had abolished agrarian murder. It was, alas! a Liberal Government
that tolerated the Ulster treason, and so prepared the way for the
Dublin rebellion. Highly placed and highly paid flaccidity then
reigned supreme, and produced its inevitable result. But last December
we were assured that flaccidity had made way for firmness, and that
the pudding had been replaced by the flint. But the transactions
of the last few weeks--one transaction in particular[*]--seem worthy
of our flabbiest days.

[Footnote *: A release for political objects.]

I turn my eyes homewards again, from Dublin to the House of Commons.
The report of the Mesopotamia Commission has announced to the world
a series of actions which every Briton feels as a national disgrace.
Are the perpetrators of those actions to go unpunished? Are they
to retain their honours and emoluments, the confidence of their
Sovereign, and the approbation of his Ministers? If so, flaccidity
will stand revealed as what in truth it has always been--the one
quality which neutralizes all other gifts, and makes its possessor
incapable of governing.




V

_THE PROMISE OF MAY_

This is the real season for a holiday, if holidays were still possible.
It is a point of literary honour not to quote the line which shows