New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1905-12-22

Minister has not suffered in this way. Out of
Cabinet of nineteen only seven have ever been
in the inner circle before: and two of them, the
Marquis OF Ripon and Sir Henry Fowler, have
been put off with honorary appointments.
Twelve Cabinet seats for rising men on the Lib
eral side, and a score of ministerial posts and
under secretaryships outside! What an exhila-
rating prospect for ambitious youth in a country
where no politician under sixty is accounted
middle aged! Is it strange that the Prime Min
listers work should be considered fresh, original
and interesting, when he has so much scope for
discoveries and inventions? Mr. Herbert Glad
stone has gone UP to the Home Office, Mr..
Buxton has become Postmaster General. Mr..
Harcourt Commissioner of Works. Captain Sim
clair Secretary for Scotland and Lord Caring
ton president of the Board of Agriculture; Mr..
Lloyd-George, who by his wit has kept the Lib
eral table ION the roar during decade OF de-
preston, finds himself president of the Board of
Trade at forty-two-a year younger than the
new Foreign Secretary; Mr.. John Burns. III
blue serge suit and bowler hat, makes his way
to the palace to kiss hands on his appointment
as president of the local government board. and
tomorrow will be receiving delegations of the
unemployed; and Mr. Winston Churchill, with
pack of middle aged youngsters at his heels Is
knocking at the ministerial door. Why should
any one marvel over the Prime Minister'S sue
cess in shaking up the dry bones of Liberalism
and bringing so many men upon the stage,
among them the first representative of labor in
a British Cabnet7 There has been an interval
of ten years for the "old gang to rust out or
die out.
The new Cabinet is democratic not merely
from having sturdy John Burns at the local
government board, where he can give fresh
flip TO municipal socialism in borough and
shire, but also because only six of the nineteen
members in the House of Lords the new
Lord Chancellor on the woolsack being one of
them. The Liberal peers muster hardly
more than a bakers dozen for an ordinary de-
bate, and they have chance of outvoting the
Tory Lords on any party question. The court
positions be filled in conformity with prece-
dent. According to a current report the Hon
Robert Spencer, Lord Spencer's half brother and
heir, is to be raised to the peerage under the
style of Lord Althorp. in order to become Lord
Chamberlain; Lord Ribblesdale is available for
Master of the Horse, and a Lord Steward can
be found on the Liberal side after still hunt
The Office of Mistress of the Robes Is more diff
cult, since precedent requires her to be a Ouch
ess. or at least marchioness but the Dowager
Duchess of Roxburghe is already mentioned as
the Duchess of Buccleuch's successor. The So
cial enbarrassnents are less serious than the
political difficulties The upper chamber has
become so lopsided that the Liberals cannot hope
to carry reform measures without readjust-
ment of the balance of power in the stronghold
of Toryism. The creation of large number of
Radical peers is hardly practicable; and no po-
ltical leader is prepared to propose the restric-
ton of the legislative privileges of the peers to
selected groups somewhat the Law Lords
exercise the rights of final court of appeal
The Grand Old Man seemed to foresee a crisis Of
this sort when the Home Rule bill was finally
rejected by the House Of Lords after the country
in eli ha6
but his strength spent and he shrank from
raising the question of the reform of the upper
house. It's urgency has increased when Lib
eral Prime Minister find only five men of
Cabinet rank among the Lords. I. n. F.