19 SEPTEMBER 1931, Page 17

THE PRESS IN THE COMMONS.

The tone in which newspapers are usually mentioned in tho House of Commons—very different from that adopted by Lord ALTHORP—is absurd. Men who cannot breakfast without one, in the evening pretend to be hardly 'cognizant of the existence of such things. Men who in private look to them almost for their sole stock of opinions, are found in public sneering at their contents ; thus despising that with which they are crammed to the very mouth, so that they can hardly speak without betraying the source of their information. Assuredly, newspapers might be much better conducted, and no persons can lament their imperfections more than we do ; but they are far above the contempt of members of Parlia- ment in ability, and in power are scarcely beneath the Honourable House itself.