It has been formally announced that the Government will give
its support to Mr. Brand as the successor of Mr. Evelyn Denison, and there is as yet no sign that there will be any offer of resist- ance on the part of the Conservatives to the appointment. Mr. Brand, as we have repeatedly said, is personally, not less well, possibly better qualified, for the post than any other Liberal Member who could be named ; but we shall be surprised if an appointment to the Speakership of an ex-Whip,—a choice which all the supporters of Mr. Brand admit should be, and remain, an excep- tional one,—does not turn out to be a cause of trouble in future. There are cases in which the precedent to be made or avoided by an appointment is of more importance than the selection of the abso- lutely best individual candidate, if that candidate should be the best man in spite of circumstances which would have unfitted most other men for the office, though they did not unfit him. It is quite conceivable that the King of Denmark might have been, and have been known to be, undoubtedly the most competent of rulers to arbitrate between England and the United States ; but who would dream of proposing the father of the Princess of Wales to judge between England and a Power having no such hold over him ? The selection of Mr. Brand will be a very great and striking testimony to his personal merits ; but it will be a mistake which Parliament, though we hope not during his Speakership, will have cause to regret.
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