ment in Dublin before the date known in
Ireland as "Tib's Eve."
_Wednesday, June 16th._--In both Houses Addresses were moved praying
His Majesty to appoint two additional Judges of the King's Bench
Division. The motions met with some opposition, principally on the
score of economy, and it was suggested that no additions to the Bench
would be required if the existing Judges resumed the old practice
of sitting on Saturdays. This drew from the LORD CHANCELLOR the
interesting information that the Judges devoted their Saturdays to
reading "the very lengthy papers that were contained in their weekly
_dossier_." It is no doubt the great length of these documents that
accounts for the peculiar shape of the bag that Mr. Justice ----'s
attendant was carrying when I met him at Sandwich a few Saturdays ago.
Lord BIRKENHEAD soothed the economists by pointing out that the new
Judges would probably more than earn their salaries of five thousand
pounds a year. In accordance with the prevailing tendency court-fees
are to be raised, and at Temple Bar as in Savile Row our suits will
cost us more.
Until Colonel LESLIE WILSON moved the Second Reading of the Nauru
Island Agreement Bill I don't suppose a dozen Members of the House of
Commons had ever heard of this tiny excrescence in the Western Pacific
with its wonderful phosphate deposits. Captured from the Germans
during the War, it is now the charge of the British Empire, and the
object of the Bill was to confirm an arrangement by which the deposits
should be primarily reserved for the agriculturists of Australasia,
New Zealand and the United Kingdom. It produced a debate of
extraordinary ferocity. Young Tories like Mr. ORMSBY-GORE vied with
old Liberals like Mr. ASQUITH (on whom the phosphates, plus the Louth
election, had a wonderfully tonic effect) in denouncing the iniquity
of an arrangement by which (as they said) the principles of the League
of Nations were being thrown over, and this country was revealed as a
greedy monopolist. Thus assailed both by friend and foe Mr. BONAR LAW
required all his cool suavity to bring the House back to a sense of
proportion, and to convince it that in securing a supply of manure for
British farmers the Government were not committing a crime against the
comity of nations.
Answering questions for the Irish Government in these days is rather
a melancholy business, but the ATTORNEY-GENERAL for IRELAND resembles
Dr. JOHNSON'S friend, in that "che
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