Mr. ASQUITH was reported the other day to have said that the Government
was spoken of as having been accused of refusing so-called amendments to
the Employers' Liability Bill in "_peacock_ temper." The _Daily News_,
in referring to this, suggests that "peacock temper" was a misprint for
"pique, or temper." But surely this is not so. Mr. ASQUITH evidently has
given in his adhesion to the new system of "colour adjectives." This
opens great possibilities to the future. Radicals will denounce the
"scarlet scandals of the purple-clad peers." Tories will wax eloquent on
"the pink miasma of revolutionary Radicalism." No one will know what it
all means, but that is part of the programme. Even if this colour scheme
will not work, there is still a justification for the Asquithian phrase.
Everybody has heard of a "foul slander." Why not a "peacock temper"?
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A Case of Parallelism.
(_Extracts from the Report of a recent Conference._)
"Dr. STANLEY BOYD advocated the use of milk and lentil soup."
"Mrs. STANLEY BOYD thought that all such novels as _The Heavenly Twins_,
_The Manxman_, and _The Wages of Sin_, should be tabooed."
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SIR PETER.--A well-written letter in the _Times_ last week puts what
maybe called "The Hard Case of Sir PETER EDLIN"--and, indeed, he
must be pretty well case-hardened at the Middlesex Sessions by this
time--clearly and forcibly before the public. Sir PETER EDLIN, it seems,
has been doing treble the amount of work for a two-third's salary. This
should be righted, and the Judge at the Middlesex Sessions should be
independent of the would-be ubiquitous L. C. C. Such is the opinion of
this Correspondent to the _Times_, and it is doubtless the opinion of a
fair and just majority. As _Joseph Surface_ observes in _The School for
Scandal_, "Well, it will give SIR PETER great satisfaction to hear
_this_."
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ONLY NATURAL.--A shareholder at a recent company meeting complained,
with some amount of feeling, that he found it next to impossible to
obtain a "good penny bun." Can it be that so many people have "taken the
bun" that there are none left?
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