NEWS OF THE WEEK.
-aurR. GOSCHEN has accepted the Vice-Presidentship of the Board of Trade, and will doubtless be a much more important minister than his predecessor, Mr. Hutt, who was the kind of Vice- President to produce a vague impression that the office had ceased to exist, or that it remained vacant. He made an effort to become more conspicuous in the Austrian commercial treaty, but it was ill made. His injudicious speech at Gateshead probably offended the Austrian Government, and he now retires into baronetage, to make way for Mr. Goschen. Mr. Milner Gibson, who is not sup- posed to be fond of work, might, with considerable convenience to the House, himself, and the public, leave a good deal of the Parliamentary duty in the new Vice-President's hands. Another and no less important change is the disappearance of Sir Robert Peel into space, and the transfer of Mr. Chichester Fortescue to the Secretaryship for Ireland,—apparently without a seat in the Cabinet, which we wish, in the present condition of Ireland, he could have had. Sir Robert Peel certainly did not affect the public mind like Mr. Hutt,—be was not conspicuous by his absence' from the mental vision, but by irritating presence. Mr. Chichester Fortescue. has shown as Under-Secretary for the Colonies sound sympathies, strong judgment, and thorough con- versancy with his duties. Moreover, he is an Irishman, an Irish landowner, an Irish member, and a popular man. These are qualifications which can scarcely fail to soothe even the warped sensibilities of—we had almost said Fenians themselves—but at least of the Irish peasantry and the Catholic priests.
