Not that they were by any means dull.  For both Colonel MILDMAY, who proposed, and Sir HENRY DALZIEL, who seconded, the re-election of Mr. LOWTHER as Speaker, spiced their compliments with humour.  The former was confident that even if Woman appeared on the floor of the House the SPEAKER-ELECT’S “consummate tact” would be equal to coping with her artfullest endeavours to get round the rules of procedure; while the latter attributed his priceless gift of humour to “Scottish ancestry on the mother’s side.”

Horsehair again!  I hardly recognised in the quietly-dressed Member who rose from the Bench behind Ministers to acknowledge these encomiums the man whose awe-inspiring appearance (when clothed in wig and gown) has quelled so many storms in the last four Parliaments.  Let us hope that the fifth, of which, being the outcome of his famous Conference, he may in a sense be described as the “onlie begetter,” will not disgrace its parentage.

Already there are elements of difficulty.  Through the non-return of Mr. ASQUITH the Opposition has lost its head literally and is in some danger of losing it figuratively, for the remnant of the un-"couponed” Liberals and the Labour Party are at present acutely divided on the question upon whom the lost Leader’s mantle should fall.  Today Sir DONALD MACLEAN, as senior Privy Councillor, took the pas and was able from personal experience to give his conception of the ideal Speaker, who “must not only have good vision but be sometimes quite blind; not only have acute hearing but occasionally be almost stone-deaf.”  Fortunately the SPEAKER-ELECT can assume these physical defects at will; for, despite its quiet opening, I doubt if the new Parliament when it gets to work will prove precisely a Lowther Arcadia.

Wednesday, February 5th.—­To the Lords again, where the SPEAKER-ELECT, attired in Court dress and accompanied by the SERGEANT-AT-ARMS dandling the Mace as if it ware a refractory infant, presented himself at the Bar to hear from the LORD CHANCELLOR the pleasing intelligence that HIS MAJESTY was convinced of his “ample sufficiency” to execute his arduous duties, and readily approved his election.  Thereupon Sir COLIN KEPPEL swung the Mace on to his shoulder and escorted the SPEAKER, now confirmed in his rank, back to the Commons.

There was an unusual rush of Members to take the oath.  This was not entirely due to the new Members, naturally desirous of completing their initiatory rites, but was shared by many of the older hands, for the good and sufficient reason that, until a Member is certified as having been duly sworn, he cannot recover his one hundred and fifty pounds deposit from the Returning Officer.  In their zeal to be in a position to reimburse themselves Members crowded in such numbers to the tables that there was some danger that they would be overturned.  As one of our Latinists remarked, “It looks as if we should have novae res outside and novae tabulae inside.”