NEWS OF THE WEEK.
Times hints that the Reconstruction is incomplete, that Mr.
Monsen is to retire from the Postmaster-Generalship, that Mr. Ayrton ought to succeed him, that the Duke of Argyll is ill and may retire, that Mr. Lowe would do admirably in the India Office, that Mr. Bouverie is to be Home Secretary, and that Mr. Harcourt may be led to become Judge-Advocate-General. The Times is an authority, but we confess we believe very little of all this. That Mr. Monsen may retire has been bruited for some time, but he certainly will not retire on account of the Post- Office scandal, with which he had nothing to do beyond avoiding too carefully interference with Mr. Lowe ; and his retirement, we note, is always accompanied by some betise or other, such as that Mr. Forster is to occupy the vacant post, a change about as likely as Lord Granville becoming Secretary to the Admiralty. For the rest, we shall believe in the Duke of Argyll's resignation when we see it, though he is no doubt unwell ; and in Mr. Bouverie's appointment when it is made, while Mr. Vernon Harcourt's must be the merest tattle. What in the world should induce Mr. Harcourt, with his plainly manifested ambition, his acquirements, and his wealth, to become a silent member of a Government he is always criticising, in a department he knows nothing about? All these rumours are little better than the amusements of a time which is politically enuuyant to the last degree. Till the Cabinet has decided on its course on education nothing real can be done, and that decision cannot be taken till Mr. Forster comes home, if then.
