed in rig, armament, and
stores, and is now ready to make her preliminary
trial of machinery in readiness for commission.
The Pearl, 21, screw unarmoured corvette, 1,469
tons, 200 horse power, having been completed in rig,
stores, and armament at Portsmouth, and also hav-
ing made a very satisfactory trial of her machinery
over the measured mile in Stokes Bay, has been
placed at moorings on the upper waters of the har-
bour in readiness to hoist the pennant.
The Mersey, 40, screw unarmoured frigate, 3,733

tons, 1,000 horse power, has been completed in her
outfit for immediate commission at Portsmouth, and
is now lying in the steam basin of the dockyard wait-
ing orders for the trial of her machinery over the
measured mile, preparatory to being officially re-
ported ready for commission.

SPIRIT OP THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

T 1 lEs.—lt is encouraging to find that even in

the House of Lords zeal kir the Church begins to
be tempered by discretion, and that years of argu-
ment have produced their effect like the dropping
of water on the stone. An act of justice and good
feeling was accomplished last week when the House
accepted the Parliamentary Oaths Bill. We have
now to record a minor, but still rot an unimportant,
concession. We are almost ashamed to reckon such
things among reforms to be taken notice of and
rejoiced at, but when we consider the labour of the
fight it gives a higher notion of the victory. The
House of Lords, through Lord Derby, has assented
to the third reading of the Qualification for-Offices
Bill. We shall no longer have to pass the yearly
Indemnity Act, by which officials of all ranks are
mercifully relieved from punishment for not pro-
mising to maintain the Church of England. Very
few people would ever have heard of this Indem-
nity Act, though it has been a yearly piece of legis-
lation, had it not been for the efforts of one or two
reformers in each house, whose common sense re-
volted at such solemn mockery. It is pretty well
known, however, that when the Test and Corpora-
tion Acts were repealed, a Declaration was ap-
pointed to be made by persons holding civil or
municipal offices to the effect that they would not
exercise any power, authority, or influence they
might possess by virtue of their offices to weaken
the Protestant Church as by law established. This
Declaration ought to be made by thousands of per-
sons throughout the country, from the highest down
to the humblest. It is needless to say that it is not
made. Men are put into offices high and low, and
may hold them for years, without knowing that
they are daily committing a statutable offence, sub-
jecting them to penalties, .and that they are only re-
lieved by the annual interference of the Legislature.
To such an end have come the notable precautions
in favour of the National Church. What a satire it
is upon statesmanship that less than forty years ago
grave legislators, and lawyers, and divines solemnly
consulted, and agreed that the connexion of Church
and State required all this incessant declaring, and
promising, and abjuring ! No sooner was the law
passed than it was disregarded. In fact, it appears
that no effort has ever been made to put it in force.
It was an absurdity from the beginning, and though
it was, no doubt, quite justifiable in those who re-
pealed the Test and Corporation Acts to give any
sop that might be necessary to their opponents, we
can have no high opinion of the judgment or the
charity of the latter. And yet this state of the law
has been maintained ever since, and bills for the
modification of it which were sent up from the
Commons have been thrown out by the Lords. As
the Conservatives, led by Lord Derby, have at last
yielded to reason, we have no desire to taunt them
with their former obstinacy. But the force of habit
and party spirit has Certainly never been more clearly
evinced. The practical effect of the lawwas ad-
mitted to be nothing at all. Political oaths when
really taken have but little effect ; what, then, can
be the effect of not extorting the Oath or Declara-
tion at all, but merely stating solemnly in an Act
of Parliament that it ought to have been extorted ?
The infinitesimal gain which the Church received
by its existence being, as Sir Hugh Cairns would
say, " taken notice of" once a year was thought
worth obtaining, even though Parliament was made
ridiculous for its sake. We suspect the Conserva-
tive chiefs desired an opportunity of abandoning
the position they had rashly taken up in bygone
years. The passing of the Parliamentary Oaths
Bill enables them to retire with grace. It cannot
be requisite that aldermen and town clerks should
make declarations or give securities which are not
demanded from those who frame our laws. Now,
the Parliamentary Oaths Act will admit not only
men of the various forms of Christianity, but
also non-Christians of every religion and race.
These will be in no way pledged to maintain the
Protestant Church or to respect the possessions
of bishops and clergymen. They will simply
declare their allegiance to the Crown and their
acquiescence in the: present Parliamentary settle-
ment of it. If, then, members of the two houses
are not to be bound to the Church, why should
officials whose work is for the most part merely
ministerial be so bound ? The case for the
aboli-
tion of the present forms is based on an irresistible
a fortiori. Lord Derby accordingly strikes his
colours and surrenders, having fought his ship as
long as she would swim. The " animus hostile to
the Church" cannot be of much importance among
Civil Service Clerks when members of Parliament
may now legitimately indulge it. Lord Derby con-
fesses that we cannot continue to require from
municipal authorities and officers declarations from
which we have relieved members of Parliament. In
short, the measure which has been so often pressed
on the attention of the house is now at last favour-
ably received, and we may expect a suitable change
in the law. The end of this controversy reminds us
of the strange perverseness which has hitherto led
the Conservatives to resist year after year reasonable
demands, and to make great party questions out of
petty and unimportant matters. It seems to have