usive?

_Wednesday, March 5th_.--The friends of the new LORD CHANCELLOR
were becoming anxious lest his natural gaiety should be permanently
suppressed by the necessity of keeping up the dignity of the Woolsack.
They need be under no further apprehensions. A motion in favour of
Home Rule All Round, introduced by Lord BRASSEY and supported by Lord
SELBORNE, furnished him with his chance. Metaphorically flinging his
full-bottomed wig on to the floor he skipped into the arena, executed
a war-dance around his amazed victims, and, before they knew where
they were, got their heads into Chancery and knocked them together
until they were compelled to give in. Talk of the congestion of
Parliament! Why, now that party spirit was in abeyance, Bills went
through with incredible rapidity. As for the supposed ambitions of the
"little nations," what, he asked, did Scotsmen and Welshmen care about
subordinate Parliaments when they were governing the whole Empire? If
the advocates of the proposal really believed in it let them go out as
missionaries into the wilderness, and, if they escaped the proverbial
fate of missionaries, convert the heathen voters to their creed.
Thereupon Lord BRASSEY, his brow bloody but unbowed, intimated that
"a time would come," and meanwhile withdrew his motion.

At Question-time Mr. BONAR LAW indignantly denied a newspaper rumour
from Paris that the British delegates had decided not to demand any
money-indemnity from Germany, but took occasion later on to discount
somewhat freely the election-promises made on this subject by himself
and other Ministers. It would be better, he implied, to accept a
composition than to put the debtor into the Bankruptcy Court. This
is common sense, no doubt, always provided that the Hun does not
misinterpret his reprieve, and, instead of laying golden eggs for
our benefit, resume the practice of the goose-step.

On the Civil Service Estimates, swollen to five times their pre-war
magnitude, Mr. BALDWIN made an earnest appeal for economy. If every
man would ask himself, "What can I do for the State?" instead of "What
can I get out of it?" we might yet emerge safely from our financial
straits. The House, as usual, cheered this fine sentiment to the echo,
and, to show how thoroughly it had gone home, Mr. ADAMSON, the Labour
leader, immediately pressed for an increase in the salaries of Members
of Parliament.

_Thursday, March 6th_.--The CHIEF SECRETARY FOR IRELAND announced tha