ess, and pondering on fresh delights
in store for House when it met again, remained standing at table,
reflectively arranging his papers. Horrible thought suddenly struck
him; froze his veins, and paled his brow. With generous desire that
country should fully share advantages of House, he had his speech
printed in advance. Copies sent to newspapers. Suppose they printed it
all, whereas he had not found opportunity to deliver more than half of
it! Awakened from reverie by violent tugging at coat-tails. This was
PRINCE ARTHUR, signalling him to sit down, with perhaps unnecessary
vigour. But PRINCE ARTHUR had a long score (fully an hour long) to pay
off.

Great speech finished at to-day's sitting; another hour saw it
through. "I think I had _my_ hour last night," said PRINCE ARTHUR, as,
on rising of his esteemed colleague, he hastily passed out. Example
again contagious; Benches emptied; but ELLIS ASHMEAD pounded
along. There was the speech reproachfully facing him in its
portentous-printed length; must be reeled off, though the glass roof
fell. Did it at last; sat down, flushed, and triumphant. Members,
warily assuring themselves speech really finished, began to stream
back again, till all the Benches filled to hear DAVITT. Excellent
speech; full of human nature; illumined by gleams of grim, humour;
better if it had been shorter by a third; but quality so good, that
House, now crowded, sat it all out.

[Illustration: POLITICAL ECONOMY-AND THE REFORMERS' IDEA OF HOW THE
OFFICIALS SHOULD BE TREATED.]

[Illustration: A Nasty One for Joseph; or, a Gentle Reminder from
Just-in Time McC-rthy.]

"Curious to think," said the _Squire of Malwood_, who just now has
unusually full opportunities for reflection, "that a few years
ago DAVITT was working out the Irish Question with a rope over his
shoulder, dragging a cart of stones through the court-yard of one of
Her Majesty's prisons. No one, casually coming across him at Portland,
would have ventured to forecast the hour when, standing up, the centre
of interest in an applauding House of Commons, he should have had
an opportunity of reasoning with the only occasionally DUM BARTON,
warning him against the practice of treason-felony, and reminding
him that the pathway to the Bench does not lie by way of the dock.
No parallel in politics to the Irish Question. Some of us have our
earlier studies interrupted by a sentence of imprisonment; others, I
daresay, will, later on, find in