The Lord Mayor of LONDON states that he expects that within a couple of years he will be able to reach his estate, seventy miles from London, in half-an-hour by aeroplane. We hope his prophecy may be realised, but we cannot help wondering what would happen if his aeroplane were to turn turtle on the way. * * * A legal point has been raised as to whether a woman who, while attempting to kill a wasp, breaks her neighbour's window is liable for damages. Counsel is understood to have expressed the view that, if the defendant had broken plaintiff's window while trespassing through the same in pursuit of the wasp, or had failed to give the wasp a reasonable opportunity of departing peaceably, or if it could be shown that the wasp had not previously exhibited a ferocious disposition, then judgment must be for the plaintiff. * * * * * "Here in a circular letter from the Home Office we find the sentence: 'The increase in the number of juvenile offenders is mainly caused by an increase of nearly 50 per cent. in cases of larceny.' In ordinary human language this only means that nearly twice as many children were caught thieving as in the year before. But it would be all that an official's place was worth to say so." _The Nation._ Certainly it would, if his duties required a knowledge of elementary arithmetic. * * * * * THE BRITISH DRAGON. [The KAISER's Chancellor, in an interview with the American journalist, KARL VON WIEGAND, accuses England of militarism, and alleges that we pursued towards Germany a policy of envelopment (_Einkreisungspolitik_).] They mocked us for a peaceful folk, A land that flowed with beer and chops; NAPOLEON (ere we had him broke) Remarked our taste for keeping shops; And WILLIAM, in his humorous way, Thought that we must have all gone barmy Because we joined so large a fray With so absurdly small an army. Opinions alter. Now it seems, Under our outer rind, or peel, Deep at the core of England's schemes There lurked a lust for blood and steel; Herr BETHMANN-HOLLWEG he proclaims The War was due to our intrigue and Expounds our militaristic aims Into the ear of Herr VON WIEGAND. We are a dragon belching fire, One of those horrors, spawned in hell, Who come from wallowing in the mire To crunch the innocent damosel; And when we've nosed about and found What looks to be a toothsome jawful We call our mates and ring her round With other dragons just as awful. Prussia was ever such a maid; Pink-toed and fair and free from guile She frolicked in the flowery glade, Pursuing Culture all the while; Then, coached by GREY, the monsters came, And their behaviour (something horrid) BETHMANN condemns, and brands the blame Upon the premier dragon's forehead.