[Illustration: "A Bad Sixpence."]

"SUTHERLAND," said the Member for Sark, one of his most attentive
listeners, "has introduced a new element into Parliamentary oratory.
His intercurrent cough is the most remarkable adjunct to oratory I
ever heard. Suppose the fact is, when he pauses, he is thinking over
the next word, or surveying for a new line of argument. Other men
would consult their notes. P. and O. indulges in a kind of clearing
of his throat, a compromise between a cough and an articulate
remark--commanding, conciliatory, threatening, beseeching, or
convincing, according as the exigencies of the moment require. As a
work of art, the only contemporary thing equal to it that I know, and
that, of course, in quite a different way, is some of the bye-play of
the old gentleman in _L'Enfant Prodigue_."

_Business done_.--In Committee of Supply.

_Tuesday_.--Met CHAPLIN just now, striding along corridor, mopping his
statesmanlike brow with a bandana that would, on emergency, serve as
foresail for one of the cattle-carrying steamers just now troubling
the Minister for Agriculture.

"Anything gone wrong?" I asked, for it was impossible to be blind to
his evident trepidation.

"No, dear boy, it's all right as it turns out, but it might have
been otherwise. What do you think? LABBY's positively been moving the
reduction of the Vote by the amount of my salary! Shouldn't have been
surprised if some Member had got up, and, in neat speech, dilating
on the enormous forward strides made by the Empire since Ministry