"Will anybody tell us," asks the Times, " where legislation is
to end and electioneering begin ? "—a question suggested by the immense amount of electioneering done just now in both Houses of Parliament, in the shape of "measures" useless except to catch favour out of doors, sham inquiries, sham declarations, and sham concessions. But the last days of Parliament are employed in another species of electioneering still more directly effective. Some zealous, firm, and patriotic Member in the House of Commons, if there be such, should inquire into the manner in which minor Government appointments are distributed, the rate of their distribution in the matter of speed, and the time that the present paroxysm of place-giving has been going on and will continue. Upon the time required for its continuance may depend the continuance of these latter days of the session ; and it is evident that the operation may go on until every vacancy, available or constructive, shall have been turned to its full account in calling forth a sense of benignity among lucky men with local influences.
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