[Illustration:  Mr. BONAR LAW (to Mr. MCKENNA).  “AS ONE CHANCELLOR OF THE EXCHEQUER TO ANOTHER, WHAT DO YOU DO WHEN YOU’RE SEVENTY MILLION POUNDS OUT?”]

Tuesday, May 8th.—­The official reticence regarding the names and exploits of our airmen was the subject of much complaint.  Mr. MACPHERSON declared that it was quite in accordance with the wishes of the R.F.C. themselves.  But Sir H. DALZIEL was still dissatisfied.  He knew of a young lieutenant who had brought down forty enemy machines and been personally congratulated by the Commander-in-Chief, and yet his name was not published.  It is obvious that praise even from Sir DOUGLAS HAIG is not the same thing as a paragraph in Reynolds’ Newspaper.

[Illustration:  BEAU BRUMMEL BILLING GIVES THE “NO-STARCH” MOVEMENT A GOOD SEND-OFF.]

A request for an increased boot-allowance to the Metropolitan Police met with a dubious reception from Mr. BRACE, who explained that it would involve an expenditure of many thousands of pounds.  It is rumoured that the Home Office is considering the recruitment of a Bantam Force, with a view to reducing the acreage of leather required.

Wednesday, May 9th.—­If the CHANCELLOR OF THE EXCHEQUER should be accused of having taken advantage of his knowledge of the Budget-proposals to lay in a secret hoard of tobacco he will have no one to blame but himself.  He solemnly assured the House that nothing has been brought to his notice to show that the trade is making undue profits.  It is clear, therefore, that he has not had occasion to go into a tobacconist’s and ask for his favourite mixture, only to find that his three-half-penny tax has sent the price up by twopence.

By prohibiting the manufacture of starch the Government has done something to please Mr. PEMBERTON-BILLING.  The hon.  Member, who has always affected the “soft shirts that Sister Susie sews,” is flattered to think that he has set a fashion which must now become universal.  When Captain BATHURST, falling into his humour, assured him that even BEAU BRUMMEL would accept the position with patriotic resignation, Mr. BILLING felt that he had found his true vocation as an arbiter of taste.

In moving a Vote of Credit for the unexampled sum of five hundred millions, Mr. BONAR LAW apologised for a slight error in his Budget statement.  He had then estimated the expenditure of the country at five and a half millions a day.  Owing to fortuitous circumstances, the amount for the first thirty-five days of the financial year had turned out to be seven and a half millions a day.  Mr. MCKENNA, conscious of some similar lapses in calculation during his own time at the Exchequer, handsomely condoned the mistake.  Still one felt that it strengthened the stentorian plea for economy made by Mr. J.A.R.  MARRIOTT in a maiden speech that would perhaps have been better if it had not been quite so good.  The House is accustomed to a little hesitation in its novices and does not like to be lectured even by an Oxford don.