NEWS OF THE WEEK.
AS we anticipated last week, it has been officially announced that Mr. Balfour is to become First Lord of the Treasury, with the leadership of the House of Commons, and that he will retire from his post of Irish Secretary, to which either Mr. Jackson (the Secretary to the Treasury) or Mr. Ritchie (the President of the Local Government Board) will succeed, probably the former. Mr. Balfour has earned a reputation by his brilliant and successful Irish administration, which makes this appointment very popular in the country, especially with the Conservatives, who are proud of having produced a statesman of the first rank and promise out of the very heart of their own party. They were faithful to Mr. Disraeli, but they always regarded him much as the Chinese troops must have regarded Gordon when he taught them to put down a rebel- lion,—as a leader to be thankful for, but with a thankfulness not unmingled with humiliation. The Conservatives will certainly go to the General Election with more enthusiasm under Mr. Balfour, if he justifies their hopes, than they would have done under Mr. Goschen, notwithstanding their hearty respect and gratitude for Mr. Goschen's pre-eminent services to their party.
