New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1883-04-08
THE ENGLISH CABINET.
RECENT CHANGES AND COMING PROBA.
RILITIES.

srRox THE REGULAR CORRESPONDENT OF THE TRIBnNE'l
The Cabinet changes of which hint was given
NO Mr. Gladstone last week are being made with
great deliberation. Two points only are settled.
Lord Spencer mas ceased to be Lord President OF
the Council. and remains in the Cabinet as LORD
tieuteuant of Ireland. Lord Carlingford has
Kissed hands as Lord President OF the Council. NO
sreat commotion followed on these announcements.
II is felt by everybody that the arrangement with
reference to Lord Spencer though unusual, answers
70 the necessities of the times. When he pecamc
yiceroy the appointment was understood 10 oe te'-
porary, or perhaps experimental. lie mas 80 as
charged the duties of his difficult and perous ouce
that nobody dreams of replacing him. and nobody in
the Government would now consent to be withou'
Lord Spencers assistance in the Cabinet as well rs
in Ireland. 1t Is seen to be quite impracti"able
shat the head of the Irish administration. beine'
as he now is. really the head should not have
voice in framing the policy he 10 to carry out.
Perhaps no public reputation has grown SO fapuy
NC Lord Spepcer's. Whcn Mr. Gladstone mace HIN
Lord President of the Council. be was KNOWN
vaguely to the country as a great nobieinan ""o'o
wealth. social position. and dignity OF charac'cr
and bearing fitted him for posi- "hion Lac ,'
come 10 be Thought more ceremonlous tnah poiV
zeal, Time was when the Lord President OF the
Council was the chief hgue among .u0
Kings chief advisers. SO sta'eiy was .ne
Office that the holder OF III was INC 'niu
subject in the realm, only tho AfohpiSnop VI
tf..nterbnrv and the Lord High Chancellor taking
..~..d.rce of him. In point of precedence. it re-
...;rs - hat II was, and hence the rule has been
that the Office should BIO filed by some peer OF high
r.nk and splendor. The great robles OF the King
am, voula IN endure 10 see themselves displaced
a ourt or even In private life by plebeian or by
!. man WHOSE title was new, Of the lower degrees
10 t,e peerare Lord Spencer had everything that
enid grace the post. But when, at critical mo-
m mt he WAS sent to Ireland as Viceroy, not lew
oso,le shook their heads as they dbl when LORD
geseonsneld made the late Lold Mayo Viceroy OF
Miia. In both cases. the men justified the choice
nos de- in Lord Spencers case most brilliantly ana
.c,spletcly His friends knew he had excellent
s,,siuess talents He has applied them TO the work
Of complicated administration in Ireland. lie mas
governed with Judgment, with sound sense Win
6riuness, with resolution. He has begun and car
red out policy of his own. already indicated Dy
sosults and full of promise for the future. don
think the public has yet given Lord Spencer iuii
credit for the selfsacrice Involved in this work.
u,aa in the prime of life and health. with every
thing to make life attractive fond of society of sport
Of country life. surrounded in London and In the
ceuntry ,rh every delightful circumstance, pop
MAR. be- veC-debcrately renounces all that he has
most carea for takes up the endless and thankless
wo,k of governing Ireland, and pursues 1t day
after day for q pure and single sense of duty with
the imminent probability of being murdered at his
most Failure would have discredted him. Success
e.n give him little he cares for beyond the con-
sciousness of great task greatly performed
Lord Carlingford ia man whom the opinion OF
his order will not welcome Lord President of the
Conncil. but will tolerate. His peerage is of the
s,rt called prand-new, but something Will be par
aoned to him because of long political service and
rolitical responsibility. He has twice been Chief
Secretary for Ireland, then president OF the Board
of Trade, holding these and other offices as MI
Chichester Fortescue. 1t may be said OF HIM that
be belonged to that Wing hierarchy whose pre-
seriptive claim to the possession vi such good thng
an are going IT, in these days, so rudey challenged
by rising Radicals 1t may be said of him also that
one of his chief claims to distraction consisted III
his being the husband of Lady Waldegrave, the
last Of the female chiefs OF the Wings; woman
whose memoirs If they exist, and could be pub
lsded. would be of SURPRISING interest. If Lady
Wsldegrave had been living in 1850, when Mr
Gladstone formed his administration. 1t IS pretty
cafe 70 say that place in the Cabinet wouid nave
beer found tor Lord Carlingford. The Omission
was excused On the ground Of Lord CarllngfordS
;Il health: a pretext which thai nObleman raced
hotu, from the Continent 10 pronounce utterly
fase.ess by way Of compensation he was offered
first the Governor Generalshp of India and next the
Embassy at Constantinvple; both OF which he de-
siipe6 In April, 1881 the Duke of Argyll, unable
to 1--WE his support to the Irish Land BILL resigned
The Privy Seal and Lord Carlingford was drawn
forth from his retirement to replace the MacCallum
More Few appointments have moIe surprised the
political world. 1t was defended on the ground
,ha, Lord CarlIngford understood Ireland, and that
snsh a man was needed to pilot the Land bill
tbreugh hostile House of Lords. True enough, he
haa been Chief Secretary for Ireland, but OF the
ilotsee of the Land bill in the Lords, the less said
the hotter.
What was wautcd at that moment In the upper
house was man, first of ALL who could speak
n ord gfvrd could not. man with some
povei of persuasion. with tact, with grasp OF the
principles and intricate details swarmlng IN the
Lard bill-with energy and patient courage. might
have carried that bill through the upper chamber,
md s,cpred its acceptance without all the emascu'
iatin and mutilation it underwent In Lord Car
lin, fc rd's hands. Among the hardened ofncehold-
ers 81 the past. there was no such person then
aysa. .ble but among the younger men OF the party
there was at least who had in high degree the
ousYaies have named. To intrust SO difficult
bus mess TO so young man as Lord Rossbery. then
without official duties, might have seemed to
way Primo Minister hazardous experiment.
Bat q. least 1t would have been an experiment. IL
had possibility, and most men would have said.
great probability, of success while Lord CARING
ford was foredoomed to failure LORD Rosebery,
tuoreover, could have had behind him then, as he
has now, the enthusiastic support OF one powerful
section of the United Kingdom; and the Govern
u,ent was then in a position where no access OF
devotion could be despised. But IL was not to DO.
Scotland would have iung with cheers IL Lord
Rosebery had been asked to take Office England.
which knows less of his remarkable abilities and
power of despatchng business would have received
t,s name with hopeful interest. Nobody, If the
lain truth must be spoken, cared two straws
about Lord Carlingford; or nobody outside OF the