MRS. MOUNTCALM-VILLIERS. I know, dear. Isn’t it shocking? ST. HERBERT. Deplorable; but of course not your fault. I mention it because of its importance to the present matter. Under Clause A of the Act for the Better Regulation, &c., &c., all persons “mentally deficient” are debarred from becoming members of Parliament. The classification has been held to include idiots, infants, and women. (_An interruption_. LADY MOGTON _hammers_.) Bearing this carefully in mind, we proceed. (_He refers to his notes_.) Two years ago a bye-election took place for the South-west division of Belfast. MRS. MOUNTCALM-VILLIERS. My dear, may I? It has just occurred to me. Why do we never go to Ireland? LADY MOGTON. For various sufficient reasons. MRS. MOUNTCALM-VILLIERS. So many of the Irish members have expressed themselves quite sympathetically. LADY MOGTON. We wish them to continue to do so. (_Turns to_ ST. HERBERT.) I’m sorry. ST. HERBERT. A leader of the Orange Party was opposed by a Nationalist, and the proceedings promised to be lively. They promised for a while to be still livelier, owing to the nomination at the last moment of the local lunatic. PHOEBE. (_To_ ANNYS.) This is where we come in. ST. HERBERT. There is always a local lunatic, who, if harmless, is generally a popular character. James Washington McCaw appears to have been a particularly cheerful specimen. One of his eccentricities was to always have a skipping-rope in his pocket; wherever the traffic allowed it, he would go through the streets skipping. He said it kept him warm. Another of his tricks was to let off fireworks from the roof of his house whenever he heard of the death of anybody of importance. The Returning Officer refused his nomination—which, so far as his nominators were concerned, was intended only as a joke—on the grounds of his being by common report a person of unsound mind. And there, so far as South-west Belfast was concerned, the matter ended. PHOEBE. Pity. ST. HERBERT. But not so far as the Returning Officer was concerned. McCaw appears to have been a lunatic possessed of means, imbued with all an Irishman’s love of litigation. He at once brought an action against the Returning Officer, his contention being that his mental state was a private matter, of which the Returning Officer was not the person to judge. PHOEBE. He wasn’t a lunatic all over. ST. HERBERT. We none of us are. The case went from court to court. In every instance the decision was in favour of the Returning Officer. Until it reached the House of Lords. The decision was given yesterday afternoon—in favour of the man McCaw. ELIZABETH. Then lunatics, at all events, are not debarred from going to the poll. ST. HERBERT. The “mentally deficient” are no longer debarred from going to the poll. ELIZABETH. What grounds were given for the decision?