NEWS OF THE WEEK.
pARLIAMENT adjourned on Tuesday to January 22nd, a long holiday, which has been granted owing to the great progress of business rendered possible by the paralysis which has fallen on the Irishmen. Everything of importance has been advanced to the Committee stage, except the Bill delegating legislation on Scotch Private Bills to a tribunal. A great deal more could have been accomplished, but that Mr. V. H. Smith had bound himself and the Government not to advance the great Bills any further during the winter division of the Session. When the House meets again, Mr. Healy intends to fight Mr. Balfour's Bill creating a new Land Department tooth and nail; and, indeed, he tried to do it on Monday, when he denounced the Bill as the bad measure of a bad Administration, and took a division. The Parnellites and Anti-Parnellites both voted with him, but he was outvoted by 191 to 129. It is understood that next Session obstruction will be rampant, but a Session rarely sees prophecies fulfilled. The winter sittings were to have been filled by a furious debate on the Address, but the Address was voted on the first night, and the subsequent sittings were occupied with work. Many things happen, but history seems to prove that Ireland will not defeat England, nor even worry her into a grave. Note that Mr. Healy aspires to lead the Irish Rump, and that the joke of a writer in the St. Tames's Gazette, who suggests "Healots" as the name for the new group, covers an evident truth. Poor Mr. Justin McCarthy is much too civilised for his nominal post.
