The gossiping and negotiating about the Speakership are still going
on, and we fear we must say the intriguing too. The Liberal Unionists have determined that their alliance with the Conservative party makes it their duty to support Sir Matthew White Ridley for the Speaker's chair, and we think that in the absence of any general Conservative wish for Mr. Courtney (which we should have heartily welcomed), the Liberal Unionists judged rightly. The Conservative wing of the party being so much more important than the Liberal Unionist wing, it was perfectly right to defer to their wishes, and not to accept an offer from the Gladstonians which would have tended to relax the bonds of the Unionist alliance. Nevertheless, we regret that Mr. Courtney's great personal claims have not recommended themselves to the favour of the Conservative party. It seems most probable that Mr. Gully will be proposed by the Gladstonians for the Speakership, though a "dark horse" in the person of Mr. Edmund Robertson, M.P. for Dundee, a Civil Lord of the Admiralty, and an able lawyer, has been recently much talked of. The Unionist party have given Mr. Gully notice that in case of the defeat of the Government at the General Election they shall hold themselves at liberty to pass him by in choosing the Speaker for the next Parliament. It is much to be regretted that so much time has been allowed for determining the choice of the new Speaker. That sort of selection is best made under the fresh sense of collective responsibility.
