Lord Iddesleigh was received with great enthusiasm in Devonshire yesterday
week, when he went home on the con- clusion of the Session, and was welcomed to his new title and to his well-earned leisure by a host of neighbours and friends. His account of the formation of the new Administration was char- acteristic enough, perfectly genuine as regarded his own share in it, very much idealised as regards the motive of the new Ministry in general. He had thought, he said, that " no personal consideration ought to be allowed to stand in the way of the great task which the Queen had committed to Lord Salisbury of forming an Administration. We held this doctrine, this truth, which I believe to be the cardinal truth of politics, that you ought not to think so much of who is to have the honour of doing the thing, as to see that what is necessary and right for the country is done." That is very just and very disinterested, and Sir Stafford Northcote became Lord Iddesleigh because he was thus heartily disinterested. But when he goes on to say that Lord Salisbury undertook the Administration because, if he had not done so, the affairs of this country might have been left " without rulers and guides," he romances. There was no sort of danger of that. Lord Salisbury undertook the Govern- ment because, on the whole, he preferred to give the Tories a chance of exerting a great influence over the affairs of the nation, to throwing away what might prove a great party opportunity.
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