The House of Commons, to judge by present appearances, has
been beguiled into a foolish blunder. On Monday Mr. Holma moved a distinct vote of censure upon the Treasury for having, in the teeth of the advice of a Select Committee, appointed Mr. Pigott, a War-Office clerk on 1400 a year, to the Controllership of Station- ery, hitherto worth 21,200, and now worth £1,000 a year, and carried the motion by 156 to 152. He affirmed that Mr. Pigott was a son of the late Rector of Hughenden, who had rendered long and valu- able electioneering services to the Member for Bucks, and had therefore been appointed to the "deanery of the Civil Service," and the whole House believed the statdtnent. Sir Stafford North - cote made a wretched defence, apparently most unwillingly, Mr. Hardy was only hot in praise of M. Pigott, and Mr. Bates affirmed that "every man must have a beginning." The House grew angry, a number of Conservatives left, Sir Rainald Knightley gravely condemned the appointment, and everybody was satis- fied that a scandalous job had been exposed and punished, and that Lord Beaconsfield's prestige had received a severe blow. It was for him a direct and personal vote of censure.
