The Lord Chancellor gave notice on Monday night, on behalf
of the Prime Minister, that on an early date after Easter, Lord Rosebery would present a Bill to permit certain Colonial Judges to be made members of the Judicial Com- mittee of the Privy Council. This notice has some importance in two perfectly different directions. In the first place, it is probably meant to indicate that Lord Rosebery has no inten- tion of retiring immediately in consequence of ill-health, as many of our journalists have conjectured. In the next place, it indicates the intention to pursue steadily that policy of making the distant Colonies feel that they belong to the Empire, and that their leading men may be recognised at home as well as by those who are afar of beyond the sea, which was manifested in Lord Rosebery's appointment of the Bishop of Adelaide to the See of Bath and Wells. This policy may be either a very wise and sound or a very mischievous and dangerous one, according to the measure of judgment with which it is applied. If it encourages distinguished C.,ioniats to think more of what will catch the attention of the authorities at home, than of what will benefit the immediate world in which they labour, it will do double harm by bringing second-rate men to England, where we could have found first-rate men amongst ourselves, and by fixing the attention of the more ambitious Colonists on a false ideal. On the other hand, if it really picks out the very best and most disinterested of our Colonial eminences, and adds to our resources for the choice of first-rate men with special knowledge of Colonial life and law, it may do pure good. There are two or three Judges in our Coloniea who would immensely strengthen the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council for the development of our Colonial juris- prudence. But they would want very careful selection.
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