NEWS OF THE WEEK.
THE hope of a Government with Lord Hartington at its head vanished on Monday, when it became known that though Lord Salisbury had, with the greatest dis- interestedness, pressed Lord Hartington to form a Govern- ment, he had finally declined the proposal. Lord Salisbury himself has now nearly completed the formation of a Govern- ment of a somewhat fast and dare-devil type, if we may judge by the Chancellor of the Exchequer and Leader of the House of Commons, who is to be Lord Randolph Churchill. Mr. Henry Matthews, Q C., a Roman Catholic, and a man of dash, is to be the new Home Secretary ; and Sir Michael Hicks-Beach, who left a good reputation behind him in Ireland on his last Irish Secretariat, magnanimously takes the office where there is most to dread, and also most to do, the office of Irish Secretary, with Lord Londonderry,—a perfectly untried man,— for his Lord-Lieutenant. The latter, however, has no seat in the Cabinet, so as to leave the full responsibility to Sir Michael Hicks-Beach. Lot,' Halsbury (Sir H. Giffard) is again to be Lord Chancellor; Lord Iddesleigh (Sir S. Northcote), Foreign Secretary ; Mr. W. H. Smith, Secretary for War ; Lord John Manners, Chancellor of the Duchy ; Lord George Hamilton, First Lord of the Admiralty ; and Lord Ashbourne, the Lord Chancellor of Ireland (with a seat in the Cabinet). Outside the Cabinet, Mr. Planket resumes his office of First Commissioner of Works ; Sir Henry Holland (at least, according to the Daily Telegraph), that of Vice-President of the Council; while Mr. Raikes becomes Postmaster-General. Sir It. Webster returns to the Attorney-Generalship ; Mr. A. J. Balfour becomes Secretary for Scotland ; and Mr. Akers-Douglas is to be the Patronage Secretary, or Chief Whip. The other offices were not yet finally filled up when we went to press ; but it was rumoured that Sir R. Cross would be made a Peer, and appointed Secretary for India ; that Lord Cranbrook would become Lord President of the Council; and Mr. Stanhope, Secretary for the Colonies. This will be, at least as regards home affairs, a self-confident Govern- ment, a Government not devoid of audacity, not to say even of political effrontery.
