_Tuesday, February 10th._--As HIS MAJESTY read his gracious speech to the
assembled Lords and Commons did his thoughts flow back for a moment to the
last time he opened Parliament in person? It was on another February 10th,
in 1914, and so little was the coming storm foreseen that the customary
announcement, "My relations with Foreign Powers continue to be friendly,"
was followed by a special reference to the satisfactory progress of "my
negotiations with the German Government and the Ottoman Government"
regarding--Mesopotamia, of all places.
[Illustration: I AM AFRAID I AM GETTING CONTROVERSIAL."--_Mr. Lloyd
George._]
Since then everything has changed--save one. Ireland remains the skeleton
at the feast. The condition of that unhappy country still causes HIS
MAJESTY "grave concern," to be removed, let us piously hope, by the
promised Home Rule Bill. It is true that, as Lord DUFFERIN said when moving
the Address in the Lords, no one in Ireland appears to want the Bill; but
then, as Colonel SIDNEY PEEL, the Mover in the Commons, remarked with equal
truth, the ordinary rules of thought do not apply to the Irish Question.
The PRIME MINISTER has lately been advised by a candid friend to take a six
months' holiday "to recover his resilience." Mr. ADAMSON and Sir DONALD
MACLEAN found him nowise lacking in that quality when he came to reply to
their criticisms of the King's Speech. The Labour leader, convinced by a
fortnight in Ireland that the present Administration was all wrong, and
that the Government's Bill would do nothing to improve it, was bluntly
asked, "Are we to withdraw the troops and leave the assassins in charge?"
while the "Wee Free" champion, who had interpreted the recent by-elections
as a sign that the time for the Coalition was past, was unkindly reminded
that, at any rate, the results of these contests had furnished no
encouragement to the party that he adorns. "But I am afraid I am getting
controversial," said Mr. LLLOYD GEORGE, to the amusement of the House,
which had enjoyed his sword-play for half-an-hour; and with that he turned
to the task of defending the new policy in Russia. Having failed to subdue
the Bolshevists by force, we are now going to try the effect of commerce--a
modern reading of "Trade Follows the Flag." The Labour Party cheered the
new departure vociferously, but the rest of the House seemed a little
chilly, and Mr. CHURCHILL, at the PRIME MINISTER'S elbow, looked about as
happy as NAPOLEON on the return from Moscow.
[Illustration: HILARITY OF MR. CHURCHILL ON HEARING HIS CHIEF'S VIEWS ABOUT
RUSSIA.]
Lord HUGH CECIL raised the standard of economy, and complained that the
legislative programme was extravagantly long. "A large number of Bills
generally meant a large amount of expenditure." I have myself observed this
phenomenon.
_Wednesday, February 11th._--The Lords, having disposed of the Address with
their usual celerity, welcomed Baron RIDDELL of Walton Heath (and, perhaps
I may add, Bouverie Street) to their ranks, and then adjourned for a week.
If all Labour Members possessed the sweet reasonableness of Mr. BRACE we
should view the advent of a Labour Government without any of Mr.
CHURCHILL'S misgivings. The Member for Abertillery argued the case for the
nationalisation of mines so gently and genially that before he sat down I
am sure that a good half of his hearers began to think that, after all,
there was "something in it." Visions of a carboniferous millennium, when
there would be no more strikes and hardly any accidents, and altruistic
colliers would hew their hardest to get cheap and abundant coal for the
community, floated before the mind's eye as Mr. BRACE purred persuasively
along.
[Illustration: THE PIED PIPER OF ABERTILLERY
(MR. W. BRACE).
"FOR HE LED US, HE SAID, TO A JOYOUS LAND