_Wednesday, May 10th._--Among the Distinguished Strangers in the Gallery
was a deputation from the Russian Duma, led by its Vice-President.
Unfortunately M. PROTOPOPOFF and his colleagues did not see our
Parliament at its best. In the Commons the Nationalist factions were
noisily assailing the PRIME MINISTER with protests against the
executions of the rebel leaders, and ultimately succeeded in inducing
him to give them a day for what must in the circumstances be a premature
discussion.
Then our Russian friends went to the Lords, where they found a
discussion on Ireland actually in progress. It was started by Lord
LOREBURN, who accused the Government of having neglected the elementary
duty of protecting the law-abiding population, and urged upon them
collectively the necessity of being as candid as Mr. BIRRELL had been
individually. The War had furnished many instances of the danger to
national interests of silence carried to excess. Then Lord MIDLETON
rehearsed a grim catalogue of cases in which the Irish police had been
instructed to shut their eyes to seditious offences.
Happily the Russian visitors had left before Lord CREWE rose to make the
Government's defence, for I am afraid that they would not have carried
away a high impression of Ministerial eloquence or Ministerial
statesmanship.
_Thursday, May 11th._--To Mr. REDMOND'S obvious annoyance Mr. DILLON
developed a savage attack on the military authorities. They, one
gathered, were brutal murderers; the Sinn Feiners, on the contrary, were
gallant if misguided patriots of whom he was proud. The PRIME MINISTER,
mildly observing that Mr. DILLON had forgotten some of the elementary
rules of justice, brought the debate back to the level of common sense
by contrasting the small number of executions with the heavy toll of
military and civilian life that the rebels had taken. Repeating his
_coup_ of two years ago, when he went to the War Office after the
Curragh incident, he now announced his immediate intention to go to
Ireland, in the hope of discovering some arrangement for the future
which would commend itself to all parties. Some of the difficulties that
Mr. ASQUITH will encounter in his laudable enterprise were indicated by
Mr. HEALY, who hoped that he would put an end to Dublin Castle and the
jobbery that had been carried on there by Mr. REDMOND and his friends.
In the Lords the Government's Irish policy was again assailed from all
sides; but more damaging even than the attacks was Lord LANSDOWNE'S
defence. He actually blamed Lord MIDLETON for having contented himself
with warning the CHIEF SECRETARY and the PRIME MINISTER of the dangerous
happenings in Ireland, and not having come to him (Lord LANSDOWNE), or
to Mr. BALFOUR, or to Mr. LONG. This new doctrine of collective
irresponsibility seems fairly to justify the definition, "A Coalition is
something that does not coalesce."
* * * * *
"Imports in truth have been so small that the run on home produce
has been more or less forced."--_Eastern Daily Press._
The Press Bureau will have to be more economical with it than ever.
* * * * *
"Wellington said that the battle of Waterloo was won upon the
cricket fields of England. Later--decades later--the bronzed and
lithe-limbed athletes of the island kingdom gazed in open-eyed
bewilderment upon the flaming indictment of Kipling, 'The muddled
oafs at the wicket; the flannelled fools at the gate,' and seeking
vainly to follow the poet's logic."
_New York Times._
Presented in this form it would baffle anybody.
* * * * *
[Illustration: BREAKFAST IN A FRONT TRENCH.
_Tommy._ "THE BLOOMIN' DUG-OUT'S FLOODED OUT, THE BISCUIT'S WET, THE
TEA'S COLD AND THERE AIN'T NOTHIN' TO WARM IT WITH."
_Sergeant._ "OH, CHUCK IT! I DUNNO WHAT SOME OF YOU BLIGHTERS WOULD DO
IF YOU 'AD TO ROUGH IT!"]
* * * * *