ing fruits" promised ten years ago, was
followed by a reasoned condemnation of the proposed increase in the wine
duties, which he believed would diminish consumption and cause
international complications with our Allies. The CHANCELLOR, again, had
thought too much of revenue and too little of economy. He urged him--in
a magnificent mixture of metaphors--to cut away those parasitic
excrescences upon the normal administrative system of the country which
now constituted an open tap.

_Wednesday, April 21st._--The abolition of the Guide-lecturer at Kew
Gardens was deplored by Lord SUDELEY and other Peers. But as, according
to Lord LEE, out of a million visitors last year only five hundred
listened to the Guide--an average of less than three per lecture--the
Government can hardly be blamed for saving a hundred pounds.
Retrenchment, after all, must begin somewhere.

Sir DONALD MACLEAN cannot have heard of this signal example of
Government economy or he would not have denounced Ministers so
vehemently for their extravagance. His most specific charge was that in
Mesopotamia they were "spending money like water in looking for oil."

In a further defence of the Budget proposals Mr. CHAMBERLAIN disclaimed
the notion that it was the duty of the Chancellor of the Exchequer to
denounce in the House the Estimates which he had approved in Cabinet.
His business was to find the money. Circumstances had altered his
attitude to the Excess Profits Duty, and he was now determined to stick
to it. Did not a cynic once say that nothing succeeds like excess?

Mr. BARNES, who was loudly cheered on his return to the House, joined in
the cry for economy. "Some departments," he declared, "existed only
because they had existed."

The country clergy are without doubt the most over-rated persons in the
country--I mean, of course, from a fiscal point of view. Consequently
the House gave a friendly reception to a Bill intended to relieve them
of some of their pecuniary burdens.

_Thursday, April 22nd._--When Dr. MACNAMARA was Secretary to the
Admiralty no Minister was clearer or more direct in his answers. Now
that he has become Minister he has laid aside his quarter-deck manner
and adopted tones of whispering humbleness which hardly reach the Press
Gallery.

He ought to take example fro Mr. STANTON, who never leaves the House in
doubt as to what he means. This afternoon, his purpose was to announce
that a certain "Trio" on the Opposition Benches