A MEDLEY. 65 resume their wonted acuteness ; and Parliament rises from the bed of diseased inactivity to the contemplation of what is going on around it.

And what is going on around it is now of no mild, calming kind. A letter from Gordon, it was known, was at Dongola in the hands of the Mudir. The fall of Berber had been fully confirmed. Sixteen thousand rebels sat close round Khartoum. Debbeh had seen the fall of 5,000 of the followers of the prophet. Something shall be done.