* * * * * THE PEACE TREATY. What really impressed the Germans most of all with the power of the Big Four was the third clause of Section 3, as given in the Press:-- "LEFT BANK OF THE RHINE. ... Germany must not maintain or construct any fortifications less than fifty kilomètres to the East of the Rhine." Even WILHELM himself never succeeded in reversing the course of this famous river. * * * * * "The fifth issue of The Indian Year Book is issued a little later than the earlier editions. For this the Editor would ask immunity."--_Preface to "The Indian Year Book_." Granted. Mr. Punch invariably adopts the same order of procedure in regard to his own publications. * * * * * MORE ALLEVIATIONS. The late JAMES PAYN, who, as is well known, waged a merciless war against sham admiration in literature, happened one day to hear me quote that tremendous fellow, SIBRANDUS SCHAFNABURGENSIS. The particular lines I mean are those in which he says:-- "Then I went indoors, brought out a loaf, Half a cheese and a bottle of Chablis; Lay on the grass and forgot the oaf Over a jolly chapter of Rabelais." Mr. PAYN remarked sharply:-- "It would cost him some trouble to find one. I've never found a jolly chapter of RABELAIS in my life, and what's more I mean to say so some day and watch the faces." Well, Mr. PAYN believed in stating his own views truthfully. No doubt the necessity of finding a rhyme for "Chablis" had something to do with the appearance of RABELAIS' name at the end of that line. But _that_ cannot have been the reason why POPE, being under no compulsion of rhyme, brought RABELAIS into his lines:-- "O thou! whatever title please thine ear, Dean, Drapier, Bickerstaff or Gulliver! Whether thou choose Cervantes' serious air Or laugh and shake in Rabelais' easy-chair."