The Sun.
London, England, 1868-11-24 00:00:00

OLD PENSIONS.

VI -
I A curious pension list has just been issued by a
IParliamentary paper. The arbitrators appointed
under the Crown Lands Act of 1866, Mr. W. M.
James and Mr. Pickering, two of her I\Jajesty's
counsel, have awarded £496,000 as compensation
to be paid to the laud revenue of the Crown for the
transfer of the Board of Trade, for the benefit of the
public, of the Crown's rights in the foreshore of the
sea and of navigable tidal rivers. This sum is to
be paid partly by charging upon the Consolidated
Fund some four or five hundred pensions and annui-
ties which are probably out of the land revenue. Most
of the pensions are very small. The majority of them
were granted to churchmen by pension deeds of
King Charles If. The Archbishop of York has
three pensions of £2 16s. 81, £1 45., and £l2 12s.
2d. The Dean and Chapter of York have also
three-21 10s., 16s. Bs., and £l4 17s. Bd. ; and
the Dean has one of £1 to himself. The choristers
of York Cathedral have also £1 a year among
them. The Bishop of Winchester has 10s. for
each triennial visitation. The grants to the Bishops
of Carlisle, Chester, Durham, Lincoln, and Wor-
cester are larger; and the Welsh bishops have
small grants from £3 to £l5. Several deans
and chapers are on the list—Sarum Chester,
Gloucester, Lincoln, Oxford, Lichfield, Here-
ford—the last for only 18s. 4d. A host of
vicars and curates have grants of pensions rang-
from less than £1 lip to £lOO. The key-bearer of
Hereford Cathedral has his grant of 16s. Bd. a year
for ever. Masters of grammer-schools come in for
their share of these grants, Oxford professors, the
poor of various parishes, the owner of Cheshunt-park,
one or two lords of manors; and, under a modern Act
of Parliament, the Master of the Hawks has his
£1,300 a year. Ireland gets but one of all the pen-
sions, and that is for a constable—the constable of
the fort of Hillsborough. The grants to Scotland
are chiefly for University professors, but one or
two ministers are on the list, the minister of Dun-
keld receiving the price of 43 bushels of meal and
a like quantity of barley under a grant from King
George IV. The gross amount of these pensions
is £7,946 a year, or £7,210 net. They will materi-
ally lengthen the already long annual list of pen-
sions charged on the Consolidated Fund.

IIE ROUTE TO TIIE PACIFIC.-1 recent traveller
over the Central and Union Pacific Railroads gives an in-
teresting account of the condition of those important
highways. It may be mentioned, however, first, that the
journey from San Francisco to Omaha was accomplished
by him in eight days, as follows :—From Green River, 815
miles west of Omaha, in 48 hours; from Salt Lake City
in four days; from Wadsworth, the terminus of the
Central Pacific in six and a half days, and from San Fran
cisco, in eight days, as above stated, and giving four
and a half days of stage travel between Wadsworth
and Green River. Ilad the traveller continued his jour•
ney to the eastward he would have traversed the distance
from ocean to ocean in twelve days. The Central Pacific
Railroad is graded within 250 miles of Salt Lako. The
track is laid to Reese Rivor, and the road, it is asserted,
will be operated to that point 380 miles east of Sacra-
mento and 270 miles west of Salt Lake before winter.
Ten thousand men are pushing the work with the
greatest energy, and a deficiency in the supply of
rails will alone interfere with the completion of the road
to Salt Lake City early in the spring. Early in November
stage connections will be made at tho crossing of the
llumb oldt-95 miles east of Wadsworth, the present ter-
minus. The company's work on the snow sheds through
the Sierras and down the Truckee is nearly complete.
The Union Pacific Railroad is graded through Weber and
Echo canons, and very shortly the road bed will bo com-
pleted to Boar River, 50 miles east of Salt Lake, and it is
believed the rails will be laid as far as Boar River before
severe winter weather sets in. Green River, 815 miles
west of Omaha, is the present passenger terminus, and
Bryan will, it is alleged, b 3 the permanent terminus for
the winter. The contractors aro endeavouring to lay an
average of five miles of track daily before the work is sus-
pended for the season.—POlic Ledger.

FATAL FIGHT IN LIVERPOOL.—On Saturday
night two labouring men, named John Irvine and Wm.
Graham, fought in Lark-lane, Liverpool. Graham in-
sisted on fighting, and in the struggle was knocked down,
falling on his head. Soon afterwards he became insen-
sible, and died Ow following morning. Irvine is in cus-
tody.