potentate," modestly adding, "I do not look the part." He has,
however, one characteristic of the Eastern ruler, namely, a delight in
long stories. It took him two hours to tell the House in melancholy
monotone all about the defects of our present system and his proposals
for removing them. Unfortunately he has not the Oriental gift of
transforming slums into palaces in a single night, but hopes to
produce a similar effect by treating the local authorities with a
judicious mixture of subsidies and ginger.

_Tuesday, April 8th_.--Congratulations to Lord ASKWITH on taking his
seat in the House of Lords and condolences (in advance) to those
foreign journals which will inevitably announce that the ex-PRIME
MINISTER has overcome his objections to taking a peerage.

Lord BUCKMASTER'S futile attempt to resist the passage of the Military
Service Bill was chiefly remarkable for his epigrammatic description
of the present SECRETARY OF STATE FOR WAR--"a man of great capacity, a
man of most restless and versatile energy and unconquerable will,
and of the most vivid and most illimitable and elusive vision of
any politician of recent time." Several public schoolmasters, I
understand, have already noted its possibilities as a suitable extract
for translation into Tacitean Latin.

Lord CURZON hastened to assure Lord BUCKMASTER that, though deprived
of his co-operation, the present Cabinet thought itself equal
to coping with Mr. CHURCHILL. As for the Bill, there were still
storm-clouds over Europe that might break at any moment; and every
threatened nationality was uttering the same cry, "Send us British
troops." Although we could not respond to all these appeals, we must
have the power to give aid when the circumstances required it.