NEWS OF THE WEEK.
LORD DERBY has retired into Opposition, with the riband of the Garter, and Lord. Palmerston, who is the Earl's senior in the Order, has resumed the lead Of the Government.
It is, however, by no means a return of what we have col-
loquially called " the Palmerston Ministry " to office. The Premier has not _simply relied upon his popularity, or upon the strength which he enjoys, because his policy is in accordance with the great facts of the day at hoine and abroad. He has conned the lesson or his last reverse with diligence, and has aimed at constructing a Government which should represent the majority of the House of Commons, as the majority of that House represents the country.
But before he returned to his own post there were some pre-
liminary negotiations. The Queen is reported to have originally sent for Lord Granville, possibly under an impression, which was rather favoured during the interregnum and some weeks pre- viously, that a more neutral Minister would be better at the head, in order to a readier combination of parties. Lord Gran- ville very soon found that he did not possess that command over the principal statesmen of the day that would enable'him to take a post of such power and responsibility, and he held his com- mission for very few hours. The advantage of the most direct course then beeame obvious, and Lord Palmerston was sum- moned. His first public step was to ascertain whether he could have, as indeed he had reason to expect, the cooperation of Lord John Russell ; his next to ascertain in what office Lord John would. prefer to serve. The result is, that while Lord Palmerston is Pre- mier, Lord John Russell has iaken that office which on the Con- tinent is regarded as almost synonymous with the Premiership— the post of Foreign Secretary. The list of the Cabinet stands thus— First Lord of the Treasury . . Viscount PAIXERBTON, K.G. Chancellor of the Exchequer... Mr. W. E. GLARSTONE. Secretaries of State—Foreign.. Lord JOHN RUSSELL.
Home ....Sir G. CossawaLL LEWIS.
Colonial—The Duke of NEwcaarLE.
War Mr. SIDNEY HERBERT.
India ....Sir CHARLES WOOD, G.C.B. First Lord of the Admiralty ...The Duke of SomEasirr. Lord Chancellor Lord CAMPBELL.
President of the Council The Earl Gne...rrriza,
Privy Seal The Duke of ARGYLL, K.T.
Postmaster-General The Earl of ELGIN, K.T. President of the Board of Trade Mr. R. COBDEN.
President of the Poor-law Board Mr. MILNER GLesolf.
First Commissioner of Works Mr. CARDWELL.
Chancellor of the Duchy of Lan- caster Sir G. GREY.
These arrangements were not made on an instant, or with simple ease. There were, for instance, difficulties in the way of appointing Sir Richard Bethel to be Lord Chancellor ; for no one apprehended that Lord Cranworth would again be thrust into a post so uncongenial to his temperament. The Govern- , runt can scarcely spare Sir Richard from the House of Commons ; on the other band he thought that he might be regarded as abandoning a privilege of the Bar if he waived his claim to the vacant post, and re-accepted that of Attorney.General ; but the advice of eminent friends has reconciled him to a sacrifice on the grounds of public duty. Who, then, shoUld be Lord. Chan- cellor ? Some said Sir Alexander 6ockburn ; but the difficulties of that arrangement have been got over by another process. Lord Campbell consents to pass from the Queen's Bench to the Woolsack, and Sir Alexander, ascending the Queen's Bench, will, it is said, accept a Peerage, and so reinforce the speaking power of the Government in the House of Lords. For some time it was a question which of their two appointments Mr. Sidney Herbert and the Duke of Somerset should take respectively : Mr. Sidney Herbert has chosen well. At the first announce- ment the Duke of Newcastle's name is hailed with joy by British colonists in this country. Many will welcome Mr. Gladstone to the Exchequer, for he is a man of original views with courage to carry them out. " The Manchester party "—as it has been called, though it is really not localized as the term implies—is strongly represented by Mr. Cobden and Mr. Milner Gibson ; and the minor appointments attest the care with which Lord Palmerston has endeavoured to extend the connexions and sup- port of his Government.
The week closes with recollections of the late Ministry and an- ticipations of the new. " New brooms sweep clean, and this broom looks peculiarly strong, well made, and efficient. With regard to the late Ministry it will hereafter be appreciated better than it is likely to be this week. Lord Derby's parting speech at Merchant Taylor's Hall, in a tone of striking moderation, has also a certain mournful quietness about it, as if he did not ex- pect to depart with any halo of popular glory ; nor can he. He has not had opportunity to substantiate the promises held out by his party under the name of reform ; and just as he goes out of office is published that Blue Book which substantiates the very fears which we all had respecting Lord Malmesbary's ad- ministration of our neutrality during the war. It confirms all we believed of his intentions : but proves that we were right when we thought that he betrayed too much anxiety, and far less repugnanocp the excesses of Austria than to what many of us think the just claims of Sardinia and her ally. Some'of the most esteemed of the late Ministers were absent from the parting scene, —one throigh illness, two others because their secession had al- ready weakened the Ministry. If we do not remember a new Government taking office with greater signs of strength, neither do we remember the retirement of a party Government with less appearance of exultation among either opponents or the public.
The sulordinated epartments already filled have been manned with a strength proportionate to that of the Cabinet. The name of Peel is still in the Government, by Mr. Frederick Peel's appointment as one of the joint Secretaries to the Treasury. Lord Wodehouse is Under Secretary for the Foreign Department; Mr. Chichester Fortesoue for the Colonial ; and Lord Clarence Paget, as Secretary to the Admiralty, is a hostage for reform and working efficiency.
