h an appendix containing all the omitted passages. But there is no
LABOUCHERE in the House to-day--more's the pity.

What Mr. HOGGE does not know about pensions is not worth knowing. He has
already made havoc of more than one Government scheme, and unless he has an
official ring put in his nose he will evidently do his best to upset the
latest of them. On the whole, however, Mr. BARNES'S exposition of the new
pension scheme was well received. Though not unduly generous--that would be
impossible in the circumstances--it will at least, as Capt. STEPHEN GWYNN
put it, "enable us to look disabled men in the face."

_Wednesday, March 7th._--Lords SHEFFIELD and PARMOOR are much disturbed
because British subjects have been interned without trial, and had to be
reminded by the LORD CHANCELLOR that there was a war in progress, and that
it was better that individuals should lose a portion of their liberties
than that the community should lose them altogether.

A full appreciation of this truth might have prevented the Irish
Nationalists from seeking at this moment to get Home Rule out of cold
storage. If the attempt had to be made Mr. T.P. O'CONNOR was not perhaps
the best person to make it. For over an hour he meandered through the more
melancholy episodes of Irish history, from the Treaty of Limerick to the
Easter Monday rebellion, rather in the manner of one of those film-dramas
of which he is now the Censor. I am afraid his endeavour to prove that
Ireland is not "an irrational country, demanding impossible things," was
not entirely convincing.

It failed, at any rate--although backed by a brief appeal by Major WILLIE
REDMOND, which touched the House by its manifest sincerity--to convince the
PRIME MINISTER that this was the accepted time for plunging Ireland once
more into civil strife. Those parts of Ireland that wanted Home Rule could
have it to-morrow if they wished; neither he nor any other British
statesman would force the people of N.E. Ulster under a government they
disliked. When those two facts were thoroughly understood there might be a
chance of a settlement.

[Illustration: A TRUE IRISHMAN.

_Mr. John Redmond_. "I'VE FINISHED WITH THE BRITISH EMPIRE--

--EXCEPT, BEDAD, THAT WE'RE GOING TO BEAT THE BOSCH!"]

Mr. JOHN REDMOND, refusing to continue what he regarded as a futile and
humiliating debate, marched out of the House at the head of his supporters.
This manoeuvre, rather effective in the Gladstonian era,