2 FEBRUARY 1878, Page 2

Sir Michael Hicks-Beach has accepted the Colonial Secretary- ship, in

the place of Lord Carnarvon, and it is, we should imagine, not unlikely that Mr. Plunket may be offered the Irish Secretary- ship, vacant by Sir Michael Beach's transfer to the Colonial Office, —for Mr. Plunket's seat (for the University of Dublin) is safe, and his oratory very useful to the Government. Sir Michael Beach is even now the least-known member of the Cabinet, but he has shown himself both firm and temperate as Irish Secre- tary, and we sincerely hope he may be able to fill respectably,— after the ablest Colonial Secretary whom the country has bad for many years,—the difficult and at present very responsible office which he has undertaken. If he can so fill it, he will certainly have before him a considerable political future.