The Observer says that Mr. Bright has been asked to
accept the Duchy of Lancaster, with a seat in the Cabinet, but that it is doubtful whether his health will permit him to take upon himself the responsibilities of office, even without much official labour.. He is not one who would decline because it looks like taking a commission in a sinking ship, but we doubt whether the Govern- ment would gain any fresh strength from his accession to the Cabinet at all commensurate with the burden imposed on him. If Mr. Bright joins the Cabinet, he is quite certain to urge a reduction of the Army Estimates next year, and to try at least to throw- the Cabinet back into the old see-saw between " parsimony and panic." What he did for the Government in the first year of its life was very distinguished service, and now, with impaired health, he will hardly, we think, court the anxieties of an almost hopeless cause, which he could do nothing to redeem. Mr. Gladstone and his colleagues will only regain their old popularity by the force of the contrast between them and their successors. it would be
a fatal thing to attempt it by the aid of Mr. Bright's unstatesman- like aversion to Army Estimates.
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