Lord Birkenhead's resignation from the Government is, after all, to
take place immediately. When his intention to resign was announced a few weeks ago it was added that in deference to the Prime Minister's wishes he would remain at the India Office until the end of the Session. Now, however, the Prime Minister has agreed to Lord Birkenhead's going at once, as it is apparently a question of money. We cannot help feeling that though Lord Birkenhead's- brilliance would be a great and obvious loss to any Party, there is no loss, as things are, in the acceleration of his departure. There is no snore im- portant task at present than that of presiding over the forthcoming -changes in India, and if Lord Birkenhead were unsettled and anxious for private reasons he would not he giving of his best to a labour that would exhaust all the energy and all the ability of the most capable of men. How good Lord Birkenhead could be at his best was proved by his reform of the laws of property, by some of his astonishingly lucid and able legal judgments, and by the part he played in the Irish settlement. The other side of the picture was a want of discretion which caused him in' the full flood of invective to hold language which was inappropriate to the subject discussed or to the offence of the person whom he was attacking.
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