NEWS OF THE WEEK.
ON their first meeting after the short Whitsuntide recess, her Ma- jesty's Commons got with tolerable alacrity into Committee of Supply, and kept. working on the Navy Estimates till a late hour. Still there was more of the semblance than the substance of prac- tical discussion. When Sir Francis Baring moved the first vote- the'half-pay and retirement allowances of Marine and Naval of- fieers—Mr. Hume expressed a regret that he had allowed the time to pass when a motion of which he had given notice could regu- larly be made. Sir Francis told the too easy Member that it was still open to him to bring forward the substance of his
*Alert tnopose a reduction in the amount of the vote : but
Mime did not accept the challenge. ' A. desultory conversa- tion on the Government plan for getting rid of superanuu- ated Admirals by degrees ensued ; in which the , techniCal- knowledge of the Naval gentlemen gaVe -them a great advantage over the Economists. The steam-factories in connexion with the Dockyarda were next assailed. The First Lord of the Admiralty stated that the Government has no intention of establishing a steam-factory at Keyham: he insisted, however, upon having a vote that would cover the expense,of the work, on the plea that circumstances might arise to render it necessary. It will surprise nobody if, in due time,. Government discover that such mourn- stanees have arisen. The evening's' business furnished a curious illustration of the way in which certain items of expenditure" are gept down to outward! appearance. When the vote for " New, 'works, improvements, and repairs," was under discuiSiOn, Mr. Hu-ne inquired how 10,0001. came to be needed for Ber- muda this year. • The First Lord of • the Admiralty explained, that " there had been an understanding" that the 10,000/. should' be voted 'every year to keep the convicts employed. If 10,0001.-is' to be spent annually in Bermuda not on necessary works but sim- ply., to-keep the convicts einPloyed, this sum should be entered to: the debit • of our precious system of: penal transportation • the various. items expended on which are - so , skilfully distributed- through
a Multiplicity of estiniates, that no one can hunt them out and tell us what it really Costs the nation.
A resolution, moved 'by Mr. Anatey, condemning the boa - • of the Irish political convicts in an Diemen's Land by Sir AV" Denison, was successfully-resisted by-Sir George Grey, with the ex- cuse that Government had received no information on the subject.
It is wonderful liowninoli longer the of the Colonial Offipe always are than other people in learning what goes on in the nies.
