Credit is assigned to Mr. Churchill for "calling in a new element to redress the balance of the old"--Neptune emerging from the deep to gaze at his new allies, the aeroplane and airship. But attention was abruptly switched off from the Admiralty to the War Office by the troubles at the Curragh Camp, the threatened resignations of General Gough and other officers as a protest against the coercion of Ulster, and by the blunder and resignation of Mr. Seely. _Punch_ applauded the spirit both of Ulster and the Army: in his cartoon, "Many a slip," he showed Mr. Asquith, while offering the cup to Mr. John Redmond, confronted by a hand with a sword marked "Army Resignations." _Punch_ recognized the promptitude with which Mr. Asquith came to the rescue by doubling the functions of Premier and War Minister, but was less benevolent in his gloss on the comment of a faithful supporter who declared that "the best we can do is to keep our eye on Mr. Asquith":-- BALLAD OF THE WATCHFUL EYE O keep your eye on David, The demigod of Wales, Before whose furious onset Dukes turn their timid tails; Whom Merioneth mystics Praise in delirious distichs And, matched with whose statistics, Munchausen's glory pales. O keep your eye on Winston, And mind you keep it tight, For nearly every Saturday You'll find he takes to flight; Now eloquent and thrilling, Now simply cheap or filling, And now bent on distilling The purest Party spite. O keep your eye on Haldane, Ex-Minister of War, The sleek and supple-minded And suave Lord Chancellor; Whose brain, so keen and subtle, Moves swifter than a shuttle, Obscuring, like the cuttle, Things that were plain before. * * * O keep your eye on Birrell, So wholly free from guile, Conspicuous by his absence From Erin's peaceful isle; Who wakes from floor to rafter The House to heedless laughter, Careless of what comes after Can he but raise a smile. O keep your eye on Masterman, Dear David's henchman leal, Whose piety and "uplift" Makes ribald Tories squeal; In every public function Displaying the conjunction Of perfect moral unction With perfect Party zeal. Last, keep your eye on Asquith And he will bring you through, No matter what his colleagues May say or think or do; For in the dirtiest weather, He moulted not a feather And safely kept together His variegated crew. _Mr. Punch_ certainly kept his eye on Lord Haldane to good purpose--witness the stanzas "To the Cabinet (suggested by a recent doctoring of Hansard)":-- The judgment of the People's "Yea" or "Nay" Wherefore should virtuous men like _you_ shun? You are--or so you confidently say-- Prepared for Dissolution.