Birmingham age-herald., 1895-03-17
As Speaker of the House of Ccm-
 mous2 The Question
NOW AGITATING ENGLAND
menian AtroCities-The Teie- graph Service Scandal |.
 Given an Airing.


 LONDON, March 16.-The great interest which has been aroused in the question of
 the election of a new speaker to succeed
 the Rt. Hon. Arthur Welesly Peel has be-
 come heightened somewhat since it is
 known that the retirement of Speaker Peel aud the selection of his successor is likely
 to involve change iu the personnel of the
 cabinet. II Sir William Harcourt should
 succeed in persuading his colleagues to &C.,
 cept his nominee for the speakership. MT. Leonard H. Courtney, who occupied the
 position of deputy speaker from 1886 to | 1892. the situation would be made less com plicated. Mir. Courtney, it is believed, would be able to secure the chair in a struggle against the conceded nominee of l the conservatives, MT. Matthew White | Ridley. Among the radicals there is a | feeling against MT. Courtney, but, although l this feeling is strong, it IS not sufficiently | bitter to afford any material assistance to | tue opposition in electing a speaker. Sir | William Harcourt is so greatly interested in ihe candidacy of MT. Courtney that he | has personally canvassed the radical sec ton of the house of com mons in his behalf against MT. H. Campbell Ban herman, whose election is really desired by ma jority of the ministerial party.
 Gossip in the lobby of the house of com
 mons has associated Sir William Harcourt's
 interference in behalf of MT. Courtney against Mir. Zimmerman with personal inclination to secure the speakership for himself, but if the candidacy of the chan celIor of the exchequer has ever been en- tertained the idea has been confined to himself, as he is regarded as wholly im- practicable. Apart from the fact that he is | 68 years of age, and the additional fact that !! his defective eye sight is getting worse, he has other physical disa abilities which would render it impossible for him to discharge the duties of the speakership. The speaker is sometimes compelled to sit at his post six hours without intermission, and this would be impossible for Sir William. However, since majority of the memb bers oi the cabine, have selected MT. Campbell Zimmerman as their candidate for speaker and that gentleman has accepted the nom- nation. 1t appears to be settled that he will be the next incumbent of the office. Thus the matter appears to De settied. The opposition, rank and file, admit the eminent fitness of the present secretary of state for war for the place, and. it is quite probable that his nomination will be made unanimous.
 MT. Gladstone intimates that he will
 make his reappearance in parliament on t-the occasion of MT. Peel's retirement, as n tribute to the retiring speaker. EThe Chronicle in an article on the proba- bili.ies of the succession to the speakership forecasts the arrangement Of the cabinet in the event of Mir. Campbell. BannerInan's election, which it regards as almost cer- tain. The assignments, according to the article, are as follows:
 MT. Henry Fowler, at present secretary for India, secretary for war; MT. John Morley, chief secretary for Ireland, secre- tary of state for India; MT. Herbert Glad stone, first commissioner of works, chief secretary for Ireland.
 It is pretty certain, however, that if this programme is carried out the Irish nation alists will vebemently oppose the substitu- tion Of young MT. Gladstone for MT. Morley. The suggesiio on of the retirement of Mir. Morley from the Irish secretaryship and the withdrawal of MT. Campbell Ban
 herman from the war office at this juncture, however, may so threaten to disturb the ministry that change will be caused in
 the selection of a speakership candidate. Mir. Peel's resignation will not be sub mitted until the return of the queen from the continent.
 MT, Hugh Everand Hoare, radical mem- Der of parliament for Cambridgeshire, west, and other anti-Turkish members in the radical section, have recently been try ing to obtain the publication of a collection of dispatches from Hallward, British vice. cons ul at Van, in regard to the Armenian atrocities. The Armenian association pro-
 fesses to have learned that Mir. Hallward
 dilates upon the Armenian horrors, not as
 incidents, but as evidence ofthe increase of
 their brutalizing influence upon the Arme-
 nians themselves.
 The foreign office has refused to cause the
 publication of the dispatches, on the ground
 that their publicity would prejudice the
 case already under investigation by the
 Armenian commission of inquiry. Mir.
 Haiward seems to have lent an ear to the
 Armenians, who, the correspondent of the
 Telegraph at Kers says, are .'gifted with
 faculty of exuberant lying far beyond any
 other people, and are ready to invent san
 guinary battles and blood curdling massa-
 cres to degree of coherence and plausibil-
 ity that would put Falstaff to biush.n
 The Speakers correspondent at Con
 face and reappears in the Speaker in let
 ter, in which he reasserts the statements
 of 'sa disting nguished man, than whom no-
 body living has closer Knowledge of Arr
 menia, and who has moral and intellectual
 qualities entitling him to implicit confi-
 dence.'
 This is a preamble to a statement on the
 part of the "distinguished man" that the
 belief gains ground that the authorities in
 Constantinople have no serious intention
 10 intervene in Armenia, and that if per-
 sistent agitation fails the fate of the Ar
 menians and all Christians in Turkey Is
 sealed. The political bias of the letter is
 so obvious as to deprive the Armenians of
 whatever value the alleged facts regarding
 their situation have collected.
 The long suppressed scandal concerning
 the subsidies, which newspaper proprietors
 drew from the postal department through
 the system of press telegraphy, has ob- the recent congress of the chambers of
 commerce.
 Tie postmaster general having stated
 that upon the face of the official returns
 the annual loss upon press telegrams was