With some sense of relief House got into Committee of Supply.  Various questions brought up on Colonial Vote.  P. and O. SUTHERLAND championed claims of Singapore for deliverance from arbitrary conduct of Government in levying military contributions.  Doesn’t often take part in Debate; showed to-night that abstention is not due to lack of debating faculty.  Set forth case of his clients in clear business-like speech, which commanded attention of audience, for whom topic itself not particularly attractive.

[Illustration:  “A Bad Sixpence.”]

“SUTHERLAND,” said the Member for Sark, one of his most attentive listeners, “has introduced a new element into Parliamentary oratory.  His intercurrent cough is the most remarkable adjunct to oratory I ever heard.  Suppose the fact is, when he pauses, he is thinking over the next word, or surveying for a new line of argument.  Other men would consult their notes.  P. and O. indulges in a kind of clearing of his throat, a compromise between a cough and an articulate remark—­commanding, conciliatory, threatening, beseeching, or convincing, according as the exigencies of the moment require.  As a work of art, the only contemporary thing equal to it that I know, and that, of course, in quite a different way, is some of the bye-play of the old gentleman in L’Enfant Prodigue.”

Business done.—­In Committee of Supply.

Tuesday.—­Met CHAPLIN just now, striding along corridor, mopping his statesmanlike brow with a bandana that would, on emergency, serve as foresail for one of the cattle-carrying steamers just now troubling the Minister for Agriculture.

“Anything gone wrong?” I asked, for it was impossible to be blind to his evident trepidation.

“No, dear boy, it’s all right as it turns out, but it might have been otherwise.  What do you think?  LABBY’s positively been moving the reduction of the Vote by the amount of my salary!  Shouldn’t have been surprised if some Member had got up, and, in neat speech, dilating on the enormous forward strides made by the Empire since Ministry of Agriculture was created, moved to double my screw.  But to go and propose to dock it altogether at the end of the first year is, if I may say so, not encouraging.”

“Oh,” I said, “you mustn’t mind SAGE of QUEEN ANNE’S GATE; his bark is worse than his bite.”

“Yes, I know,” said CHAPLIN; “but I should be obliged to him if he’d bark at someone else’s heels.  Not, mind you, that I care so much about the money question.  Between you and me (though don’t let it go further, or they might be holding me to my bargain), I would rather pay £2000 a year than not have a seat on the Treasury Bench in charge of a department.  You’ve never tasted the delight of standing up in a full House and reading out answer to a question, whilst all the world hangs on your lips.  Nor have you ever drunk the deep delight of explaining a Bill, or replying on behalf of HER MAJESTY’s Government