In July 1886 Henry Cecil Raikes, a distinguished Conservative M.P., awaited, with hope and misgiving alternating in his breast, a letter from Lord Salisbury—then engaged in forming his first Unionist Administration—inviting him to join the Cabinet. As the list of Ministerial appointments announced in the Press grew towards completion, and nothing was heard from the Prime Minister, the fear grew upon him that he was about to be shelved. But he had staunch friends at the Carlton Club, and they took the unusual course of addressing a “round-robin” to Salisbury, earnestly requesting him not to forget “the long and arduous services to the Party” of Henry Cecil Raikes. A day or two later Raikes received the following letter from the Prime Minister: 20 ARLINGTON STREET, S.W., _July 28, 1886_. MY DEAR RAIKES, Are you disposed to join us as Postmaster-General? I am very anxious to meet your views. I wish I was in a position to do so more fully. But that is a species of regret which clogs me at every step of the arduous task in which I am engaged. I shall be very glad if we are able to persuade you to associate yourself with us—for the present in this office. Believe me, yours very truly, SALISBURY. Only the minor post of Postmaster-General, when he had expected the Home Office, which carries a seat in the Cabinet! But to refuse an offer of office because it does not come up to one’s expectations often means the exclusion from office for ever. Raikes accordingly decided to take the post of Postmaster-General. “He fully recognized the difficulties of his chief’s position,” writes his son and biographer, “and, of course, was not blind to the fact that if he were to refuse this office he would probably be throwing away the substance for the shadow, and would cut himself off from any but a remote chance of future advancement.” It is not every politician who has had an offer of an office which was less than he expected that can follow the example of Henry Brougham, who contemptuously tore up the letter of Earl Grey offering him the post of Attorney-General in the first Reform Administration. Brougham wanted the Lord Chancellorship, and would not be put off with anything else; and though Grey was reluctant to trust Brougham in so exalted a post, Brougham had his way, for he was in the strong position of being indispensable to the new Government, not only in his own estimation, which did not so much matter, but also in the estimation of many leading Whigs, which did. But Raikes knew that he could be done without, and, sensible man, he accepted what was offered. Naturally he was mortified that the Secretaryship of State for the Home Department was carried off by an entirely outside and unsuspected