upporting their proposal
in a series of speeches which might be summed up in the words "Peace
at any Price." Even the German CHANCELLOR will not be wholly pleased,
for the debate revealed that, apart from the seven or eight gentlemen
who follow the white flag of the Member for Blackburn, the House is
absolutely fixed in its determination to defeat German militarism
before talking of peace.

After the searching analysis to which the hon. Member's confident
statements were subjected by Lord ROBERT CECIL and Mr. A.F. WHYTE
there was nothing left of them but a trace of acid.

So far as I am aware the Member for Blackburn has never endangered the
integrity of his principles by helping his country in any way to win
the War. In this respect Mr. LEES SMITH, who seconded the motion, has
a less consistent record, for he has worn khaki as an orderly of the
R.A.M.C. But in his case service abroad seems only to have confirmed
his peculiar principles, for he thinks that we ought to return the
German colonies, and enable the natives to enjoy once again the
blessings of _Kultur_. If he ever saw the Hun while he was in France
it must have been through a pair of rose-tinted binoculars.

_Thursday, May 17th_.--We are all agog to know whether the PRIME
MINISTER'S offer of immediate Home Rule to twenty-six Counties of
Ireland is to be blessed or banned by the Nationalists. This is the
day when Irish Questions have priority, and the House hears such
important inquiries as whether Hibernian holiday-makers will have
their excursion-trains restored to them; what became of a side of
bacon captured by the police during the Easter Monday rebellion, and
why a certain magistrate should have been struck off the Commission of
the Peace for a trifling refusal to take the oath of allegiance. Are
we to go without this entertainment in the future, or will Mr. REDMOND
refuse to rob Westminster of its gaiety even for the sake of College
Green?

If, as I ventured to suggest last week, the CHANCELLOR OF THE
EXCHEQUER had laid in a stock of tobacco before the Budget he has
evidently exhausted it by now, for, on his attention again being
called to the exorbitant charge of the tobacconists, he no longer
pooh-poohed the matter, but sternly declared that the situation was
being closely watched.

* * * * *

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