POSTSCRIPT TO THE WEEK'S NEWS.
SPECTATOR OrIFICE, SATURDAY.
In some of the lists which were exhibited yesterday afternoon, there was an apparent majority of 17 Lay Lords and 18 Spiritual Lords against the second reading of the Reform Bill ; in others the majority of Lay Lords was reduced to 2. A compromise is likely to take place among the Bishops. They will, it is said, on the recommenda- tion of the Archbishop of YORK, leave the Temporal Peers to settle Reform as they see fit. If the Bishops imagine that by this neutrality they will rise in the estimation of the Reformers, we must respect- fully warn them of their error. " Those who are not for us are against us." The gratitude of the people of England is not to be purchased by doing nothing. If the Bishops decline interfering in this secular dispute, their vo.e on all other secular affairs may be dispensed with. While we thus mention the calculations of the Anti. Reformers, we do not mean that our readers mein to receive them, except with allowances, as coming from the enemy. The fact is, that the sentiments of all the Peers, even at the moment that we are writing are not known to either Ministers or their opponents ; nor will they until the division declare them. Their Lordships will, we trust, keep their minds open to honest conviction up to the moment of giving their votes ; and we also trust, that before that hour, many who are now undecided will be confirmed in favour of Reform, and many who have decided hastily will revise their judgments.
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