LIKA JOKO'S JOTTINGS.—No. 6. A FOOTBALL MATCH.
Thursday.—Spirits of good Ministerialists a little damped by persistent and successful tactics of Opposition. As Jesse Collings said just now, with tears in his eyes, they are anxious, above all things, to see Parish Councils Bill added to Statute Book. Only they won't let it pass. Twentieth night in Committee; still not half way through Bill as Clauses count. Been sitting on Saturdays; shall have Christmas holidays cut down to 25th and Boxing Day; then begin again, with prospect of more drudgery, and, when Bill through, and prorogation possible, the new Session of 1894, young, fresh, and lusty, waiting to be waltzed with. An infant in arms, looking in on House from peep-hole by glass door, and finding Tay Pay on his legs denouncing the Opposition, is deeply impressed.
Tay Pay frightens the Child.
Later, at period of apparent collapse Haldane happily appears on scene. Not a man habitually prone to enthusiasm. No sign on his placid visage of storm-swept soul. Circumstances sometimes stronger than man. To-day they break away the icy barriers of lethargic habit. Haldane, unexpectedly rising from behind the harassed Premier, calls upon him to stand firm, resisting all temptations to surrender. "Stage of situation reached," he said, amid ringing cheers, "when we should not halt, much less retire, but should press forward to the goal. Ministers," he added, sternly regarding back of Squire of Malwood's head, "would be betraying their trust if they flinched by one hair's breadth from the declarations they have made."