Mr. Balfour has risen fast, for although he has been
in Parliament for seventeen years, he is only forty-three, and has been a Cabinet Minister only since 1886. In those five years, however, he has proved himself to be one of the strongest and most sagacious men who ever sat in a Cabinet, with a special capacity for keeping his head under the storm of insult and abuse which now falls upon every Minister, especially if Ile has anything to do with Ireland. He has, in fact, the aristocratic temper, strengthened by much study of philo- sophy. He owed his original introduction to politics, and some of his many chances, to his relationship to Lord Salis- bury; but it is foolish to impute to that his present advancement, and we regret to hear a dread of the charge of nepotism attributed to Lord Salisbury. We doubt if the democracy cares a straw about relationships except as claims to its favour, and certainly the electors have not just escaped the regime of privilege in order to commence the practice of ostracism on account of birth. As yet, even the New Radicals pardon to Mr. Vere de Vere the disadvantages of his origin.
