ed up with it; and from this morning
I shall not seek to keep your crimes in check;
Sin as you will--I shall but acquiesce;
Sleep on, O sentinels--I shall not curse;
And so, maybe, from sheer contrariness
Some day a guard may be a slight success;
At any rate you cannot well do worse."

* * * * *

LIGHT ON THE SITUATION.

"FRONT OF CROWN PRINCE RUPPRECHT.--At night the firing
engagement slackened but little, and near Hellwerden it
again rose to very great intensity."--_Admiralty, per
Wireless Press, July 26th_.

Readers who shared the doubt of _The Times_ as to the existence of
"Hellwerden" (which doesn't appear in the maps) will be interested
to learn from one of our correspondents, who knows it well, that it
exists all right, but is only visible in the very early morning. _The
Times_ of July 28th bears out this statement.

Our correspondent adds the information that "Hellwerden" is sometimes
spelt Morgendaemmerung.

* * * * *

[Illustration: RUSSIA'S DARK HOUR.]

* * * * *

ESSENCE OF PARLIAMENT.

_Monday, July 23rd_.--The country awoke this morning to find itself
threatened with a first-class political crisis and possibly a General
Election to follow. Members dwelling temporarily on the Western Front
had reluctantly torn themselves from their dug-outs on the receipt of
a three-line whip, and had repaired post-haste to Westminster.

[Illustration: PAPA MCKENNA LECTURES YOUNG BONAR ON EXTRAVAGANCE. EVEN
WHEN SOWING HIS WILDEST OATS HE (PAPA) NEVER CAME ANYWHERE NEAR SEVEN
MILLION POUNDS PER DIEM.]

The trouble was nominally about the agricultural labourer and his
minimum wage. Should it be twenty-five shillings, as set down in the
Corn Production Bill, or thirty shillings, as proposed by Mr. WARDLE,
the Leader of the Labour Party? The Amendment had the assent of the
hard-shell Free-Traders, who were glad to snatch at any chance of
defeating the proposed bounty to the farmer. They had been further
incensed by the appointment of Messrs. MONTAGU and CHURCHILL to the
Ministry, and hoped perhaps that some of the extreme Tories would help
them to give the PRIME MINISTER a good hard knock.

Mr. PROTHERO made it plain from the outset that the Government meant
to stand or fall by the proposal in the Bill; and most of the friends
of the agricultural labourer prudently preferred twenty-f