* * * * Lord Eustace Percy's decision to resign
his seat at Hastings means, it must be assumed, his definite abandonment of a political career. It is a pity, for he is one of the most valuable of the Government's back-bench critics in the present House. He is, moreover, still only fifty, so the decision may not after all be final. But he has undoubtedly had dis- appointments. He went into the Cabinet as holder of an important office, the Presidency of the Board of Education, in 1924, when he was only thirty-seven, and stayed there for five years. When room had to be found for Liberal and Labour in the Coalition Cabinet of 193i Lord 'Eustace, like Mr. Amery and one or two other Conservatives,- was crowded out, and though he came back for a short time in 1935 as Minister without Portfolio he soon resigned what proved to be a sinecure post. The office of Rector of the Newcastle division of the University of Durham will certainly not provide proper scope for his considerable abilities, but his acceptance of it may perhaps be taken to mean that for the future he looks for a career in the educational rather than the political field—a point to remember when next the Vice- Chancellorship of one of the larger provincial universities falls vacant.
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