We note with sincere regret the decision of Mr. ,Tease
Collings to retire from Parliament at the next Genera/. Election. In a letter addressed to the President of the Bordesley Division Liberal Unionist Association on Satur- day last Mr. Collings explained the reasons which had induced him to reconsider his recently announced decision to stand again. "For over half a century, in close and unbroken friendship, Mr. Chamberlain and I have worked together in perfect agreement, in social, municipal, and political affairs, and it seems fitting, even as a matter of sentiment only, that we should put off our harness together and at the same time." Mr. Collings's letter, as Huxley said of Mr. Collings's remarks on another occasion, is "very human and good and dignified." For the rest, we may note that Mr. Collings, who is now eighty-two, has been thirty-three years in the House of Commons, twenty-seven of which have been spent as Member for Bordesley, and apart from his Parliamentary duties has served Birmingham loyally as Councillor, Alderman, and Mayor. As founder and President of the Rural Labourers League Mr. Collings has for many years played a strenuous part in promoting the interests of the small-holder,
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