THE BRITISH CABINET.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 79, 27 December 1907, Page 4

THE BRITISH CABINET.

The London "Daily Express," unJikethe " Daily Mail," is usually careiul i"o place accuracy before sensationOjism, and when it makes a positive t statement, therefore, about such an important event as a redistribution of British Ministers' portfolios, it • may be presumed to have some reliable information to go upon. The changes which it declares to be impending in. the British Cabinet are peculiarly interesting. Sir Henry Oampbell-Ban-nermari and Mr. Herbert Gladstone, so it is stated, are to .go to the House of Lords , at the end of January-, their places as First Lord of the Treasury, and Home Secretary being taken by Mr. Asquith and Mr. John Burns, .whose posts as Chancellor of the Exchequer and President of the Local Government Board are to be filled in their turn by Mr. Lloyd-George and Mr. L. V. Harcourt. The vacancy in the Board of Trade, so runs this very circumstantial report - , is to be met by. elevating the Under-Secretary. for tfte Colonies, Mr. Winston Churchill, to Cabinet .rank, the Master of Elibank taking Mr. Harcourt's place;:as First Commissioner of Works. The names of Mr. Haldane, Lord, Elgin, Sir Edward Grey, and Mr., Birrell are not involved in the report. Upon the face of it, nothing could appear so ■topsy-turvy as the appearance of the Premier as a member of the noble House that he has been denouncing for so many months past, but Sir Henry has never permitted his zeal to lead him into even afaint;hint that the Lords should be abolished. He desires, so he says, to reform, and not to destroy. To the people-of the Oversea Dominions the most interesting part of, the rumour is that which refers to Mr. Winston Churchill. ' That able young statesman has been credited by the Opposition and the Unionist Press with, having been the real director of the Colonial Office's policy ever .since Sir Henry Gainpbell-Bannerman came into power, and, should the rumour of his promotion to another sphere prove correct, the Unionist Press may be relied upon to rejoice over what thej; will call the removal of a source of friction between the Motherland and the Colonies. It is true that the past two years have been notably prolific of jars in the relations between the Colo-, nial Office and the Colonial Governments, but, on the calm review which is possible at the present juncture, _it must be admitted that Mr. Churchill ilia's not deserved the. abuse to which -his English critics, ■ subjected',. hini. Even if the story of the "Express" is inaccurate, it is only a matter of time; and a sho'rt time —provided that the Government remains in office for 1 ,a ! couple of years—before the son of Lord Ratndolph Churchill takes Cabinet rank. Mr. Lloyd-George, fresh from his triumphant handling of the threatened railway stride, would' probably be hailed by even his political opponents' as being as good a Chancellor of the Exchequer as any man on the Governs ment benches. ' He has established hjs reputation as a' "man of business," and , even so unfriendly a. critic of the Gov-' eriiment as the "Times" freely endorses every , compliment which the Liberal journals have paidto his sagacity in the sphere of practical affairs. One cannot'••help , feejiug that Mr. Birrell will be a subject for sympathy if he is to be excluded from any changes that may be going. Escaped from the frying-pan 1 of education,; he was at once thrown I into the fire; of Irish affairs, which had grown hot, one would imagine, for his special benefit, as a species of natural punishment, for his desertion of the pleasant fields of literature for 'the hurly-burly. 4 of politics. ,The absence of Sir Edward Grey's name from " the rumour of change is due, of course, to the success with whjch he is conducting foreign" a department which has happily been placed outside the strife of party. As Government's change, the Foreign Ministers change, but the policy i- of the Foreign Office goes on. The redistribution of portfolios forecasted by the "Express" is, as we have said, a very interesting 'one, but it is not likely to affect very materially the course' of political events in Great Britain, unless, indeed, the superior' air of the gilded Chamber works some fundamental alteration in the Pre-' inier's views upon the Lords' veto.