THE NEW SECRETARY OF STATE FOR THE COLONIES.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XIII, Issue 173, 19 July 1878, Page 4

THE NEW SECRETARY OF STATE FOR THE COLONIES.

We extract from " May Fair " the following sketch of Sir Micheal HiekeBftacb, the new Colonial Secretary : — 11 We have left to the last one other of Mr Disraeli's young men. We have done so not because we think leaßt of the prospects of Sir Micheai HiekeBeach, but because we believe most. Mr Disraeli did not, as in other cases, adept en untrained official, when, in 1874, he offered Sir Michael HicksBeach the Chief-Secretaryship for Ireland. The young Gloucestershire baronet had been Parliamentary Secretary to the Poor Law Board during that brief gleam of ascendency which preceded the great wave of Liberal enthuaiasm ibat placed Mr Gladstoue in an apparently impregnable position. He had neither time nor opportunity to Bhow his mettle in 1868. But/ as Chief Secretary for Ireland he haß bad opportunities of which he has availed himself. There is, perhaps no post in the Cabinet, save that of Home Secretary, which entails more difficulties tbi»n dcea that of the Chief Secretaryship for Ireland. If requires in him who would successfully hold it, a combination of «act } firmness, administrative ability, »ni iutimate acquaintance with details. In all these points Sir Micharl HicksBeach hae been sorely tried and not been found wanting. His patience under the peculiarly trying circumstances of the sessions of 1876 and 1877 was something little short of superhuman. Never was a man bo sorely sried ; and thoagh it cannot be said that after repeated rebufa Sir Michael Hicks-Beach always came up Bmiling, he at least maintained the imperturbability of his temper. If he has permitted himself to ahow a withering scorn for ignorance, malice, and lack ot ingenuousness, that can scarcely be regarded as a fault. The new Colonial Secretary is, as Mr Jenkins might say, a man with a backbone. He is a thoroughly capable man, with a great appetite for steady labor, a singular gift for assimilating facts, and, withal, a power of expression which has greatly improved within the laet three years, and contains within it the possibility of farther development. There is a whole-

eome axiom in the "Biglow JPapers " which cautions us against prophesying * tinted we know.' In the face of fcuch Warning-, we have c 6 hesitation in placing 'on rettovd our persona! belief that im Sir Michael. Hicks-Beach the Conservative p»rty have their coming maD, and in due course he will lead where he \s fecfr content to follow. For a toaa of the comparatively youthful nge of 40, it ie no small thing: to be Colonial Secretary and a Cabinet Minister. But there are yet higher posts, aod we believe that bb his family motto, in denounce alike of the fickleness of fftSa and the rules of grammar, proclaims if, Sir Michael Hickß-Beuch wili have Tout en bon heure,"