NEWS OF THE WEEK.
pARLIAMENT is hurrying through business at racing- speed. All the Estimates have been passed practically un- challenged, even thehish Estimates being voted in a singlenigb t. The Irish Education Bill has been carried, after the Govern- ment had made some concession the operation of which, we con- fess, we do not exactly understand, but which so modifies the conscience clause that the "Christian Brothers" share in the benefit of the Bill, the object for which Mr. Sexton has been -fighting all along with pumped-up denunciations and genuine threats of obstruction. The Appropriation Bill was brought ap on Thursday, and Mr. Balfour stated on Monday that the Prorogation was unlikely to take place before June 25th, or after Tuesday, the 28th inst. It is understood, in fact, that the Dissolution will take place on June 28th, that the first elections will be held on July 4th, and that by July 15th at latest, the contest will be over. The Election will probably be the hottest that this generation has seen, and it is to be laoted that, contrary to general expectation, the Unionists of all kinds are entering on it full of spirit and energy. It is believed that Mr. Gladstone's manifesto will be out imme- diately after the Dissolution, and there is a rumour that it will contain a tolerably explicit declaration as to the character of his Bill, so as to deprive the Lords of the argument that the country voted in ignorance.
