NEWS OF THE WEEK.
A S was expected from the first, Lord Salisbury's illness proved fatal. He expired at Hatfield at ten minutes past nine last Saturday, the end coming a little unexpectedly, but without suffering or disturbance. He is to be buried, at his own request, at Hatfield by the side of his wife, and with the simplest ceremonial. Although he had practically been out of politics for more than twelve months, the regret of the country is deep and sincere, and, as usual in England, is shared by those who during his life were among his strongest opponents. He was, in truth, regarded on . all hands as the most impressive of the rapidly diminishing group of great men who reflected lustre on the Victorian era, and created that confidence in the character of our politicians which is the first source of the unity and strength of the Empire. In that popular judgment we can most fully concur, for though we hold that Lord Salisbury was no administrator, held the reins in his Cabinet far too slackly, and took too little trouble to select the ablest men as colleagues, we believe him to have been a safe as well as a most able Foreign Secretary; while his character, in its lofty incapacity of mean- ness or self-seeking, is one which the trend of our domestic politics tends to make rare. It is a true instinct which has enabled the British people to recognise in the great noble who flattered no one, not even the collective democracy, a man who devoted first-rate abilities unswervingly through life to the . service of a State which from the circumstances of his posi- tion could give him none of the ordinary rewards.
