We greatly regret the want of tact and good feeling
which on Wednesday evening induced the Opposition to object to the payment of 25,000 a year to Lord Roberts, and to speak of that payment as if it were something strange and unaccountable. It has surely not been for- gotten that when it was considered in the public interest that the War Office should be reorganised and the post of Commander-in-Chief abolished, it was arranged that Lord Roberts, who had received a five years' appointment, should continue to draw his salary to the end of that term. To have done otherwise would have been to break faith with a great publics servant, and to treat him as if he had been dismissed from his post for some fault. We trust that Lord Roberts will pay no attention to the tactless and un- generous reflection conveyed by the Parliamentary wrangle. He may feel sure that the British people do not grudge this act of ordinary justice and fair dealing to one who served them so well and with such self-sacrifice when their need was sorest.
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