There was a dinner at the Trinity House on Saturday,
when the Lord Chief Justice of England proposed the toast of her Majesty's Government, in a speech carefully designed to inti- mate that he thought it an ill-judging and dangerous Govern- ment, but that, on a non-political occasion, he could not say so. As it was a Trinity House speech, we suppose the Lord Chief Justice wished to indicate the sunken or visible rocks on which the Administration was likely to strike. Lord Selborne, who returned thanks for the Government, declined to be " drawn ;" "not even those more genial than encouraging allusions," he said, should betray him into making the kind of speech he and his colleagues might have to make on a less fes- tive occasion. The truth is, that Sir A. Cockburn, when he can take a holiday from the administration of justice—the article in which he deals—prefers to employ it in running minute pins into his political friends. It is, no doubt, an exli I mating amusement, but tardy one which side to his
dignity.
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