r Lord DESBOROUGH'S vivacious attack
upon the Cippenham Motor Depot, it is doubtful whether anyone could
have enabled the Government to wriggle out of the demand for an
independent inquiry. At any rate Lord INVERFORTH was insufficiently
agile. The innumerable type-written sheets which he read out
laboriously may have contained a complete reply to Lord DESBOROUGH'S
main allegations, even if they included no refutation of the stones of
the bricks imported by the hundred thousand into a district containing
some of the best brick-earth in the country, or of the four pounds a
week paid for the services of a railway pensioner aged ninety-two. But
as hardly anyone could hear the recital it created little impression.

The Ministry are evidently unwilling to stake their political lives on
Mr. CHURCHILL'S approval of the project, for Mr. BONAR LAW announced
that the Government Whips would not be put on for the forthcoming
division on the subject.

Mr. G. ROBERTS furnished an interesting analysis of the nine shillings
now charged for a bottle of whisky. Three-and-sixpence represents the
cost of the spirit plus pre-war taxation. The other five-and-sixpence
is made up of interest to manufacturers, insurance and rent; increased
price of bottles and corks; margins of profit to blenders and
bottlers, merchants and other traders; and increase of taxation. By
some oversight nothing appears to have been charged for the extra
water, but no doubt this will be remedied in the next Budget.

_Thursday, March 27th._--To those who remember the debates on the
Parliament Act, _circa_ 1911, it was amusing to hear Lords CREWE and
BUCKMASTER complaining of the unceremonious manner in which the Lords'
amendments to the Rents Bill had been treated in "another place;"
and being entreated not to pick a quarrel with the Commons by those
ancient champions of the Upper Chamber, Lord CURZON and the LORD
CHANCELLOR.

The CHANCELLOR OF THE EXCHEQUER announced the names of the Royal
Commissioners who are to consider how the income-tax can be improved.
Several Members complained that there is only one woman among them,
and that, pending their report (expected some time next year), the
glaring anomaly by which husband and wife are regarded for taxable
purposes as a single entity is apparently to be continued. The idea of
presenting Mr. CHAMBERLAIN with a box for _The Purse Strings,_ in the
hope that it would convert him, has unfortunately been frustrated by