22 OCTOBER 1898, Page 2

The vacancy created by the transference of Mr. Brodrick to

the Under - Secretaryship for Foreign Affairs has been filled by the appointment of Mr. George Wyndham, Member for Dover since 1889. The new Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for War served in the Coldstream Guards from 1883 to 1887, and was private secretary to Mr.

Balfour from 1887 to 1892. In that capacity he showed him- self the possessor of a caustic rather than conciliatory pen, and he has since achieved some distinction in the domain of belles-lettres by his critical editions of North's Plutarch and Shakespeare's Poems. Literary gifts are no guarantee for Ministerial success, but Mr. Wyndham, who is personally popular and a fluent speaker, is no mere carpet-knight, having seen active service in the Suakin Campaign of 1885.