It would seem, however, that the late Commissioner is not
responsible for the grave lapse of discipline in the force under his command. We infer this, apart from our own strong con- viction that he has been an excellent Commissioner, from the fact that Sir Edward Henry has been elevated to a baronetcy and thanked for his services. The presumption is, therefore, that Sir Edward Henry had pressed the reasonable demands of his men upon the Home Secretary and the War Cabinet and had been put off with excuses. Nothing but clamour, it seems, will move the present Government ; it is no Minister's business to foresee the obvious consequences of trifling with requests that are made quietly and soberly by so important a body as the Metropolitan Police. As for the appointment of Generil Macready, who will, we are sure, make a very good Commissioner, it is unfortunate that semi-official statements should have had to be put forth, asserting that his removal from the War Office had nothing to do with his recent dispute with the Select Committee on Expenditure whose recommendations he had flouted. The semi-official contradiction illustrates the suspicion with which many people, rightly or wrongly, regard this singular episode.
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