"Well," said the MARQUIS OF CARABAS, "if one had a twenty billion magnifying glass of the kind associated with the memory of _Sam Weller_, perhaps we might see the oysters. All I can say is, I don't see any worth three and sixpence a dozen. PLAYFAIR's no business to bring these things down here, filling House with smell of stale seaweed when his oysters are no bigger than a pin's head." The MARQUIS strode angrily forth. Others followed. Lecture cut short. _Business done._--Sea Fisheries (Shell Fish) Bill read a second time, amid unexpectedly depressing circumstances. _House of Commons, Tuesday._--SQUIRE OF MALWOOD back after a week's rustication. Brings glowing news of the hay crop; looks, indeed, as if he had been helping to make it; ruddier than a cherry; indescribable but unmistakable country air about him as he sits on Treasury Bench with folded arms, listening to the monotonous ripple of talk renewed on Budget Bill. "Rusticus expectat dum defluat amnis," says PRINCE ARTHUR, looking across at the rustic Squire. "_At ille_ Labitur et labetur in omne volubilis aevum," added JOKIM, with approving glance at bench behind, where the Busy B.'s swarm after week's rest, humming round amendments with increased vigour. Almost imperceptible movement of river goes forward. The blameless BARTLEY on his feet, entrancing House with particulars of a silver cup, prized heirloom in the humble household in Victoria Street. It seems that one of BARTLEY'S ancestors--he who came over with the Conqueror--had brought with him certain blades of buckwheat, which he industriously planted out on the site, then a meadow, on which the Army and Navy Stores now flourish. The buckwheat grew apace. One day King STEPHEN, passing by on a palfrey, noted the waving green expanse. Enquiring to whom the State was indebted for this fair prospect, a courtier informed him that it was "the ancestor of GEORGE CHRISTOPHER TROUT BARTLEY, Member for North Islington in the thirteenth Parliament of Queen VICTORIA." "By our sooth," said the King, "he shall have a silver cup." One was forthwith requisitioned from the nearest silversmith's, and this it is which now adorns the sideboard in the best parlour at St. Margaret's House, Victoria Street, S.W.