[Illustration:  A WORD OF ILL OMEN

CROWN PRINCE (to Kaiser, drafting his next speech):  “For Gott’s sake, father, be careful this time, and don’t call the American Army ‘contemptible.’”]

A new feature of the German armies are the special “storm-troops”; men picked for their youth, vigour, and daring, and fortified by a specially liberal diet for the carrying out of counter-attacks.  Even our ordinary British soldiers, who are constantly compelled to take these brave fellows prisoners, bear witness to the ferocity of their appearance.

On our Home Front the Germans have shown considerable activity of late.  Daylight air-raids are no longer the monopoly of the South-east coast; they have extended to London.  And a weekly paper, conspicuous for the insistence with which it proclaims its superiority to all others, has been asking:  If 17 German aeroplanes can visit and bomb London in broad daylight, what is to prevent our enemy from sending 170 or even 1,700?  Fortunately the average man and woman pays no heed to this scare-mongering, and goes about his or her business, if not rejoicing, at any rate in the conviction that the Gothas are not going to have it all their own way.

Considering that the “Fort of London” had been drenched with the “ghastly dew” of aerial navies barely three hours before Parliament met on June 13, Members showed themselves uncommon calm.  They were at their best a few days earlier in paying homage to Major Willie Redmond.  It had been his ambition to be Father of the House:  he had been elected thirty-four years ago; but in reality he was the Eternal Boy from the far-off time when it was his nightly delight to “cheek” Mr. Speaker Brand with delightful exuberance until the moment of his glorious death in Flanders, whither he had gone at an age when most of his compeers were content to play the critic in a snug corner of the smoking-room.  Personal affection combined with admiration for his gallantry to inspire the speeches in which Mr. Lloyd George, Mr. Asquith, and Sir Edward Carson enshrined the most remarkable tribute ever paid to a private Member.

Mr. Balfour has returned safe and sound from his Mission to the States, and received a warm welcome on all sides.  Even the ranks of Tuscany, on the Irish benches, could not forbear to cheer their old opponent.  Besides securing American gold for his country, he has transferred some American bronze to his complexion.  If anything, he appears to have sharpened his natural faculty for skilful evasion and polite repartee by his encounter with Transatlantic journalists.  In fact everybody is pleased to see him back except perhaps certain curious members, who find him even more chary of information than his deputy, Lord Robert Cecil.  The mystery of Lord Northcliffe’s visit to the States has been cleared up.  Certain journals, believed to enjoy his confidence, had described him as “Mr. Balfour’s successor.”  Certain other journals, whose confidence he does not