Head of the Public Bill Office, for my certificate to be endorsed upon them. I was still laid up in bed, but as the gout was in my feet and not in my hands, I was able to sign them; and in view of what had occurred, and of the return of the Bills from the Lords to the Commons, I did not feel it my duty to raise any objection.

Two days later, the Bills received the Royal assent under a new formula as being "duly passed under the provisions of the Parliament Act 1911," and thus ended this stage of the great controversy. It left nobody satisfied, for the cup of Home Rule had once again been removed from the lips of the Irish Party, as they were on the very point of tasting its contents: and the Opposition felt that, although temporarily postponed, the principle of Home Rule had been forced upon an electorate which had never accepted and had always rejected it when submitted as a fair and square issue.

During the recess of two months my wife and I remained in Suffolk. We had the pleasure of receiving our old friends Sir Maurice de Bunsen and Sir Edward Goschen, who had come into the limelight on the European stage, the former as our Ambassador at Vienna at the moment of the outbreak of war, and the latter at Berlin. Their accounts of the last moments of their respective missions in the two Capitals and of their adventures on the road home, were deeply interesting, and at the moment novel, but have since then become widely known.

My brother Cecil, who had gone to the front with the Expeditionary Force, in command of the 1st Battalion 1st Scots Guards, 1st Division, 1st Army Corps, and whose death at Mons had been erroneously re

ported, was all through the retreat from Mons and the Battle of the Marne, but was wounded on the 15th of September at the Battle of the Aisne. A piece of shell made two holes in his chest. The wound was not severe, but incapacitated him for a time and he came to recuperate with us in Suffolk before returning to the front on the 11th of November. Shortly after his return he was appointed a Brigadier-General.

The new Session of Parliament was opened by His Majesty in khaki, and many Peers and Members of Parliament also appeared in Service uniforms. Again a considerable amount of special war legislation was enacted, and a vote of credit for £225,000,000 was passed, entailing a Finance Bill which imposed a mass of fresh taxation. But the discussions on these matters were by general consent abbreviated within the narrowest possible limits, and day after day the House rose quite early. I remember remarking to a friend that "until war came I had not known what peace was." The sittings came to an end on the 27th of November, and the House adjourned until the 3rd of February.

I spent the winter mostly in Suffolk, but went to Cumberland for a brief visit, for a series of recruiting and Red Cross meetings. My wife and I also stayed for a few days with Field Marshal Lord Grenfell, at Overstone, and this gave us an opportunity of seeing our eldest son, Christopher, who was quartered in the neighbourhood, at Northampton.

At this period there was some fear of a possible invasion of the Suffolk coast, and a committee was established, of which I was a member, to determine the method of evacuation of the civilian population in the event of such an occurrence. We matured our

plans several times, but as a succession of Generals was appointed to the Eastern Command, and as no one of them ever approved the arrangements made by his predecessor, we were kept busy undoing and redoing the work. Just as the war terminated in November 1918, everything was ready, the civilian and the military roads had been duly settled and indicated by notice-boards, and the finishing touches put to the scheme. Fortunately it was never tested by bitter experience.

Almost the last day of the year was marked by a catastrophe to our hospital. On the 28th of December there was a violent gale and a heavy fall of snow. Seventeen trees in the park were blown down, including one very fine cedar, and one tree fell upon the glass roof of the hospital ward at 1 a.m., covering many of the patients with broken glass. It became necessary to move the patients, of whom there were then fifteen, at once into the house, and to provide them with beds or some sort of sleeping accommodation. Some of them had to be carried across and some had to have their cuts and injuries immediately attended to. The violence of the wind and the heavy fall of snow made it a difficult operation; it was no easy task and resulted in my wife catching a severe cold which developed into congestion of the lungs. The barograph had registered a drop of over half an inch in eight hours, and then a sudden rise of an inch in the following twelve hours. The worst part of the storm came with the rise of the barometer. However, in a day or two the roof was repaired and all was again well.

It may be thought by my readers that my account of the great events of this year is very meagre and inadequate. I can only say that I do not pretend to

tell the history of the war or of the vicissitudes through which our country passed. I limit myself to a narration of such matters as were my own concern or affected me personally.

CHAPTER XXV

1915-1916

Sons badly wounded-Visits to France-Zeppelins over Suffolk-Bath— Death of Sir Chandos Leigh-Sir David Erskine resigns-Compulsory Service First Secret Sitting-Mistaken for a Spy-The Speaker's Conference-Food Controllership-Mr. Lloyd George becomes Prime Minister.

1915

During this year the Session was broken up into six separate groups of sittings, averaging about six weeks each, but during the first half of the year there were no sittings on Fridays, and during the latter half the Monday sittings were also omitted. This arrangement enabled Ministers to devote more time to their office work and gave to unofficial Members the opportunity of attending to local matters in connection with the war, which claimed their attention. Notwithstanding this arrangement, a vast mass of public business of an urgent and highly important character was got through. By tacit agreement speeches were few and short, the debates brief and businesslike, and sittings often closed at the dinner hour. Matters of first class importance, such as the treatment of our prisoners in Germany, the increased cost of living, the internment of enemy aliens, the mobilization of industry, the supply of munitions and the establishment of the Ministry of Munitions, criticism of the Press Bureau, the limitation of coal prices, the curtailment of the opportunities for obtaining alcoholic refreshment, the establishment of a system of registration of the whole