The retirement of Mr. Peel from the Speakership afforded _Punch_ a fitting opportunity for recognizing his great qualities in maintaining the dignity of his position, his "awesome mien and terrible voice" in administering rebukes, and for joining in the chorus of congratulation to the new Conductor of the Parliamentary Orchestra, Mr. Gully. As for the protest of Lord Curzon, Lord Wolmer and Mr. St. John Brodrick against the exclusion of peers from the House of Commons, _Punch_ dealt faithfully with the movement in his comments on the "Pirate Peers." Better still is the cartoon in which a bathing woman addresses a little boy wearing a coronet, and battering with his toy spade at the door of a bathing-machine labelled House of Commons. "Come along, Master Selborne," she says, "and take your dip like a little nobleman." This incident of May, 1895, is hardly worth mentioning save as an example of self-protective insurance against future legislation aimed at the power of the Upper House. For years to come _Punch's_ political preoccupations were almost exclusively with questions of Imperial policy and international relations. The opening of the Kiel Canal practically coincided with the return to power of Lord Salisbury, and is celebrated by _Punch_ in the same number in which he ironically adapts Shakespeare's _Coriolanus_ to illustrate the alliance of Lord Salisbury and Mr. Chamberlain. _Punch's_ representative went out on the _Tantallon Castle_ with Mr. Gladstone, and gives a lively account of the junketings on board and on shore, and the entertainment of sovereigns and local magnates. In more serious vein _Punch_ editorially hails the canal as a "Path of Peace," banishing misgivings and remembrances of Denmark and France:-- Not war alone, but trade, will take the track That shuns the wild and stormy Skager-Rak; And may Brunsbüttel's now familiar name Be little linked with Empire's big war-game; May battle-echoes in the Baltic cease; And the Canal be a new Path of Peace.