The Morning Post of Monday announced that the Lord Chan-
cellor had placed his resignation in the hands of Mr. Gladstone, but the statement was officially denied on Tues- day as inaccurate or premature. There is no reason except ill-health why a Chancellor should resign just after his labour in the Lords has ended, and Lord Hatherley, though still, we regret to hear, a sufferer from failing sight, is no worse than he has been for some months. The truth would appear to be that he is very anxious to resign a post which burdens him, and in which he has not been of late very successful, but has agreed to wait until the liberation of Sir R. Palmer from his work at Geneva enables the Ministry to offer him the woolsack. We trust no new scruple of conscience will induce Sir R. Palmer to decline. The Law Lords are pulling at the machine like unruly horses, till we never advance an inch, and we might as well set a high- principled governess to manage them as Lord Hatherley. They want a man like Sir It. Palmer, whom they cannot snub, disregard, or poke fun at without immediate punishment, who is genuinely liberal as to Law Reform, yet understands to what Conservative judges are objecting. Even when we have got him, we shall be all the better of Sir A. Cockburn, to prevent Lord Westbury from having all the fun to himself. Even this vitriol makes no impression on that hard steel.
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