Mr. Ayrton has, it is said, accepted the office of
Judge-Advo- eate-General, and all the world is sneering at Mr. Gladstone, who fills an office he intended to abolish with a man incom- petent to perform its duties. We have always thought the abolition of the office just because the deputy was competent one of those hasty things Governments sanction in an economical fit, and we can testify that there is no blunder as to the present selection. Probably no official in England is quite as competent to the office—which might be made one of high importance if its holder could look straight in the eyes of the Duke of Cambridge—as Mr. Ayrton is. He must have every detail of it at his finger-ends. For years, he was the fighting advocate of the Bombay Army, engaged in every court-martial,—first, to defend the accused, and secondly, to make the lives of the ignorant officers who preside over those tribunals a perpetual burden to them. If he chooses to hold the office—not yet certain—he will in six months do more to smash up Horse-Guards abuses than all the declaimers in the country. With the law behind him, Mr. Ayrton is on military questions just the most formidable foe the unjust could have.
