THE GLADSTONE GOVERNMENT.

Globe, Volume XXII, Issue 1985, 5 July 1880, Page 3

THE GLADSTONE GOVERNMENT.

TO THB BDITOB OF THB PBBSS.

Sib,—As a telegram, which was evidently an erroneous one, appeared in the Pbess as well as in other papers in the colony, announcing that my brother, Mr Watkin Williams, Q.C., had been appointed Solioitor-General by Mr Gladstone, I shall feel obliged if you will kindly publish the enclosed explanation, given by a leading paper in the principality. X am aware the matter is not of any public interest, but as the mistake has occurred, and it has been circulated through the colony, I shall feel personally obliged by your publishing the explanation. Yours, &c, H. Wyhn WiiliamS. "With reference to the appointment of Solicitor-General, while many of our daily and weekly contemporaries made the erroneous statement that the post had been conferred upon Mr Watkin Williams, we wero enabled to announce in our last that it would be given to Mr Earrar Herschell. This has proved to bo correct. That Mr Watkin Williams should have been passed over in the formation of the new Administration has excited a great deal of surprise mingled with a muoh stronger feeling in North Wales. That he would have adorned the position there can be no doubt, and that some acknowledgement was due to him for the gallant manner in which he attacked and carried the Conservative stronghold in Carnarvonshire, is the universal feeling in the oounty. Moreover, Wales generally h<vs played such a grand part in the late electoral struggle, and done so much ti help the Ministry to its present powerful majority, that had Mr Watkin Williams been appointed to the post of Solicitor-General, it would have been only a natural and graceful recognition of the claims of the Principality to consideration. But it has been otherwise decreed, and while we cannot help regretting the fact, we must at the same time point out that the difficulties which a Prime Minister has to encounter in forming a new Administration ought not to be lost sight of. It is said that Mr Herschell owes his position to his attachment to Lord Hartington, and probably this is the oorrect explanation of what would otherwise be a puzzling oversight. It may be'regarded as certain that, had the appointment rested solely with Mr Gladstone, Mr Watkins Williams would have been the new Solioitor-General; but some powerful influences were brought to bear in favor of Mr Herechell, who received the post which had by popular anticipation and general rumor been assigned t > the member for Carnarvonshire.

On Thursday, April 29th, Mr Watkins Williams received a letter from Mr Gladstone, placing at his disposal, in a highly complimentary way, the office of Judge-Advocate General, with elevation to the Privy Council, " as a token of respect and acknowledgment," and accompanied with language indicating that it was scarcely expected that the offer would be accepted. Mr Watkins William 3 declined the office as one whioh it was impossible for him to accept. It was generally believed in Westminster Hall and the House of Commons that he had been appointed Solicitor-General, and the very positive state-, ments in the London daily papers to that effect caused great excitement and feelings of joy in Carnarvon and throughout tho county generally. It was rumoured by some officious persons wholly unacquainted with the true position of such matters, that it was the intention of tho Government to offer to Mr Watkin Williams the next vacant judgeship. The rumour is an absurdity, and, to use Mr Watkin Williams' own language, addressed to Mr Gladstone

himself, when he heard of the rumour, after the splendid way the Carnarvonshire people had treated him, he eould never think of deserting them by acoepting such an appointment, and he was far too proud > of his position as member for Carnarvonshire aftor the late contest to think of such a thing for a moment.—"Carnarvon Herald," May Bth, 1880."