The Sun.
London, England, 1868-12-08 00:00:00

THE NEW MINISTERS.

THE MUST LORD OF THE TREASURY.—MO. Right
Hon. W.
political Hie at the general election of
December 1832, when he was elected member for
Newark in the Conservative interest. In December
1834 Sir Robert Peel appointed him to a Junior Lord-
ship _of the Treasury, and in the February following,
to the post of Under-Secretary for the Colonies.
Mr. Gladstone retired from office with his leader in the
following month of April, and remained in Opposition
until 1841. When Sir Robert Peel returned to power, Mr.
Gladstone was sworn a member of the Privy Council,
and accepted -office as Vice-President of the Board of
Trade and Master of the Mint. He had to defend the
commercial policy of the Government in the Lower House,
and the revision of the British tariff in. 1842 was almost
entirely the result of his energy and industry. This
important work received the sanction of both Houses
with scarcely a single alteration. In May 1843
Mr. Gladstone succeeded the Earl of Ripon as President
of the Board of Trade, but resigned that office in the early
part of 1843. Ife afterwards became Secretary of State
for the Colonies. In 1846 he ceased to represent Newark,
and was returned for Oxford University in 1847. This
change was made because the Colonial Minister sup-
ported the Corn Law policy of Sir Robert Peel, and
was therefore unwilling to remain under obligations
to the Duke of Newcastle, who had influence
at Newark, and who strongly sided with the Opposition.
Mr. Gladstone became more and more estranged from the
Conservatives, and finally separated from his party in
1852, refusing to take office in the Cabinet of Lord Derby.
His brilliant attack upon the Budget of Mr. Disraeli was
the chief cause of the fall of the Cabinet and the acces-
sion to power of the Earl of Aberdeen. On the
formation of the coalition Ministry, headed by
this nobleman, Mr. Gladstone became Chancellor of
the Exchequer. On the reconstruction of the Aber-
deen Ministry, under Lord Palmerston, Mr. Gladstone
withdrew on finding that it was not the intention of the
Ministry collectively to oppose the vote of censure
implied in Mr.-Roebuck's motion for the appointment of
a committee to investigate the condition of the British
army before Sebastopol. Mr. Gladstone now re-
mained for sometime an independent supporter of
Lord Palmerston's Government. In the winter of
1858-9 he undertook the mission to the lonian
islands, and in the following June he was made
Chancellor of the Exchequer. This post he held in the
Liberal Ministries until his election by the voice of the
country to the highest dignity.
The LORD CHANCELLOR, Sir William Page Wood, born
in 1801, was called to the bar at Lincoln's Inn in 1827.
He was M.P. for Oxford from 1847 to 1853, Vice-Chan-
cellor of the County Palatine of Lancaster from 1849 to
1851, and held the office of Solicitor-General from 1851 to
the following year, when he was appointed a Vice-
Chancellor.
FOREIGN SECRETARY.—G. W. F. Villiers, Earl of
Clarendon, was born in 1800. He entered the diplomatic
service at an early age, and was afterwards employed iii
the civil service of the Government both in Ireland atid
abroad. In 1833 he was appointed British Minister
Plenipotentiary at the Court of Madrid, a post
which he held until 1839. In 1840 he was sworn a
member of the Privy Council, and took office as Lord
Privy Seal and Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster in
Lord Melbourne's Ministry, 1840-1. In 1846 he was
President of the Board of Trade. On the death of Lord
Bessborough, in 1847, he became Lord-Lieutenant of
Ireland, holding this great office until 1852. He was
appointed Foreign Secretary in 1853, and conducted the
negotiations with France, Austria, Prussia, and Turkey
throughout the Crimean war. When the Earl of Derby
attempted to form a Cabinet, on the fall of the Aberdeen
Ministry, in 1855, he expressed a desire to retain Lord Cla-
rendon as Foreign Secretary. The Conscrvati ve Government,
however, was never constructed, and the Foreign Secretary
retained his seals under Lord Palmerston until 1858. In
the capacity of Foreign Secretary he signed the Treaty
of Paris in 1856. He rejoined the Liberal Administra-
tion in 1864 as Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster.
THE SECRETARY FOR THE COLONIES.—George Granville
Levison-Gower, Earl Granville, entered Parliament as
member for Morpeth, in 1836, being then just of age.
Early in the year 1840 he accepted the appointment of
Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, which he
held for some mouths. In 1846 he succeeded to the
peerage, and in 1848 took office as Vice-President
of the Board of Trade. In 1851 he obtained a
seat in the Cabinet, and in the following December
succeeded Lord Palmerston as Foreign Secretary. This
post he did not, however, hold for any length of time, as
the Russell Ministry went out of office shortly after-
wards. Earl Granville was appointed President of the
Council in 1853, and in 1855 he undertook the Ministerial
leadership of the House of Lords. In 1859 he was again
chosen President of the Council, and held this post until
the accession of the Conservatives to power. Besides
holding these offices, the Earl of Granville has at different
times acted in the capacity of Master of the Buckhounds,
Paymaster of the Forces, and Treasurer of the Navy.
The order of the Garter was conferred upon him in 1857.
He is Chancellor of the University of London.
Tun SECRETARY ma INDlA.—George Dundas Camp-
bell, Duke of Argyle, was born in 1823, and succeeded to
the peerage at the age of 24. He hail acquired a consider-
able reputation both as a writer and a politician before
he took office. In 1849 he opposed the amendment to the
Address moved by the Earl of Derby, and spoke strongly
in favour of free trade. In 1851 he was elected Chan-
cellor of the University of St. Andrews. He first took
office as Lord Privy Seal in 1852, under Lord Aberdeen,
and retained this post under Lord Palmerston's premier-
ship. In the latter part of 1855 lie resigned the Privy
S9al and became Postmaster-General. In the Palmerston
Cabinet of 1859 his Grace again took the Privy Seal, which
he exchanged for the office of Postmaster-General on
Lord Elgin being sent in 1860 on his second special
mission to China. The duke, however, once more
gravitated to the Privy Seal in the same year. He is
Hereditary Master of the Queen's Household in Scotland,
Chancellor of the University of St. Andrew's, Rector of
the University of Glasgow, a trustee of the British
Museum, and Hereditary Sheriff and Lord-Lieutenant of.
Argyllshire.

THE SECRETARY FOR WAR. The Right Hon. Edward
Cardwell, horn in 1813, was called to the bar in 1838, and
entered Parliament as member for Clitheroo in 1842. He
supported Sir Robert Peel during the great financial
changes of 1845-6, and was returned for Liverpool
in 1847, but lost his seat in 1852. In the following year
he was returned for Oxford, which he has continued to
represent with but a trifling interval. Mr. Cardwell's
official career commenced very shortly after he entered
Parliament. He was Secretary of the Treasury from 1845
to 1846, and President of the Board of Trade under Lord
Aberdeen's coalition Ministry. His term of office in this
capacity was marked by some very. useful reforms. On
Lord Palmerston's return to office in 1859 Mr. Cardwell
accpted the post of Chief Secretary for Ireland. From
July 1861 to 1864 he held the Chancellorship of the Duchy
of Lancaster. On the death of the Duke of Newcastle he
succeeded to the Colonial Secretaryship. This office he
held during the reign of the Liberal Government.
THE TioME SECRETARY.—The Right lion. Henry
Austin Bruce, has risen to a Secretaryship of State after
an unusually short official career. He was born int 1815.
In 1837 he was called to the Bar at Lincoln's Inn, but I
remained in practice only until 1843. He first entered
Parliament as member for Merthyr Tydvil in December
1852, and commenced his official career as Under-Secretary
for the Home Department in November 1862. This post
he held until April 1864, when he was appointed President
of the Board of Health and Vice-President of the Educa-
tion Board of the Privy Council. He thus takes office
as Home Secretary after considerable experience in that

department.
THE CHANCELLOR OF THE EXCHEQUER.—The Right
Hon. Robert Lowe, born in 1811, entered Parliament in
1852, as member for Kidderminster. In 1859 he was
returned for Caine, which he continued to represent up to
the election of the present year. He is now M.P. for the
University of London. For a short time he was one of the
Secretaries of the Board of Control, and in August 1855
was appointed Vice-President of the Board of Trade and
Paymaster-General. On return of the Liberals to
power in 1859 he became Vice-President of the
Education Board, but after a memorable dispute
resigned in 1864. His great reputation as a debater and
politician has been acquired chiefly since his retirement
from office. Mr. Lowe was called to the bar in 1842. In
the same year he went to Australia, where be practised
with much success as a barrister, and sat in the council of
the colony from 1843 to 1850. He was afterwards elected
member for Sydney, returning to England in 1851. _

THE FIRST Lour; OF THE ADMIRALTY.--The Right
Hon. Hugh Culling Eardley Childers, born in 1827, spent
the early years of his political life in Australia. He was a
member of the Government of Victoria from 1851 to 1857,
and held a seat in the 'first Cabinet as a Commissioner of
Trade and Customs. He sat for Portland in the first
Legislative Assembly from 1856 7. In April 1859 he
unsuccessfully contested Pontefract, but his opponent
was unseated on petition, and at another election, in
February 1860, he was returned. He was appointed
a Lord of the Admiralty in 18G4. During the last term
of Isis party in: Opposition he has shewn great financial
capacity, and was considered a probable candidate for the
Chancellorship of the Exchequer; but he returns to the
scene of his first official labours.
THE SECRETARY Fon IRELAND.—The Right Hon.
Samuel Parkinson Chichester-Fortescue was born in
1823, and entered Parliament as member for Louth in
1847. He has continued to represent the same consti-
tuency. He wawa Lord of the Treasury from January
1854 to April 1855. From June 1857 to March 1858 ho was
Under-Secretary for the Colonies, which office be held
throughout Lord Palmerston's Administration. In 1866
ho becaine2:cretary for Ireland.

THE PRESIDENT OF THE BOARD OF TRADE.—The
statesman who- is, with one exception, the most distin-
guished in the Liberal ranks, is also the statesman with
the shortest official history. ilia. John Bright takes office
for the first time. He Is, howeve; -fdptified with the
history of the Liberal party during the laSt thirty years,
and has materially promoted the most important rei.arrng
of the time. Ile distinguished himself lirst in 1839, as one
of the-members of the Nuti-Corn Liw League, and was
returned for Durham in July 1043, after au unsuc-
cessful contest in April. His maiden speech was
murk almost itrny,%liltley after his return, on August

7, the subject beim r. Ewart's motion to extend the
pri lie' pies of free trade. llc afterwards appealed unsuccess-
f idly for the despatch of a royal commission to investigate
the condition of India, and in 1549 was appointed
member of the famous select committee on official salaries.
In 1851 he added his vote to the coalition which
attempted to censure Lord Palmerston in the Pacific
affair, and in 1852 he took a prominent part
in the welcome given to Kossuth by the Liberals of
Lancashire. Mr. Bright denounced the Russian war
with great energy, alienating many of his supporters by
his action on this question. A severe illness compelled
him to retire to the Continent ; but lie expressed his entire
affiproval of the course taken by Mr. Cobden and Mr.
Gibson in moving the vote of censure which produced Lord
Palmerston's appeal to the country. He was elected for
Birmingham in 1857, after representing Manchester since
1847. During the last ten years his great question has
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