Rumours have been afloat all the week, and have been
openly mentioned in the Daily News, of farther dissensions in the Cabinet. It is probable that they have as yet little foundation, for no Cabinet Minister has as yet emphatically declared them to be untrue,—the statement which, under this Government, regularly precedes a secession. The form of the rumours, however, is that Lord Salisbury is vexed, and Sir Stafford Northcote miserable. The former is evidently not hearty in his approval of the Afghan war, or Lord Lytton would not have published the indiscreet appeal to him contained in the Times telegram from Calcutta of Monday ae'nnight ; and the latter never can forget that his duty is not to squander, but to protect the revenue, and that his master in finance site opposite him. With a bill to pay Which has been postponed from Session to Session, with new taxes to propose, including a
sixpenny Income-tax, with a falling revenue and rising estimates, and with a " Black Friday " visibly at hand, the Chancellor of the Exchequer is a weary man. He, we may feel certain, does not want to find, what he must find, a loan for India, much less a loan to enable the Pashas to pretend to begin reforms in Asia Minor. Even the cheapness of bread, though it keeps the people quiet, is a burden to him. If corn were only dear, the country gentlemen would vote contentedly ; but now even they feel the pressure, and grow irritably conscious that there are compensa- tions in submitting to Mr. Gladstone. He does harass" interests," and he does not hate the Ritualists, but he does make surpluses. Poor Sir Stafford, who at heart likes sound finance, who has a sense of humour which bunkum affronts, and who knows that he could fill the Treasury if they would only let him, must feel as if revolt would be a relief.
