It is, on the whole, a young Cabinet ; average
age only fifty years and four months ; greatest age (Lord Clarendon's), 68 ; smallest age (the Marquis of Hartington's), only 35, almost political babyhood, though the noble marquis was a Cabinet minister (such is the privilege of his rank) at a still more infantine period, when he was little past 30. The Prime Minister is not 60, and he stands third on the list as regards age, the Lord Chancellor being his senior, as well as Lord Clarendon ; while there are no less than seven Cabinet Ministers in the decade between the ages of 35 and 45 ; the Duke of Argyll (45), Mr. Chichester Fortescue (45), Lord Kimberley (42), Lord de Grey (41), Mr. Childers (41), Mr. Goschen (37), and the Marquis of Hartington (35). The average age of the outgoing Cabinet was fifty-five years and six months, the late Prime Minister being four years older than Mr. Gladstone, --tits youngest member Lord Stanley (in the office now filled by the oldest of the Ministers), and the Cabinet only containing five members under the age of fifty, Lord Cairns (49), the Duke of Marlborough (46), the Duke of Buckingham (45), Mr. Ward Hunt (43), and Lord Stanley (42). The oldest members were Sir John Pakington and the Duke of Montrose, both aged 69.
