NEWS OF THE WEEK.
ON Tuesday the Times wrote of Lord Derby in the past tense, though explaining (rather awkwardly) at the commence- ment of the article that it was to be hoped the past tense might only apply to his career as a statesman, and that his career as an individual might yet be lengthened. Yet it was scarcely of the statesman that the Times wrote, " Lord Derby was not only a classical scholar, but read and wrote well more than one modern language,"—a solace which, we hope, the noble Earl may still be permitted to enjoy, even if his career as a statesman be really "closed." However, Lord Derby declines to succumb to these gloomy prognostics. He began to recover apparently almost from the moment when the Times remitted him to the past. We do not know whether Dr. Miller, who was sent for to Knowsley, is anything of a psychologist. But if he had been, and, counting on Lord Derby's brilliant combativeness of nature, had communicated to him privately that the Times had written his epitaph and invoked peace on his memory, the recovery of his high-spirited patient would be completely accounted for. Lord Derby would have rallied all his forces to falsify his pre- mature biographer.
