A hunting country squire, whose acquaintance with
learning ended forty years before when he took his
"pass" degree at Oxford, may find himself Minister
of Education; and the Empire of India, with its
clash of races and religion, its feudatory princes and
kings, and its three hundred and fifty Oriental
millions, may be represented by a Nonconformist
solicitor.

Some years ago I listened to a speech at a public
meeting, delivered by the Vice-President of the
Council who, under the system then in force, was
at the head of the Department of Education. The
right honourable gentleman, having occasion to
make use of the word "chimæra," pronounced it as
if it were spelt "kimmerer." It may not be
essential that he who drives fat oxen should himself
be fat; but one would suppose that a Minister of
Education would have education enough not to
make a mistake of this kind.

The system is defended on the ground that, after
all, precise and comprehensive knowledge of the
details of his office is not what is required of a
minister under our Parliamentary constitution. It
is for his official subordinates to supply him with
the technical details, and generally to look to the
business of the department. He brings to bear on
it the cool, matured, judgment of a shrewd man
of the world; he is able to vindicate and explain
its doings in Parliament; and generally to be re-
sponsible for it in the eyes of the great council
of the nation. Like the golden chain that Homer
tells us binds heaven and earth and sea to the
throne of Jove, this great official catena is supposed
to join the highest and the lowest, and to stretch

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