In Committee on the Bill for enabling women to become Justices of the Peace Lord STRACHIE moved to restrict the privilege to those who have “attained the age of thirty years.”  The LORD CHANCELLOR strongly resisted the limitation on the ground that the Government are pledged to establish “equality between the sexes.”  He was supported by Lord BEAUCHAMP, who, however, thought it unlikely that any ladies under that age would in fact be appointed.  I am not so sure.  Who knows but that some day the Woolsack may be tenanted by a really susceptible Chancellor?

There are limits to the credulity of the House of Commons.  Mr. BOTTOMLEY’S assertion that many clergymen did not know whether they might marry a woman to her deceased husband’s brother, and had written to him for an authoritative opinion, only excited ribald laughter.

His inquiry whether the Recess could start three days earlier, in order that Members might take advantage of the Epsom carnival to study the social habits of the people and form an opinion as to the possibility of raising revenue from taxes on racing and betting, was in better vein, and reminded old Members of the days when Lord ELCHO (now Lord WEMYSS) used annually to delight the House with his views on the Derby adjournment.  Entering into the spirit of the jest, Mr. BONAR LAW replied that he regretted that his honourable friend should be put to inconvenience, but he must do what we all have to do at times, and decide whether his duty lay at Epsom or Westminster.  From Mr. BOTTOMLEY’S rejoinder one gathered that he had already made up his mind, and that Epsom had it.

Wednesday, May 28th.—­Colonel WEDGWOOD’S complaint that aeroplanes were used to disperse rioters in India was ostensibly based on the fact that, like the gentle rain from heaven, bombs fell alike on the just and the unjust, but really, I fancy, on what I gather to be his rapidly-growing belief that any anarchist is preferable to any Government.  Mr. MONTAGU, however, declined to interfere with the use of a weapon which for the moment has greatly strengthened the hands of the Indian Administration in dealing with disorder, whether on the frontiers or in the cities.

The Ministry of Labour has lately introduced a course of domestic training for “wives and fiancees.”  The indefiniteness of the latter term offended Captain LOSEBY, who wanted to know at what exact period of “walking-out” a lady became a fiancee.  Mr. WARDLE, although the author of a work on “Problems of the Age,” confessed that this one baffled him, and asked for notice.

The recent disturbance in the neighbourhood of the House by indiscreet friends of the unemployed soldier led to a rambling debate, chiefly remarkable for the hard things said by and about Mr. HOGGE, whose aim, according to ex-Private HOPKINSON, was to make soldiers uncomfortable; and for a hopeful speech by Sir ROBERT HORNE, who said that, despite the “dole,” unemployment was beginning to diminish, and that four-fifths of the “demobbed” had already been reabsorbed by industry.