* * * *

THE JOKE OF THE SESSION.

One great cause of the heaviness of Parliamentary debates is the jokes
with which they are interspersed, although these are not numerous. A
speech may contain but a single joke; but that one joke, or attempt at
joking, is such as to give a weight to the whole discourse which it
would not derive from the arguments advanced in it. To quote a House of
Commons' witticism is generally to quote JOE MILLER, whom Honourable
Gentlemen seem to cram in order to amuse, as they cram ADAM SMITH with a
view to instruct one another. Their jokes, like a very different kind of
things, Chancery decisions, are warranted by precedent. Liberals though
some of them may be in earnest, they are all Tories in fun. _Stare super
antiques jocos_ is the motto of the extremest Radicals among them. The
boldest innovators of the Manchester School show a veneration for
antiquity as far as that goes. When the cellars of the House of Commons
are searched for GUY FAWKES, it is wonderful that no explosive matter is
found in them; no jokes in bottles, laid down many years ago, full of
beeswing, so to speak; old and dry. The foregoing reflections were
suggested by a report, in the Parliamentary intelligence, of the most
brilliant joke that has for a long time, as a gentleman in the Brigade
might say, shaken the walls of St. Stephen's. This highly successful
sally was made in Committee on the Expenses of Elections' Bill by

"MR. ELLIOTT, the Member for Roxburghshire, who expressed anxiety to
know, as the clauses prohibited persons playing, whether in future
any of his constituents would be fined for playing the Scotch
fiddle?"

If this pun is not very witty, at least it savours of the quality
nearest allied to wit. MR. ELLIOTT'S humorous question, moreover, is no
unmeaning joke. It expresses a feeling probably very general among his
constituents, who, we trust, will not, by any ungenerous legislation, be
deprived of that relief, under circumstances of suffering, which they
have always enjoyed under the ancient Scottish constitution.

* * * * *

PAPA TO HIS HEIR.

A FAST MINOR.

My son, a father's warning heed;
I think my end is nigh:
And then, you dog, you will succeed
Unto my property.

But, seeing you are not, just yet,
Arrived at man's estate,
Before you full possession get,
You'll have a while to wait.

A large al