NEWS OF THE WEEK.
THE most voluminous display of party oratory this session took place in the two Houses of Parliament on Thursday ; the subject being Lord ELLENBOHOriGH, his policy and proclamations. In the House of Commons, where the contest was most fiercely waged, the point of attack was the Somnath temple; in the other House, both that and the proclamation of the 1st of October were at- tacked. The discussion in the Commons, in spite of the trite- ness of the subject, was interesting ; chiefly because of the indivi- dual ability displayed by divers members, especially Mr. EMERSON TENSEST and Mr. MACAULAY, and the ingenuity with which every part of the subject was turned inside out. The speeches of Sir ROBERT PEEL and the Duke of WELLINGTON possessed a graver interest : the Prime Minister effectually exposed the rancour with which the Opposition harped upon the one admitted folly of Lord ELLENBOROUGIT, and forgot the whirlpool of difficulties which their policy had prepared for him ; the Duke of WELLINGTON, itIth his very plaid sense, justided his bsent colleague as to the proclamation of the 1st October, by a simple recital of the facts which led to it, and made it necessary to antagonize Lord AUCKLAND'S proclamation of the 1st of October 1838; and he excused the Soinnath document by representing it as " a song of triumph." The conduct of the debate quite makes out Sir ROBERT PEEL'S assertion, that it was in consequence of no compact that he screened Lord AUCKLAND against Mr. ROEBUCK'S assault. Mr. VERNON SMITH and his coadjutors displayed the utmost stretch of magnanimity ; since not all their gratitude for that charity, which they so frankly accepted, could make them so far forget the public interest as to abate one jot in their merciless endeavour to ruin Lord ELLENBOROUGH. There were, indeed, some remarkable admissions : and chiefly Lord JOHN RUSSELL ad- mitted, that he had learned, from reading the papers, entirely to concur in the policy of withdrawing the troops ; but that did not prevent his recommending the Governor-General to resign. The Opposition had no wish to weigh the sober merits of the case, but to take the utmost advantage of the opening afforded by the foolish proclamation, in order to hurt Lord ELLENDOROUGH individually and the Ministry by whom he was appointed. Not that they for- got all that he has done, or may be doing, to retrieve the fortunes of our sway in India ; but those things have no relation to the business of the day, which is simply to turn Lord ELLEN- BOROUGH'S lapse to the best account. In that way, professed libellers, seeking revenge or lucre, fasten upon some one fault or indiscretion in a man's life to hunt him from society. Such being the purpose, they had better still stick to the proclamation which is so valuable to them : they have had two nights of it in the Com- mons; why not have a few more ? It is true that no public good will be answered by it ; that the Opposition in such pursuit re- linquish their boasted function as Tribunes of the People—an arduous task, and moreover embarrassing, when their leaders are prepared to do little more, or perhaps less, than their rivals in office. But then it is so easy to fasten opprobrium upon glaring and un- defended faults ! And it answers a purpose precious to the party : in the mere hubbub about an awkward stumble at the end of the war, it distracts attention from the beginning—its absurd origin and culpable objects. It is a statesmanlike use of the stratagem re- commended by SWIFT, When you see that your master is about to reprove you, make a complaint : or rather, it is like the row which accomplices raise in the streets when a detected thief is to escape. The Scotch Nonintrusion party have made their last appeal ; and in vain. They sent to Parliament two petitions, praying for protection against the interference of the Civil Courts, and for the abolition of patronage. In the House of Commons, on Tues- day, Mr. Fox MAULE, their willing instrument, moved to con- sider the petitions in a Committee of the whole House, with some ulterior object not stated, but supposed to be resolutions more or less in the sense of the petitions : and the motion was debated for two nights. The reception of the petitions is cal- culated to extinguish every expectation in the Nonintrusionists. It was respectful in the highest degree : the very trifling ex- ceptions of personal attack only marked more strongly the gene- rally calm and placid character of the debate ; and the leading men of all parties were careful to speak of the Church in terms of the profoundest respect. In fact, it is more easy in England to feel respect for a venerable institution like the Church of Scotland, and regret for the zeal which threatens its very existence from
internal disruption, than to understand the points of discipline and jurisdiction about which there is such turmoil. In England the people trouble themselves very little about church-discipline; it is mostly set down for them ; and they cannot sympathize with the popular concern of their Northern brethren. Traces of this unconcern and conscious ignorance were to be observed in the debate : listlessness combined with a sense of decorum to keep the House quiet. On the first night, when the speeches were drier, an occasional laugh at some technicality or touch of the mag- niloquent, indicated the idle spirit that prevailed: as the debate proceeded it grew rather more interesting; successive speakers had cleared the ground ; disputation afforded scope for ingenuity ; and the dicta of party-leaders were intelligible matter : the House therefore ceased to laugh ; but the enthusiasm rarely rose to cheering, except at those obvious points of style or moral profession which when intentional are called claptrap. The more definitive propositions came before the English legislators in a repulsive form : a claim to acknowledge an Established Church as independent of Law Courts, even the highest, could scarcely have the concurrence of a people as jealous as any of ecclesiastical dominion—of being priest-ridden, and more swayed than any by ha-
bitual deference for THE LAW; and the demand to abolish patronage
was positively offensive to an assemblage of patrons and their friends and connexions. It scarcely needed the arguments, therefore, with which the claim was rebuffed on all sides, to bring the House to an adverse conclusion : the majority_ of 135 represents not more the conviction of the English Commons than their feelings national and social. The discussion and its result may serve the good end of extinguishing groundless hopes ; it may at length convince many respectable persons how profitless is the fierce agitation that has been kept up ; and they may be reminded that fields of other and better pastoral usefulness remain to them.
Mr. HUTT'S bill to facilitate the naturalization of foreigners was sneered out, at the second reading, by Sir JAMES GRAHAM. No
country owes more to foreigners than England : our arts and greatest manufactures are foreign importations ; our learning is foreign ; our dynasty is foreign ; the great majority of British sub- jects are foreign; our luxuries are mostly foreign ; Englishmen claim the hospitality of every foreign people under the sun, who have any thing worth seeing, or sometimes even those who have not :
yet no people, except the Celestials whom we laugh at and their cousins of Japan, are more jealous of foreigners. Sir JAMES GRAHAM, almost avowedly, aped the antiquated vulgar prejudice against all " Mounseers"; and so Mr. Hurr's bill is shelved.
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