Wednesday, May 16th.—­We all want to help the new Russian Government in its difficult task, but I doubt if Mr. SNOWDEN and his pacifist friends have contributed to that end by inviting the House of Commons to endorse forthwith the “no annexation, no indemnities” declaration of a section of the Revolutionaries, and by supporting their proposal in a series of speeches which might be summed up in the words “Peace at any Price.”  Even the German CHANCELLOR will not be wholly pleased, for the debate revealed that, apart from the seven or eight gentlemen who follow the white flag of the Member for Blackburn, the House is absolutely fixed in its determination to defeat German militarism before talking of peace.

After the searching analysis to which the hon.  Member’s confident statements were subjected by Lord ROBERT CECIL and Mr. A.F.  WHYTE there was nothing left of them but a trace of acid.

So far as I am aware the Member for Blackburn has never endangered the integrity of his principles by helping his country in any way to win the War.  In this respect Mr. LEES SMITH, who seconded the motion, has a less consistent record, for he has worn khaki as an orderly of the R.A.M.C.  But in his case service abroad seems only to have confirmed his peculiar principles, for he thinks that we ought to return the German colonies, and enable the natives to enjoy once again the blessings of Kultur.  If he ever saw the Hun while he was in France it must have been through a pair of rose-tinted binoculars.

Thursday, May 17th.—­We are all agog to know whether the PRIME MINISTER’S offer of immediate Home Rule to twenty-six Counties of Ireland is to be blessed or banned by the Nationalists.  This is the day when Irish Questions have priority, and the House hears such important inquiries as whether Hibernian holiday-makers will have their excursion-trains restored to them; what became of a side of bacon captured by the police during the Easter Monday rebellion, and why a certain magistrate should have been struck off the Commission of the Peace for a trifling refusal to take the oath of allegiance.  Are we to go without this entertainment in the future, or will Mr. REDMOND refuse to rob Westminster of its gaiety even for the sake of College Green?

If, as I ventured to suggest last week, the CHANCELLOR OF THE EXCHEQUER had laid in a stock of tobacco before the Budget he has evidently exhausted it by now, for, on his attention again being called to the exorbitant charge of the tobacconists, he no longer pooh-poohed the matter, but sternly declared that the situation was being closely watched.

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[Illustration:  Amateur (awaiting his turn to perform).  “A-ARE YOU NERVOUS, OLD CHAP?”