A long correspondence has been published between Sir Spencer Robinson,
late Controller of the Navy, and Mr. Gladstone, which appears to amount to this. Mr. Childers resolved to omit Sir Spencer's name from the Admiralty patent for some unknown -cause, possibly incompatibility, possibly, as Sir Spencer implies, because he held the Controller responsible for the loss of the Captain. On 14th December accordingly, Mr. Childers asked his subordinate to resign, and Sir Spencer either did or did not accede. Mr. Childers says he did, Sir Spencer says he did not, and the point is one on which both may be conceivably in the right, each interlocutor attributing too much meaning to the other's words. Mr. Childers made a memorandum of the resignation, and Mr. Gladstone, in his absence, insisted upon its being carried out. Sir Spencer thinks this unfair, unless Government state their rea- sons for the withdrawal of their confidence, which Mr. Gladstone declines to do, as it "would only revive the whole of a painful discussion, the conclusion of which is foregone." On the face of the correspondence, Sir Spencer Robinson has been dismissed -without being informed of the reason for his dismissal ; but of course this is not the whole case, and until Mr. Childers returns it is impossible for the public to form an opinion on the transaction. There are no data.
Previous page
