THE BALFOITRIAN PARLIAMENT.
The Balfourian Parliament. By Henry W. Lucy. (Hodder and Stoughton. 10s. 6d.)—The gaiety of nations will certainly be diminished if Mr. Lucy adheres to the letter of the threat contained in his preface to The Balfourian Parliament, and now writes Finis to his long series of Parliamentary jottings, which date in unbroken sequence from 1874 down to the present time. For with the aid of "Hansard" and himself we have been enabled to reconstitute in our mind's eye every thrilling scene and each important debate that has taken place within the walls of Westminster during the past thirty years ; and so we feel a spasm of commiseration for future generations who must needs grope their way through the politics of the twentieth century unaided by the scintillations of "Toby, M.P.," alias "H. W. L." We cannot charge our memory with any definite recollection as to whether these chapters have or have not appeared as weekly articles during the past six years, though they bear a strong family resem- blance to certain series of delightful contributions to contem- porary political literature which have adorned the pages of Punch and the Observer. There is the same keen appreciation of the situation of the moment; the same power of comparison between new things and old; the same impartial, if not always genial, criticisms of the man with a past and the man with a future. And from this impartiality Mr. Lucy seldom lapses, and then only when dealing with incidents which, in his opinion, make for the abasement of the "Mother of Parliaments" in the eyes of the world. For the rest, his political opinions (whatever they may be) are never obtruded upon the reader; his two-edged sword is keen to smite with equal effect upon either side of Mr. Speaker's chair ; and his courage enables him to criticise with perfect composure the "powers that be" and the powers that "want to be." Much that he tells us of private conversations with Ministers and Members is of great value, supplying sidelights upon transactions hitherto but dimly comprehended. Assuredly he must be petitioned to stay for yet another Parliament in his accustomed place, to chronicle at least the first beginnings of a new order of things for the benefit of those who live in the outer lobbies of the world.
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