11 SEPTEMBER 1841, Page 1

NEWS Or THE WEEK.

THE change in the relative position of the two great parties in the state proceeds regularly and quietly. One of the first outward signs of its consummation occurred when the two Houses of Par- liament assembled, after their short adjournment, on Monday ; and the Liberal Members, after ten years' occupation of the Ministerial side, were seen on the Opposition and the Tories on the Ministerial

'seats. A few Members in each House forgot the change which had taken place, and hardly knew on which side to sit ; apt types of ether honourable and right honourable persons, who will hardly . know on which side to vote when it comes to that. The altered

array was most apparent in the House of Lords ; where several of the new Ministers took their places, and several of the late Minis- ters assumed the foremost seats of the Opposition. Two little points are to be remarked—the Duke of WELLINGTON appeared as the acting Minister in the House, although he holds no department- office ; and Lord MELBOURNE seemed to vacate the leadership of his party, if he can be said ever to have held it—he did not sit in the seat usually taken by the chief of the Opposition. In the House of Commons, the new order of things was not so strongly marked ; for the principal Ministers were absent, awaiting the new appeal to their constituents which the acceptance of office 'renders necessary ; and only two of the Members of the late Ministry cared to be present—Lord PALMERSTON and Mr. MAC- AULAY. Mr. WAELEY'S superiority to party influence made him refuse to change his seat though the Whigs had changed theirs ; and so the immoveable man was seen complacently reposing in the midst of the Tories.

Neither party has yet had any opportunity of exhibiting its tactics. In the absence of the chiefs of the Ministerial forces, both sides rest on their arms ; amusing themselves with any passing jokes in common, such as the blundering of Members who sit down on the wrong side, or with little skirmishes, or, more substantially, with leisurely dinners, which the slackness of work makes possible. The new writs, which are to bring back Sir ROBERT PEEL and his col- leagues of the Lower House, were issued on Wednesday. When Sir ROBERT returns he is formally to deliver the programme of his future proceedings : until then all is suspense and inaction ; the -wisdom of the measures which the new Government has in petto must till then be taken upon trust ; the skill and energy of the new Opposition must remain a matter of faith or hope. One exception to this inactivity in opposition was a little note of preparation sounded by Mr. Rommel( : on Monday he gave notice of a motion on an early day to abolish the Poor-law Commission and transfer the powers of the Commissioners to the Secretary of State. If he bad unexpectedly thrown a hand-grenade among the Tories, Mr. ROEBUCK could scarcely have occasioned more consternation; not the less because the object of the motion is not very clearly perceived. " What can he mean?" that is the ques- tion which alarms and puzzles the friends of the Ministry; who are unable to guess whether it will be proper to oppose or affirm the motion—whether it will admit or not of evasion or frustration— whether it will compel Anti-Poor-law and Pro-Poor-law Minis- terialists to vindicate or abandon their opinions, so useful in oppo- sition, so embarrassing in office. Could any of those points be known—could the partisans prepare for-the worst, whatever it may be—they would be comparatively content: but this shocking motion is inexplicable—it is so suspiciously harmless and " constitutional" in its aspect. The opportunity of deposing "the three Kings of Somerset House" is not seized by the illustrious leaders of the Anti- Poor-law party with any satisfaction. The Times already shows a little of the embarrassment to which it may be put; for, in its zeal, it attacks the new Home Secretary as the successor to the Commis- sioners, in full anticipation of the enormities which he is to commit vice " the three Kings." Stung with vexation at the prospective inconveniences of writing Anti-Poor-law articles at Sir JAMES GRAHAM, the Times has vented its irritation on the cause of its trouble, Mr. ROEBUCK; and, like all angry people, the writer loses his discretion and becomes vulgar ; descending to such terms of abuse as to rank Mr. ROEBUCK with the " humbler classes," and

to designate him as a member of the "one-shilling gallery" section of the House. It is a strange affair altogether ; and not the least

curious part of the business is that Mr. ROEBUCK himself has got

into a scrape about it : the hysterical violence of the journalist in- fected the legislator with the like weakness ; and on Wednesday he

was betrayed, partly by his own mismanagement, partly by the provoking sarcasms of Sir ROBERT INGLis and Sir GEORGE CLERK, the indirect advocates of the Times, into making one of those silly breach-of-privilege exhibitions which usually render the House of Commons ridiculous. Not content with that, Mr. ROEBUCK recom- mended others—more sensitive than himself, he said !—to horse- whip a putative proprietor of the Times, if they were attacked. The Times rejoined on Thursday with an uneasy attempt at fun, laughing at Mr. ROEBUCK'S appearance as the "Angry Boy,"—but not very happily, for the Poor-law is too awkward a subject for joking. And so, it is to be hoped, that lamentable display is over. Mr. ROEBUCK'S ominous notice, however, remains on the paper.

During its brief sitting, Parliament has not altogether neglected practical business. The bill for improving the administration of justice in the Equity Courts, by appointing two Judges to assist in reducing the arrears of Chancery business, has passed the House of Lords, and is proceeding in the House of Commons ; where it gave occasion to a useful hint for Ministers, from Mr. CHARLES BULLER, to do what their predecessors had left undone, in separat- ing the judicial and political functions of the Lord Chancellor, so as to prevent the mischievous absurdity of removing the best man for the Chancellorship from the seat of justice because party ar- rangements require a Tory to be Speaker of the House of Lords. Much was said to justify the reelection of the Whig Speaker in the other House ; but a change in that office would have been of little moment, while the greatest injury is inflicted on a large class in the community by the removal of Lord COTTENHAM. How silly it would seem to dismiss Lord DENMAN because Mr. SHAW LEFEVER bad not been reelected!—and if it be said that the cases are not parallel, because Lord DENMAN and Mr. LEFEVRE are not one per- son, it only shows more strongly the folly and inconvenience, to pass by other considerations, of combining offices like those of the Chief Justice and the Speaker in one person. Here is some good straightforward work for the Conservative Cabinet. Mr. 111xLsms, instigated apparently by some remarks in a Whig paper, the Morn- ing Chronicle, and by th% commentary of Lord BROUGHAM, on a late case of legal oppression, has promised more work in which the " Conservative Reformers" may cooperate—a bill to abolish the fines for non-attendance at church ; a vexatious penalty, almost in desuetude, which some silly or malicious person has revived lately.

Having gone through these weighty matters, Ministerial formali- ties, newspaper skirmishes, and fragmentary reforms or promises of reform, Parliament adjourned on Wednesday, the House of Corn- mons for eight days, the House of Lords for twelve.