11 APRIL 1908, Page 13

TWO JESTS.

[To TTIR EDITOR OP TIM "SPECTATOR.1

STE,—I am reminded by what I read on current politics of two jests which seem to me so good that I run the risk of repeating them. The owners of brewery property who tell the world, surely not in very good taste, that if the Licensing Bill passes they will discontinue their subscriptions to charities remind me of Addison's squire, who had so deadly a quarrel with his parson that he had ceased to say his prayers both in public and private. The retirement of Sir H. Campbell-Bannerman and the succession of Mr. Asquith suggest, only, it is fair to say, per contrarium, the bitter jest of the Saturday Review when in 1875 Mr. Gladstone retired from and returned to the leadership of the Liberal Party :— " Mr. Gladstone's return to the leadership of the party relieves the Liberals from the necessity of having to choose which of their frogs they can best blow out into the semblance