The North-Eastern Weekly Gazette. — 1888-09-15 (Stockton-on-Tees, Cleveland, England)

UNPOPULAR MINISTERS.  Ma MATTHEWS i 9 the most luckless Home Secretary that we have had since poor Mr Walpole's time. Even when he is occasionally right he always makes himself leo'r wrong ; when he has no responsibility he is attacked ; and whatever happens seems, some way or another, to he lilt fault. He was not responsible for the magistrate who gave the ridiculous lecture to :NI itql Cass, but be, nevertheless, got greater blame than the original offender. He did not appoint Sir Charles Warren, but all the friction which has arisen from that appointment is laid at his door. In regard to Trafalgar - square he was over - ruled by the Cabinet. But he gets the kicks, and his colleagues get the ha'pence, if there are any going. And now that his police have failed to discover the murde-er of four miserably wretched women in Whitechapel, the very !Unionist journals turn round and demand his dismissal. The cry gathers volume because things have been going forward at Scotland Yard which have been inaccurately represented, no doubt, but which nobody yet understands.  Ma MArrnEws suffers not so much from his actual blunders as from the general feeling that he is not the man for the place. some of us do not see how he is responsible for the failure to discover a murderer who has left no clue. But he is blamed all the same. His existence at the Home Office is a weakness to the Government. He is regarded as deficient in that undefinable quality which generally goes by the name of sagacity. What is worse for him, perhaps, is that he seems always to be taking a holiday when anything happens in London. He was on his holiday when the Trafalgar-squire business began. He is on his holiday now that London is stirred by the Whitechapel murders.  • • Ms SNITFett occupation of his present post was intended from tho first to be only templrary. He undertook the work at the solicitation of others, and certainly since the close of the session last year he has continued to perform it considerably against his own will. As soon as it became evident last session that a number of the Conservatives had grown discontented with his leadership his early retirement became absolutely certain, and the exact date became merely a question of convenience. There is reason to believe that a pretty clear understanding in these matters was arrived at between Mr ieütli and the Prime Minister before the close of the recent session, and even before the memorable meeting at the Foreign Office. It is practically certain that lie will meet the House of Commons at the commencement of ! the autumn session as First Lord of the Treasury. It is almost equally certain that before the meeting of Parliament next year the Conservatives in the House of Commons will have been provided with another leader, and the strength of the Government in the House of Lords will have received an interesting accession. I am assured that whatever changes may he made in the Home Secretaryship and—as a conseluence—in sundry minor offices in the Government, Mr Smith's position will be wholly unaffected. When he retires it will be in pursuance of an old-standing arrangement which relates solely to the leadership of the House, and a succesl-or will be ready to step into his shoes who is as much in the secret as to the understanding as Mr Smith is himself.