NEWS OF THE WEEK • T HE air is full of
rumours about the corning Session, few of which probably will prove true, the Opposition always finding, when Members assemble, that their temper differs some- what from what was expected. At present, the leading ideas are that the debate on the Address will prove of awful length ; that the Portuguese affair will be sharply criticised; that the talk about the Parnell Commission will be at once savage and interminable; that the whole condition of Ireland is to be dis- cussed, with the usual acrimony against Judges and police; that a sharp attack will be made on the Home Office in relation to some failures to prosecute; and that opposition will be pro- mised to all the principal measures to be introduced by Government,—that is, Free Education, Land-purchase in Ireland, and the transfer of the obligation to pay tithe from occupier to owner. As the Report of the Parnell Commission is not yet out, the Irish Party cannot be certain as to the material it will afford them ; and for the rest we shall see, the .oily thing certain being that the Session will be made as useless as possible. That course, however, has been tried before with- out the slightest effect, except that of compelling Unionists to believe that Radicals only desire the good of the country when the initiative of legislation is in their own hands. That is hardly a popular impression to create ; but continued obstruction will certainly in the end create it, with this result among others, that at the General Election the cry of fair- play " will be a formidable weapon in Conservative hands.
