Mr. Lyon Playfair has announced his intention on the meet-
ing of Parliament to resign his post as Chairman of Com- mittees, mainly on the ground of ill-health, partly, no doubt, that a new Chairman may start fair with the new Rules of Proce- dure, and without the dead-weight with which his one serious mistake of last Session would have handicapped himself. It is said that the House will be asked to elect Sir Arthur Otway as Chairman of Committees in his place. We suppose that this appointment is suggested because Sir Arthur Otway, who re- signed his post of Under-Secretary for Foreign Affairs in Mr. Gladstone's first government, on the ground of disapproving its foreign policy, is regarded as an impartial man by both parties, and one, therefore, whom the- Conservatives would be likely to trust with the administration of the new Standing Orders. Mr. Gladstone announced last Session his wish to raise the character of the office of Chairman of Committees and Deputy-Speaker to one rather nearer the level of authority with which the Speaker himself is invested, and Sir Arthur Otway will be the first of these weightier Deputy-Speakers.
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