Not till the Bill was nearly through Committee was there any sign of rapprochement.  Then, in response to the persuasive purring of Mr. BRACE, who had urged that the Commission should issue an interim report on wages and hours by March 12th, the PRIME MINISTER declared that, after consultation with Mr. Justice SANKEY, he was prepared to promise that the report should be ready on March 20th.  A smile, extending almost to the extreme limits of his moustache, spread over Mr. BRACE’S benevolent countenance.  Thenceforward all was peace, and the Third Reading was carried without a division.

Wednesday, February 26th.—­The Lords passed the Coal Industry Commission Bill through all its stages without a pause.  Then Lord DEVONPORT expatiated on the mistakes of the Food Controllers with such a wealth of illustration that the LORD CHANCELLOR, who is fond of Classical “tags,” was heard to murmur, "Omnium consensu capax imperil nisi imperasset."

A Second Reading was given to the Re-election of Ministers Bill, on the plea of the LORD CHANCELLOR that until it is passed several of his Ministerial colleagues will be nantes in gurgite vasto—­or, in other words, all at sea.

Rumours that a new Department of Public Information was to be set up excited much curiosity in the Commons, but only negative replies were received.  The Department, if, and when, it comes into existence, is not to advertise the virtues of the Coalition, nor is it to publish a newspaper of its own; though, to judge by the leaflets, circulars and communiques issued by the existing Ministries in the course of the week, such an organ would certainly not perish for lack of copy.

The so-called Ten Minutes’ Rule was originally intended for the introduction of comparatively unimportant Bills.  This after-noon Mr. SHORTT employed it for the purpose of explaining the provisions of one of the most revolutionary and comprehensive measures ever brought forward in any country.  Briefly it is to put under the control of a single Minister of Ways and Communications our railways, our canals, our roads, and also our supply of electricity, hitherto in the hands of hundreds of public companies and local authorities.  Only on one point did the Bill meet with opposition.  I do not know whether Mr. JOYNSON HICKS claims any connection with Hicks’s Hall, which stands in the old road-books as the starting-point of the great highway to the North, but he became almost lyrical in his denunciation of the proposal to put all the roads in the country in charge of a railwayman like Sir ERIC GEDDES.  They ought, in his opinion, to be under the care of someone “born on roads” and “trained on roads”—­a sort of super-tramp, I suppose.

Thursday, February 27th.—­To an appeal for an increase in the pensions of Crimea and Mutiny veterans, to meet the rise in the cost of living, response was made that such an increase would be granted in the case of those not over seventy years of age.  It is not thought that the concession will cause a heavy drain on the national resources, few of the veterans having joined up before entering their ’teens.