g it, felt his position
acutely. Only when explaining that one of the principal objects of the
Bill was to extend the service of time-expired soldiers for the duration
of the War did he wax at all eloquent, and then it was in lauding the
chivalry of these men and in expressing his extreme distaste for the
task of coercing them. The whole speech justified the poet's remark that
"long petitions spoil the cause they plead."

Not a voice was heard in favour of the measure. Sir EDWARD CARSON damned
it for not going far enough, and Mr. LEIF JONES because it went too far;
and Mr. STEPHEN WALSH, as representative of the miners, who have given
so much of their blood to the country's cause, bluntly demanded that the
House should reject this Bill "and insist on the straight thing."

Mr. ASQUITH, recalled to the House by his agitated colleague, recognised
that his old Parliamentary hand had got into a hornet's nest, and
promptly withdrew it. To the best of my recollection this is the first
time on record that a Government measure has perished before its first
reading. Conceived in secrecy and delivered in pain, its epitaph will be
that of another unhappy infant:--

"If I was to be so soon done for
I wonder what I was began for."

* * * * *

[Illustration: _Ingenuous Maiden (on being told she is expected to milk
the cow_). "Oh, Mum, I dursn't without a soldier held her head."]

* * * * *

"The Austrians thrice attempted to rush the Italian positions on
the Upper Isonzo, but were repulsed with heavy lasses."

_Times of Ceylon._

Stout girls, these _contadine_.

* * * * *

"Recently I have seen several German planes so high as to be
mere specks, and of the many I have seen none has been lower, I
should say, than ,000 ft."--_Morning Paper._

A cautious statement, and probably true.

* * * * *

"We are glad to learn that the daughter of our popular banker
was married on the 10th instant, over 1000 persons were invited
and sumpfedtuously."--_Indian Paper._

We infer that the compositor was among them.

* * * * *

"In his defence Mr. ---- said he had endeavoured to fake the
point that the onus of proving he was under the Military Service
Act was upon the prosecution."

_Bayswater Chronicle._

If not a consc