Thursday, April 19th.—­The mental processes of Sir WILLIAM BYLES are normally so mysterious that his suggestion that, with the Americans coming in and the Germans making off, this was the psychological moment for the British Government to initiate proposals for peace, did not strike the House at large as specially absurd.  It was, however, both surprised and delighted when Mr. SWIFT MACNEILL interposed with an inquiry whether it would not be time enough to talk about peace when the Germans ceased to blow up hospital ships.  When Mr. BONAR LAW tactfully observed that the Supplementary Question was better than the answer he had prepared, one felt that the prospects of an Anglo-Irish entente had appreciably improved.

When the new MINISTER FOR EDUCATION deposited upon the Table a vast packet of manuscript, and craved the indulgence of the House if he exceeded the usual limits of a maiden speech, I thought of the days when the headline, “The Duke of Devonshire on Technical Education,” used to strike on my fevered spirit with a touch of infinite prose.  Mr. FISHER began in rather professorial style, but he soon revealed a glowing enthusiasm for his subject which thawed the House.  His ambition is to transform the teachers in our elementary schools from ill-paid drudges into members of a liberal and liberally remunerated profession.  Our record in the War has shown that, as a Naval Officer wrote to him, “there is something in your d——­d Board School education after all.”

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    “The bride, who was given away by her father, was attended by Miss ——­
    as demonsoille d’honneur.”—­Hawkes Bay Herald (New Zealand).

We fear this marriage was not made in heaven.

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[Illustration:  Polite Foreigner. “IS ZAT YOUR BEAUTIFUL ENGLISH THAMES—­YES?”

London Dame ("on her guard").  “I HAVEN’T THE SLIGHTEST IDEA.”]

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A PAPER PROBLEM.

Copy of a letter from the Reverend Laurence Longwind to the Archbishop of
CANTERBURY:—­

                                              The Rectory,
                                                  Little Pottering,
          
                                              April 1st, 1917.

My LORD ARCHBISHOP,—­I am writing to ask whether Your Grace would be so kind as to assist me in resolving a case of conscience which, I feel sure, must be exercising the minds and hearts of many of my brother clergy at the present time.

The matter to which I refer is closely connected with the sad shortage of paper.  It is no doubt known to Your Grace that many ministers of the Gospel, though capable of eloquence of a high order, write their sermons.  Old sermons tend to increase and multiply at an alarming rate.  I myself have a chest of drawers literally stuffed with them.  What, in Your Grace’s opinion, should be done with these?