NEWS OF THE WEEK.
PARLIAMENT is to be dissolved in October, the elections are to 1 take place in November, and the new House of Commons is to assemble on 9th December to turn the Tory Government out. That is a most satisfactory arrangement, and Mr. Ward Hunt in introducing on Thursday the Bill to facilitate registration seemed perfectly sincere in his wish to expedite matters, while the Bill itself is so good that it was heartily accepted by Mr. Gladstone. The Government have decided that they must allow the overseers till the 1st of August to complete the registration, but the revising can begin on 14th September, and if the number of revising barristers is increased one-third, the lists will be finished by let November, the writs out by the 9th November—won't there be scenes on Guy Fawkes Day !—and Parliament be convened within twenty-eight days of the elections. By this scheme full time is allowed for registration, yet the party struggle can be finished by a debate on the Address in time to allow the measures of next session to be carefully prepared. The Bill indicates honest purpose, and requires only one improvement,—an increase in the number of polling-places, so that county members may not be ruined by carriage, or borough electors trodden to death by crowds.
