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AMEORJIA)UIUAL OIWXHVA wW144,…

HIGH WATER THIS DAY.I

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ITHE _MINISTERIAL CRISIS.…

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I THE MINISTERIAL CRISIS. I The general announcement which we made yesterday morning with regard to the pro- bability of a Ministerial crisis is amply justified by the detailed statements which we publish to-day. The reconstruction of the Cabinet which is now taking pUce amounts to a veritable Ministerial crisis. The resignation of Mr. BAXTER has, as we anticipated, proved the harbinger of a general disintegration of the Government upon whose policy the country has within the last week passed such a decided vote of censure. Never, it may be safely asserted, did internal dissensions in a Ministry exhibit themselves at a more inopportune moment. The house which, divided agaiabt itself, cannot stand, is all the more certain to fall when the enemy is thundering at its gates with a vigour to which it is worse than folly to oppose the affectation of indiffer- ence. And that is undoubtedly the correct description of the present position of affairs. Don't swop horses when you are crossing a stream was one of the most sagacious apothegms of the late Presipent of the UNITED STATES, and yet that is the process to which Mr. GLADSTONE has fel; himself compelled to resort at the present juncture. Never was a stream deeper or more dangerous than that which has been formed by the united rivulets contributed by Green- wich, Dundee, and East Staffordshire. The PREMIER is compelled to cross it in some way or other, and at the same moment he has no resource but to disregard the ex- cellent advice of An Lincoln. And the point of the American President's remark is illustrated by the fact, that so far as it is possible to see at present, the evil estate into which the Government has fallen has rather been intensified by the changes which are an- nounced in its constituent elements. Wise rats leave a sinking ship, and those who are aware of the leaky state of the Ministerial craft can scarcely deny the sapiency of Lord RIPON, Mr. Childers, Mr. Baxter, and Mr. Ayrton. It is quite unnecessary to enlarge upon the motives which have in- duced these gentlemen to secede from the Ministry. Their secession is simply the re- sult of the utter want of cohesion in the Ministerial ranks, which is due, in some measure, to personal squabbles between the leading members of the Government, but in a much greater degree, to the entire absence of any consis- tent policy upon which Mr. Gladstone's quondam supporters can agree. This want of unanimity is only the reflex ot the general disintegration of the Liberal party, the various sections of which have hitherto been so well represented on the Ministerial benches that united action for the future has become impossible. We must confess our utter ina- bility to see how the changes in the Cabinet will remove the grievances of which the British public complain. However gratifying the promotion of Mr. BRUCE to the peerage may be to those who are familiar with the personal amiability of the ex-Homb Secretary, it is difficult to see how his transference from the Home Office to the Lord Presidency of the Council will strengthen the monband Government. We can certainly i.lIagine that the London cab-drivers and their cus- tomers will welcome a change which will probably be followelby the inauguration of a system which, under the auspicw of Mr. Lowe, will be at least cons.,tent how. ever objectionable it may prove, bat it can. not be hoped that, inctber respects, the new -1:d 'p \f"r.. ?.sDitiesof tharfjec?c?.? a?? I thyr Tydfil W ill be the O'clsiOll of any VMlent It of enthusiasm. perh??e most interesting rcsult of the announce- *ieD will be a few hours of discussion in ???h ?Va?a as to the title which the new pr will assume. The eternal fitness ° ??inga would probably suggest Lard DuFFL6 yjq as the suitable and probable L; ,natl:on of the new LORD President. The only o bjection appears to be that there is already an ilri.su peer-nora vuiiumi -whose least upon phonetic grounds, would .appear to indicate that the title of Lord DI) FFEYN would amount to a plagiarism. It Liight also be remarked that Lord Dufferi. has exhibited con- siderable ability in t, be affairs of State with which he has been charged. He has, fortunately for his own reputation, con- Bidering the title he bears ant.1 the existence of the comic papers, never undertaken the I iiiout ef cabs n ir i l vi.. -,r; "7 of people ?..b,1 have been giiilry f a of the sixth couimiultneir. ff hii e >■ 1l"]1HÓlltly escaped th<* Vill tr j >!»-m w ;i ••• might, have been founded up >n the .In.: ■ nitieation attached to the first toll) syl!.M •, of his title. Wu trust tL.tt if IIr. Bi: < should assume his territorial design.j ,-i he will enj y a similar immunity, a:! that neither I'tnirh n >r the wi! of the "Occasional No*e3" in tV- Pall Mall Guzrtte will rernetul) r t severely the many occasions upon W:¡¡ "I >< has exhibited his incapacity for ala r; tration. The resignation .if LirJ U; :• I., taken in conjunction with the re-alaiis .i .« of Mr. Bright to tlie Cabinet, III Ly, li v. ever, have a very grave political sigm i; t The Daily Ttleyrnph has iutimit-i t i.r the terrible Ministerial defeat at <jive'i'v: h was due to the fact that the pdiucil ;). Bentirs showed their disgust at the \ny i'l which their claims have been .1 «•••• garded by the Government by absir: I from voting. And the Glai ,t t.i organ went on to intimats th it sotn-; n: ■ ms must betaken for conciliating these cr.; brethren. If the re-c.instruction of i • Cabinet lias any significance at all it 111' that the Premier has resolved to sa.:n,; •• hocour and principle for the purpose wt ■. tainirt,, power by abasing hiuuelf 1.[ the Birmingham J.,(aue. That i, natural inference from the fact that M Bright ia to re,enter the Uahillet, aullav. Lord RIPON, who would be responsible t) the House of Lords for a proposal t ) ?! the 25th CiauM?f the Educatijn Act. signed. It is not di.licult to uude-si.. i that whenever the signal is given, that i Government in its despair is prepared t. play into the hands of the political I ¡,. aenters, some of its members, who v,il character more than placj, will leave ranks. That this is the interpretation wäidl will be generally placed upon the acces i a of Mr. BRIGHT to the Cabinet, and t lie !"oi' nation of Lord Ripon, id evid,ut fr, Ul ilia despatch from our Birmingham cjrr. ip in- dent which we publish to day. If tLis be so, it implies that Mr (jLV>5T has been forced by circumstances did :>y his own love of power into an attitud-j wiieii insultll the comlllon sense of the ci'iatiy, and which is the presage of a speedier d >.vu- fall than would have arrived to lam ia ordinary course of events. The idea that, by the tnnslatioa "l Mr. Lowe from the Chancell >rsai;> of the Exchequer to the Iljme the difficulties created by the o'ljejtij.i- able personal characteristics of ta t, gentleman will be removed is too absurd to be seriously discussed. Whereas Mr. LOWE has hitherto had to deal with tij tax-paying portion of the nation ia an Lib. stract sort of way, for the future he will bj broughi into contact with au infinite num- berof flesh and blood individualities, ia t ie shape of country magistrates, chairmen of quarter sessions, and the countless array ot' inspectors upon all SJr..s of subjects who naturally look to the Ho.us Secretary aa the rediesser of all -heir grievances and their champion in all their troubles. A spark of lire iu^ barrel of gun- powder would be a feeble image of the t,4-.e of things which is likely to result from tue placing of Mr. Lowe in such a situation. As to the arrangement by which Mr. Glad- STONE is to combine the offies of Preuiiir and Chancellor of the Exchequer, it inty simply be said that the revival of such an archaic combination indicates the relapso of the Gladstonian Ministry into sec md childhood. It would be an insult to the common sense of th.? age to suppose that a demigod-to say nothing of Mr. Gl adsto x ii —could effectively diacharga the d.1Ü3 ji the combined offices. But a very practical issue is raised by the assumption of tbc office of Chancellor of the Exchequer by Mr. Gladstone. By the Reform Act of 1867 it was provided that the acceptance ofoneoffice "inlieuoi and in immediate "suectesion"to another would not imply an obligation on the part of a Cabinet Minister to make an appeal to his consti- tuents for re-election. It is obvious that these conditions do not apply to Mr. Glad- STONE'S case. There are, therefore, go id grounds for anticipating a new election at Greenwich. It is just possible that tha Premier, disgusted at the resn i of re- cent contests, has taken this oppr:uaity of appealing against the recent decisi ia of the Greenwich electors, and hope3 by a vigo- rous course of electioneering speeches to obtain a reversal of the verdict. We ari quite willing to accept the issue, bilt il ought to be clearly understood that an tJn. dorsement of the sentence implied by tlia return of Mr. BOORD must mean the fiaai and effectual condemnation of the Ministry, and its consequent cessation of existence.

MINISTERIAL CHANGES.