NEWS OF THE V‘ EEK.

Tots has been a trying week for the MELBOURNE Ministry—" the Reform Ministry "—" the best Ministry the country ever had." We fear that the coercion of Canada, the official resistance of the Ballot, and the attempt to obstruct the removal of a foul blot from the Reform Act, will entail upon the Government more assured and settled odium and substantial damage, than the popularity of their excellent Church- rate measure—the grand measure of the session for England—will be able to counterbalance, even should it pass, instead of being offered only for rejection by the Lords. But "according as men sow, they shall reap." So be it.

The week opened with the threatened attack on the constitution of Lower Canada—a constitution willingly conferred and solemnly gua- ranteed by the British Parliament. The assault was led on by the Reforming Whig, Lord JOAN RUSSELL, in a series of resolutions, which be asked the Reformed House of Commons of Great Britain and Ireland to pass. These resolutions not only negatived all the demand!, of the Colonial suitors for justice, but authorized robbery. They declared, in effect, that the Legislative Council of Lower Ca- nada should not be made elective ; that the control of the unappropriated Canadian soil should continue to be jobbed by the Downing Street gen- tlemen ; that the charter of the North American Land Company should be maintained in defiance of the Canadian Assembly ; that the Tenures Act should not be repealed (except on conditions which will not be acceded to); that the Executive Council should still be irresponsible ;

and that, in order to make the Provincial Government independent of the Provincial Legislature, the money in the treasury should be seized and applied by the Governor, without the consent of the Assem- bly. There was a vague intimation that improper persons should not in future be made Legislative Councillors. Behold the Canadian po- licy of the Melbourne-Whig-Tory Administration, as developed in the resolutions and the speech of the Home Secretary.

The defence of this policy was, the necessity of keeping Canada in this sort of subjection to England ; and that the Canadian Assembly was unreasonable, abused its power, and had no real grievances to com- plain of. The last mentioned assertion was made in utter contempt of the truth. It is upon record—the Commissioners themselves admit— that in the Legislative Council of Lower Canada are persons of bad character, the abject tools of the Executive ; it is not denied that there are judges on the bench who would not be allowed to hold a commission of the peace in this country—intemperate and pro- fligate men ; that defaulters high in office have been screened, and thereby great loss thrown upon the public ; that jobbing in public lands prevails to an immense extent ; that numerous bills of reformoinex- ceptionable in their character, (this the Commissioners also admit,) have been rejected by the Legislative Council ; and that public funds have ken applied to make payments which the Assembly, exercising its constitutional and undoubted right, refused to sanction. Look at this list, and then estimate the assurance of those men who deny that the Canadians have any substantial grievances. The Canadians, at least, think differently; and they have refused the supplies to a Go- veninicin n hose acts proclaim it to be the ally of a faction. To punish the Canadians for their contumacy—for presuming to enforce rights guaranteed by Act of Parliament—Lord JOHN RUSSELL moved the resolutions whose substance we have stated.

The debate, which commenced on Monday, was adjourned to Wed- nesday; Masi the fourth resolution, the only one yet debated, and which declared that the irresponsible character of the Legislative Coun- cil should he preserved, was affirmed by a majority of 318 to 56. Mr. Rorer-es, Nils HUME, and the small band who stood by them, resolved that mail the evidence taken before the Canada Committee of 1834, and not yet printed though referred to in the debate by one of the leading Coereionists, should be in the hands of Members, no further progress should be made with the resolutions. They divided on the question of adjournment three times; and eventually gained their point of delay, as [LATEST EDITION.] Ministers agreed that the remaining resolutions should remain is abeyance till the evidence of 1834 should be forthcoming.

Of the speakers in this debate it is only necessary to say, that Lord

JOHN RUSSELL was plausible in the management of a bad cause ; that Mr. O'CONNELL rose superior to petty Ministerial entanglements, and eloquently demanded " justice for Canada ; " that Mr. ROEBUCK was intrepid, vehement, and sarcastic in a most effective attack on the Whig-Tory policy ; and that Lord STANLEY spoke out in his natural character of a fierce, overbearing, arbitrary Tory, exulting in the op- portunity and the power to trample upon popular rights.

But in the mean while a breathing-time has been allowed ; and it be- hoves every Englishman to make himself acquainted with the actual state of this question—to look down the precipice to the verge of which the 'Ministers have led us. For the sake of preserving the irrespon- sible authority of a faction in Canada and a bureaucracy in Downing Street, we run imminent risk of a war, with all its concomitant evils— loss of trade, loss of treasure, heavy taxes, augmented debt, blood- shed, misery and rapine—with our best friends and natural allies, the people of the United States. The Canadians will not imme- diately, perhaps, but they must eventually, resist the Downing Street tyranny ; they will claim the assistance of their Republican neighbours, and they will not claim it in vain. There can be no Government in the United States with power to prevent the in- road of thousands of riflemen, who will pick off our officers like sparrows, or the smuggling of stores of all kinds across the Lakes, or the offer of shelter to fugitives in the American territory, or the settlement of Americans on the Canadian lands. Then we may expect to hear of Indian warfare, and of the destruction of the fur-trade. As to the English land-jobbers, shat would the charter of the Land Company be worth with Canada in arms ? If any one deems that we are speaking at random and conjuring up phantoms of evil, let him recollect how the struggle of the American Revolution began, and bow it ended. The progress of a quarrel of this kind is like that of fire—once kindled, nobody can tell how long it will burn or how far it will reach.

The Canada discussion was the first opportunity for the display of that enlightened, wise, and popular policy, which Lord JOHN RUSSELL has oriented from CHARLES Fox; and Mr. GROTE'S motion for leave to introduce a Ballot Bill was the second. On Tuesday, Ministers called upon the Tories to defeat the majority of Reform :Members array( 1 in support of Mr. GROTE. The Tories responded to the invitation; and the result was—

For the Ballot 135* Against it 267 Majority 112

It is worth while to analyze the composition of this majority, and to compare the numbers on the division with those on a similar motion in 1835,—for last year tine question was voted in so thin a House that it would be unfair to make the result a point of comparison. In June 1835, the numbers were—

Fur the Ballot 14ti Against it 319 Majority

i.i It thus appears, that the supporters of the Ballot have increased their numbers by 9, while its opponents have been diminished by 53: the division, therefore, shows a gain of 61. But if we examine the lists of absentees, and of those Members who voted in favour of the Ballot on Tuesday for the first time, we shall find further cause for congra- tulation. Of the Members absent, no fewer than 27 are already pledged to support the Ballot ; add these to the 155 who voted for it, and we have a total of 182—in the PEEL Parliament. The list of those who recorded their votes in favour of secret suffrage for the first time, comprises the names of 34 Members. All the were not new converts; some having only been prevented by illness, or accident, or negligence, from supporting Mr. GROTE on previous occasions ; some of them too were not in the present Parliament till this session. But among the converts, we find the respectable names of BERNAL, RuEEET FERGUSON, HOLLAND,COOKES, OSWALD, PENDARVES, SANF0SD, MOR- RISON, Lord C;L FITZROY, PRYME, RAMSBOTTOM, and Westvss. Then look to the majority in which the Ministers and their sup- porters (many of them most unwilling ones) form a contemptible party. There voted against the Ballot—

Tor Ministers and their subalterns Whigs 2700 ig •Z.

451-, .14

There were 200 professing Liberals in the HouseZ and of these Cr

• Iu an these divisions we include the Tel*.

—fewer than a fourth—voted with the Liberal Ministry! It is mani- fest—nay, we heard it avowed during the debate by one of them. selves—that if the Government left the Ballot an " open question," it would be carried at once. For the present, therefore, we owe the loss of this much-desired measure of reform to "the Reform Ministry."

The Ministers exert themselves to defeat the Ballot in the full know- ledge and confident expectation that it will be carried in a year or two. They render themselves obnoxious to, and worthy of, popular odium, to gain merely a short postponement of the period when the elector shall be allowed to vote conscientiously without fear of harm. " To the Ballot," said Lord HOWICK, in the debate, " we must and shall come "—unless the Tories abstain from intimidation and forsake bri- bery! a reform which will be effected, when power ceases to be profit- able and pleasant, when the sense of justice prevails over the spirit of party, and the Ethiop grows white.

Each time that Mr. GROTE addresses the House on this subject, he seems to exhaust it ; and the speeches of those who follow him, prove that he had anticipated all they had to say, worthy of the name of rea- soning. Some modest journalists, who comment on the debates without having read or heard them, affect to sneer Ls the " annual sermon," as if Mr. GROTE merely repeated the same arguments in the same language every session : those, however, who read, and those who listen, know that every year his fertile and philosophical intellect sup- plies him with new weapons of attack and defence, and enables him

to clothe even old truths with the charm of novelty. In our opinion, the speech on Tuesday night was superior, especially in practical con.

elusiveness, to any of Mr. GROTE'S previous efforts. It is certain to produce conviction in the minds of multitudes ; and they who have not the gift to follow the closely-linked reasonings to their results, will yet be delighted with the earnest eloquence of the moral tone and chaste energy of the language.

The pretences put forward by the opponents of the Ballot on this occasion are scarcely worth notice ; for there is but one true rea- son against conceding the right of independent voting, and that is never mentioned. Ballot-voting is supported by those Members who are notoriously the most friendly, it is opposed by those who are the most hostile, to the extension of popular privileges. Let this fact be kept in view, and the inevitable conclusion will be, that the real grounds of denial of protection to the dependent electors are, the aris. tocratical fear in classes, and the love of domineering in individuals. But it would never do to own this; and therefore we hear none but false reasons adduced with insincerity and hypocrisy. Their sham pleas are set forth merely as a cover to what they dare not avow. It is impossible to read the speeches of Lord HOWICK and Mr. SPRING RICE, and note their confident tone as to the immediate issue of the de- bate, without the conviction that they felt there was a something in the breast of it majority of their hearers, independent of argument or honesty, which would plead more effectually than the eloquence of an angel.

Not a word was spoken by a single Tory, except PETER BORTH- vacx, who was probably not let into the secret of his party's tactics, and broke loose. There was evident delight on the crowded Opposi- tion benches at the dissension in the Ministerial ranks; but it was a silent pleasure. Had the Ministers boldly declared in favour of the Ballot, there would have been a burst of Tory rage ; and then the Whigs might have been sure all was right. As it was, the Whigs played the Tory game so admirably, that Tory interference was quite unnecessary. So resolute was their determination to be consistent in this part of their performance, that when Mr. GROTE congratulated the friends of Ballot on the supposition that it was no longer a question of principle but of time merely with Mr. SPRING RICE and Lord Howtot, first one and then the other protested that their opinions were as un- popular now as ever—thus saving the triumph to the Tories, which was on the point of being wrested from them.

Not content with their performances on the Canada and Ballot questions, Ministers on Thursday resisted Mr. DUNCOMBE'S motion for leave to bring in a bill to repeal the Rate-paying clauses in the Reform Act ; although Sir JOHN CAMPBELL, when it suited his own convenience lust session, had promised to give such a measure his most

serious consideration. Mr. SPRING Rica had nothing better to say in favour of the Rating-clauses, than that they were constitutional, and that people who did not pay their taxes in due time ought to lose their franchise. This was the brilliant second thought of the Chancellor of the Exchequer ; for as Mr. DUNCOMBE (having an eye to the state of the House) did not make a speech on moving for leave, Mr. RICE in the first place said that was a sufficient reason for rejecting the bill. No doubt, the reason would have been sufficient, if Mr. Rice's Tory allies had been in force ; but it so happened that the majority of Mem- bers present were Reformers, Ministerial supporters ; and thus, although every Tory in the House voted against Mr. DUNCOMBE and with the Whig Chancellor of the Exchequer, the motion was carried by 49 to 3S. What pitiful work !

The adjourned debate on the Church-rate question was put off from last night to Monday next ; but the subject has not been allowed to rest. The presentation of petitions gave rise to sundry desultory dis- cussions in both Houses. The Opposition require the data and the calculations on which Ministers form their plan. These are not forth- coming, as they certainly ought to have been ; and though the calcula- tions are promised, the data, which were obtained from private sources, are not to be produced. We shall have some curiosity to see how it came to pass, that 2.50,0001. a year being the sum wanted, the surplus from Church lands should be just 261,0001. Perhaps if Sir ROBEIDI PEEL required 350,0004 the ingenious Mr. FINLAYSON would show that amount also from the same sources—on paper.

We expressed our general approval of the Church-rate scheme lot week ; and nothing that we have since heard or read inclines us to alter that opinion. It is good in principle, and a reform which, forth benefit of the Church and the Dissenters alike, ought to be acorn. plished even if there were no such powerful demands for the abolitias of Church-rates as are now brought forward. Fifteen Bishops had a meeting on Thursday, and authorized the Archbishop of CAN cEnaozi to denounce the measure in their name,—an excellent symptom, and as evidence of the worth of the measure. Dr. HOWLEY performed the duty with his usual placid bigotry ; but CHARLES JAMES of London, being stung by a taunt of Lord MELBOURNE at the indecent haste of the Prelates to condemn a bill not even yet fairly launched into tie House of Commons, was noisy in his vituperation. It was amusing to see the Bishops, and several Tory Lay Lords too, in such a pro. digious bustle to deal with the measure. We had thought that calm. ness, deliberation, cautious examination of evidence, solemnity and de. corum, were the preliminaries and essential conditions to a decision of the Upper House. But we fear that the Assembly of Nobles is beeom. ing quite vulgar and democratic in its behaviour. Lord MELBOURNI pledged himself to stand by his bill to the last : perhaps he will keep his word.