The CONTROLLER has hit one section of the House in its tenderest portion.  Those Members who make their mid-day meal off tea and bread-and-butter think it very hard that they should be allowed no more bread than others who take the full luncheon.  On their behalf Mr. LONDON, like The Carpenter, said, “Give us another slice.”  But, despite a slight facial resemblance to The Walrus, Colonel LOCKWOOD was inexorable.

The late Mr. JUSTIN MCCARTHY was once described by his ex-leader as “a nice old gentleman for a quiet tea-party.”  If anyone had said that a Sunday-School treat would furnish the appropriate milieu for that ardent Pacifist, Mr. JOWETT, I should, until this afternoon, have been inclined to agree with him.  But it is evident that his acquaintance with Sunday-School treats is purely academic, for in requesting the FOOD CONTROLLER to remove the ban lately placed upon them he spoke of the treat as a “simple meal, consisting of a bun and tea only.”  The italic is our own comment on this estimate of the capacity of our brave tea-fighters.

Tuesday, April 24th.—­Those Members to whom their constituents have given notice to quit at the next election, and who have recently been somewhat depressed by the thought of the impending loss to the nation of their valuable services, are plucking up heart again now that the life of Parliament is to be once more extended.  Mr. KING, for example, was in his best form this afternoon.  It goes without saying that his advice to the Board of Agriculture to set a good example to the country by sending their racehorses out to grass was well received, for any reference to the Government stud is equivalent to the “Pass the mustard” of the established humourist.  His real success came when Mr. BONAR LAW denied that Sir GEORGE MCCRAE had been appointed Chief Whip to the Government.  Mr. KING drawled out, “As The Times has stated that this gentleman was so appointed will its foreign circulation be stopped?” Then the laughter came spontaneous and loud.

[Illustration:  Hodge. “I’M TO BE QUEEN OF THE MAY.”]

Another little joke which tickled the House was, I suspect, the outcome of a conspiracy.  At least I cannot understand why Mr. OUTHWAITE should have been so anxious to know the amount of ginger imported into this country last year, unless it was to afford Mr. MACVEAGH an opportunity of asking, when the amount, some three thousand tons, had been announced, “How is it that the new Government has got none of it?”

There is a growing tendency on the part of Ministers, when charged with the conduct of a Bill, to speak of it as “a poor thing not mine own.”  They imagine, I suppose, that an air of deprecation, not to say depreciation, is likely to commend the measure to an audience in which party-spirit is supposed to be defunct.

[Illustration:  VISCOUNT CHAPLIN MAKING NOTES ON THE MILLENNIUM FROM THE PEERS’ GALLERY.]