Mr. Vernon Lushington, Permanent Secretary to the Admiralty, has given
the Megora Commissioners a noteworthy account of the way business is done in that department. It received more than 100,000 letters a year, but nobody was responsible for open- ing, registering, or, as we understand, for answering them. "In point of fact, though he was called Secretary to the Admiralty, the business was done here and there." Letters were passed on to departments, answered and sent to him, and he signed them," know- ing nothing about them" as " Secretary of a phantom Board." He- could not tell who would make or receive a demand for a new troop-ship, and believed there must soon be a revolutionary change, for things could not go on as they were. There were really twelve departments in the Admiralty, and "there was not any real control by the system pursued, for only patent defects could have a finger laid upon them, and the latent defects were to the patent defects as ten to one." That is the testimony, be it remembered, of an official not long enough in office to have be- come blind to the defects of the system.
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