Something had evidently annoyed Mr. DEVLIN.  Whether it was the intimation that the new Housing Bill was not to apply to Ireland (which has had similar legislation for years past), or that in future the out-of-work donation in that country would be confined to persons possessing more or less right to it, or (most probably) that an interfering Saxon had announced his intention of moving a “Call of the House” in order to get the recalcitrant Sinn Feiners to take up their Parliamentary duties, I do not know.  At any rate the Nationalist seized the opportunity of delivering a general attack upon the Government of such overwhelming irrelevance that Mr. WHITLEY, the least sarcastic of men, was driven to remark, “I think the honourable Member is under the impression that this is last week.”

[Illustration:  GOVERNMENT PROMISES.  MR. PEMBERTON BILLING compiles another Black Book.]

I trust that Mr. CHURCHILL, who is conducting the business of the War Office in Paris, will not read the Official Report of the debate on the Aerial Navigation Bill.  For I am sure it would be as great a shock to him as it was to me to learn that Mr. MOSLEY (aetat twenty-two) considered him, in aviation affairs, as lacking in imagination.  The idea of anyone regarding our WINSTON as a doddering old fossil!

Tuesday, February 18th.—­As is usual at this period of the Session the Lords find themselves with nothing to do, and being ineligible for the out-of-work donation they naturally grumble.  Foreman CURZON endeavoured to pacify them with the promise of one or two little jobs in the near future; and Lord BUCKMASTER kindly furnished them with something to go on with by raising the topic of industrial unrest in a speech composed in about equal measure of admirable platitudes and highly disputable propositions.  Its principal merit was to furnish the new LORD CHANCELLOR with an occasion for delivering his maiden speech.  This he did with proper solemnity, though once he slipped into his after-dinner style and addressed his august audience as “My Lords and Gentlemen.”  His nearest approach to an epigram was the remark that “the nation had been living on its capital and liking it.”  On the whole he took a hopeful view of the situation—­more so than Lord LANSDOWNE, who expressed “the profoundest dismay” at our increasing indebtedness.  Fortunately His Lordship’s gloomy prophecies have not invariably proved correct.

[Illustration:  “JUMPING” A MEMBER’S CLAIM.]

After Question-time in the Commons Mr. BOTTOMLEY made bitter complaint to the SPEAKER that he had been evicted from his favourite corner-seat by the Member for South-East St. Pancras.  Mr. LOWTHER administered chilly consolation.  Those little contretemps were apt to occur at the beginning of every new Parliament; and he was not going to lay down a hard-and-fast rule on the subject before it was necessary.