The Chancellor of the Exchequer made a speech on Saturday,
at a dinner given by the Metropolitan Board, of little interest in itself—though he remarked en passant that valour was sometimes the better part of discretion—but which terminated in a joke that may be of importance. The Metropolitan Board have brought in a Bill to secure possession of Cleopatra's Needle, and Sir Stafford asked if they had acquired it as a symbol that they had taken Egypt, just as old lawyers gave " seisin " of an estate by giving a bit of earth. " I wish to avail myself of the first opportunity
to clear her Majesty's Government, at all events, from the re- sponsibility, in consequence of that transaction, of being supposed to have any designs upon Egypt." Sir Stafford Northcote is not in the habit of malting clumsy jokes, and must have lugged in the obelisk by the head and shoulders, to give opportunity for the political remark.
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