There has been a good deal of controversy this week
as to the opinion expressed by the Times that Sir R. Hamilton ought not to remain the Under-Secretary for Ireland under the new Government ; and a letter, signed "M.," which appeared in Tuesday's Times, and which we can hardly be wrong in attri- buting to Mr. Morley, speaks of Sir R. Hamilton's services to Ireland as of the very highest class, and denies indignantly that he had any responsibility whatever for the Ministerial plans of the late Government. "It would be a public misfor- tune," says the writer, "as well as a gross private injustice, if, under these circumstances, one who has served the nation for thirty years with conspicuous devotion and ability should even seem for a single moment to pass under a cloud merely because the department chances to be implicated in the turbid. politics of the hour." We entirely agree with this expres-
sion of opinion, and believe that Sir Robert Hamilton has entitled himself in every way to public gratitude and official esteem. Still, though we would do all in our power to honour him for his services, we certainly do think that it would be a great pity for a Unionist Government to keep him at the Irish Office after his high authority has been publicly appealed to on the side of Home-rule. It would be equivalent to a confession of weakness to keep at the head of our Irish administrative system, the Coryphmus of Home rule. But to attack him as the Times has attacked him, seems to us both ungenerous and unjust. He should be promoted, not cashiered. We agree with the general view of Lord Lingen's able letter to Thursday's Times, but do not think that he has shown the wisdom of keeping Sir R. Hamilton where he is.
