3 JUNE 1865, Page 2

There was the usual effort on Thursday night to resist

thereat! of 34,0001. for secret-service money. Several members- asked a number of questions, all of which really meant that they would' cheerfully vote the money if only the secret were betrayed. Colonel! Sykes was kind enough to say that he did not think Ministers pocketed the fund, but he seemed to think clerks might steal it, and like the rest wanted to know what became of it. A few years ago the regular course was to assert that the money was spent in bribing members of Parliament, but that seems to have died out, and a rational majority now acknowledges that there must be some fund from which to pay for secret information. Ten! thousand pounds properly spent has before now averted a war' which would have cost the country millions.