10 SEPTEMBER 1887, Page 3

Dr. Tanner has succeeded in reducing the right of question

in the House of Commons to an absurdity. On Thursday he actually asked the Under-Secretary for Foreign Affairs this question,—" Is it a fact that the frontier between Turcomania and Afghanistan has been so delimitated as to leave all the fords on the Penjdeli,Murghah, Ac., used by the nomad pastoral tribes, in the hands of the Russians P " Sir J. Fergaseon, of course, replied that it was not a fact, Turcomania having no existence, and Penjdeh not being a river ; and some of our readers will decide that Dr. Tanner is an inefficient Member. They will be quite mistaken. The object of his party being to discredit the House of Commons, he is nearly the most efficient Member in it.