Family Feeling

Bearing none of the scandalous overtones it would have in the New World, the practice of nepotism in political life is an ancient and honorable part of England's history. Lord Grey, as Prime Minister in the 1830's, arranged lucrative or influential public offices for no fewer than 17 of his relations. The Cecils have done even better, with a tradition of influential official connections unbroken since the reign of Elizabeth I. Nineteen relatives of the present leading Cecil, the Marquess of Salisbury, sit in Parliament today; eight of them were members of Anthony Eden's government in 1956. One of the solid convictions of these people is that their own kin and kind are simply the best people for the job.

Prime Minister Harold Macmillan married into a family that stoutly upheld the tradition. Among the relatives of Lady Dorothy (daughter of the ninth Duke of Devonshire) still prominently around: Sir Reginald Manningham-Buller (known to fellow M.P.s as "Sir Reginald Bullying- Manner"), Attorney General; Lord Balniel, former Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Treasury and Ministry of Public Housing; Robert Boothby, the able and voluble Scottish M.P. who was elevated to the peerage. Then there is David Ormsby-Gore, brother-in-law of the Prime Minister's son, Maurice; he is Minister of State for Foreign Affairs.

Adding to his government last week, Harold Macmillan saw no reason to deviate from custom. Into office as Secretary of State for Air went Julian Amery, Macmillan's son-in-law; the eleventh Duke of Devonshire, his wife's nephew, became Parliamentary Undersecretary for Commonwealth Relations. For the honorific task of moving the reply to the Queen's speech from the throne, Macmillan chose his son Maurice from the rank of Tory backbenchers.

"Clearly, he must have a dearth of other material on his benches," commented an opposition M.P. acidly. Retorted a Tory: "It is a man of courage who is not afraid to allocate the posts in his ministry regardless of family relationships."

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