NEWS OF THE WEEK.
TERRE have been Tory meetings and dinners, and Radical gatherings, in different parts of the country ; but what are the Whigs about ? where is the Juste-milieu? The scrupulously veracious Morning Chronicle protests that the result of the ses- sion has been a material increase of power and popularity to Ministers! The Opposition has been disappointed and lost credit ; but the nation rejoices in its Whig rulers, who occupy a splendid position. Pity it is, but very true, that the manifestation of delight and satisfaction should be confined to a Downing Street newspaper. Why do not the triumphant Whigs proclaim and prove their popularity as in the days of the Reform delusion, when they contrasted the "voice of a nation" with the "whisper of a faction?" There are assemblies of hundreds of thousands in the Midland Counties, as in 1831 and 1832; but not to main- tain Whigs against Tories. There is a widespread and powerful organisation of the masses ; but with other aim than the bolster- ing up of the MELBOURNE Cabinet. On the contrary, Ministers are uniformly condemned by the classes who terrified the Lords six years ago, as traitors to their principles and Tories in grain. But turn to Ireland. Is not O'CONNELL at work for the Whigs ? Will not the " seven millions" be a sufficient barrier against the return of Ilw Tories to power?—Alas ! when it comes to a vote, one Englishman is worth five Irishmen. 0.Coarreeee told the good folks at Cork, that under the present system of representa- tion such was the fact; and as he also tieserted that England was resolved to do injustice to Ireland, the odds are fearful against the Emerald Isle. In order to establish a jester proportion of Members—to restore to his countrymen their full rights and due influence in the Legislature, Mr. O'Cotvemee proposes that some 25 or 95 English Members shall be extinguished, and in the room thereof the Irish representation be increased to the same extent. On this point the Agitator is peculiarly positive : he says he will have it—or Repeal. Cheers followed the annuneiation of his determination at the Cork dinner ; but those iecorrigible Englishmen and sarcastic Scotchmen laugh when they ought to tremble. All the fine writing of the metropolitan daily organ of Downing Street cannot prevail upon the phlegmatic people on this site of the Irish Channel to regard the " new agita- tion" as any thing but a farce. They remember that O'Core- NELL, magniloquent in Dublin and Cork, is a very staid awl serviceable ally of the official Whigs in London ; and they wait quietly for the opening of Parliament, when the true value of these threats will be ascertained. In the mean while, the English Radicals are proceeding in the surest way to gain their own ends. They know the precise value of Irish promises and declamation. They place not the slightest reliance on aid from the professing Liberals of Ireland; but are resolved to work out their own political salvation, leaving Mr. O'CONNELL and his supporters without Municipal Reform, with a cunningly-devised Tory Tithe-bill, and the consolation to be derived from vapouring speeches about Repeal and half-a-hundred new Members for Ire- land. When it is said that the English Liberals are ungrateful, let this plain question be put—Have net they uniformly resisted the attempt to settle the Church and Corporation questions on terms which the Irish Members were willing to accept, though disgraceful and injurious? Let Mr. O'CONNELL compare his own votes with Mr. GROTE'S, Sir WILLIAM MOLESWORTH'S, Mr. LEADER'S, ay, or even Mr. WARD'S, and then say, who have really maintained the cause of "justice to Ireland." The difference between these gentlemen and tine majority of the Irish Liberal Members is this—they, by their votes in the House of Commons, opposed the enactment of Tory-Whig measures, while the Irish Members sup-
Ported those measures in Parliament, though they exclaim against them Outfit Goys. They did not vote for the "Mohammedan he of Tithes; though Mr. O'Comentee did. They were averse I the paltry compromise on the Corporation franchise, which Lord JOHN RUSSELL proposed and Mr. O'Coareiset. supported. According to Mr. O'Coeneitee.s own interpretation of "justice to Ireland" last session, he was himself practically unjust, while the Radicals acted up to his professed principles and their own.
