NEWS OF THE WEEK.
TN less than a fortnight a new Parliament will have been returned. The Government decided on a much earlier election than anyone had anticipated and inci- dentally sacrificed what they always used to allege was a great advantage to Labour—a Saturday election. For- merly, when any other day than a Saturday was pro- posed, Labour was up in arms. The one day on which the manual workers could be certain of having time to vote was being filched away ! -This time, when Labour was in a position to name the day itself, the Government seemed for some unexplained reason to have forgotten all about the advantage for which it used to fight with so much spirit. After the defeat of the Government, which we recorded last week, events, apart from the choice of day for the elections, went according to expectation. On Thursday, October 9th, the Prime Minister visited the King and advised a dissolution—advice which was at once accepted. On the same day the House of Lords passed the Irish Bill through its remaining stages. At six o'clock Parliament was prorogued, and at seven o'clock the dissolution proclamation was signed at a meeting of the Privy Council.
