fairly considered ; it would have been a mockery to
ask concur- rence
only alternative lay between a simple adjournment of the House to repeal the Act passed last session empowering the Government instead of a prorogation, or the withdrawal of the bill. In to raise and maintain 30,000 local European troops in India. favour of any measure backed out of doors, we should have con- We have elsewhere plainly expressed our opinion of this measure. tended for adjournment ; we must admit that, with the actual The speech of Sir Charles Wood was a good ex-parte statement
measure, Ministers have taken the better course, of the imperialist side of the case, but he might have abstained
It would be idle to pretend that their position is uninjured by from quoting Sir John Lawrence and Sir James Outram, as if this retractation. They derive no advantage from the patronizing they were opposed to a local army, because he must be pain- approbation which Mr. Disraeli vouchsafed ; for on Monday even- fully aware that the two best minutes in favour of the Local ing, Lord John Russell had a testimonial from the Right Hon- Europeans, two state papers that are unanswerable, were written ourable gentlemen, who advanced as the late leader of the House, by those distinguished Indian officers. Practically the abolition to give his generous evidence in favour of Lord John Russell's of the local army is a measure involving the taxation of India for habitual good conduct with reference to the bill and to other Imperial purposes. It is a negation of the principle that India transactions comprised in the noble lord's biography. Although, is a dependency demanding a separate service, and not a colony as usual, taking too bookish a view of a practical subject, Mr. like Canada or the Cape of Good Hope. At bottom the design is Disraeli spoke sound truth when he said that it would have been to augment the royal army and have more troops available for physically and morally impossible to carry the bill this session ; general service without saying so. In only a subsidiary sense is and we give him all credit for his sincerity in acknowledging the this an imperial question, and it is an injustice to the people of foolishness of imputations which are so freely scattered in Par- India to make them pay for imperial troops. The proposed staff liamentary debate. But there was a little maladroit skill in his is another instrument for throwing the " good things " of India attempt to make it appear that the bill failed through no opposi- open to the officers of the royal army. It is a clumsy contri- tion to reform from the Conservative party, but through its in- vance and a poor substitute for the peculiar Indian training of sufficiency ; as if the Tories would have advocated the more the old Indian school. Now we feel the loss India and the em- popular views of the majority out of doors ! The fact is, that pire sustained when John Jacob breathed his last. The new both parties in the state suffer more than they know from the legislation is in the teeth of all the sound principles he laid down serious discredit for which they have competed in the eyes of the for the successful government of India. The Minister did not country. Mr. Osborne told them the truth, in so many words : obtain leave to bring in his bill on Tuesday, and the debate on the five times have they advised the Sovereign to promise legislation motion was adjourned. on the subject of Reform ; five times have they thus united in Some progress has been made with the Edinburgh Annuity- admitting what it is their duty to do ; and five times have they tax Bill, the Union of Benefices Bill, and the Miners Regulation made that declaration in the Sovereign's mouth a mockery. It and Inspection Bill, all measures of minor but still considerable is no exaggeration to say that the proceedings in the House of utility. Admiral Duncombe has endeavoured in vain to obtain Commons on Monday night were but a periphrasis of the amend- a Select Committee on the organization of the Board of Admiralty.
ment which we recommended on Saturday last.* There is a rage for reconstruction and much in our system does
No real force was added to the debate by Mr. Mackinnon's sar- stand in need of repair, but at this late period a Committee could castle praise of Lord John Russell for " settling the question ; " do little good, and does not seem to be particularly called for at by Mr. Edwin James's Radical effusion; Mr. Darby Griffiths's this moment. We have a good Board, intent on looking up thesis on Conservative Reform ; or by other debating society ora- abuses, and it will be far better for the Admiralty to reform it- tions. Whatever men may say in the House of Commons, they self, urged on to do so by public opinion. have proved by this result what they cannot do. The discussion on racing and race-horses in the House of Lords If any one remained master of the situation, it was Mr. Bright ; is an agreeable novelty. Although an air of levity is imparted whose speech retrospectively is one of the best that has been de- to the subject it has its serious side. The system of forcing in- livered upon the whole subject. He admitted that the business fart horses into racing competition must have a bad effect upon • Spectator, June 9,—" The House of Commons and the Reform Bills, p. 544. the breed. It is as contrary to common sense as the system of Naws or TRIZ WEEK— The Road to Ruin of reform could not be got through this session ; " the House of Proceedings in Parliament 558 Who Shall be the Paymaster 570 Commons not being the best place in the world for getting 571 through business, especially if that business be of a nature Metropolis 562 The Royal Institution 572 which nearly half the House does not like." But the negative Provincial 563 BOORS—franchise-extension is " a reflection upon all that part Ofthe Ireland 563 Leslie, R.A. 572 population which lives in houses of a value under 101." We have Misc 574 it from the mouth of Lord John Russell in this debate, that 574 ever since 1831 he was struck by Mr. Hume's reproach, that LETTER TO THE EDITOR— Publications Received. 575 even the Reform Bill only gave the franchise to one Englishman 576 in seven. The next bill must be of a different class from those Births, Marriages, and Deaths 576 which have found favour and authorship amongst the exclusive The British Institution. 576 class of statesmen ; and Right Honourable pam, l -who ospire tt Yeast 568 Advertisements .would do well to consider
whether the next bill Tviiich is to be proposed should not put us
NEWS OF TEE WEEK, on the right road to a complete restoration of our representative
— spitem according to the ancient spirit of the constitution, by
