to-night, next to Mr. Ward Hunt. The Chief
Secretary for Ireland is slim; not to put too fine a point on it, Mr.
Ward Hunt is not, and the two manage to seat themselves with some
approach to comfort. The First Lord of the Admiralty further eases the
pressure on his colleagues by throwing his left arm over the back of the
bench, where it hangs like a limb of some monumental tree.

The carefully devised scheme for the disposition of Mr. Ward Hunt on the
Treasury bench is completed by assigning the place on the other side of
him to Sir Charles Adderley. The President of the Board of Trade,
Chiltern says, is understood to have long passed the mental stage at
which old John Willet had arrived when he was discovered sitting in his
chair in the dismantled bar of the Maypole after the rioters had visited
his hostelry. He is apparently unconscious of discomfort when crushed up
or partially sat upon by his elephantine colleague, which is a fortunate
circumstance.

The stolid man with the straight back directly facing Mr Disraeli on the
front bench opposite is the Marquis of Hartington. The gentleman with
uncombed hair and squarely cut garments on the left of the Leader of the
Opposition is Mr Forster. The big man further to the left, who sits with
folded arms and wears a smile expressive of his satisfaction with all
mankind, particularly with Sir William Harcourt, is the
ex-Solicitor-General. The duck of a man with black hair, nicely oiled
and sweetly waved, is Sir Henry James. Where have I seen him before? His
face and figure and attitude seem strangely familiar to me. I have been
shopping this morning, but I do not think I could have seen behind any
milliner's or linendraper's counter a person like the hon. and learned
gentleman the member for Taunton.

Beyond this doughty knight, and last at this end of the bench, is a
little man in spectacles, and with a preternatural look of wisdom on his
face. He is the Right Hon. Lyon Playfair, and is said to have, next to
Mr. Fawcett, the most remarkably retentive memory of any man in the
House. Chiltern says he always writes his lectures before he delivers
them to the House, sending the manuscript to the _Times_, and so accurate
is his recitation that the editor has only to sprinkle the lecture with
"Hear, hears!" and "Cheers" to make the thing complete.

On the right-hand side of the Marquis of Hartington is Mr. Goschen. In
fact, at the moment I happen to have reached him in my surve