THE PRIME MINISTER OF THE NATION.
[To THE EDITOR OP THE ," SPECTATOR."]
SIR,—The significant absence of the Prime Minister and Sir E. Grey from the festive board and wholly irrelevant proceedings at the National Liberal Club will revive the slight hope that the British nation will not be "vilely and damnably " treated (to quote Mr. Churchill) in the matter of the appointment of an incumbent to the highest permanent judicial office in the gift of the Crown. We must not be degraded to the level of a South American Republic. It is, Sir, no secret that the medical advisers of Lord Alverstoue have regretfully urged his retirement from active work, and in the critical circumstances which face the country it is, I submit, the plain duty of Englishmen that all who love our institutions should strive their utmost to save the nation from the effects of the conduct of the House of Commons. Mr. Asquith and the Lord Chancellor as public trustees cannot be blind to the fact that the Attorney-General—a Cabinet Minister as well as law officer—put himself under an obligation to the managing director of a company which was negotiating a contract with the Government, a breach for which a civil servant would be reduced or dismissed, and speculated on a "tip" given by his brother. For that reason men of all parties, without the least trace of vindictive feeling, passionately appeal to the Prime Minister in the hope that he will recommend to the King—and this is stated to be the intention of Mr. Asquith by those who are in his confidence— the promotion of Sir Samuel Evans, who has presided with dignity and conspicuous ability in the Probate Division, as the successor of the present Lord Chief Justice of England.—
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