use out
of its hostile mood and to satisfy the majority, at any rate, that
the measure was neither provocative nor inopportune, but a necessary
precaution against the possibility that "direct action" on the part
of extra-Parliamentary bodies might confront the country with the
alternatives of starvation or surrender.

_Tuesday, October 26th_.--In these troublous times the House gladly
seizes the smallest occasion for merriment. There was great laughter
when Colonel YATE, the politest of men, inadvertently referred to Sir
ARCHIBALD WILLIAMSON as "the right honourable gent," and it broke
forth again when, in his anxiety to make no further slip, he addressed
him _tout court_ as "the right honourable."

There are some fifty thousand British soldiers in Ireland, costing
over a million pounds a month. But Mr. CHURCHILL took the cheery view
that after all they had to be somewhere, and would cost nearly as much
even in Great Britain.

They would cost a good deal more in Mesopotamia, where we have a
hundred thousand troops (British and Indian), and the cost is two
and a half millions a month. Sir WILLIAM JOYNSON-HICKS could not
understand why we should spend all this money "merely to hand the
country back to the rebels." Mr. CHURCHILL said he had heard nothing
about handing the country back to the rebels; from which it may be
inferred either that he is not admitted into all the secrets of the
Cabinet or that he draws a distinction between "rebels" and "persons
who object to British rule."

The Press campaign in favour of a nickel three-halfpenny coin has not
succeeded. In Mr. CHAMBERLAIN'S opinion it would not be a coin of
vantage. Among his objections to it may be the extreme probability
that the present Administration would promptly be nicknamed (I will
not say nickel-named) "the Three-half-penny Government."

Owing to a number of concessions announced by the HOME SECRETARY the
Emergency Powers Bill had a fairly smooth passage through Committee.
Objections were still raised to making an Emergency Act permanent--it
_does_ sound rather like a contradiction in terms--but the
ATTORNEY-GENERAL skilfully countered them by pointing out that it was
only the framework of the machinery, not the regulations, that would
be permanent. One can imagine the bold bad baron who set up a gallows
to overawe his villeins comforting objectors with the remark that
after all it was merely a framework--quite useless without a rope.

[Illustrat