was in league with the
forces of disorder. "Bolshies!" he shouted in a voice that frightened
the pigeons in Palace Yard.

Later in the evening Mr. STANTON indicated that unless the salaries of
Members of Parliament were raised he should have seriously to consider
the question of returning to his old trade of a coal-hewer, at which I
gathered he could make much more money with an infinitely smaller
exertion of lung-power.

[Illustration: "If, as appears to be the case, it is for
the moment more or less decently interred, its epitaph
should be not _Reguiescat_ but _Resurget_" (cheers).

_Mr. ASQUITH on the Land Values Duties._]

The vote for Agriculture and Fisheries was supported by Sir A.
GRIFFITH-BOSCAWEN in a speech crammed full of miscellaneous information.
We learned that the Minister once smoked a pipe of Irish tobacco, and
said "Never Again"; that the slipper-limpet, formerly the terror of the
oyster-beds had now by the ingenuity of his Department been transformed
into a valuable source of poultry-food, and that the roundabout process
by which the Germans in bygone days imported eel-fry from the Severn for
their own rivers, and then exported the full-grown fish for the
delectation of East-end dinner-tables, had been done away with. In the
matter of eels this country is now self-supporting.

* * * * *

"The stock markets showed a good deal of uncertainty
this morning and dealers marked prices lower in many
cases to protect themselves against possible sales on
the Budget proposals, particularly the excess profits
duty and the corruption tax."--_Provincial Paper._

Mr. CHAMBERLAIN omitted to mention the last-named impost, but no doubt
that was his artfulness.

* * * * *

LITTLE BITS OF LONDON.

"THE BEAR-GARDEN."

THE authors of the guide-books have signally failed to discover the
really interesting parts of Law-land. I have looked through several of
these works and not one of them refers, for example, to the
"Bear-Garden," which is the place where the preliminary skirmishes of
litigation are carried out. The Bear-Garden is the name given to it by
the legal profession, so I am quite in order in using the title. In
fact, if you want to get to it, you _have_ to use that title. The proper
title would be something like "the place where Masters in Chambers
function at half-past one;" but, if you go into the La