Mr. Roebuck has been appointed a Privy Councillor, and is
to rank for the future as "the Right Honourable John Arthur Roe- buck." It is stated by the Sheffield Telegraph that this honour is enhanced in graciousness and distinction "by the fact that it is the fulfilment of a wish spontaneously expressed by her Majesty to the Prime Minister, before he left England for Berlin." We doubt whether that wish, so expressed, ought to have been made public. Before the Premier went to Berlin Mr. Roebuck had just distinguished himself by a party speech so violent, and so vituperative against the Liberals, that if her Majesty had read it—which of course she had not—it would have been quite impossible for her to select Mr. Roebuck's name for special distinction, without intending to cast emphatic reproach on her own former Ministers. We cannot expect the Queen to read the reports of Parliamentary debates, and of course, therefore, we acquit her of any unseemly intention in the expression of this wish. But those who have made it public must know how certain it is to be mis- interpreted, and to be regarded as a new indication that the Sovereign is personally, and not merely officially, identified with the party now in power.
