use, however, would not enter into joke. MARKISS admitted
that, being a constant passenger by Great Northern Railway, he
generally "said a dam" when passing these gates. This felt to be a
shocking state of things. Gates and bars must be bundled off, if only
to prevent use of bad language by PRIME MINISTER. BRAMWELL reluctantly
admitted this, still pleading with touching eloquence for preservation
of the obstruction.

"My Lords," he said, "think of what you're doing to this great
capital, of which we are all so justly proud. The Tower has become a
disused place, and its historic hill no more reverberates to the merry
chopping of the headsman's axe. Temple Bar has gone, and long ago have
vanished the heads that used to look wistfully down on the passing
chairmen. The chairmen themselves have sped into eternity, and in
their place circles the Hansom cab. No more does the lovely, lonely
oil lamp swing at the corners of our streets. Your Lordships can
wend your way homeward as far West as Kensington, or as far North as
Highbury, without meeting the casual footpad. The town is drained; the
river is embanked; our streets are paved; and we have a penny post.
Almost all that is left to us of the good old times are these bars,
arbitrarily set up across our thoroughfare, watched by a gentleman in
a seedy suit, and a rain-beaten hat girt with tarnished golden lace.
I beseech your Lordships, by your memories of infancy, by your love of
our old Constitution, by the faith of your Order, by your fidelity
to your Sovereign, to spare these last lingering relics of the London
that helped to make our Empire great."

[Illustration: "As if in Church."]

House plainly touched at this outburst of eloquence. Lord BANGOR
closed his eyes, and clasped his hands, as if in Church. If there
can be any arrangement made in Committee by which the gates and bars,
after removal, may be placed in convenient order round BRAMWELL'S
residence, so that he shall be forced to make _detours_ as he goes
about his daily business, it shall be done. With this understanding,
Amendment withdrawn, and Bill read Second Time.

_Business done._--In Commons, more about Irish Votes.

_Friday._--Vote for Irish Prisons Board on in Committee of Supply.
Interesting conversation between Prince ARTHUR and recent inmates
of the prisons. O'BRIEN protests that the treatment was abominable.
Prince ARTHUR cites O'B.'s personal appearance in proof that things
are not so bad as the