The Ministerial whitebait dinner came off on Wednesday. Lord Derby
was not present, being probably afraid of temptation, but 'the Chancellor of the Exchequer was loudly cheered. It must have been an amusing dinner. If men's faces changed with their opinions the guests would not have known one;another; the swarthy opponents of democracy would have become blondes, the mous- tached opponents of extension clean-shaven advocates of house-. hold suffrage, the thin-lipped advocates of checks leering, full- mouthed supporters of equality. Did they explain their conver- sions like Methodists at a love feast, or was it:con.sidered indelicate to allude to "business ?" Did anybody say a household consti- tuency would resemble whitebait—a large mass of very little things, easy to gobble up, hard to digest, and requiring careful cooking to bring out their richest flavour ?
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