It's new blood that does it. I'll
make them a speech myself some day."
_Business done_.--Quite a lot in the Commons.
_Tuesday_.--FERGUSSON says life at Foreign Office would be endurable
only for LABBY. The Sage has got the Triple Alliance on the brain;
spends his mornings in drafting questions there anent. That FERGUSSON
wouldn't mind so much, only it involves his spending _his_ afternoons
in drafting answers that shall look coherent, and yet say nothing.
Answers often so admirably suited to their purpose, that doubts arise
as to whether a firmer hand than FERGUSSON's has not traced them on
paper. "A dull man," was the phrase in which, years ago, JOHN BRIGHT
dismissed from consideration the statesman then known as Sir CHARLES
ADDERLY. To House of Commons FERGUSSON is a dull man, incapable, as it
seems, of framing these subtle answers that look as if they meant so
much, and yet say so little.
[Illustration: Sage of Queen Anne's Gate.]
Whoever be the author, it must be said that FERGUSSON contributes
to success of answers by his manner of reading them.
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