NEWS OF THE WEEK.
Tan proceedings in Parliament have been not uninteresting, and have been diversified by some novelties. The first of those is Sir ROBERT PEEL'S bill for the better protection of the Queen's person. The announcement of the measure excited some curiosity to know- how its object would be attained : what new fences were to guaui the Royal person ; what new obstacles to forbid ap- proach; what new penalties to deter? The scope of the enactment is, first, to promote the more summary adjudication on minor offences against the Queen and the public peace as connected with her ; secondly, to provide for subjecting'criminals convicted of of- fences of the kind to.whipping as a preliminary to transportation. The efficient punishment resolves itself into a whipping; for the very addition of that penalty to the 'larger one of transportation is a practical admission of the objections to the remoteness and ob- acurity of punishment in exile. Whipping may be very fit casti- gation for bad boys, like BEAN; but iii a punishment inflicted for petty larceny adequate to the crime of which Faunas was con- victed—shooting at the Queen with a deadly Weapon Ind -with intent to wound ? Obviously not ; unless the whipping is to amount to a military flogging ; and then the question remains, will the public endure to see an extension of military floggings, or if they will, is it advisable to extend the punishment of torture ? These questions do nct seem to be resolved by the framers of Sir ROBERT PEEL'S bill. But it will probably help to keep naughty boys in awe. The subject was practically illustrated a few weeks ago, in the case of a young vagabond, who, expecting to be transported for some offence, bearded Judge and Jury ; but hearing his sen- tence to be well flogged, the urchin began blubbering and was completely cowed. Debates have been continued, under one form or another, on the state of the country. Lord BROUGHAM moved the House of Lords to grant a Committee of inquiry, his avowed object being to pro- cure the repeal of the Corn-law. Mr. VILLIERS moved for a similar Committee in the House of Commons, as an amendment on the Supply. Lord Howick discussed by anticipation a motion which he has withdrawn, for admitting corn at a low fixed duty for a limited time. All these movements, of course, were ex- pected to be fruitless for any immediate purpose. It was not to be expected that Parliament, after spending five months on a set of measures intended as a compromise for the present, should pass the short remainder of the session in hastily pulling down what it had laboriously built up.- It was not to be supposed that Sir Ro- BERT PEEL would retract from the new law which he had just passed : he could not do 'so and keep his place; he could hardly do so and keep his character .for common sense. In February, he introduced a measure as the best of which the circumstances admitted : nothing has occurred in the interval to make him think otherwise in July. It is plain from his expressions that he remains unconvinced that the Corn-law is the leading cause of the general distress ; and for him to yield, short of conviction, to mere impor- tunity, threat, and vague alarm, would stamp him incapable of his Premiership. Nor has the new law been tried. So far as it has gone, indeed, nothing has occurred to alter our opinion, expressed at the first explanation of the project—that it would not remove the double inducement of higher price with lower duty for holding back from the market—that it would not cheapen food, make the corn- trade regular, extend commerce, or settle the question. But we do not appeal to experience in proof of that opinion; for, setting aside the mere shortness of the interval since the passing of the law, of itself sufficient to invalidate any final judgment, there has been the novelty of its practical working, the stimulated activity of jobbers, and the political excitement. It is due, therefore, to the determination of Parliament, and to the really untried merits of the new law, suspected as it may be, to wait before it be condemned. It was a reproach against the Tariff that it too would be resultless it has already had some very considerable effects—it has caused a sudden stoppage and stagnation in the import-trade, and as
sadden a reaction ; and how it will settle down into practical working the wisest cannot tell. A lesson that against prejudging the influence of any change, however trifling it may seem.
The upshot of all the debating is to leave the Corn question ia a curious position. The exigencies of the time, political and eco-
nomical, rather than the importunities of Members, have caused
an advance in one or two quarters. Lord Jona Rtissm..D—Mein- ber now for London instead of Huntingdonshire or Devonshire, and
leader of the Opposition instead of the Treasury-benches—fol-
lowed up Sir ROBERT PEEL'S disclaimer of Corn-law Finality, and Mr. COBDEN'S reproach to himself for numerous votes against his own followers, by voting with Mr. VILLIERS. It is no vast triumph to have effected so far the tactical conversion of a very convertible person ; but one obstacle to a further change has been removed.
Sir ROBERT PEEL himself is all but confessedly uncertain that his
measure is satisfactory : he is not convinced that the Corn-law ought to be repealed, but he seems to be aware that there is
still something, wrong ; and when he is justified by experience
and a brief lapse of time, he will "revise" all his measures. Sir ROBERT seems already to say, I am the Minister for the next practical movement, as I have been for this. The language held in Parliament for some weeks past, and especially this week, indicates that the vindicators of the existing law, though they are not positively convinced, yet mistrust the worth and in- fluence of their own arguments. A very sweepiog change of the Corn-laws appears to be leas unlikely, than ever. On the other hand, the most recent discussions throw more doubt than ever on the absolute advantage of such a measure. Sir Ro- BERT PEEL'S last speech on the subject goes clearly to convict the "factory system" of leading to the distress : large towns are arti- ficially instituted ; improvements in machinery, say the Poor-law officers and manufacturers quoted by Sir Roamer, throw persons out of employment and derange the market ; and Mr. COBDEN himself now limits his denial of that effect to periods of " prospe- rity " : vaat numbers of workpeople gathered together, their indus- trious propensity monstrously stimulated, and multiplied powers of machinery, cause "over-production "—that is, a production which has outstripped consumption : the Corn-law Repeaters assert—and the assertion is a very serious admission—that, from whatever cause, the manufacturing-trade is in such a state, that the one and only condition to its welfare and existence is the repeal of the Corn-laws ; that is, they have exhausted all the exchangeable com- modities of the world except corn! Hitherto the repeal of the Corn-laws has checked, and, it may be acknowledged, mischievously checked, the progress of the manufacturing system : that check removed, the system will again proceed with renewed impulse and accelerated speed. In spite of checks, its progress has been such, that a manufacturer asserts that he alone, by his one mill, could produce twenty miles of cotton a day. Why, at that rate, the ma- nufacturers of Lancashire and Cheshire could soon clothe " the great globe itself" in cotton shirting. Are they prepared to say that corn can be grown to exchange for their wares, in any proportionate rate of rapidity ? or that even cotton could be grown to feed the- monster-engine Or where will their own circumspection induce them to stop, short of over-production ; having, be it remembered, no second repeal of the Corn-law to look to for relief? The vista beyond that measure is troublous and uncertain. In sooth, there are other things to think about, if that time is to be rendered safe.. Tocome back to the present, and to one of its most transitory characteristics—the Anti-Poor-law agitators have cut a very shabby figure. Impeding the progress of the Tory supplement to the Whig Poor-law, they have landed in this result : the part of the bill continuing the Commission for five years is affirmed ; but the remainder of the measure, which goes to mitigate the rigours of which they complain, will probably be thrown over till next session, for want of time. The main point of attack was the part which abrogated certain local acts—acts which concern a very small por- tion of the people : but, in their conservative desire to maintain those little parish-privileges and to bother the Government—for that indeed looks like their paramount object—they have postponed. for a winter the relaxation of a severity which they affect to de-. plore. They have not cut off their own noses to spite their faces, bet they have cut off their clients' noses to spite their opponents.
Another Whig measure has been seized by the Tory Ministry-- national education. Lord WHARNCLIFFE and Sir ROBERT Pama have taken in hand Mr. HULLAH and the elementary classes at Exeter Hall; and have at length discovered that 30,000/. a year is too small a sum for a great nation to spend on popular education. The Whigs found that out some time ago ; but their successors are going to do something on the discovery. This is another instance of the advance of Liberal opinions, to which in so many cases the
leaders of the Conservative party are committed: it is an instance, too, of the public advantage gained from the change is places among parties in the House. The leading Whig organ is enraged—not gratified—at the move ; and it predicts that Sir ROBERT PEEL will be driven from office by the disgust of the country ! The country will only consider, that the Conservative Premier gives more for education than the Whigs did ; and that tile Whigs now approve of what they did 'not do. Mr. Husis's motion for admitting the people to public exhibitions on Sundays, gave the Conservative Ministers an opportunity of coming out still more strongly as the promoters of popular testhetics. The Tamworth lecturer has not forgotten his vocation.
The Mines and Collieries Bill has suffered a shake in its passage through the House of Lords, and has been dismembered of some important provisions. The operation of the measure as to the ex- clusion of women from the mines is postponed till March ; the re- gulation of the time of boys' work is given up ; and apprenticeships under ground, beyond the reach of inspection, are not to be prohi- bited, but are limited to eight years. There has been some com- promise in the interval between the departure of the bill from the Commons and its reappearance in the Lords. Sir JAMES GRAHAM bailed it in the Lower House with overflowing cordiality: Lord Wnearicurrs receives it in the Upper with "passive" sufferance; and the Earl of DEVON, Lord ASHLEY'S lieutenant there finds it necessary to lighten his charge by throwing part of the goods over- board to save the rest. Even the mutilated bill is opposed tooth and nail by the great coal-owner, Lord LONDONDERRY; less discreet, probably, than the gentlemen Who have covertly procured the bill to be curtailed to fit it more to their uses. The result leaves a strong suspicion attached to those who have caused the altera- tion—to those who lay such stress on the advantages of appren- ticing little boys for eight years to hard labour, and on being al- lowed to work little boys as long as they like ; and their conduct will not be suffered to enjoy the obscurity which was broken by Lord ASHLEY'S inquiry—they will be watched.
