There are some who suggest that the keeping of the secret is rendered the more easy from the fact that there is no secret to keep, and that the Kerferd Government, in accordance with the policy it has always displayed, will wait till Parliament or public opinion outside sketches out some plan that is likely to command sup- j port, and then hasten to adopt this as its own, Surely such a Ministry for waiting upon Pro vidence and for picking up and utilising the Ideas of other people was never seen before. The O'Ferral trial, in which that ingenious gentleman is charged with appropriating be tween £10,000 and £20,000 of the public money by means of embezzlements extending over a long series of years, has been held, and, subject to certain law points that have been reserved for the judgment of the Supreme Court, the prisoner has been found guilty and sentenced to nine years' hard labour. There are some other cases to be brought against him, but the hear in 01 of these has been postponed until after the opinion of the Supreme Court has beau taken on the reserved points. These are ourious as showing the general state of muddle and maladministration by which the lands department is characterised throughout. It seems that O'Ferral, when he was appointed Colleotor of Imposts, was not gazetted as he should have been to some particular district, and thus he had, as his counsel expressed it, a ♦*Bort of roving commission," to take money wherever he could get it, an arrangement, how ever, which was never contemplated by the law. The evidence at the trial confirmed what we knew before about the carelessness and dis order which ran through the whole depart ment, but as the public has long since formed the conolusion that the department is radically yotten, a chaos of disorder, skilfully worked by members of Parliament who understand the trade, and presided over by a Minister who acts Just as he pleases, and wholly ignores any laws that limit his action, no exposures that could take place could much affect its position in the general estimation. The Catholic priesthood is aolively maintain. Ing what it calls its crusade against the Educa tion Aot. 