As was expected, Mr. W. L. Jackson, Secretary to the
Treasury, has been appointed Chief Secretary for Ire- land. His re-election for Leeds will not be disputed, and on Wednesday he was enthusiastically received by his late constituents. He made, however, a very reserved speech, only endorsing Mr. Balfour's promise of a Local Government Bill for Ireland, and hinting at the necessity for that difficult undertaking, a new Education Act for the same country. Mr. Jackson will be succeeded at the Treasury by Sir John Gorst, a very clever man with an impatient mind, to whom the Cabinet appear to have confided what may be called the Labour Department. In a speech on Tuesday, delivered at Halifax, he appears disposed to provide for old age by compelling every man to contribute a shilling a week, say from twenty to thirty, to purchase an annuity of eight shillings a week at sixty- five. He would even go the length of forbidding marriage to any young man who did not comply with this stipnla- tion,—a proposal which he can hardly have thought out, and which will never become law. He would also be inclined to compel subscription to the sick fund of some voluntary Society supervised by the State. Altogether, Sir J. Gorst is desirous of meeting old age, sickness, and death through a careful application of the principle of insurance, helped moderately and supervised closely by the State. We wish him good fortune with the idea, but suspect he underrates the great obstacle, the difficulty an optimist race has in even imagining very distant trouble. It can foresee sickness, and even death, because they may happen to-morrow; but it cannot foresee old age.
