NEWS OF THE WEEK.
5/R. GOSCHEN has not been gazetted yet, but there appears to 1. be no doubt of his appointment to the Duchy of Lancaster, or of the extreme irritation the selection has caused among the subor- dinate members of the Administration. It was even reported early in the week that Mr. Layard had resigned, had been offered a seat in the Privy Council, and had rejected that somejvhat empty dignity, but the report has since been denied. Mr. Layard's course is of no earthly importance to anybody except himself and the electors of Southwark, but we protest against the assumption that the Government is a " service " in which people are to rise by seni- ority. It is bad enough that the ruling committee should be selected only from the six hundred and odd gentlemen who can contrive to please constituencies, but if it is also to be limited to the two dozen men in minor office, we may bid farewell to origi- nality. As well say that ten years of prose-writing give a man a claim to the Poet Laureateship.
