Such opportunity presented itself in connection with meeting of Conference which through the Parliamentary week has centred upon Buckingham Palace the attention of mankind. With respect to palaces Mr. HOGGE is by family association an expert.
"Why Rookery?" _Miss Betsey Trotwood_ sharply asked _David Copperfield_ when he casually mentioned his mother's postal address.
"Why Buckingham Palace?" asked Mr. HOGGE, bending severe glance on Treasury Bench whence the PREMIER had judiciously fled.
St. Stephen's, which houses the Member for East Edinburgh, is also a royal palace. Why then was not the Conference held within its walls, instead of under the roof of what he loftily alluded to as "the domestic Palace"?
This and much more, with covert references to machinations of the two Front Benches, Mr. HOGGE wanted to know.
The PRIME MINISTER, uneasily conscious of the coming storm, had, as mentioned, discreetly disappeared. As an offering to righteous indignation he left behind him on the Treasury Bench the body of ATTORNEY-GENERAL. That astute statesman avoided difficulty and personal disaster by meekly undertaking to lay before the PRIME MINISTER the views so eloquently and pointedly set forth by the hon. Member.
Mr. HOGGE graciously assented to this course, and what at the outset looked like threatening incident terminated.
_Business done._--Budget Bill passed Third Reading without a division.
[Illustration: _Waiter._ "WHAT SAUCE WILL YOU TAKE WIZ YOUR FISH, SAIR?"
_Polite Customer._ "WELL, WHAT DISINFECTANTS HAVE YOU?"]
"Mr. Hogge: Can the Prime Minister say whether any of those taking part in the Conference attached any conditions to their entering the Conference?
'I cannot sty,' replied the Premier."--_Evening News._
Was this quite worthy of the PRIME MINISTER? We ourselves do not care for these personal jokes on people's names.
"Mr. Asquith's statement was thus of sensational interest, because it represented the last effort at the eleventh minute of the eleventh hour to avert Civil War."--_Dublin Evening Mail._
No need to hurry. There are still forty-nine minutes left.
"Cumberland batted first and reached the total of £272, C. A. Hardcastle (87), R. B. Brown (41), and R. C. Saint (27) being the chief contributors."--_Daily News and Leader._