of Lords has been an ecclesiastical lawyer. From Lord Stowell to
Lord Parmoor is indeed a far cry. Who could have dreamt that, even
amid the upheaval of a world, a spokesman of liberty and conscience
would emerge from the iron-bound precincts of the Consistory Court
and the Vicar-General's Office?

Bishops again--not even these most securely placed of all British
officials can escape the tendency to change which pervades the
whole stage of public life. The Bishop of Winchester, whom all
good Progressives used to denounce as a dark conspirator against
the rights of conscience; the Bishop of Oxford, whom we were taught
to regard as a Hildebrand and a Torquemada rolled into one--these
admirable prelates emerge from the safe seclusion of Castle and
Palace to rebuke the persecution of the Conscientious Objector,
even when his objection is "nearly intolerable."

That the Press should have had its share in this general readjustment
of parts was only natural; but even in what is natural there may be
points of special interest. There is a weekly journal of high repute
which has earned a secure place in the regard of serious-minded
people by its lifelong sobriety, moderation, and respect for the
prunes and prisms. When this staid old print, this steady-going
supporter of all established institutions, bursts out in a furious
attack on the man who has to bear the chief responsibility of the
war, I can only rub my eyes in amazement. If a sheep had suddenly
gone mad, and begun to bark and bite, the transformation could
not have been more astonishing.

But I reserve my most striking illustration of the "humorous stage"
for the last. Fifteen years ago it was the fashion to point at Lord