Sir Wilfrid Lawson, at Cockermouth on Wednesday night, made a
very amusing speech about the theatrical diplo- matic performance in which the Government have lately been engaged. They ought to have commenced the Session with an announcement something like this :—" Grand theatrical perform- ance ! The piece called British Interests' will be played every night for the next fortnight by her Majesty's servants. The First Lord of the Admiralty, Mr. W. II. Smith, will sing Hearts of Oak ;' Lord John Manners, crowned with laurels and lilies, will perform the sword exercise ; Mr. Cross will dance the war- dance ; Mr. Cavendish Bentinck will appear in the character of a Bashi-Bazouk ; Lord Beaconsfield himself will poke up the British Lion till he roars again ; the Chancellor of the Exchequer will take the money at the door ; the band will play Rule, Britannia,' the whole time ; and the proceedings will conclude with a panorama, in which will be seen in the back- ground the English Fleet sailing up and down the Dardanelles, the crews singing in chorus :— Here we go, up, up, up—
Hero we go, down, down, down, Here we go, round, round, round.'"
That would indeed have been a most veracious announcement, but it would have omitted one of the most fascinating elements of the spectacle,—that of Mr. Gathorne Hardy flourishing his partisan sword round Mr. Gladstone's ears, while he fired a series of shots with his revolver at Mr. Trevelyan, and filled the House generally with an atmosphere of blood and thunder.
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