To-day they got it, in
stacks. All the unions, in principle, are in favour of training disabled
men, but in practice most of them require that a workman shall have worked
at his craft for from three to six years before being admitted to their
ranks. "You have fought for us, but you shall not work for us" is their
attitude.

On the Army Estimates Sir SAMUEL SCOTT pleaded for the formation of an
Imperial General Staff. Even in peace-time there were plenty of problems to
be solved. We should never be really at peace, moreover, so long as there
were tribes on our frontiers who looked upon war as an amusement and a
pastime, "as hon. Members look upon golf." Surely this is to underestimate
the devotion of our earnest golfers. Judging by the condition of the links
on Sunday I should say some of them look upon it as a religion.

Mr. NEIL MACLEAN pretended not to understand why we wanted an army at all.
Was not the last war "a war to end war"? But his main point--in which he
will be surprised to find many quite respectable people agreeing with
him--is that it should not be officered from one class. Mr. MACLEAN is not
so revolutionary as he thinks himself. The most insurgent thing about him
is his hair, and even that is not more rebellious than Mr. DAN IRVING'S.

_Tuesday, March 23rd._--Lord PEEL was evidently surprised at the amount of
opposition encountered by the Silver Coinage Bill. Having a specimen of the
new shilling in his pocket he himself was feeling particularly bobbish, and
could not understand the gloomy vaticinations of Lord BUCKMASTER and Lord
SALISBURY as to what might happen in West Africa and elsewhere if we
depreciated our currency. But his usual self-confidence so far deserted him
that he confessed that he could not "answer for the whole of the British
Empire at a moment's notice."

The LORD CHANCELLOR refused to accept Lord BALFOUR OF BURLEIGH'S proposal
to abolish the D.O.R.A. regulation forbidding the sale of confectionery in
theatres, on the ground that it would be unfair to the ordinary shops to
allow this competition, and that the business of the theatre was to supply
drama not chocolate. Lord BALFOUR was unconvinced. His imagination boggled
at the thought of a Scotsman, at any rate, paying for a seat in a theatre
in order to purchase a shilling's worth of "sweeties."

The House of Commons has a childlike sense of humour. There is nothing that
it enjoys more than to have a Minister struggling with th