The confident statements in the Liberal press leave, we regret
to say, little doubt that the Prime Minister will in a very few days appoint Sir Rufus Isaacs as Lord Chief Justice. We have no desire to speak vindictively in regard to the Attorney-General or to exaggerate his faults, but is it possible for any truthful defender of his conduct to say that he acted with the delicacy, the discretion, the candour, and the sincerity towards the House of Commons which should be found in the holder of the highest judicial office? He set a bad, not a good, example to the servants of the State, and he had no excuse- of ignorance to plead, for he knew the Stock Exchange, the law, and the proper way of acting in cases of Parliamentary and semi-judicial inquiry. To place a man with this record in a post where, more than in any other, delicacy, discretion, candour, sincerity, and a career untouched by legitimate censure are required is to do a grave injury to the public, interest. No doubt plenty of people will say it would have been a shame to disappoint a man who had done "nothing so very wrong," but no one will say truthfully that be is just the man to be Lord Chief Justice of England, and that the office has been well and wisely filled.
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