just now, even when I was chaffing KIMBERLEY:--

'Stay not your course, O Mariners, or me,
Nor furl your sails--is not my harbour dry?
Nought but one vast, forsaken tomb am I.
But steer for other lands, from sorrow free,
Where, by a happier and more prosp'rous shore,
Your anchor ye may drop, and rest your oar.'"

"Not at all," I said.

Rather an inadequate remark, I see, when I come to write it down. I'd
say something better if the MARKISS would repeat the lines.

_Business done._--MARKISS announces Resignation of Ministry.

* * * * *

_House of Commons, Thursday._--House seems to have been meeting all
day. Began at three o'clock: Sitting suspended at half-past; resumed
at 4.30; off again till nine; might have been continued indefinitely
through night, only thunderstorm of unparalleled ferocity burst
over Metropolis, and put an end to further manoeuvring. "Bless me!"
tremulously murmured Lord SALISBURY's Black Man, as a peal of thunder
shook Clock Tower, and lighted up House of Lords with lurid flame, "if
these are home politics, wish I'd stayed in far-off Ind."

At first gathering in Commons, parties changed sides. "The sheep to
the right, the goats to the left," as WILLIAM FIELD, Esq., M.P., said,
daintily crossing the floor.