21 DECEMBER 1867, Page 3

The Directors of the Great Eastern report that Lord Cranborne

has consented to accept a seat at their new Board. Is he to be Chairman, or only a Director? In either case he would be the most valuable acquisition, next perhaps to Mr. Lowe, that any railway could make ; but he is not the man we should have thought directors would have selected. He would be as bad as an official director, sure to see everything, sure to be savage when anything went wrong, utterly contemptuous of jobs, and very Much inclined, if too much harassed, to tell the shareholders the whole truth all at once. He would not be an easy man to snub either, if he began enlightening the public, and altogether his nomination must be regarded as a proof of decided virtue in the Eastern Counties. They will be appointing Lord Redesdale next, or declaring a dividend, or opening the line from Bishop Stortford to Braintree, on which the grass will grow soon, or doing some other of their hundred duties.