We have good reason to believe that the interpretation put
by the Times on the recent changes in the Ministry, to the effect that Mr. Monsell's resignation was deliberately accepted, and that Sir Henry James, Sir W. Vernon Harcourt, and Mr. Lyon Playfair had all been intentionally selected, as a means of indi- cating to the Roman Catholics that they were in political disgrace with the Government, was a hypothesis evolved a priori out of the consciousness of the Times, or of some of its contributors. Indeed, that motive is utterly repudiated by those who ought best to know the truth of the matter, and that being so, it was certainly a mistake to remove Mr. Monsell,—who as a departmental chief had never been a quarter as much in fault as the then Chancellor of the Exchequer, who was promoted to the Home Office. But anyhow, it is satisfactory to know that a policy deliberately unjust and even insulting to Ireland, has never even been contemplated.
