In spite of a dissuasive appeal from Lord Halifax, the
Duke of Somerset moved on Thursday night for a Committee of Inquiry into the Board of Admiralty, saying in his short speech as many unpleasant things for Mr. Childers and the Government as he could cram into it. " Why am I to wait till Mr. Childers comes home ?" he said to Lord Halifax; "he may prefer to have the discus- sion in the House of Commons ; so that the appeal of the noble vis- count really means that the House is not to discuss the state of the Admiralty." Alluding to Sir Spencer Robinson, the Duke said, as to personal questions, " who first raised them, who first attacked a colleague and sent the attack to the newspapers, without that colleague having the opportunity of seeing it ? " Mr. Childers had said he was responsible for everything, and when the " Captain " went down, he threw the responsibility on Sir Spencer Robinson. The Duke of Somerset had called attention to the fate of the American Monitor, and expressed fears for the " Captain "; but the reply was, she sat on the water like a duck,—and so she did, and " went down like a diver." The- Duke got his committee and his laugh too, when he represented Lord Halifax as sitting in the Admiralty nest " just keeping the- eggs warm till Mr. Childers comes home." There was a rumour- about yesterday,—very likely quite without foundation,—that Lord Kimberley is to gb to the Admiralty, in which case we should,. we suppose, have another shuffle, and might possibly get Mr. Chichester Fortescue at the Colonial Office, for which he is far- better fitted than for any other place in the Cabinet.
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