M.P.'s in Session. By Harry Furniss. (Bradbury, Agnew, and Co.)—These
pictures from "Mr. Punch's Parliamentary Portrait Gallery" hardly need to be praised. Every one knows them as they appear, week by week, in what most people, we fancy, think the best part of Punch, "Toby's Diary of Parliament." The "portraits," which do not err on the side of flattery, go back for some years. Hence we have some figures that have now dis- appeared from the arena,—Colonel Tottenham, for instance, and Sir Stafford Northeote. Where all are so good—and a more amusing volume than this it would not be easy to find—it is not easy to select any for special praise. Perhaps "The Royal West- minster Academy," where various Members are supposed to execute likenesses of opponents, are as good as any. As the plan of the Spectator does not permit illustration by extract— and nothing else can do justice to the humour of the drawings— we must be content with recommending the volume to our readers. One may see how soon history becomes ancient. Here is Mr. Trevelyan portraying Mr. Biggar as a hideous toy-monkey. But that was in 1885, before Sir G. Trevelyan had discovered the virtue and beauty of his Irish friends.
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