6 OCTOBER 1900, Page 19

The Westminster Gazette, which is establishing a reputa- tion for

recondite quotation, gives in its issue of Tuesday a striking passage from a letter addressed by Bolingbroke to Harley while the latter was first Minister of the Crown. He told his chief that the faults of the Cabinet were : "First, that all the use which might be had is not drawn out of those which serve, either from want of encouragement to some, or want of using authority over others; Secondly, that a great part of the honey is consumed by drones, who clog the Administration instead of helping it forward; and thirdly, that you are forced to execute more than you should, and can- not, therefore, supervise—you are pulling at the beam when you should be in the box whipping and reining in, as the journey you have to go or the ways you pass through require." "Separate, in the name of God, the chaff from the wheat," was Bolingbroke's cry. The Westminster Gazette naturally does not fail to note the application of its text.