Keriew of Review, 20iH06. 



Character Sketches. 



*55 



Photograph by] Lord Tweedmouth, \E. 



First Lord of the Admiralty. 



H. Mills. 



Photograph by] 



Mr. Sydney B'ixt-on. 



Postmaster-General. 



[E. H. Mills 



questions Mr. Morley and Mr. Bryce, on Social 

 questions Mr. Asquit'h, Mr. John Burns and Lord 

 Carrington, on matters of education Mr. Birrell and 

 Mr. Lloyd-George, on Colonial and Indian ques- 

 tions Lord Elgin, Mr. Morley and Mr. Brvce, with 

 assistance from Sir Robert Reid. All these are, 

 however, but vain speculation, and all such fore- 

 casts may be falsified by the result. But so far 

 as can be seen, the practical work of governing the 

 Empire from day to day will fall chiefly upon half 

 a dozen men. It is easier to say who will be out- 

 side than to name those who will be within. 



The general impression produced by the Cabinet 

 as a whole is distinctly good. There are a sufficient 

 number of old stagers to give it continuity, but they 

 are too few to make the Cabinet a mere revival of 

 an old company. Even his opponents admit that 

 Sir Henry has done his work very well. The Cabi- 

 net is a trifle large mayhap. Sir H. Fowler and 

 Lord Ripon might have been left out without detri- 

 ment, and there was no obvious necessity for in- 

 cluding Captain Sinclair and Mr. Sydney Buxton in 

 the Cabinet. But that is immaterial. The im- 

 portant thing is that many capable men, who have 

 never had their innings, have now a change to show 

 what they can do at the wickets. Mr. Haldane, for 

 instance, will be afforded an opportunitv of proving 

 his quality in other than the subterranean fashion 

 he has hitherto affected. Mr. Herbert Gladstone 

 may display some of the eloquence and debating 

 ability of his father, and Mr. John Burns, Mr. Llovd- 

 George and Mr. Winston Churchill, the famous 

 free-lances of the Opposition, will show how they 

 can run in harness. On the whole, the country 



regards the new Administration in an attitude of 

 curious expectancy. It was so thoroughlv bored by 

 the old troupe that it was prepared to welcome 

 almost any change in the cast. Now that there is 

 an actual tangible Liberal Administration in being, 

 its curiosity is mingled with pleasant surprise. If 

 Mr. Balfour imagined that by his precipitate Minis- 

 terial suicide he would embarrass the Liberals he 

 must be already convinced of his mistake. If he 

 had dissolved instead of resigning, he and his fol- 

 lowers would have gone to the country declaring 

 that the Liberals were so split up by personal and 

 political differences they never could form an alter- 

 native Government. By resigning instead of dis- 

 solving he has spiked 'that gun. Even if other 

 things had been equal, the constituencies would 

 prefer the new team. 



The chief place in the Cabinet belongs incontest- 

 ably to its titular chief. The honours of the new 

 Administration are his to a degree which must seem 

 almost inconceivable to the Jingoes who for years 

 past have been declaring that the country would 

 never stand a C.-B. Administration. It is now seen 

 that Sir Henry is the chief element of strength in 

 the new Government. It is emphatically a C.-B. 

 Government — not a C.-B. Government as the 1880 

 Cabmet was a Gladstone Government, for in that 

 Cabinet Mr. Gladstone was first and the rest were 

 nowhere. C.-B. has no claim to the immense in- 

 tellectual and moral ascendency of Mr. Gladstone. 

 Nevertheless, he has created a Cabinet in which he 

 is easily supreme. He is the hub of the Cabinet. 

 All the spokes centre in him. And he is the hub 

 because he is the solidest, most seasoned, best bal- 



