SS and JACOBY to look after
politics. As for me, I'm going to look for gold. I'm not rushing
blindfold into the matter. I've studied it with the highest and
the deepest authorities--and what do I learn? Native gold is found
crystallised in the forms of the octahedron, the cube, and the
dodecahedron, of which the cube is considered as the primary form.
It also occurs in filiform, capillary, and arborescent shapes, as
likewise in leaves or membranes, and rolled masses. It offers
no indications of internal structure, but, on being separated by
mechanical violence, exhibits a hackly fracture. Its colour comprises
various shades of gold yellow. Its specific gravity varies from 14.8
to 19.2. It is commonly alloyed by copper, silver, and iron, in very
small proportions. I mean, if I may say so, to unalloy it"; and,
swinging the pick round his head with a dexterity that testified to
natural aptitude combined with diligent practice, GRANDOLPH chipped
a fragment out of the marble mantelpiece, and, picking it up, eagerly
examined it, as if in search of a hackly fracture.

I wished him good luck, and went back to the House, where I
found BIDDULPH smiling behind SPEAKER's chair, watching ATKINSON
illustrating the working of his Duration of Speeches Bill by ringing
a muffin-bell, borrowed from a Constituent.

_Business done_.--Miscellaneous.

_Thursday_.--Should have been at work to-night on Army Estimates;
but things getting a little mixed. Nearly 150 Members picknicking
at Portsmouth; all the Colonels, the Bo'suns, the Captains, and the
Admirals.

"Capital opportunity to get on with the Estimates," JACKSON whispered
in OLD MORALITY's ear.

"No," said that pink of chivalry, "I will never take mean advantage of
a man, even of an Admiral. Let us put on the Factories and Workshops
Bill; won't take long; keep us going till they get back from
Portsmouth."

[Illustration: "That evening bell!"]

So HOME SECRETARY moved Second Reading. "Mere formality, you know," he
explained; "shall refer Bill to Committee on Trade, and there it will
be thrashed out and shaped." But floodgates once opened not easily
shut. The Factories and Workshops mean the Working-Man; Working-Man
has Vote; General Election not far off; must show Working-Man who's
his true friend. Everybody his true friend. Speeches by the dozen;
COMPTON, after long sitting in patient attitude at last caught
SPEAKER's eye. "A milk-and-water Bill," he scornfully characterised
H