The Queen left Windsor on Monday for Baden-Baden, where, and
at Coburg, she is to reside for a month, receiving visits ; among others one from the Emperor of Germany. The assigned and pro- bably true cause of this visit is a bereavement which has occurred to the Queen's half-sister, but it is unusual for the Sovereign to absent herself from the kingdom during the Session, and a few Members have amused themselves with asking questions about the matter. Mr. Sullivan, for instance, wished to know how the constitutional right of the Commons to claim access to the Sovereign was to be preserved, and was gravely told by Mr. Disraeli that the Speaker and a deputation could take tickets and go to Baden, if necessary, —which, of course, would be true also if the Queen were at Pekin or San Francisco. Such questions, however, prick the Premier, and on Thursday he lost himself a little. Mr. Anderson asked him for precedents, and he said there were two, but did not give the dates, whereupon Mr. Anderson asked again if the present occasion was one of the precedents. "If it were, that would make three," said Mr. Disraeli, content, apparently, to raise a laugh even by a statement which was simply foolish. He was also asked, this time by Mr. Itylands, if the proclamation which is to follow the Titles Bill would be issued in Germany, but only answered, in his most pompous way, that "her Majesty's Ministers would give the Queen such advice as they thought consistent with her Majesty's dignity and the welfare of her subjects,"—that is, they would do as they thought fit. The habit of expressing contempt for the House in this way is growing on Mr. Disraeli, as it once grew on Lord Palmerston, and will speedily lead to a similar result.
