A hundred years ago
From the 'Spectator', 12 December I868—The new Government would be a perfectly satisfactory one, were it not for a certain dimly perceptible want of tone. Though not a Ministry of all the Talents, and in one department decidedly weak, the Cabinet as a body comprises an extraordinary rdnge and variety both of Parliamentary and ad- ministrative ability. . . . Nevertheless, all true Radicals, the constructive Radicals, who wish to see new ideas in power as well as new men, are conscious of. a certain latent dissatisfaction with the new Government, a hesitation in giving it their -full confidence, which had much better be Openly expressed. Mr. Gladstone has remembered the reaction in the English counties a little too Well, and overlooked the body of opinion which carried him to supreme power a little too com- pletely. . . . Not one leading Radical has been appointed a Secretary of State, or to any of those dignified offices which, though often inferior to muclulower places in substantial power, are justly regarded' by the outside world as indicating the esoteric tone of a new Ministry.
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