Mr. Disraeli thus attains the object towards which he has
been working for thirty-one long years. It is, we believe, thirty-four since he informed Lord Melbourne that he intended to be Prime Minister of England, and thirty since he sat down amid the sneers ' of the House of Commons with the remark that the time would come when they should hear him. Almost his first act on receipt of Her Majesty's instructions to form a Cabinet was to send Lord Chelmsford—whom, it is said, he has never forgiven for his opposi- tion to the Jewish Emancipation Bill—a curt intimation that his name would not be included in the Ministry, and his next to offer the Woolsack to Lord Cairns, who has accepted it, let us hope not as a determined Orangeman. Mr. Disraeli appears at first to have intended to keep the Chancellorship of the Exchequer, but subsequently abandoned the idea, and offered either that post or the India House to Lord Cranborne. The offer was declined, and rather to the surprise of old politicians, the Chancellorship was bestowed on Mr. Ward Hunt, a strong-headed man and a lucid speaker, with great influence among squires, but a man who under our imbecile system of promotion by seniority is rather young (forty-three) for so high an office. Overtures have also been pressed on Lord Carnarvon and General Peel, but have been declined; and it is understood that Mr. Walpole, Minister without portfolio or salary, also retiree. It is believed that either Mr. Sclater-Booth, a gentleman who has not succeeded very well as Secretary to the Poor Law Board, or Lord Robert Montagu, will be the new Secretary to the Treasury.
