would be confined to persons
possessing more or less right to it, or (most probably) that an
interfering Saxon had announced his intention of moving a "Call of the
House" in order to get the recalcitrant Sinn Feiners to take up their
Parliamentary duties, I do not know. At any rate the Nationalist
seized the opportunity of delivering a general attack upon the
Government of such overwhelming irrelevance that Mr. WHITLEY, the
least sarcastic of men, was driven to remark, "I think the honourable
Member is under the impression that this is last week."

[Illustration: GOVERNMENT PROMISES. MR. PEMBERTON BILLING compiles
another Black Book.]

I trust that Mr. CHURCHILL, who is conducting the business of the War
Office in Paris, will not read the Official Report of the debate on
the Aerial Navigation Bill. For I am sure it would be as great a shock
to him as it was to me to learn that Mr. MOSLEY (_aetat_ twenty-two)
considered him, in aviation affairs, as lacking in imagination. The
idea of anyone regarding our WINSTON as a doddering old fossil!

_Tuesday, February 18th_.--As is usual at this period of the Session
the Lords find themselves with nothing to do, and being ineligible
for the out-of-work donation they naturally grumble. Foreman CURZON
endeavoured to pacify them with the promise of one or two little jobs
in the near future; and Lord BUCKMASTER kindly furnished them with
something to go on with by raising the topic of industrial unrest in
a speech composed in about equal measure of admirable platitudes and
highly disputable propositions. Its principal merit was to furnish the
new LORD CHANCELLOR with an occasion for delivering his maiden speech.
This he did with proper solemnity, though once he slipped into his
after-dinner style and addressed his august audience as "My Lords and
Gentlemen." His nearest approach to an epigram was the remark that
"the nation had been living on its capital and liking it." On the
whole he took a hopeful view of the situation--more so than Lord
LANSDOWNE, who expressed "the profoundest dismay" at our increasing
indebtedness. Fortunately His Lordship's gloomy prophecies have not
invariably proved correct.

[Illustration: "JUMPING" A MEMBER'S CLAIM.]

After Question-time in the Commons Mr. BOTTOMLEY made bitter complaint
to the SPEAKER that he had been evicted from his favourite corner-seat
by the Member for South-East St. Pancras. Mr. LOWTHER administered
chilly consolation. Those l