The Northern Guardian. — 1895-10-14 (Hartlepool, Cleveland, England)

NOTES FROM THE CAPITAL.  " Trafalgai• Day."—lt is a mark of the revived interest in the Navy that "Trafalgar Day" this year is not to be allowed to pass unnoticed. On the anniversary of that great fight a wreath is to be laid at the base of the Nelson Column in Trafalgar Square by the Navy League, who, says a London correspondent, are doing so much in a practical way to keep our great national hero's memory green. The step to be taken is an excellent one, and the more to be commended 88 there has been a disposition in the past to overlook the great events which have secured us supremacy at sea.  Mr Asquith's Betio a-t-tu- the Bar.—lt is understood that Mr Asquith, the late Home Secretary, will make his reappearance at the Bar in the Langtry jewel case. He is one of the counsel retained on Mrs Langtry's behalf. Sir Robert Reid is to lead. For the bank equally eminent counsel have been retained, namely, Sir Edward Clarice, Mr Bigharn, and Mr Carson. All the five counsel are M.P.'s, and four out of the five have held office. It is, of course, a mere accident that M; s Langtry's counsel are Radicals and the bank's counsel all Unionists. Politics have no influence in the retaining of counsel. Indeed, Mr Asquith's friends are praying fervently that Sir Edward Clarke will speedily be appointed to the Attorney-Generalship, because they hope that the bulk of Sir Edward's private practice would fall to Mr Asquith.  -000- Economies of the War Office.—Lord Lansdowne and Mr St. John Brodrick are making great changes in the clerical staff at the War Office. In addition to giving some of the senior officials who have passed the age of 60 the hint that it is time for them to take their pensions, they have practically decided to abolish the grade of lower division clerk. They say that the work on which the 250 membe of that grade are employed is not ofrs sufficient importance to warrant the State paying up to £250 per annum, which is the maximum salary of the grade. It has, therefore, been decided to replace them gradually by a class celled abstractors or assistant clerks, which will be a cross•between'the grade of boy clerk and lower division clerk. The maximum salary of the new class will be £l5O, or £I.OO less than that which it will supersede. The saving hereafter  on this head will therefore tun to £20,000 yearly.  -000- Temperan e Politics.—The attitude of Mr Caine and the Temperance Party generally towards the Liberal Party is not promising. The Liberal Party, according to Mr Goulds cartoon, was over-weighted at the General Election, and finally floored, by having to carry Temperance fanaticism, in the character of Local Option, on its back. According to Mr Caine, it was all the other way about. Whoever have learnt a lesson by the defeat at the polls, it is plain that the Temperance Party have not, and they gird ungenerously at Mr Gladstone for the judicial cold water which he has appropriately thrown on their favourite legislative fad.  - 004)  "Oredaying."—A London coroner said the other day that the most revolting part of his duties was the holding of inquests upon infants who had been "overlaid." He gave it as his opinion that in a majority of cases the overlaying was nothing else but deliberate murder, and that in nearly all other cases it was due to beastly drunkenness. Another coroner—Mr Braxton Hicks—has pretty plainly expressed his opinion upon the subject. No fewer than 500 inquests on "overlaid" infants take place, he says, every year, and he significantly adds that nothing will stop it except a few verdicts of manslaughter. But juries will not bring in verdicts of manslaughter in these cases.