Mr. J. K. Cross, M.P. for Bolton, has been made
Under- Secretary for India; and Mr. Henry Brand, M.P., has accepted the work of Lieutenant-General Sir John Adye (who was not in Parliament) as Surveyor-General of the Ordnance. We have announced Lord Edmund Fitzmaurice's appointment as Under- Secretary for Foreign Affairs, in the room of Sir Charles Dilke, before. It is curious how great a weight the aristocracy have obtained in this "dangerous and destructive" Government. Three of the five Chief Secretaries of State are in the House of Lords, as well as the First Lord of the Admiralty; the head of the War Office is heir to the richest dukedom in the kingdom ; one-half of the Cabinet are Members of the House of Peers ; the Under-Secretary for Foreign Affairs is the son of a Marquis ; the Under-Secretary for the Colonies is the son of the Earl of Shaftes- bury; the Surveyor-General of the Ordnance is heir to the ancient barony of Dacre ; and the Patronage Secretary to the Treasury is the brother of a Duke. Certainly, no one can oomplain that the aristocracy of this country is ignored in the present Adminis- tration. All the more do we rejoice to recognise the appoint- ment of Mr. J. K. Cross, a good speaker, a thoroughly able economist, and a Commoner of unquestionable capacity, to the office of Under-Secretary of State for India. It certainly ought not to weigh against a man, that he happens to belong to a distinguished family ; but it should not, we think, weigh too much in his favour.
