When Mr. Asquith announced in the House on December 4 the King’s approval of Reconstruction, few Members guessed that in twenty-four hours he would have ceased to be Prime Minister and that Mr. Lloyd George would have begun Cabinet-making.  There has been much talk of intrigue.  But John Bull doesn’t care who leads the country so long as he leads it to victory.  And as for Certain People Somewhere in France, we shall probably not be far wrong in interpreting their view of the present change as follows: 

  Thank God, we keep no politicians here;
    Fighting’s our game, not talking; all we ask
  Is men and means to face the coming year
    And consummate our task.

  Give us the strongest leaders you can find,
    Tory or Liberal, not a toss care we,
  So they are swift to act and know their mind
    Too well to wait and see.

[Illustration:  THE RETURN OF THE MOCK TURTLE-DOVE

KAISER }
                }(breathlessly):  “Well?”
BETHMANN-HOLLWEG}

THE BIRD:  “Wouldn’t even look at me!”]

The ultimate verdict on Mr. Asquith’s services to the State as Prime Minister for the first two and a half years of the War will not be founded on the Press Campaign which has helped to secure his downfall.  But, as one of the most bitterly and unjustly assailed ex-Ministers has said, “personal reputations must wait till the end of the War.”  Meanwhile, we have a Premier who, whatever his faults, cannot be charged with supineness.

[Illustration: 

THE NEW CONDUCTOR

Opening of the 1917 Overture]

Mr. Bonar Law, the new Leader of the House, has made his first appearance as Chancellor of the Exchequer.  Moving a further Vote of Credit for 400 millions, he disclosed the fact that the daily cost of the War was nearer six than five millions.  In regard to the peace proposals he found himself unable to better the late Prime Minister’s statement that the Allies would require “adequate reparation for the past and adequate security for the future.”  In lucidity and dignity of statement Mr. Asquith was certainly above criticism.  Lord Devonport has been appointed Food Controller and warned us of rigours to come.  The most thrilling speech heard at Westminster this month has been that of Major Willie Redmond, fresh from the invigorating atmosphere of the front.  While some seventy odd Nationalist Members are mainly occupied in brooding over Ireland’s woes, two are serving in the trenches—­William Redmond and Stephen Gwynn, both of them middle-aged men. O si sic omnes!

Our wounded need all their patience to put up with the curiosity of non-combatants.  A lady, after asking a Tommy on leave what the stripes on his arm were for, being told that they were one for each time he was wounded, is reported to have observed, “Dear me!  How extraordinary that you should be wounded three times in the same place!” Even real affection is not always happily expressed.