ious speeches and actions of Mr. DE VALERA
and the other hillside orators whom for some inscrutable reason he
leaves at large.

I hope Mr. ASQUITH was justified in assuming that the Sinn Fein
excesses were only an expression of the "rhetorical and contingent
belligerency" always present in Ireland, and that in spite of them the
Convention would make all things right.

Meanwhile the Sinn Feiners have refused to take part in it. And not a
single Nationalist Member dared to denounce them to-night. Mr. T.M.
HEALY even gave them his blessing, for whatever that may be worth.

_Wednesday, October 24_.--The strange case of Mrs. BESANT and Mr.
MONTAGU was brought before the Upper House by Lord SYDENHAM, who hoped
the Government were not going to make concessions to the noisy people
who wanted to set up a little oligarchy in India. The speeches of
Lord ISLINGTON and Lord CURZON did not entirely remove the impression
that the Government are a little afraid of Mrs. BESANT and her power
of "creating an atmosphere" by the emission of "hot air." Apparently
there is room for only one orator in India at a time, for it was
expressly stated that Mr. MONTAGU, who got back into office shortly
after the delivery of what Lord LANSDOWNE characterised as an
"intemperate" speech on Indian affairs, has given an undertaking not
to make any speech at all during his progress through the Peninsula.

_Thursday, October 25th_.--Irish Members have first cut at the
Question-time cake on Thursdays, and employ their opportunity to
advertise their national grievances. Mr. O'LEARY, for example, drew
a moving picture of a poor old man occupying a single room, and
dependent for his subsistence on the grazing of a hypothetical cow; he
had been refused a pension by a hard-hearted Board. Translated into
prosaic English by the CHIEF SECRETARY it resolved itself into the
case of a farmer who had deliberately divested himself of his property
in the hope of "wangling" five shillings a week out of the Treasury.

According to Mr. BYRNE the Lord Mayor of DUBLIN has been grossly
insulted by a high Irish official, who must be made to apologise or
resign. Again Mr. DUKE was unreceptive. He had seen the LORD MAYOR,
who disclaimed any responsibility for his self-constituted champion.
Mr. BYRNE should now be known as "the cuckoo in the mare's nest."

An attack upon the Petroleum Royalties was led by Mr. ADAMSON, the
new Chairman of the Labour Party, who was cordially co