THE ministerial appointments which were announced last Saturday include several which have a special interest for us. The acceptance by Lord Edmund Talbot of the office of Viceroy of Ireland is one which upon one ground at least should be welcomed by the majority of the Irish people. For Lord Edmund Talbot is a Roman Catholic, the first for many centuries to hold that office, and though he is also a strong Conservative he will be free from that Puritan tradition which regards force as the only method of establishing a millennium. Sir Alfred Mond is removed from the Office of Works [to become Minister of Health]. That was inevitable; the production of the preposterous pylon and the unpardonable bêtise of appointing a committee to consider the future of the churches, and letting the Archbishop of Canterbury learn of it through the daily Press, made Sir Alfred’s continuance at Storey’s Gate merely a question of temporary convenience. . . It is a matter for congratulation that the Hon. Edward Wood becomes Under Secretary for the Colonies. Major Wood’s grandfather, the first Lord Halifax, had a distinguished political career, as had the second and third Earls Grey, from whom he is also descended, men whose ability and fearless integrity were of the greatest service to their country. Lord Halifax renounced a political career to serve another cause, then in peril; Major Wood is happily able to conjoin the service of both.