Then followed a lively but inconclusive discussion upon that hardy
annual, the alleged sale of honours. General PAGE CROFT attributed it
to the secrecy of party funds and proudly declared that the. National
Party published all the subscriptions it received, and heartily wished
there were more of them. The weakness of his case and that of his
supporters was that no specific instances of corruption were brought
forward, if we may except Mr. BOTTOMLEY'S assertion that some years
ago he might have had a peerage if he had paid for it.

_Thursday, May 29th_--A constitutional crisis is impending on the
question whether the MINISTER OF HEALTH should have one Parliamentary
Secretary or two; the Commons demand two; the Lords will not allow
more than one, even though tempted by Lord CURZON with the bribe that
the second shall sit in the Upper House. Having heavily defeated the
Government on this point, the Peers then decided that Miss VIOLET
DOUGLAS-PENNANT was entitled to a judicial inquiry into the.
circumstances that led to her retirement from the Air Force. The
LORD CHANCELLOR opposed the proposal in a speech described by Lord
SALISBURY as that "of an advocate rather than a judge;" but in spite
or because of this the Government were beaten by 69 to 20.

Somebody ought to move for a return of the amount expended by the
Government on the hire of furniture vans since the Armistice. Sir A.
MOND stated that in order to release certain hotels their official
occupants had been transferred to the Alexandra Palace, while the
interned aliens recently housed in the Palace had been sent to certain
country camps, whose late occupants (we may infer) have now gone to
the hotels. It is suggested that the Office of Works should now be
known as the "General Post" Office.