[Illustration: I AM AFRAID I AM GETTING CONTROVERSIAL."--_Mr. Lloyd
George._]
Since then everything has changed--save one. Ireland remains the skeleton
at the feast. The condition of that unhappy country still causes HIS
MAJESTY "grave concern," to be removed, let us piously hope, by the
promised Home Rule Bill. It is true that, as Lord DUFFERIN said when moving
the Address in the Lords, no one in Ireland appears to want the Bill; but
then, as Colonel SIDNEY PEEL, the Mover in the Commons, remarked with equal
truth, the ordinary rules of thought do not apply to the Irish Question.
The PRIME MINISTER has lately been advised by a candid friend to take a six
months' holiday "to recover his resilience." Mr. ADAMSON and Sir DONALD
MACLEAN found him nowise lacking in that quality when he came to reply to
their criticisms of the King's Speech. The Labour leader, convinced by a
fortnight in Ireland that the present Administration was all wrong, and
that the Government's Bill would do nothing to improve it, was bluntly
asked, "Are we to withdraw the troops and leave the assassins in charge?"
while the "Wee Free" champion, who had interpreted the recent by-elections
as a sign that the time for the Coalition was past, was unkindly reminded
that, at any rate, the results of these contests had furnished no
encouragement to the party that he adorns.
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