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The principle of State officials going in and out of office with their political parties, which has been followed to such a disgraceful extent in America, and discreditably at least in Victoria and other colonies, has found no abiding-place in this country. To say that the Civil Service is in no way concerned in the changes of rulers would be untrue. There are always some delicate matters to be adjudged, and to a limited number of individuals it must be a matter of importance by whom these points are to be settled. To the Private Secretaries it is, of course, a matter of some concern. To the credit of all parties, however, it must be said that even to these gentlemen hardship seldom results from political changes. That the same individuals are not retained as Private Secretaries must go without saying; but most of them are drafted from the departments on loan, as it were, and may return to their respective branches of the Service when as Private Secretaries they are no longer needed. The Secretary to the Executive Council has, during his term of office, seen three changes of Government. Though “men may come and men may go,” he, like Tennyson's brook, goes “on for ever.”