One of the pending elections is for a metropolitan: constituency—Deptford whose member, Mr. Charles Darling, ¢.c., has just. been elevated to the Bench—an appointment which, while it was only rumoured, provoked an indignant remonstrange from the Times. Mr. Darling, the Times pointed out in effect, is a very nice fellow and a smart politician, but he has no claim to be considered a great Inwyer, and his appointment can only be regarded as a political job, There seems, howerer, to 1 disposition on the part of some of our great Inwyers to refuse judgeships. The Mastership of the Rolls, before it was accepted by Lord Ludlow, was offered in turn, it is understood, to Sir Richard Webster and Sir Eaward Clarke. Sir Edward has been telling his constituents that he prefers representing them in Parliament to taking the third Judicial office in the Kingdom; but one cannot help thinking that if it were devotion to politics which induced Sir Edward Clarke to scorn the Mastership of the Rolls, he would not a year or two ago have refused the Solicitor-Generalship rather than abandon his private practice. Sir Edward's private practice is no doubt worth considerably more than the salary paid to the Master of the Rolls. The promotion of Mr. Tustico Vaughan Williams to be a Lord Justice of Appeal is universally regarded as well deserved. it is opposed. And therefore the Cabinet is unanimous in rejecting the French and American proposals.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.