minds
The KING’S advisers can indeed discover
No surer ground of principle than this;
If we have here their final contribution
To the most clamant and profound conundrum
Ever proposed for statesmanship to solve,
Then are we watching at the bankruptcy
Of all that wealth of intellect and power
Which has made England great.  If that be true
We may put FINIS to our history. 
But I for one will never lend my suffrage
To that conclusion.”
[An Ovation.
MR. DAVID LLOYD GEORGE. Mr. SPEAKER, Sir,
I do not intervene in this discussion
Except to say how much I deprecate
The intemperate tone of many of the speakers—­
Especially the Honourable Member
For Allways Dithering—­about this Bill,
This tiny Bill, this teeny-weeny Bill. 
What is it, after all?  The merest trifle! 
The merest trifle—­no, not tipsy-cake—­
No trickery in it!  Really one would think
The Government had nothing else to do
But sit and listen to offensive speeches. 
How can the horse, the patient horse, go on
If people will keep dragging at the reins? 
He has so terrible a load to bear,
And right in front there is a great big hill. 
The horse is very tired, and it is raining. 
Poor little horse!  But yonder, at the top,
Look, look, there is a rainbow in the sky,
The promise of fair weather, and beyond
There is a splendidly-appointed stable,
With oats and barley, or whatever ’tis
That horses eat, while smiling all around
Stretch out the prairies of Prosperity,
Cornfields and gardens, all that sort of thing. 
That’s where the horse is going.  But, you see,
The horse has got to climb the great big hill
Before he gets there.  Oh, you must see that. 
Then let us cease this petty bickering;
Let us have no more dragging at the reins. 
What is this Bill when all is said and done? 
Surely this House, surely this mighty nation,
Which did so much for horses in the War,
Will not desert this little horse at last
Because of what calumniators say—­
Newspaper-owners—­I know who they are—­
About this Bill!  No, no, of course it won’t. 
We will take heart and gallop up the hill,
We will climb up together to the rainbow;
We will go on to where the rainbow ends—­
I know where that is, for I am a Welshman. 
It is a field, a lovely little field,
Where there are buttercups and daffodils,
And long rich grass and very shady trees. 
Hold on a little, and the horse will get there,
Only, I ask you, let the horse have rein. 
That is my message to the British nation: 
“Hold on!  Hold fast!  But do not hold too tight!”

    [An Ovation.  A Division is taken.  The Ayes have it.

  A.P.H.

* * * * *

TRUE SPORTSMANLIKE BEHAVIOUR.

[Illustration:  “BUT I’M ALMOST SURE IT WAS NOT.  LOVE-FIFTEEN.”