It wasn't SZLUMPER'S accouchement. But he approves it.
Still on Budget; getting near end of first part, which deals with death duties. The Busy B.'s, seeing the close of opportunity at hand, dash about with redoubled vigour.
Oh! 'tis BARTLEY and BOWLES and BYRNE, And BYRNE and BARTLEY and BOWLES. Till the throbbing pulses burn, And BUTCHER piles on the coals.
[Illustration: The Four Busy (Budget) B's.]
_Business done._--Clause XVIII. added to Budget Bill.
_Wednesday._--GRANDOLPH sails to-day in the track of COLUMBUS, only going much farther. He will cross Continent and Pacific to pay a morning call on the MIKADO; afterwards to India and Burma.
"I want," he says, with certain proud pathos, "to see the frontier I extended, and Burma which I annexed."
You remember the old French song written about GRANDOLPH'S great ancestor? It was sung as a lullaby to the little son of LOUIS THE SIXTEENTH, and NAPOLEON never mounted his horse for the fight without humming the air,--
MARLBROOK s'en va-t'en guerre-- Mironton, mironton, mirontaine! MARLBROOK s'en va-t'en guerre ... Ne sais quand reviendra! Ne sais quand reviendra! Ne sais quand reviendra!
There is a sad last verse to the old ballad. But we all hope to see our GRANDOLPH back again, bringing his sheaves with him in the shape of renewed health and strength. _Business done._--Budget.
_Thursday._--DON'T KEIR HARDIE confided to House to-night the interesting fact that in particular he Don't Keir for the Royal Family, and is "indisposed to associate himself" with effort to do them special honour. Like old _Eccles_ in _Caste_, he upbraids the baby in the cradle with being a young aristocrat. Yet there are limits even to his uncompromising Republicanism. The question before House is the presentation to HER MAJESTY of address of congratulation on birth of son of Duke and Duchess of YORK. "If I had the opportunity of meeting the parents," says DON'T KEIR, "I should be pleased to join in the ordinary congratulations of the occasion." He did not hesitate, standing in his place in Parliament as representative of the electors of 'Am, to add that he "had been delighted to learn that the child was a fairly healthy one." Beyond that, stern principle would not permit him to pass.