AN ALTERNATIVE GOVERNMENT.
[TO THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR.')
Sru,—You, in common with many other persons, very frequently observe that there is no alternative to the present Government, which, therefore, Liberals and Tories must wish to keep in office if the business of the country is to go on Now even the most optimistic supporters of this Cabinet know that sooner or later it will have to go out of office;. It is, therefore, well to be prepared beforehand. The difficulty seems to me to be that there are two possible Governments which might at any moment succeed the present one. These I will only describe as Cabinet A and Cabinet B. The misfortune is that the component parts of the two alternative Liberal Governments are divided on many other subjects besides the war. I hardly think some members of Cabinet A would serve under Mr. Asquith; nor would any of Cabinet B follow Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman (although he remains their nominal leader) if it came to taking office. Cabinet B might be supported by some Whig and Liberal Unionists, while Cabinet A would get the Irish vote in the House of Commons. You will remark that I have excluded Lord Rosebery and Sir William Harcourt from both Governments, the former because his political utterances are at present limited to facetious speeches on gardening and homespuns, the latter because his political activities are confined to letters in approval of guerilla warfare addressed to the Times. I only hope that I may be forgiven by my friends, in either Government, if I have put them into the wrong Cabinet, but some of their speeches on Home-rule and the war bare been ambiguous. I commend the two lists below to the careful consideration of your readers of all Brooks's Club.
CABINET A.
Prime Minister Sir H. Campbell-Bannerman.
Lord Chancellor ... Sir Robert Reid, K.C.
Lord Privy Seal Lord Ripon.
Foreign Secretary War Secretary ... Colonial Secretary ... Lord Spencer. Mr. Leonard Courtney. Mr. James Bryce.
Home Secretary ... Mr. Lloyd-George.
Lord Carrington India Office ... Lord Monkswell. Admiralty... Mr. Herbert Gladstone. Chancellor of Exchequer Mr. John Morley. Irish Secretary Lord Tweedmouth. Lord-Lieutenant ... CABINET B.
Lord Chancellor ... Prime Minister ... Mr. Haldane, K.C.
Mr. Asquith.
Lord Kimberley. Lord Privy Seal ... Sir Edward Grey. Foreign Secretary Sir Henry Fowler. War Secretary Mr. Sydney Buxton. Colonial Secretary Mr. Robson. Home Secretary ... Lord Crewe. India Office ... Lord Brassey. Admiralty... Mr. Perks. Chancellor of Exchequer Mr. Munro Ferguson. Irish Secretary ... Lord Durham. Lord-Lieutenant... ...
• [We cannot think that Mr. Herbert Gladstone would be in 'Cabinet A.—En. Spectator.]
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