The Cabinet consists of fourteen Ministers :—Mr. Gladstone, who takes
the double part of First Lord of the Treasury and Chancellor of the Exchequer ; Lord Granville, Foreign Secre- tary; Lord Hartington, Secretary for India ; Sir William Harcourt, Home Secretary ; Mr. Childers, Secretary of War ; Lord Kimberley, Colonial Secretary ; Mr. Forster, Secretary for Ireland ; Lord Selborne, who again becomes Lord Chan-
cellor ; Mr. Bright, who is Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster ; Lord Northbrook, First Lord of the Admir- alty; the Duke of Argyll, Lord Privy Seal ; Earl Spencer, Lord President of the Council ; Mr. Dodson, President of the Local Government Board ; and Mr. Chamberlain, President of the Board of Trade. It is understood that Sir Charles Dilke was offered a place in the Cabinet, but preferred the office of Under-Secretary for Foreign Affairs, who represents the department in the Commons, on condition that one of his section of the Liberal party should be admitted into the Cabinet, a condition which resulted in the admission of Mr. Chamberlain. It is a strong Cabinet, and especially strong in finance. The Prime Minister, who is the greatest financier of the day, takes charge of the general finance ; Mr. Childers, who is his ablest second, is to recast the finance of the Army. Lord Northbrook, who is a financier of the same calibre, returns to the Admiralty as its chief,—a department in which he had already gained a large knowledge before going to India ; and Mr. Dod- son, who has no superior in this respect, except those whom we have already named, is to preside at the Local Government Board. Mr. Forster's appointment as Secretary for Ireland ha.; given great satisfaction to the Irish Liberals, both those of tht. more cautious and those of the more sanguine type. Mr. Forster earned in his Education Act a reputation for treating difficult pro- blems at once largely and prudently, which promises an attempt to treat the Irish question at once with breadth of view and with a due regard to the dangers ahead.
