The Lighter Side of Politics. By the Under-Secretary. (Mills
and Boon. 2s. 6d. net.)-This little collection of anecdotes- of elections, hecklers, meetings, mixed metaphors and so on- is amusing, and may be commended to after-dinner speakers. The compiler admits that the humorist in British politics is apt to be despised, but a timely jest may help to save a meeting from collapse. Dr. Macnamara is credited with the following story against himself
" On one occasion, speaking in a marquee at Bridlington, in torrential rain, he said, I'm afraid I'vo kept you too long,' when a voice in the rear replied, Go on, sir, it's still mining.' " We are told in the chapter on mixed metaphors that Lord Morley,
usually the most fastidiously correct of speakers, said at Oxford in 1909 that
" Indian reforms had at length come to the birth after being for many months on the anvil."
and that Lord Haldane defined Liberty as " the very breath of their nostrils which held them all together." Such lapses are not impossible, but we trust that the compiler verified his references.
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