Punch, or the London Charivari, Volume 156, February 19, 1919 — John Shaqi
Punch, or the London Charivari, Volume 156, February 19, 1919Various
General
Punch, or the London Charivari, Volume 156, February 19, 1919
Various
English wit and humor -- Periodicals
In the Commons an hour was spent in discussing the Government's
now customary motion to take all the time of the House. Up got Mr.
ADAMSON, to denounce it, now the War was over, as sheer Kaiserism. Up
got Sir DONALD MACLEAN to defend it as commonsense, though he induced
Mr. BONAR LAW to limit its duration to the end of March. Colonel
WEDGWOOD pleaded that private Members might still be allowed to bring
in Bills under the Ten Minutes' Rule; but that Parliamentary pundit,
Sir F. BANBURY, asserted that there was no such thing in reality as
the Ten Minutes' Rule, and pictured the possibility of whole days
being swallowed up by a succession of private Members commending their
legislative bantlings one after another with the brief explanatory
statement permitted on such occasions. Alarmed at the prospect Mr. LAW
decided not to admit the thin end of the WEDGWOOD.
[Illustration: ELEMENTARY ECONOMICS.]
The debate on the Address was resumed by Mr. BOTTOMLEY, who had a
large audience. During his previous membership, terminated by one of
those periodical visits to the Law Courts to which he made humorous
reference, he delivered some capital speeches; and it was pleasant
to find that the necessity of constantly producing "another powerful
article next week" has not caused him to lose his oratorical form.
His gestures are slightly reminiscent of the action of the common
pump-handle, but his voice is excellent, and his matter has the merit
of exactly resembling what our old friend "the Man in the Street"
would say in less Parliamentary language, He has no hesitations, for
example, on the subject of making Germany pay. By one of those rapid
financial calculations for which he is renowned he has arrived at
the comfortable figure of ten thousand millions sterling as Britain's
little bill; and if you express doubts as to the debtor's capacity
to pay he replies that he cannot recall any judge who made an order
against him ever prefacing his judgment with an inquiry whether it
would be convenient for him to find the money.
Payment in kind is Mr. RONALD McNEILL's prescription. Let Leipzig
library replenish the empty shelves of Louvain and the windows of
Cologne make good--so far as German glass can do it--the shattered
glories of Rheims.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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