Reports as to the meeting of Parliament again defer the
date to the 4th of November ; and the reports of Ministerial pro- ceedings render the probable intentions only more obscure. Late ha week, it was announced in some of the London papers that Lord DerbrItiluselfhadheeirmaking a speech in the Town-hall at Liverpool, and curiosity was on tiptoe to hear more about it this week; but the speech has been suppressed. The usage of the Town- hall has been pleaded for that peculiar stifling of the Ministerial voice ; but surely we are not mistaken in a recollection that Lord Stanley has spoken at Liverpool and has been reported ? Does Liverpool Corporation draw the line at Earls?
The speaking ad interim is left to the subordinates and free lances of the party. Mr. Miles explicitly avows, at Wells, that the question of the Corn-laws is "settled for ever" ; and Major Beresford, the Secretary at War, addressing the country from Castle Hedingham, supplies the substantial reason for Mr. Miles's opinion. The Major acted as Whipper-in for the Tory party ; he is fandliaz with the statistics of the Commons; and, looking over the lists of the Members of the present House, he says that there is "a derided majority inimical to the feeling and the measure of Protection to agriculture." That question, then, is settled, on the highest authority ; but what next ? Major Beresford denies that the Government was a Protectionist Government at all,—as little so, we suppose, as that Louis Napoleon, author of " Idees Napo- leoniennes," was ever "an ideologue.". No, the. Ministry has a totally different function, very like the function of Louis Napo- leon's Government—" to save Society." What society wants to be saved from is not so clear, ndr how the salvage is to be effected. Major Beresford almost hints at a repeal of Peel's Currency Bill of 1819; which would be, as it were, taking Free-trade in the rear. However, it is incredible that Mr. Disraeli should have left finance to the Secretary at War. Some other scheme for saving society mutt be in petto ; but of course the Derby 2d December will be a
Will Lord Sohn Russell prove to be a Cavaignac P he Revenue returns are more remarkable for the reception. that has been given to them than for their own disclosures. There is a decrease . on the year of 437,0001., with an increase on the quarter of 29,000/. The decrease, however, is far less in amount than the reductions of taxation which have recently come in force, after progressive reductions for many years; so that the returns continue to attest, as they have done steadily, both the success of Free-trade and the prosperity of the numerous consumers— which- is that of the country. Even the Protectionist journals do not deny these conclusions. Protection Confesses itself beaten all round.
Oxford University had already surrendered her virtue: she only appears in history this week by the fulfilment of a form and by a protest from the Senior Proctor, likely enough to win him the settled spite of the powers that be. Ireland is represented in the news of the week by a character- istic medley. While Cork Union is preparing to add a model-farm to its reproductive employments; the -Union of Ballyvaughan is petitioning not to be forced to repay its quota of the Distressed "Union advances, and to be allowed a larger apse of emigration at the public expense. It is true that the Irish have had a compara- tively small share of free emigration, but thtit the emigrants have furnished immense SUMO for their relatives. But the petition to the Lords of the Truantry strangely companions the threat of a Galway paper, that the Irish can cast granite front steam-engines at Englith enemies ; or the virulent reply of Mr. Lucas to Sir Culling Eardley, telling what Mr. Lucas would do to extirpate Protestant missionaries if he had the power. Mr. Lucas being a member of the new" Religious Equality Association," Sir Culling invited his sanction and signature for a petition to the Grand Duke of Tuscany on behalf of the Madiais, imprisoned for reading the Bible : but Mr. Lucas draws a distinction between toleration for the struggles of a " true " faith amidst unbelievers, and the attempt to intrude upon a faithful population a "gan- grene "like Protestantism. Meanwhile, the preparations for the Exhibition of 1853 proceed in flourishing style ; Queen Victoria being expected graciously to supply many things exhibited in the Crystal Palace of Hyde Park. Should any be sent, might not Irish logic establish a claim to keep them, like the advances ? At pre- sent, however, all is prospective gratitude ; that emotion in Ireland most accurately fitting the sarcastic definition, that political grati- tude is "a lively sense of future benefits."
