just now, _a propos_ of new Clause moved by SEXTON.

Curious man is MADDEN. Lives a sort of dual life. In House regarded
as serious person, steeped in knowledge of Irish Question in its
multiform aspects. Really a _fin-de-siecle_ Attorney-General; knows
everything; is in everything; acquainted with IBSEN, misses few
bazaars or drawing-room concerts, and was on speaking terms with the
late Madame BLAVATSKY.

"Do you like _Hedda Gabler_?" he continued, nudging Prince ARTHUR, who
on this, the hundred-and-third night in Committee on the Irish Land
Bill, showed signs of drowsiness.

"Haven't time to go to the theatre," said Prince ARTHUR. "Never
perform out of Westminster, where we keep our own HEADACHE GABBLER
on the premises"; and he looked wearily across at SEXTON monotonously
piping, not without dread suspicion of the WINDBAG having been newly
leathered.

But the end comes to the man who lives to wait, and to-night, at
twenty minutes past ten, LEWIS PELLY sitting bolt upright, awakened
out of peaceful slumber by a sudden cheer; knew that the Land Bill was
at last through Committee.

_Business done._--Land Bill through Committee.

[Illustration: Pelly-Melly.]

* * * * *

NOTES ON THE ROYAL ACADEMY OF 2091.

"_Richard, Duke of Gloucester, refusing the Crown_." This picture will
be interesting to the historical student, as it affords a solution
to a knotty point that has puzzled commentators for the last five
centuries. The wily humpback is represented in his dressing-gown and
slippers, having evidently been called from his bath to listen to
the suggestion of the courtiers, who desire him to accept the regal
dignity. The umbrella of the Lord Mayor, we fancy, is of a later date
than the supposed period of the painting, but no doubt the artist has
authority for the introduction of the quaint old lamp-post illumined
with the electric light, which began to be used some little time after
the Battle of the Roses.

"_Charles the Second in the Oak_." This is also interesting to those
who delight in folklore. According to the legend (for no doubt the
story was merely a legend), the deposed monarch was escaping from the
Parliamentary troops, when he had to seek shelter in the spreading
branches of the tree that still is emblematic of England. The artist
has placed the leafy refuge near a stream, where CHARLES seems to
have been bathing. A tragic side (not entirely free from quaintness)
is