Tuesday.—­FERGUSSON says life at Foreign Office would be endurable only for LABBY.  The Sage has got the Triple Alliance on the brain; spends his mornings in drafting questions there anent.  That FERGUSSON wouldn’t mind so much, only it involves his spending his afternoons in drafting answers that shall look coherent, and yet say nothing.  Answers often so admirably suited to their purpose, that doubts arise as to whether a firmer hand than FERGUSSON’s has not traced them on paper.  “A dull man,” was the phrase in which, years ago, JOHN BRIGHT dismissed from consideration the statesman then known as Sir CHARLES ADDERLY.  To House of Commons FERGUSSON is a dull man, incapable, as it seems, of framing these subtle answers that look as if they meant so much, and yet say so little.

[Illustration:  Sage of Queen Anne’s Gate.]

Whoever be the author, it must be said that FERGUSSON contributes to success of answers by his manner of reading them.  So portentous is his gravity, so like a stone wall his imperturbability, that the Sage dashes himself up against it with much the same effect as if he were attacking one of the buttresses of Westminster Hall.  It is a fortuitous concatenation of circumstances, most happy in its result, that when in the House of Commons an answer is to be given which shall convey no information, the MARKISS should dictate it, and FERGUSSON recite it.  If, in reply to the Sage’s question to-night, as to the understanding between this country and Italy with respect to the status quo in Mediterranean, FERGUSSON had stood up and recited the multiplication table up to twelve times twelve, the remarks would have been just as relevant and informing as those he read from the paper.  Moreover, the gravity of his aspect and the solemn inflection of his voice, would have compelled Members to listen to the end of the recitation with a sort of dim consciousness that they were really being informed as to the details of an understanding come to between Her majesty’s Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, and the Governments of Germany and Italy.

Business done.—­Education Bill through Report Stage.

Thursday.—­House having disposed of Land Purchase Bill and Education Bill, is able to devote portion of sitting to consideration of its own personal affairs.  MORTON brings on subject of Bar in Lobby of House of Commons.  Nothing to do with the Bar that LOCKWOOD, ASQUITH, and REID adorn; merely a counter, at which they sell what JEMMY LOWTHER alludes to, with a bewitching air of distant acquaintance, as “alcoholic liquors.”  MORTON, whose great ambition in life is to make people thoroughly comfortable, wants to close the Bar.  SYDNEY HERBERT, making a rare appearance as spokesman for the Government on the Treasury Bench, pleads as a set-off against alleged evil example, the large consumption of “lemon squash,” which he explains to the House is “a non-intoxicant.”  CAMPBELL-BANNERMAN sends thrill of apprehension through listening Senate by inquiring whether the House of Commons is licensed for the sale of intoxicating liquors?