12 MAY 1849, Page 1

Mr. Henry Drummond has a knack of putting an indisputable

proposition so as to make its acceptance impossible. His proposi- tion that the whole taxation system ought to be revised, is indis- Isatable; but when he declares that oppressive taxation has beht the e••,.: cause of systematic and successful xevolutions, he,ehnoses to ignore alt history except that of monernswsInssen when he akes the improvement of prison discipline and the Peliny Post- age subjects of his facetious jeremiades, he deters all.seasonable men from accepting his invitation to set out on a journey for re- form ; when he announces that be wishes to go into Committee with certain views of assimilating all taxes to the Assessed Taxes, and gradually redeeming the National Debt by a Property-tax and equalized Land-tax, he effectually prevents anybody from wishing to go into Committee at all. He has a gibe for every man and his favoured doctrine; so that people would as soon combine with him as they would conspire with the King's jester. Sir Charles Wood's grave reply reads like a bad joke. Mr. Mil- ner Gibson more adroitly got rid of the honourable elf, whom it is not safe to follow nor wise to offend, by means of " the pre- vious question."

The debate on the Parliamentary Oaths Bill was distinguished by two opposite incidents—the speech which Mr. Frederick Peel spoke, and the speech which Mr. Disraeli did not speak. Mr. Peel's maiden speech was masa the most promising ever delivered in Parliament. It took a comprehensive, judicious, and practical view of the subject; it was singularly like his father's speeches in manner, and like them also in distinctness of purpose and in solidity. Mr. Disraeli's silence is understood to indicate that he has abandoned the cause of the Hebrew-Caucasians; a wide in- ference to put upon such purely negative evidence. The mysterious accounts of the Eastern Counties Railway have been made the subject of brief notice in Parliament, and Mr. Charteris has obtained a Select Committee to inquire into so much of the affair as has been supposed to compromise Members of the Commons. The sudden death of Mr. Hudson's brother-in- law has imparted a gloomy character to these embarrassing affairs ; and such a reception as that given to Mr. Waddington, a Member of the House, by the shareholders of the Eastern Counties Railway, is a spectacle scarcely less mournful. It is implied by Sir Robert Inglis that Mr. Hudson will offer some justificatory explanation in Parliament.

The Lords have begun to set their House in order, at least so far as the accommodation of newspaper-reporters is concerned : to be unreported, or misreported, is more than they can endure ; and they have adopted Lord Beaumont's motion to refer the matter to a Select Committee.