NEWS OF THE WEEK.
THE measure immediately before the House of Commons is the Corn Bill. It was to have been finished in the Commons, and sent to learn its doom from the Lords on Thursday ; but on that night nothing was done; and the finale must be reserved for our Postscript. From the measure one turns to the state in which the protracted debates have left parties. The position of the Government is de- . cidedly weaker. Not that it is convicted of any wrongdoing be- fore unknown, or that it has shown less capacity for its highest vocation. But events have proved more intractable than they promised to be, parties more disorganized, and the effort to guide them more difficult and thankless. The Whigs have not shone : they have aided the Minister in his Free-trade measures formally; but opportunities for disparagement have not been lost; and the greatest ostentation of .magnanimous help has evidently been given with an eye to the main chance. The most prominent party, for its novelty, its activity, and its unexpected ambition, has 'been the "Country party," ridden by Lord George Beatinck. It has developed a degree of latent energy; has aspired even to be statistical and argumentative ; and has avowedly not shrunk from the responsibilities of office. Its leader has shown boldness, zeal, a certain steadiness of purpose, and sufficient Parliamentary skill to make people ask where he picked it up, and to remember that he was once in a subordinate office. More cannot be said : such efficiency as he and his party have displayed has consisted in obstruction—the lowest of all abilities. Anything positive or constructive has been wanting ; not a glimpse has peeped out of anything resembling a policy. To the haat the party haa eeaally frittered its numbers and its activity on triflings. No one ex- pected a division on Tuesday--Lord George himself was set down for a speech Which was to settle some iMportant points; but "the Country party" seemed to have n fortuitous and momentary ad- vantage in comparative numbers ; dud, for the sake of one pas- sing triuniph in voting, the leader could not resist the tempta- tion of raising the cry to "Divide." The cry was disregarded : the House was thin, and his coadjutor Sir John Tyrell moved that it be counted.. Even that petty ruse failed. • The Coun- try party" protract the debate—weary members and drive them away—and then try to enforce the privilege of ;topping business in a thin House ; not merely resorting to unworthy artifices, but doing it only to fail. Lord George has suffered himself to be entangled in some other "interest," which he mistook for a useful alliance. We suspect that Mr. Isaac Buchanan, the soi-disant Laocoon of Canada, who denounces free trade as that which is to separate the Colonies from England, is successor in Lord George's political friendship _to Mr. Smith O'Brien. The noble Protectionist came forth on Thursday: with a speech that looked much like the fruit of "cramming." He had a world of quotations from speeches, documents, and newspapers; the gist of all being, that free trade would send the whole carrying business of North America through New York instead, of the St. Lawrence ; that the colonists, Governor and all, are opposed to the change ; that the official party were already in a minority on the question in the local Parliament ; and that the colonists already talked of separation from England and "annexation" to the United States. To prove .these facts, he moved for papers. Mr. Roebuck seconded the motion, and demolished the speech. He showed that Lord George founded all he said on most fragmentary and imperfect advices ; that the minority was a mere affair of local party politics ; that the brawlers about " annexation." are a small section of traders who think their lucre at stake, and who once belonged to the live' party; that the cartying business will still pass through -the Cheaper route of the St. wartime ; and in short, that Lord
George's vaticination was all a dream. Sir George Clerk added a fact from the newspapers—that the local Parliament have already passed an act repealing the three-shilling frontier duty on wheat from the United States; a preliminary step constituting active cooperation with the Free-trade measures of the Govern- ment at home. A more thorough confusion of ideas than Lord George's whole position cannot be conceived. But it befits the leader of the "Country party."
The "Short-time" question has again taken its turn in debate, to little purpose except to display the reigning disorganization. Again the House was thin : those who felt an interest in the bill which Lord Ashley bequeathed to Mr rielden mustered in strength; they thought that they descried in the House a chance majority, and they called for a division. Counter devices were resorted to in order to prevent a conclusion so inopportune : Mr. Cardwell consented to eke out his arguments by the clock ; Libe- ral Members helped to throw over a division ; and ultimately the discussion was broken short by the standing order to adjourn at six o'clock on Wednesdays. The measure itself was indeed "dis- cussed," but lamely. Its supporters and opponents—moralists
and political economists—still refuse to meet on any common ground, where alone their differences can be settled. The politi-
cal party stick to their old text, that a restriction on labour is bad in economy. The others say that shorter time produces as much work or more, and appeal to past experiments. The results of those experiments do not in truth appear to be uniform or conclu- sive. The advocates of " short time" prove too much : it would almost follow from their premises, that the greatest amount of
work would be- done by working no time at all. On the Other
hand, the economists fail to grapple with the argument, that, whatever the effect may' be on the wealth of the country, the welfare and happiness ot the people would be promoted by short time." Wealth and welfare are not synonymous. The dispu- tants do not make the two sides of the controversy meet; they can therefore arrive at no practical conclusion ; awl thus they are driven to the mechanical expedient of finishing their work of war by a standing order tondjorn ; which they do amid a con- fusion of tongues equal to the confusion of arguments. Apropos to the business of theBouse, Mr. Gisborne has brought forward a new illustration of the impracticable accumulation of duties forced upon Members by the private business of Parlia-
ment. On Wednesday, he desired to be present at the Short-time debate ; but he was obliged to attend on a Railway Committee;
and of course he could not be in both plaaes at once. Mr. Gis- borne is too useful a man to be readily spared from taking his full share of Coin mitteebusiness but so also he istoo able a Member to be excluded from the Bouse during an important debate. This clashing Of incompatible duties will increase until it become intolerable.
The Lords have been occupied with Lord Lyndhurst's Religious Opinions Relief Bill, and with some points raised thereupon by the Bishop of Exeter. The bill repeals provisions in certain sta- tutes which the Bishop seems to have considered the sole up- holders of the Queen's supremacy in this country ; and he pro-
posed to submit a set of questions to the Judges, insidiously framed so as to elicit, in reply, a judicial declaration that the bill would abolish all the safeguards against the Pope and Popery. He was answered by all the Law Lords; who declared that the Sovereign's supremacy is amply guarded by the common law. The questions, therefore, were a puerile supererogation ; and Dr. Philpotts withdrew them.
