The Sun.
London, England, 1868-11-30 00:00:00

LO.SDON, OKAY, NOV. 30, 1868.

Within half a dozen returns yet to be received, the
General Election may be declared to be already com-
pleted. Of the 658 members, in other words, 652
have been chosen. According to the Times 383 of these
are Liberals, while 269 are Conservatives. Accord-
ing to the Standard the numbers are 273 Conserva-
tives against 379 Liberals. So that the Constitu-
tionalists acknowledge themselves, through their
principal organ, to be in a minority of 106,
while, on the other hand, the Opposition claim
to have obtained a clear majority over their
antagonists of 114. However this may be, and how-
ever the result may prove in regard to these last half
dozen seats yet to be definitively filled in, there can
be small room for doubt any longer that the House
will meet in December with a clear 1 reponderance of
just over 100 on the side of the Opposition, or
against the Government. So indisputable is this as
the result of the recent appeal to the country that
not only is the problem of the Irish Church regarded
as virtually solved, but wholly unauthorised pro-
grammes are being put forth as to the construction
of the in-coming Administration. Without waiting
for the resignation of her MAJESTY'S Ministers, the
more sanguine of the personal adherents of the Leader
of the Opposition, are complacently distributing, itt
his name, the principal offices of State in the Cabinet
now regarded by them as inevitable and that
immediately under his premiership. Mr. GLADSTONE,
one very confident political prophet asserts, will be
Prime Minister before Christmas. Another, hardly
less confident, declares that Lord GRANVILLE is to be
his president of the Council, and of course Leader of
the Lords—that the Duke of ARGYLL is to be the
Future Lord Privy Seal that either Lord
KIMBERLEY or Sir HENRY BULWER will be thej new
Foreign Secretary—either the Lord Chief Justice
(ALEXANDER COCKBURN) or the Lord Justice of
Appeal (PAGE WOOD) the new Lord Chancellor—
Mr. W. E. FORSTER the Colonial Secretary—Mr.
CIIILDERS the Chancellor of the Exchequer, and
so forth. Another, quite assured in his knowledge
of what is to be, and that immediately, announces it
as a thing fully decided upon, that Mr. BRIGHT will
take no office whatever, but that an entirely new ad-
ministrative department will be inaugurated by Mr.
LOWE, in the capacity of Minister of Educa-
tion or Secretary of State for Public Instruc-
tion, or whatever else the projected office may
receive as its designation. Now in all these
'orecasts of a future Cabinet having Mr. GLADSTONE
at its bead as First Lord of the Treasury.
there can be little doubt, on the one hand, that., as a
matter of fact, they are premature, and yet, on the
other hand, as a matter of conjecture simply, that they
ire i❑ many instances in the highest degree probable.
There can be small question for instance to begin
with that in the event of Mr. DISRAELI'S resignation,
eoupled with the event also of her MAJESTY'S accept-
►nce of his resignation, her MAJESTY would—
we were going to say, her MAJESTY in reason
cluld but—send for the Leader of the Opposition in
~he House of Commons, and for no other, to the end
,f his forming, upon a broad and comprehensive basis,

t new and Liberal Administration. And for this very
reasort, thatpreciselyas, in tlic General Election
of 1865, the Liberal Party went to the country with