The posts vacated by the assassinations have been rapidly, though
not easily, filled up. It had previously been decided that the Lord-Lieutenant being in the Cabinet, the Chief Secre- tary should not be, and this excluded at least two prominent candidates. Mr. Chamberlain could not be expected to quit the Cabinet for inferior office ; and when the post was offered to Sir Charles Dunce, he decided that he could not, under the cir- cumstances, defend a policy in which he had no voice, and con- sequently declined. The Secretaryship was then offered to Mr. G. Trevelyan, and accepted, and his name was received on Wed- nesday, when the writ for Hawick was moved, with cheering from all the Liberal benches. Mr. Trevelyan, it is understood, will work under rather than with Lord Spencer, upon whom, as a Cabinet Minister, the direct responsibility will fall, but the Premier will for a time take a very direct .share in the administration of Ireland. The permanent Under-Secretary- ship, which is for the hour even more important than the Parliamentary office, will be filled by Mr. Hamilton, Chief Accountant to the Navy, and a man not only of special capacity for organisation, but of great weight with the Treasury,—a matter of special importance, while the arrangements for work- ing the Land Act are still so far from perfect. It is believed that he will devote himself to a thorough overhaul of the Execu- tive system, which fails in some important points, and especially in enlisting any kind of popular support. Mr. Courtney has accepted the vacant Secretaryship to the Treasury, and Mr. Campbell-Bannerman the Secretaryship to the Admiralty, while the Under-Secretaryship to the Colonies will probably be entrusted to Mr. Evelyn Ashley.
