of the employers and employed are the same
nine times out of ten--I will even say ninety-nine times out
of ten."

"Our tongues are tied, our hands are fettered, and we are
really beating the air to no purpose."

"I will now repeat what I was about to say when the
honorable member interrupted me."

"The West Indies will now have a future which they never had
in the past."

"A thorny subject which has long been a bone of contention
among us."

"A slumbering volcano which at any moment a spark might set
aflame."

"The honorable member would denude us of every rag of the
principles which we have proclaimed from the housetops."

"Ah! The honorable member opposite shakes his head at that.
But he can't shake mine!"

A well-known member of Parliament informed the House that an
"oral agreement is not worth the paper it is written on."

Barristers are usually credited with possessing accuracy of
speech, but some expressions recently reported indicate that
they are capable of a blundering use of words. A member of
the bar, in his opening speech for the defense, said:

"Gentlemen of the jury, the case for the crown is a mere
skeleton, for, as I shall presently show you, it has neither
flesh, blood, nor bones in it."

But a Leeds barrister outdid his competitors when he said
fervidly:

"Gentlemen of the jury, it will be for you to say whether
this defendant shall be allowed to come into court with
unblushing footsteps, with the cloak of hypocrisy in his
mouth, and take three bullocks out of my client's pocket
with impunity."

In his "One Thousand and One Anecdotes" Alfred H. Miles records some
exceptionally amusing bulls. Among these are the following:

Sir Boyle Roche described himself on one occasion as
"standing prostrate at the feet of royalty"; and, in the
days of threatened rebellion, wrote to a friend: "You may
judge of our state when I tell you that I write this with a
sword in one hand and a pistol in the other."

Even worse than the foregoing was the climax of an honorable
member's speech in the House of Commons: "I smell a rat; I
see it floating in the air; and, by heaven, I'll nip it in
the bud!"

A Scotchwoman said that the butcher of her town only killed
half a beast at a time.

A British magistrate, on being told by a v