NEWS OF THE WEEK.
THE" waverers " did not waver when it came to the point,
and early on Tuesday morning the Home-rule Bill was rejected, amidst a scene of surpassing excitement, by a majority of 30. The House immediately adjourned to Thursday, when Lord Kimberley in the Peers, and Mr. Gladstone in the Commons, announced that the Queen had been advised to dissolve, and had accepted the advice. Mr. Gladstone proposed, therefore, that all contentious business should be abandoned ; that Parlia- ment should pass the Appropriation Bill, and grant a vote on account sufficient to last till October 31st; and that the dissolu- tion should then be decreed. The precise date was not fixed, but it is understood that it will be about June 25th, and that the Elections will be over by the last week in July. Sir M. Hicks- Beach moved the adjournment, in order to obtain a pledge that Parliament should meet immediately after the Elections ; and Mr. Gladstone, though disputing with some heat the relevancy of his opponent's precedents, agreed that the new Parliament ought to meet as soon as possible, in order that it should deter- mine who was to govern, and what should be the Irish policy. The leader of the Opposition was satisfied with this ; and it may be taken as understood that the new Parliament will meet in August, to approve a new Government if Mr. Gladstone is defeated, and in any case to decide roughly on the line of the Irish measures to be proposed in October.
