e of his new
office as President of the Board of Trade, stepped nimbly into the
breach, and made a speech so cheerful both in substance and delivery
as to justify the hope that in him the Government have found the HORNE
of Plenty.

_Wednesday, March 17th_.--Seventeen years ago Lord BALFOUR OF
BURLEIGH, as a hard-shell Free Trader, sacrificed office sooner than
bow the knee to the new gods of Birmingham. This afternoon he brought
in a Bill (to safeguard "key industries" and counteract "dumping")
which would have gladdened the heart of Mr. JOSEPH CHAMBERLAIN. Some
of the other Free Trade Peers were still unrepentant. Lord BEAUCHAMP,
for example, declaring that shipping was our real "quay-industry" and
needed no protection, announced his intention of moving the rejection
of the Bill; and Lord CREWE, although one of the authors of the Paris
resolutions, on which the measure was ostensibly based, thought that
it went far beyond present necessities. The only dumps with which
Germany was likely to be associated for some time to come were
doleful, not aggressive.

The Report of the Supplementary Estimates furnished the Commons with
abundant points for criticism. In protesting against an increase in
the remuneration of the Law Officers, Mr. HOGGE revealed a hitherto
unsuspected admiration for the PRIME MINISTER, whose services, he
considered, were most inadequately rewarded with five thousand pounds
a year and no pension. If anyone deserved an increase of salary it was
he.

Mr. TYSON-WILSON had the temerity to complain that the Government were
not finding work for all the disabled ex-Service men whom they trained
in the technical schools, and laid himself open to a damaging "_tu
quoque_" from Sir ROBERT HORNE, who pointed out that this lack of
employment was largely due to the trade unions, which refused to admit
these men as "improvers."

In introducing the Naval Estimates for eighty odd millions Mr. LONG
was almost apologetic for not having made them larger. The _personnel_
has been drastically reduced, and parents are actually being offered a
premium of three hundred pounds to remove their sons from Osborne. On
the other hand promotion from the lower deck was to be encouraged, and
in future every youngster entering the Navy would metaphorically carry
a broad-pennant in his ditty-box.

_Thursday, March 18th_.--A proposal to erect a military monument on
a hill near Jerusalem was adversely criticised by Lord TREOWEN. Lord