There was an amusing scene in the House of Lords
yesterday -week, when the Peers, who had thrown out the Bill to put down pigeon-shooting matches, began with one voice to apologise for what they had done, and to deprecate its being understood in the natural way. Especially Lord Wemyss was most anxious for an inquiry into the alleged cruelties of pigeon-shooting, and was told by Lord Granville that he resembled the soldier who boasted that he had cut off an enemy's leg, and when asked why he had not cut off his head, said, "Because that was done already." On one Friday the Lords had cut off the head of the Bill, and on the next they wanted to cut off its legs by getting somebody to prove for them that it never had any legs to stand on. This was excellent chaff, and the Lords felt it, Lord Redes- dale having since proposed a Bill to put down the mutilation of birds at these matches, and to make the owners of the ground responsible for any such cruelties. It is a good sign when Peers show—not exactly tender consciences, for tender consciences would have prevented them from rejecting the Bill, but that sensitiveness to public opinion which is the next best substitute for consciences which are not tender.
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