source of strength. He is a level-headed man, of good judgment, no temper, and with an intellectual apparatus which, although slow, is within its range almost as automatically exact as Babbage's calculating machine. The late Tzar, who was no bad judge of men, recognised the sterling qualities of Lord Hartington long before he had gained recognition among his own countrymen, and nothing more grieved Alexander III., in surveying the future of English politics, than the fact that the Home Rule split had deprived the Liberal Party of the one man of all others whom the Tzar would most have wished to see Prime Minister of England.

MR. BALFOUR.

After Lord Salisbury, Mr. Chamberlain and the Duke of Devonshire, it seems absurd to mention Mr. Balfour, who in many respects is the most important man of the four. But no absurdity in the order of mention can obscure the important position which Mr. Balfour holds in his uncle's Cabinet. Mr. Balfour is not the man who hankers for place, power or position. He is, take him all in all, probably the best all-round member in the House of Commons-the best liked, the best tempered, and the best leader of the House. In saying this I am saying nothing that would not be endorsed by all of his political opponents who have been long enough in the House of Commons to know what is what and who is who. Although Mr. Gladstone was a great leader in debate, he was never a first-class leader of the House. Sir William Harcourt led the House fairly well. He has, indeed, done much better than most people expected under the circumstances; but there is no comparison between him and Mr. Balfour. It is a rare good fortune of the First Lord of the Treasury in the new Administration to have lived down the intense animosity and antipathy with which he was regarded by those who did not know him, excepting as the author of Coercion in Ireland. Even in the heat of the conflict, when it was almost high treason in the Liberal Party to admit that the "base, bloody, brutal Balfour" was other than a fiend incarnate, the leaders of the Liberals, Mr. Gladstone and Mr. Morley and others, never wavered in their personal esteem for the young statesman. Their verdict has now been approved by the party generally. No man stands higher in the opinion of the Liberal Party than does Mr. Arthur Balfour. And this is not because of any leaning on his part towards their views. It is the personal equation which counts. Mr. Balfour's very defects tell in his favour. There is a certain easy-going indifference-a philosophy that savours of a certain apartnesswhich gives a peculiar charm to all that he says and does. He is always distinguished by a rare chivalry and a perfect candour which make him quite one of the most ideal characters in modern politics. In the new Parliament he will gain by having Mr. Chamberlain as a foil and background wherewith to show off his urbanity, his courtesy and his genial contempt for many of the small things which agitate small minds in the House of Commons. Mr. Balfour's memory is not as good as it might be; he is not as diligent as some of us could desire; his ability to abstain entirely from all reading of the newspapers, while it exhibits a singular amount of self-confidence and originality, indicates an absence of that intensity of interest with which most men follow public events. His judgment is good, his manner perfect, his sympathies are wide, and if it be that he is somewhat wanting in passion it would be a mistake to confuse the easy debonair manner of the man with indifference to those greater questions which affect the welfare of men and

of nations. If Arthur Balfour were any one but Arthur Balfour the odds would be heavy against his being able to get on with Mr. Chamberlain, but as he is Arthur Balfour it is easy enough. The only mortal sin which he has committed in recent times was when he succumbed to the temptation of embarrassing the Government by opposing the erection of a statue to Oliver Cromwell. No doubt there is not much in common between the stalwart Puritan who hewed off the head of Charles Stuart and the graceful and fascinating author who wrote "The Defence of Philosophic Doubt," but for all that the line he took on that occasion was unworthy and entirely out of keeping with Arthur Balfour's better self.

II. THE GARNISHING OF THE PEERS. The new Cabinet as at first constituted contained, as might have been expected, a majority of Peers. This was but right, and in accordance with the nature of things. Government by Lord Salisbury means government by the House of Lords, and government by the House of Lords it will be, even though Lord Salisbury at the last moment added two additional Commoners to his Cabinet to redress the balance. If the constituencies return a majority of Members pledged to support Lord Salisbury, they declare they wish the country to be governed, for the time being, in accordance with the will of the House of Lords, rather than in accordance with the will of the people as expressed in the late House of Commons. Lord Salisbury therefore naturally packs his Cabinet with Peers, some of whom are notable enough in their way, but none of whom will influence materially the decisions of the Cabinet. The grey matter of the brain dwells in the four Ministers of whom I have already spoken. Among the Peers let us give the first place to Sir Henry James, whose new title has not yet been officially announced.

SIR HENRY JAMES.

Sir Henry James is a little man of considerable ability who has never quite achieved first rank. He has done good service for his country, especially in passing the Corrupt Practices Act, by which bribery, treating, and the grosser forms of intimidation were practically banished from our electoral contests. His judgment has always been esteemed, even by those who are opposed to him, excepting when strong constitutional prejudice stood in the way of impartial consideration of the merits of the case. He shares with Mr. Balfour the distinction, if such it be, of being one of the two bachelors in the Cabinet; but, unlike Mr. Balfour, who has spoken and voted in favour of woman's suffrage, Sir Henry James has always been as bitter an adversary of female franchise as it is possible for a man to be whose nature is singularly devoid of gall. His training has been that of a lawyer; and although from time to time he has done good service in politics, he has always been a lawyer rather than a statesman. In 1885, the year of the great disruption, he wrenched himself apart from his colleagues, who wished to make him Lord Chancellor, and from that time, beyond an occasional appearance in the unfamiliar arena of London municipal politics, he has not been much to the front, excepting as an opponent of Home Rule. He is one of the elderly men of the Cabinet, having already completed his sixtyseventh year, and age has brought with it its infirmities; otherwise he would probably have been sent to the Home Office, where his judicial frame of mind and his familiarity with business would possibly have made him a success. Unfortunately, however, his health is failing, and it was

necessary to find him a position where the work would not be too severe a task upon his energics. Therefore he has been made Chancellor of the Duchy and a kind of honorary judicial adviser of the Government in the House of Lords.

THE LORD CHANCELLOR.

Lord Halsbury comes next in order as the occupant of the Woolsack. Lord Salisbury is faithful to his old friends, and therefore Lord Halsbury is Chancellor once more. Sir Richard Webster, who is once more Attorney-General, was at one time talked of as the most likely person to occupy the Woolsack under the new Administration. Lord Halsbury, however, was not disposed to waive his claims. From a political point of view probably Lord Halsbury does not count as a debater; but there is no need for much debate in

LORD HALSBURY.

(Photograph by Elliott and F.y.)

establish a modus vivendi with the Duke of Devonshire and Mr. Goschen. He is not a stranger to the War Office, for he acted as Under Secretary for War from 1872 to 1874 He was a fairly successful Governor-General for Canada, a position which he occupied before his translation to India. His presence in the Salisbury Cabinet adds to its strength in many directions-in all directions, it may be said, excepting one: he contributes nothing to its driving force.

LORD CROSS.

Lord Cross has reappeared; for Lord Salisbury, as already noted, is loath to part with old friends. Lord Cross was Home

Secretary under Disraeli, Home Secretary in Lord Salisbury's first Administration, Secretary of State for India in his second, and in his third he is Lord Privy Seal. Whether Home Secretary, India Secretary, or Lord Privy Seal, it is probable that Lord Cross's most important function is that of being Member for Her Majesty. The Queen curiously

Bannerman at a rather critical and important time, is a Liberal Unionist, but his severance from his party dates long prior to the introduction of the Home Rule Bill. Lord Lansdowne has been notable in recent years for two things. He was one of the landlords most vehemently attacked during the Plan of Campaign in the Irish troubles, and he has quite recently returned from occupying the responsible position of Viceroy of India.

LORD LANSDOWNE.

(Photograph by Elliott and Fry.)

Lord Lansdowne is not a showy states an or a dashingly brilliant administrator. He is a quiet man with a steady head, much more convinced of the dangers of plunging than he is conscions of the mischief which may follow a policy of inertia. As a Viceroy in India he was fairly successful; as a landlord in Ireland he is one of the few who have shown, especially on his Kerry estates, that all landlords in Ireland are not unmiudful of the duties and responsibilities of their position. At the War Office one of his first duties will be to provide a successor to the Duke of Cambridge, and immediately afterwards to endeavour to

strong personal predilection for the two Ministers who have obtained Cabinet

LORD CROSS.

(Photograph by Elliott and Fry.)

position from the ranks of the solicitors. Lord Cross came first, but he was rivalled on the Liberal side by Sir Henry Fowler. Lord Cross is one of the veterans of the Cabinet, being over seventy-two. He may be regarded as a kind of honorific supernumerary.

LORD CADOGAN.

(Photograph by Elliott and Fry.)

1885, it was the Viceroy, Lord Carnarvon, who represented Ireland in the Cabinet. The same arrangement has been reverted to in the case of Lord Cadogan. He

is only fifty-five years

of age. He occupied

a seat in the House of Commons for a short time, and sat in the second Salisbury Cabinet from 1887 to 1892. He is chiefly known in London as one of the great ground landlords of Chelsea, which he represents on the London County Council. He possesses

the first indispensable requisite of an Irish Viceroy, in that he has a large private fortune which he can spend, if he thinks fit, in maintaining Royal State at Dublin Castle.

LORD BALFOUR OF BURLEIGH.

The last peer to be noticed is Lord Balfour of Burleigh, He is the Minister of

Scotland, and has the mono
distinction, if it be
such, of being the only
peer of the Cabinet
who is not considered
sufficiently important
to be mentioned in the
last edition of "Men
and Women of the
Time."

III.-COMMONERS

IN THE CABINET. Leaving the House of Lords, we turn to the House of Commons. The only surprise in the Cabinet was the appointment of Sir Matthew White Ridley as Home Secretary. Anything, of course,

LORD BALFOUR OF BURLEIGH.

(Photograph by Elliott and Fry.)

is better than that Mr. Matthews should have had another term of office as Home Secretary, but few persons ever imagined that Sir Matthew White Ridley would be selected for the post.

SIR MATTHEW W. RIDLEY.

He comes of a Northumbrian family, which has often been represented in the House of Commons. The fact that he was regarded by his party as the best man for the Speakership is the best possible credential as to his popularity with the Conservatives, but whether or not he can be a Home Secretary up to the standard of his predecessor, Mr. Asquith, is somewhat doubtful. Mr. Asquith is a thin, spare man, who works like a steam engine, and has plenty of "drive" Sir Matthew is a comfortable gentle

SIR MATTHEW WHITE RIDLEY. (Photograph by Elliott and Fry.)

man who is by no means spare, and who will probably slow up the Home Office all round to the great relief of many malefactors in various industries.

LORD GEORGE

HAMILTON.

Lord George Hamilton, who, I suppose, will vacate his seat as Chairman of the London School Board, is appointed Secretary of State for India. He acquitted himself well in the last Administration, as First Lord of the Admiralty. He is connected by marriage with Lord Lansdowne. The question as to what is to be done with Chitral is one which will at once come before him for decision. His predecessor decided to evacuate it. Lord Lansdowne, with Lord Roberts and the Government of India at his back, are in favour of occupying it. Lord George's views are as yet not known.

MR. CHAPLIN.

LOD GEORGE HAMILTON.

(Photograph by Stereoscopic Co.)

Mr. Henry Chaplin appears somewhat oddly as the President of the Local Government Board. Mr. Chaplin, it is believed, would have preferred to have been Minister of Agriculture, but he has committed himself so uncompromisingly against the bill, giving security to farmers for their unexhausted improvements, that it was found necessary to shunt him to a department where his views on agricultural tenure guld not bring him into collision with the decisions of a party. His appointment at the Local Government bard, if it means anything, means an attempt to re-adin d the rates, so as to relieve the landed interest. Mrhaplin is a typical country gentleman, fond of spor avery opinionated, with private fads of his own, the shape of Bimetallism, and other heresies, in which he is kept in countenance by Mr. Balfour. If Mr. Chaplin were Prime Minister, he would probably re-impose the Corn Laws, make silver legal tender, and bring England to a revolution or bankruptcy, perhaps to both, within six months of his accession to office. As he is only appointed to the Local Government Board, where he can do no harm, Lord Salisbury probably regards this as a convenient cage in which to coop up what might have been a somewhat unmanageable bull in the china shop.

MR. RITCHIE.

Mr. Ritchie, who has been rusticated for some time, and has just been returned to Parliament as Member for Croydon, is appointed successor to Mr. Bryce at the Board of Trade. Mr. Ritchie has the advantage of being a Scotchman, who has had a practical training in business. At the Local Government Board he showed himself to be an administrator not devoid of courage, and capable of plodding industry. He will find the Board of Trade a much wider field for his individual initiative, especially in dealing with trade disputes, than

MR. RITCHIE.

(Photograph by Elliott and Fry.)

he

ever enjoyed at the Local Government Board. Like Lord Cadogan, Mr. Ritchie occupies a scat on the London County Council, a body which has had the unique distinction of furnishing a Prime Minister to the late Administration and two members to the Cabinet of Lord Salisbury.

MR. GOSCHEN.

Mr. Goschen, after having served as Chancellor of the Exchequer, has been sent back to the Admiralty. He was Mr. Gladstone's First Lord from 1871 to 1874, and he has ever since taken a keen interest in all that relates to the welfare of our first line of defence. The Admiralty is one of those Departments which the principle of continuity is very rigorously applied It is, therefore, as sition eminently to be occupietly that adminishe who Lingditions withd vative confidy retu

in

nnites

h

MR. GOSCHEN.

(Photograph by Elliott and Fry.)

ing MICHAEL HICKS-BEACH.

Sir Michael Hicks-Beach is one of the all-round administrators who has been tried in almost every office, and who has succeeded fairly well in everything he has put his hand to. The failure of his eyesight in 1887 removed him from the Irish Office at a critical time, which would have subjected his capacity to a severer test than any to which he had previously been exposed. He was Chancellor of the Exchequer in the first Salisbury Administration, and leader of the House of Commons. As such he was the particular object of Lord

Randolph's somewhat unscrupulous animosity. At the close of the second Salisbury Administration he acted as President of the Board of Trade. In the new Government he appears as its Chancellor of Exchequer. He took a leading part in opposing the Welsh Disestablishment Bill, for, like almost all his colleagues, Sir Michael HicksBeach is a stout churchman. Sir Michael, although a most typical country gentleman, sits for one of the divisions of the city of Bristol. In returning thanks for his re-election on July 1st, he made a declaration which seems likely to be the keynote, or at least one of the keynotes, of the Conservative appeal to the country. Agriculture, he said, was after all the greatest interest of England.

Every one expected that the Cabinet was completed when the names of seventeen of its members had been published. A Cabinet of seventeen is an unwieldy body, but as if to emphasise the fact that the Cabinet counts for little, Lord Salisbury at the last moment added two fresh members in the person of Mr. Walter Long, who is Minister of Agriculture, and Mr. Akers-Douglas, who, after serving his apprenticeship as Conservative Whip, now receives Cabinet rank as First Commissioner of Works. Mr. Akers-Douglas is well known to all Conservative members. He sits for a county seat in Kent, and was as little dreamed of as First Commissioner of Works as Mr. Arnold Morley was dreamed of as Postmaster-General when he was appointed to that office in 1892. It is becoming a tradition to make Cabinet Ministers out of Whips, but the experience of the Liberals has hardly been so good in this respect as to encourage imitation by the Conservatives. Mr. Walter Long, who succeeds Mr. Herbert Gardner as President of the Board of Agriculture, has had some experience heretofore in a strictly subordinate position. His presence in the Cabinet is one more indication, if such were wanted, of the intentions of Lord Salisbury in connection with the relief of the landed interest.

The Under Secretaryship for Foreign Affairs has been conferred upon Mr. Curzon. Mr. Curzon is a superior person, of superior parts, whose superiority is so transcendent that

MY PROGRAMME OF SOCIAL REFORM.
BY SIR JOHN GORST.

SIR JOHN GORST contributes to the Nineteenth Century an article which he calls "The Conservative Programme of Social Reform." It is not the Conservative Programme, but Sir John Gorst's Programme, which is quite another matter. He advocates immediate action in relation to strikes and locks-out and the unemployed.

SETTLE STRIKES.

He would deal with strikes by creating permanent councils and boards of conciliation and arbitration, which should act with the authority of law, and in the name of the people at large. They should be empowered to summon witnesses and compel the production of evidence. Their first aim should be to bring the parties together and try and arrange a settlement by mutual agreement. If they failed they then would ascertain the facts of the dispute, publish them to the world together with their own opinion as to the merits of the case. The first item therefore of social reform to which the new Parliament should address itself should, in Sir John Gorst's opinion, be the establishment of real and effective boards of conciliation in trade disputes.

EMPLOY THE UNEMPLOYED.

As to the unemployed he thinks that the central government should abandon the policy of irresolution and procrastination. There is land lying waste within thirty miles of London, capital in abundance to be had at 2 per cent., while unemployed labour is vainly looking out for something to do. He would establish labour registries with a central clearing house provided with means for shifting labour with certainty and exactness from one place where it is not wanted to places where it is. This seems to indicate that the bonâ fide working man is to be provided with a free ticket instead of being sent to tramp the country. Local authorities should be encouraged to set the unemployed to work. Experimental labour colonies should be established for the reclamation of lapsed labour. The residuum of those who can work and won't work will then be dealt with severely.

MAKE EMPLOYERS RESPONSIBLE FOR ALL ACCIDENTS.

After these two great questions Sir John Gorst would deal with the employer's liability. He would give every workman a right to receive compensation from his employer for every accident unless caused by his own misconduct. No contracting out should be allowed. The Conservative Programme as thus compiled is against partial indemnity. Dealing with the sick, the children, and the aged, Sir John Gorst has a programme equally explicit. He would readjust our poor law administration in accordance with the following principles. First, the interests of the children should not be subordinated to the object of using them as a deterrent to keep their parents off the rates; secondly, when the children do come upon the rates, their parents should forfeit some of their parental authority. Every child chargeable to the public should become the ward of the public authority, which should intervene to prevent the parents from injuring the child. Third, the children should be boarded out as much as possible. Fourth, where boarding out is impossible, homes should be provided like those which the Sheffield guardians have set on foot, where there is

no distinctive uniform, the houses are broken up into blocks, and the children are sent to the schools. Fifth, there must be no more herding together of children in great barracks.

FREE MEDICINE AND OLD AGE PENSIONS.

Dealing with the sick, he would provide free medical advice and treatment to all those who thought fit to apply. The nursing of the sick should be placed in competent hands. No workhouse infirmary should be allowed to be overcrowded. With regard to the aged poor, he would improve their lot by better classification within the workhouse, and then he would try an experiment of State pensions to the aged, beginning at first by making the conditions very stringent and allowing no right to the compensation until the claimant had reached an advanced age. Sir John Gorst concludes his remarkable article by invoking the example of Chinese civilisation, which fills him with admiration. He insists that all his proposed changes are justified by a profound regard for the permanence of our social progress. In its regard for the aged, his scheme resembles the Chinese civilisation, and, as Sir John Gorst says in conclusion, compared with our ephemeral Western civilisation, "its days have been long in the land."

The Future of England and Japan.

THE Investors' Review, of all periodicals in the world, contains a plea for an offensive and defensive alliance with Japan against Russia. Mr. Wilson is such an advocate of peace all over the world that it is somewhat surprising to find him advocating a policy so provocative as this. But this is what he says:

It therefore appears probable that the only course open to us is to form an offensive and defensive alliance with Japan. Japan has been abominably tricked by this Russian move. While her Government listened to the counsels of moderation tendered by the three allied Powers, Russia crept in and stole the fruits of her brilliant victories over the Chinese. And Russia's effective presence in what are practically Japanese waters as a formidable naval and military Power will compel Japan to maintain a war-like establishment, which might crush even her ingenious and energetic people if it had to be borne long. In all probability, therefore, Japan will have, before many years are over, to fight Russia for right to exist as a free and independent Power; and into any conflict of that kind we can hardly help entering d the side of Japan, unless we are content to see India ave ourselves driven out of the markets of Farther Asia, aib¶ndia itself made bankrupt. Such a prospect does not chaod us from any point of view; but we see no other, and the dain aer in which we have allowed ourselves to be outwitt uld be food for much mirth were the stake not so momer the gr ade'

TOURISTS to the English lake district will turn with interest to Dr. H. R. Mill's Bathymetrical Survey of the English Lakes, which appears with many admirable maps and diagrams in the July number of the Geographical Journal. He remarks on the way in which all the valleys of the district radiate like the spokes of a wheel from a point midway between Stake Pass an Dunmail Raise. " "They bear witness to an earlier simpler structure, when a dome of vanished rocks. by over the area, the dissected skeleton of whi' the warfare of air and rain and ice, now '

"