* * * * *

ESSENCE OF PARLIAMENT.

_Monday, July 9th_.--With the sound of Saturday's bombs still in their
ears Members came down to the House prepared to make things very
uncomfortable for Ministers. Woe betide them if they could not explain
satisfactorily, first, why the raiders had been able to get to London
at all, and, secondly, why they had been allowed to depart almost
unscathed. In this atmosphere the usual badinage of Question-time
passed almost unnoticed. Mr. BALFOUR gave a neat summary of Germany's
propagandist methods. "In Russia, where autocracy has been abolished,
it declares that we are secretly fostering reaction; in Spain, where
there is a constitutional monarchy, it proclaims that we are aiming at
revolution. Both statements are untrue; both are absurd."

Not until Mr. BONAR LAW announced that the PRIME MINISTER would move
the adjournment of the House and make in Secret Session a statement
regarding the air-raid was the House really roused. At once a storm
of "supplementaries" broke forth. Mr. P. BILLING, baulked of his
prey--for private sittings are no use to orators of the flatulent
variety--bounced up and down like a Jack-in-the-Box until the SPEAKER
finally suppressed him with the words, "There must be a limit to
this." The Member for East Herts is presumably "the limit" referred
to.

Fortunately, perhaps, for the Government the Home Office Vote was the
subject for discussion. This gave Members an opportunity for blowing
off a lot of preliminary steam. At one moment an even more dangerous
explosion was feared. Sir HENRY DALZIEL suddenly produced from his