To such a lofty plane, indeed, had the debate been lifted that Mr. RONALD MCNEILL, tall as he is, had some difficulty in bringing it down to earth again; and when the division was called the spell was still working, and in a very big House the “Conchies” only lost their votes by thirty-eight.

Thursday, November 22nd.—­Pending the introduction of the promised censorship of Parliamentary Questions, Mr. JOSEPH KING is working overtime.  No story is too fantastically impossible to find a shelter under his hospitable hat.  To-day it was a secret treaty between the Russian Government (old style) and the French Republic, by which Belgium was to be compensated at the expense of Holland.  Lord ROBERT CECIL denounced it as an invention of the enemy.  But I don’t suppose the denial had the smallest effect upon Mr. KING, who probably went off and dined heartily on a magnum of mare’s-nest soup.

A tremendous accession to the ranks of the Sinn Feiners has been narrowly averted.  When Members read the menu which, according to Major NEWMAN, the Irish Government has adopted for political prisoners—­three good square meals a day, including an egg, ten ounces of meat, a pound and a half of bread, two pints and a half of milk, and real butter—­they were strongly minded to enlist under Mr. DE VALERA’S banner and get themselves arrested forthwith.  But Mr. DUKE’S emphatic denial shattered their dream of repletion at the taxpayers’ expense.

A final attempt to get proportional representation included in the Franchise Bill was heavily defeated.  In a dashing attempt to save it Sir MARK SYKES declared that the old Eatanswill methods of electioneering had gone for ever—­“no mouth was large enough to kiss thirty thousand babies.”  But the majority of the House seemed to be more impressed by the self-sacrificing argument of that eminent temperance advocate, Sir THOMAS WHITTAKER, who feared that “P.R.” would lead to an increase in “milk-and-water politicians.”

* * * * *

ALWAYS SOMETHING NEW FROM AFRICA.

    “A Belgian East African communique says that before the converging
    advance of the Anglo-German Belgian columns, the enemy retired to
    the south bank of the Kilimbero.”—­Mombasa Times.

We seem to have met some of these Anglo-German columns in the Pacifist Press.

    “Our machines then bombed the General, in which the
    German Head-quarters at Constantinople are reported to be
    situated.”—­Times.

The General must have been stout, even for a German.

    “Not having regained consciousness the police are left with little
    tangible evidence to work upon.”—­Daily Telegraph.

Let us hope they will soon come to.

* * * * *

[Illustration:  HOW TO UTILISE OUR SKILLED CRAFTSMEN.

First Lieutenant. “WHAT WAS THIS MAN BEFORE HE JOINED?”