If that is really the object, why hurry?

* * * * *

[Illustration: CANCELLED

BY ORDER OF THE COMPETENT MILITARY AUTHORITY.]

* * * * *

ESSENCE OF PARLIAMENT.

_Monday, March 12th._--Having declared war upon the Government the
Nationalists are seeking a suitable plan of campaign. The Home Rule demand
never obtained much support among the Irish farmers until FINTAN LALOR
hitched it on to the Land question, and ever since Mr. WYNDHAM'S Land
Purchase Act turned the tenants into prospective owners it has been
steadily losing momentum. Mr. GINNELL, who made his reputation as a
perverse species of cowboy, now witnesses with grim satisfaction the
efforts of his colleagues to borrow his policy and break up the grass
farms. It was rather hard on him that the Parliamentary printer should have
ruined one of his questions on the subject by making him say "that the
reason"--instead of the season--"for breaking this land is passing away."

The HOME SECRETARY is regarded by those who do not know him intimately as a
somewhat austere person, but given the right atmosphere he can be as lively
as anybody. Questioned about the reopening of Ciro's, he betrayed a minute
acquaintance with the details of its programme. I was beginning to wonder
if he were related to that famous Early-Victorian family, the Caves of
Harmony, when his knowledge broke down. On being asked by his old friend