25 MAY 1889, Page 2

We note with regret the death of Lord Malmesbury, the

late Lord Derby's Foreign Minister. He was supposed, when ap- pointed, to be entirely incompetent, and, in fact, to be the Premier's French amanuensis. He was in reality a keen man of the world, who talked in slipshod sentences and wrote bad grammar, but who thoroughly understood the great per- sonages of Europe, and what they wanted. He had, in fact, the insight into character which is the first qualification of a diplomatist, and is sometimes found in men not otherwise gifted in any other way. His autobiography, called " Memoirs of an Ex-Minister," published in 1884, suddenly. .cleared his

reputation, revealing, as it did, a man of keen observation, steady mind, and unusual power of sub-satiric humour.