The mysterious shuffle in the smaller appointments of the Ministry
has taken place precisely as we explained last week,— that is, that Mr. Knatchbull-Hugesson has left the Home Office for the Colonial Office to replace Mr. Monsell, and Mr. Shaw Lefevre has replaced Mr. Knatchbull-Hugessen at the Home Office. Further, Mr. Arthur Peel replaces Mr. Shaw Lefevre as the Secretary to the Board of trade, and Mr. Hibbert replaces Mr. Arthur Peel as Secretary to the Poor Law Board. Further, Mr. Davison, Q.C., succeeds Sir Colman O'Loghlen as Judge- Advocate-General. A semi-official contemporary congratulates the Radicals on having thus got two more of their number (to wit, Mr. Hibbert and Mr. Davison, Q.C.) into subordinate posts of the Administration. Are the congratulations really serious ? Get- ting two Radicals into such very subordinate official posts, where, as far as we know, no sort of influence over public feeling can by any possibility be exercised, only means stopping their mouths. Why Mr. Hibbert, who has a considerable Parliamentary reputa- tion for political sagacity of a high order, and who is hardly young at forty-six or forty-seven, should have accepted such a post as Secretary to the Poor Law Board, we can hardly conceive. It is all very well to plant your foot upon the first rung of the ladder, but is the Secretaryship to the Poor Law Board the rung in any ladder at all ? Is it not rather a sort of official hole in the ground ?
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