NEWS OF THE WEEK.
THE House of Commons has had another debate on the financial state of the country. It was raised by Sir Charles Wood's pro- position for hastening the instalments of the loan ; and if the professed subject of discussion was hardly touched, it is not the only instance in which the measures of Ministers have been passed over as matters of secondary importance. Sir Charles. had last week explained his plan of discounts : he has slightly modified it, so as to allow the contractors a little more time. When he had made his explanation, the House set itself to debate aomething else,—the Bank Act of 1844, and general remedies for the finan- cial difficulties of the time. The remedies were almost as many as the speakers. Mr. Hume demanded "free trade" in banking ; Mr. Newdegate, a Birmingham paper currency ; Mr. Finch, a li. tufted paper currency ; Mr. Thomas Baring, a "discretion some- where" to relax the act of '44; Lord George Bentinck and Mr. Disraeli, something unexplained, but quite different from that act; Mr. Masterman, an assurance that Government will take advan- ces for the July dividends out of the Issue, not the Banking De- partment of the Bank ; Mr. Brown, an issue of one-pound notes. Sir Charles Wood had limited himself to making a " restoration of confidence" speech : it was reserved for the late Ministers, Sir Ro- bert Peel, Sir George Clerk, and Mr. Cardwell, to show that the act .ef 1844 was innocent of the present disasters; which are the inevit- able consequence of dearth, short cotton crops, and overtrading in vailways. We have been spending money to be sunk in railways at a rate equal to the expenditure in the last years of the great war! It is not, then, that money is deficient as compared with the property of the country, whether fixed or exchangeable; on the contrary, that it hears a high ratio to the available property is shown by the high prices, and by other obvious signs of an undi- minished circulation : it is that the exigencies which make the command of money desirable are multiplied. Money is absolutely as abundant as it has been in prosperous times : the pressure arises not from want of cash, but want of food and want of ex- portable goods. In a time of European scarcity, England feels in some degree the condition of being in straitened circumstances; and the loud impatience manifested at a little taste of that condi- tion is one proof of the habitual wealth and ease of the country. After a vast deal of talk, which elicited some useful truths of this kind from the statesmen already mentioned, the Marquis of Gran- by moved the adjournment of the debate. Sir Charles Wood succeeded in passing the resolution authorizing his plan; but everything foretokened a renewal of the discussion. Next night, however, the report was received, with no other comment than repeated laughter. The cause of the merriment does not appear in the newspaper reports; but probably it was a sense that all the talk and fuss-making were moonshine—a confession that honour- able Members knew the humbug in which they share.
In the course of the debate, Sir Robert Peel made a remark- -able admission. He almost regretted that the Issue Department had not been quite separated from the Bank of England, "and then the supposed confusion between the two would have de- ceived no one." We suspect that the " confusion " existed in some of the minds that direct the operations of the Bank ; and it is likely to do so as long as the Issue Department with its treasure remains under the same management as the quasi-private bank. The cure for such confusion, no doubt, is separation. The supply of corn in the interval before the next harvest has come under discussion. Lord Hardwicke brought forward a lu- gubrious report by "some person or persons," of which Lord Lansdowne made light. The Minister expects adequate supplies. Lord Hardwicke hinted at plans for keeping English corn out of the market—out of the hands of the wholesale dealer, who retails it at such large prices : but the notion was scouted. The mode in which it was received shows that antiquated ideas of the sort are no longer held to be within the reasonable scope of Parliamentary speaking. Even a Protectionist and a sailor ought to know that cheap commodities are always wasted, and that the way to enforce theneedful economy, now preached by Ministers and practised by the Queen, is to allow scarce corn to be dear.
The further consideration of the Irish Poor-Relief Bill in Com- mittee of the Peers has proved less detrimental to Ministers than some expected Lord Stanley, who renewed Lord George Ben- tinck's proposition, to throw the whole burden of the rates on the tenant, exempting the landlord, sustained a total defeat. He cuts a sorry figure in the affair. Whether his motive was to play into the hands of the Irish landlords and so to buy their support, or to fulfil some compact of alliance with the leader of "the Country- party " in the Commons, the vocation was beneath what Lord Stanley's pretensions once were. The false estimate of the House of Lords, which made him suppose it possible to carry an amend= ment that actually met with almost universal reprobation, shows that he is indeed wanting in some of the statesman's first qualities —a knowledge of the men around him, and the power to estimate probabilities.
Lord Stanley's allies in the House of Commons have exposed themselves still more egregiously. Sir Henry Barron had made' a motion for encouragement of Irish fisheries; Mr. Labouchere met it by assurances ; and Sir Henry politely tried to withdraw his motion. At this, Lord George Bentinck's party manifested great anger, and were betrayed into indiscreet recriminations. Mr. Disraeli avowed, that Sir Henry had privately sent to beg the support of Lord George and, his friends; Lord George next took up the scolding; and the Irish Members sustained a fire of in- vective about "flashy demonstrations," "sham motions," &c. Sir Henry retorted, that he only shrank when he saw that Lord' George and his friends were turning the motion into a party question. Why, what did the man expect ? What was the quid pro quo that he-had to offer? On xvhat ground could he claim any attention from the Bentinck-Stanley party, if not on the ground that he offered an opportunity to embarrass or defeat Mi- nisters? Surely he was not such an innocent as to suppose that' the party would take the trouble-to "make a House" at dinner- time on a point of sentiment? If he did, Mr. Disraeli's bitter complaints of that thankless duty, and Lord George's irrepressible burst of disappointment, must have undeceived him. Truly, 'the scene was edifying.
Ministers have agreed to adopt in a small degree the Duke of Wellington's plan for abolishing land-truck in Ireland : all wages earned under the Landed Property Bill are to be paid in the cur- rent coin of the realm. This introduces the "principle." Lord Morpeth has made another concession—a still more sweeping mutilation of the Health of Towns Bill : all the Me- tropolis is to be exempt ; and other portions of the measure are abandoned.
Sir Charles Napier has been obliged to abandon his bill for altering the system of enlistment for the Navy ; Mr. Ward, on
behalf of the Admiralty, promising a cognate measure—some day.' The attempt to lower the wine-duties has been defeated by the untoward state of the finances : Sir Charles Wood's reasons against it were transparently futile, and utterly unworthy of his mouth, until he talked of the inopportune time for experiments on the revenue. That objection is imperative. Dr. Bowring will renew his motion at a happier time. Lord John Manners has ineffectually pursued his attempt to abolish the Mortmain law, so far as it is enforced in the statute of 1730, which requires that the alienation of land shall be by deed executed twelve months before the death of the donor. That sta- tute was aimed against the solicitation of the moribund ; the whole spirit and feeling of the day are in support of such a law ; and therefore Lord John's enterprise is hopeless. Mr. Spooner's Seduction Bill has been thrown out on the se- cond reading, as impracticable : but the well-meaning Member has reintroduced a portion of it, and will try again. Mr. Stuart Wortley has succeeded in obtaining an address for a Commission to inquire into the law respecting the marriage of a widower with his sister-in-law. This is a good mode of obtaining- a complete investigation, apart from the heat and prejudice which cannot be excluded from a Parliamentary Committee, however select. Information on the subject has much ripened since it was last before Parliament ' • so that there are grounds for anticipating a satisfactory settlement.
