A political dinner of unusual interest took place at the Devonshire Club last night to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the formation of the Cabinet of 1868, Gladstone's first Ministry, which he described as "perhaps the greatest instrument of government that has ever been fashioned." A picture of that Cabinet hangs in the Devonshire, and of its fifteen ' members there were eight direct descendants at the banquet. three sons, Lord Granville, Lord Goschen and Mr. Philip Bright, four grandsons, of the Duke of Argyll, Lord Clarendon, Lord Kimberley and Mr. H. C. Bruce. while Mr. Gladstone himself was represented by two grandsons in the male and one in the female line.
Gladstone's eulogy of his Cabinet might be queried by some, but it certainly had to its credit an impressive tale of legislation—reorganization of the Army and abolition of purchase, removal of religious tests in the universities, the introduction of competitive appointments in the Civil Service and of compulsory education and the Irish Land Bill.
It would be extremely interesting to sec what that Cabinet would do with the problems of today. Probably it would be quite at sea in the different conditions now prevailing. Government 70 years ago was in the hands of a minority, Liberal or Conservative, accustomed by tradition to the art of governing, and wholly une hampered by the necessity of continually bribing the proletariat which clogs the action of every Government now. Today such a Cabinet a group of London editors at the time of Germany's seizure of Austria was held up as a particularly bad ex ample. Further allegations are that advertisers use the power of their ags to colour editorial for example to modulate gloomy news which might choke people off spending money.
Sir Samuel Hoare scornfully repudiated Mr. Mander's charges, chal-longing him to name his informants, though the fact that Mr. Mander might not do so, does not prove his statements untrue. And. Sir William Crawford, president of a big adver-risers' association, has flatly denied the other charge, saying that adver-risers were only interested in a paper's circulation not in its politics. A. few nights ago the B.B.C. which Mr. Dingle Foot, the well-known Radical asserted that there was a distinct tendency to coerce newspapers into suppressing news which might offend the Continental Dictators. If there is such a tendency, it is not successful.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.