The Attorney-General, Sir Hugh Cairns, has accepted the Lord Justiceship
vacant by the resignation of Sir J. L. Knight Bruce, and of course gives up finally his brilliant Parliamentary career. This step, in a man who would certainly have been the next Tory Lord Chancellor, and has been thought, by many. far better fitted by his singular sobriety of judgment and breadth of view to lead the Conservative party Ihan either its present leader in the Lower House or any other who can be named, is probably due to weak health, though in some degree also perhaps to Sir Hugh Cairns' not very sanguine estimate of the political prospects of his party. He will be a very serious loss to Lord Derby's Government. The Conservatives have now no first-rate lawyer left to advise them in any difficulty ; and even in debate, Sir Hugh Cairns' weighty judgment, and lucid exposition, will be a gap not likely to be filled up. For the Courts of Chancery, however, the accession of Sir Hugh Cairns to the Bench as one of the Lords- Justices of Appeal, will be a great gain. He is regarded as one of the strongest lawyers of the day, and quite the strongest among public men.
