ly gave great comfort to the
enemy, who possibly overestimates the importance of Mr. MASSINGHAM and the
significance of the title of his paper. It also found its way to the
British trenches, and caused so great an increase in the habit
traditionally ascribed to the British Army when in Flanders that Sir
DOUGLAS HAIG is understood to have suggested that an embargo should be
placed upon the further export of such literature.

What most strikes the imagination is that amid the most stirring events of
the greatest war in history British Legislators should devote three of
their precious hours to so trumpery an affair. Was this what the old jurist
had in mind when he called the House of Commons "The Great Inquest of the
Nation"?

_Wednesday, April 18th._--On the motion introduced in both Houses to
express the welcome of Parliament to our new Ally, Mr. BONAR LAW,
paraphrasing CANNING, declared that the New World had stepped in to redress
the balance of the Old; Mr. ASQUITH, with a fellow-feeling no doubt, lauded
the patience which had enabled President WILSON to carry with him a united
nation; and Lord CURZON quoted BRET HARTE.

A fresh injustice to Ireland was revealed at Question-time. England and
Scotland are to enjoy an educational campaign, in which hundreds of
speakers all over the country will dilate upon the necessity of reducing
the consumption and preventing the waste of foodstuffs. But like most other
patriotic schemes it is not to apply to John Bull's other island, though I
gather that it is at least as much wanted there as here.

On the third reading of the Parliament Bill the debate was confined to
Irish Members. Mr. FIELD, who is in the live-stock trade, led one
particularly fine bull into the Parliamentary arena. After complaining that
Members had no longer any power in the House, he went on to say, "We are
simply ciphers behind the leading figures on the Front Bench." Surely that,
arithmetically speaking, is the position in which ciphers are most
powerful.

_Thursday, April 19th._--The mental processes of Sir WILLIAM BYLES are
normally so mysterious that his suggestion that, with the Americans coming
in and the Germans making off, this was the psychological moment for the
British Government to initiate proposals for peace, did not strike the
House at large as specially absurd. It was, however, both surprised and
delighted when Mr. SWIFT MACNEILL interposed with an inquiry whether it
would not be time enou