The statement that the Queen wrote to Lord Rosebery asking
him to accept the Foreign Office is denied upon the highest authority. Her Majesty had no communication with Lord Rosebery, direct or indirect. The denial obviously comes from the Queen herself, whom Mr. Bright described as the most truthful person he had ever met, but it was hardly needed. We are utterly amazed at the mistake made by the Radicals upon this whole subject. They forget that the right of the Sovereign to discuss all questions with the Premier is one of the strongest safeguards of liberty. If it did not exist, the "Head of her Majesty's Government" would, in many departments—for instance, in the appointment of Ministers, Bishops, and Viceroys, in the grant of all honours, and, if he were Foreign Secretary, in foreign policy—be in the position of an elective Monarch. The necessity of explaining his policy to the permanent head of the State is the grand check upon a popular Premier, who needs checks, or, at all events, needs to be compelled to think clearly, and justify his thought, as much as anybody else. It may be said that Parliament controls him directly ; but in one department—the grant of honours—it does not control him at all ; and in all others, except legislation, it controls only after the deed is done, often past recall. If we had no Queen, we should have to invent one.
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