_Wednesday_.--"I wonder," said SAGE OF QUEEN ANNE'S GATE, curiously
regarding CHAMBERLAIN discoursing on the Eight Hours Bill, "whom JOE
meant by his reference at Birmingham on Saturday night to 'the funny
man of the House of Commons,'--'A man who has a natural taste for
buffoonery, which he has cultivated with great art, who has a hatred
of every Government and all kinds of restraint, and especially, of
course, of the Government that happens to be in office.' Couldn't be
HENEAGE, and I don't suppose he had JESSE in his mind at the moment.
Pity a man can't make his points clearly. JOE used to be lucid enough.
But he's falling off now in that as in other matters. Made me rub my
eyes when I read his remarks about House of Lords, and remembered what
he used to say on subject when he and I ran together. Certainly JOE
is a man of courage. There are topics he might, with memory of past
speeches, easily avoid or circumnavigate. But he goes straight at
'em, whether fence or ditch, takes them at a stride regardless of
his former self, splashed with mud in the jump, or smitten with the
horse's hoof.
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