Unfortunately, Lord Salisbury is still too unwell to attend personally at the Foreign Office or to preside over Cabinet: meetings ud Mr. Balfour is still acting as his locum ens. But he hus frequent consultations with his chief, who is making'good progress towards recovery. A few days ago the Daily Chronicle' published a sensational announcement to the effect that the noble Marquis was about to retire altogether from the Government on the ground of ill-health, and that the Duke of Devonshire was to be Prime Minister, with Mr. Balfour as Foreign Secretary. But the" rumour has been authoritatively contradicted, and wre have been assured that a brief trip to the south of France is_all that ix required to restore the Prime Minister completely {te health.
MR. GLADSTON®'S HEALTH, Of another even more distinguished invalid the reports are, I regret to say, much less favourable. "Mr. Gladstone has been taken back to Hawarden, and the only conclusion one can come to from the form of the announcement made by his medical advisers is that he hay been taken back to dic. It may be remembered that in one of the lust speeches the aged statestnan ever made—thnt at the opening of a new railway bridge across the Dee—he expressed might be passed at Hawarden; and there the hope that the closing hours of his life can be little doubt that it is in respect for this wish that he has been taken home. At the same time it is understood that he is not in any immediate danger. But he is still suffering constantly from neuralgic pains, and Sir Thomas Smith, the eminent Surgeon who was made a baronet last year, has, it is understood, pronounced Uhat'the pains arise from a cause which can only be removed by surgery. It was naturally inferred that the case was one of cancer; but this has been unofficially denied. No definite announcement has, however, been made. With Mr. Gladstone's extraordinary vitality it_ is possible, of course, that he might survive 8 serious operation even at the age of 88 but it is impossible to be very hopeful, and
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.