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-five shillings
in the hand to thirty shillings in the bush; with the result that the
amendment was defeated by 301 to 102.

Mr. HOGGE called attention to the anomalous position occupied by
Dr. ADDISON. The late Minister for Munitions and future Minister for
Reconstruction is for the moment only an ordinary Member. Ought he not
therefore to be re-elected before taking up his new appointment? Mr.
SPEAKER'S judicious reply, "I do not appoint Ministers," left one
wondering what sort of an appearance the Treasury Bench would present
if he did.

_Tuesday, July 24th_.--Major HUNT and Mr. KING, though in some
respects not unlike one another--each combining a child-like belief
in what they are told outside the House with an invincible scepticism
in regard to the information they receive from Ministers inside--are
rarely found hunting in couples. But they made common cause to-day
over the alleged award of the Distinguished Service Order to persons
who had never been near the firing line, and they refused to accept