NEWS OF THE WEEK.

THE first Householder Parliament was opened on Tuesday, the 16th inst., in a speech read by the Lord Chancellor, which is analyzed in another column, and of which we need only say, in printers' parlance, that a very good advertisement is very badly "displayed." The Queen was unable to attend in person, and consequently Parliament is going to attend on the Queen, presenting the Address in person, an unusual though not absolutely unprecedented proceeding when the Speech has not also been personally delivered. There was quite a little debate on Thursday about this ceremonial, and Mr. Disraeli seemed half inclined to oppose, but finally supported, "because it is so important, and so desirable that some personal relations should be established between Her Majesty and the new Parliament that has been elected." What a genius that man has for the high comedy of life!

The debate was not lively in either House, but the speeches of the mover and seconder had more of form and weight in them than is usual with those very difficult and colourless performances. Lord Carysfort got a good deal of respect for his short speech by confessing that for ten years he had been silent in the House of Commons (as Lord Proby), so he spoke like a man who had been ten years silent, and did not lightly utter vain words. Lord Monck, as ex-Governor-General of Canada, had a special experience of disestablishment to relate, and a special conviction to announee,—that he agrees with Mr. Mill as to the deadly shade of 'State patronage and control.' Lord Cairns had either not much to say, or did not wish just yet to say it. He ventured to hope (or fear ?) that the Government did not go so far as the mover and seconder in their views on the Irish Church. He quizzed the English of the penultimate sentence of the gracious Speech. He would have liked a measure on primary education. He rejoiced to have that very old friend, the Bankruptcy Bill, back again. He did not see what good the Conference had done. And he offered Lord Granville a "frank and willing co-operation in promoting and expediting the public business." Lord Granville had still less to say. He appealed to his friends for their support in resuming the post of leader of the House. He politely attributed such qualities to his leading foe, that it would be at any time possible for that foe almost to annihilate himself (Lord Granville), if he pleased, and he deprecated the unsparing use of such qualities. That was polite, but Lord Granville is not really afraid.

In the Lower House, young Mr. Cowper—evidently very young—spoke with a certain patrician ease and mastery of manner that the House of Commons evidently liked. Mr. Mundane, who has four times his political knowledge and experience, bad much less self-confidence, and kept his first promise to the House, not to waste its time unnecessarily, very strictly. Mr. Disraeli was quite lamb-like. Except that he thought a Queen's speech should promise a Royal Commission, if it promised inquiry stall, and that he did not wish to inquire as to the best means of Protecting electors from violence and undue influence, till the working of the new Act had been tried at another election, he had scarcely anything to say. He complacently referred to the "in

teresting detail "—the list of unseated and not unseated members, —which they had just heard, but otherwise he did not use a single phrase that caught the ear, and in manner he was tame. Mr. Gladstone was, as usual, energetic in manner ; but as he had only to answer criticism, and criticism there had scarcely been any, his energy had the effect of abstract energy,—emphasis on words you could not remember.

The programme of Government work is sufficiently large. Mr. Gladstone gave notice that on Monday, the 1st of March, be would move that the House go into committee on the Acts relating to the Irish Church, Maynooth, and on the first Resolution of last session. Mr. W. E. Forster gave notice of the Bill for better regulating endowed schools, which he introduced on Thursday. The Attorney-General gave notice of a measure for amending the Law of Bankruptcy, and that he would call the attention of the House to the shorthand-writer's notes on the election cases of Norwich and Bewdley,—with reference, we suppose, to a Commission of Inquiry. Mr. Ayrton gave notice that next Monday the Prime Minister would propose an alteration in the law affecting official pensions. On Thursday Mr. Goschen gave notice that on the 25th inst. (Thursday next) he would move for leave to bring in a Bill amending the law respecting the rates assessed on occupiers holding for short terms. On Wednesday he gave notice of a Bill equalizing the assessment of metropolitan property. And on Wednesday Mr. Bruce (the Home Secretary) gave notice that next Monday he would move for leave to bring in a Bill "for the more effectual prevention of crime." That is a pretty stiff programme.

The private Members are not slow to add their quota to the work of legislation. Besides notices of motion for inquiry, the Solicitor-General asks leave on the 23rd inst. to reintroduce his Bill abolishing University Lists,—which will be a quasi-Government Bill,—Lord R. Montagu promises a cattle-plague bill, Mr. P. A. Taylor a bill for paying Members, Mr. Carnegie a bill to abolish the Scotch right of hypothec, i.e., the right of the landlord to be paid rent in full before any other creditor gets anything, Sir W. Lawson the Permissive Bill, Mr. McEvoy a bill to abolish the Ecclesiastical Titles' Act, Mr. Locke King a bill to assimilate realty with personalty. The most important of them all is Sir J. D. Coleridge's and Mr. Locke King's, on both of which there will probably be sharp debates, as there will also be on Mr. McCullagh Torrens' motion (March 10), to suspend the operation of the Act for building asylums for the sick poor, until inquiry can be made into the ability of the ratepayers to bear such burdens.

The Committee of the United States' Senate on Foreign Relations have almost unanimously rejected the Convention with Great Britain as to the settlement of the Alabama claims. We are not at all surprised, though we are sorry. Mr. Reverdy Johnson, whether he knows it or not, has been working hard to obtain this result ever since he began his jocular progress through Great Britain, and devoted himself to telling Englishmen how dearly the Americans love us, when they wish us to feel painfully their reserve and displeasure. The Convention indeed began badly, inasmuch as it originated with a very unpopular President, who was believed to sympathize with the South, and, therefore, not to bear much grudge against England for her Southern proclivities. The objection believed to be felt to the Convention by the President elect was another weight in the scale against it. Still, the American Senate has not been wise. Mr. Seward had practically obtained a decided concession from us, though we hold it a reasonable concession, as we pointed out last week, and unless the Senate mean war,—which they don't,—they will not easily get as much again. An attitude of dignified displeasure is all very well; but a diplomatic success and a fair chance of large damages are much better. America can't sulk for ever, however naughty England may have been ; and sulking, when it is all on one side, is not a very remunerative business.

Mr. Reverdy Johnson will now, it may be hoped, stop his flow of unseasonable jocosities. At Edinburgh, yesterday week, he made everybody laugh very much in returning thanks for his wife's health, by saying that he regretted Mrs. Johnson was not there to answer for herself, but "if she were, and she spoke as wisely to you as she does to me, it would be much better for you to hear her than to hear me." He spoke of the consolation Mrs. Johnson had been to him in the many "trials of banquets" he had had to go through in England. She was "quite a considerable personage," the mother of 11, the grandmother of 40, the great grandmother of 3, and he hoped, if she lived twenty years longer, she might be the great grandmother of a hundred. "As you may imagine, she has a wonderful influence over me-" Angels, he said, are all 'women.' Angels are messengers, i.e., ambassadors, and we suppose it is in Mr. Johnson's angelic character, therefore, that he talks so much. We don't deny him humour, but it should be an ambassador's humour to humour his own land.

Mr. Justice Blackburn, at Stalybridge, and Mr. Justice Wiles, at Tamworth, have declared the sitting Members, Mr. Sidebottom (Conservative) in the one case, and Sir Robert Peel (ambiguous) and Sir Henry Bulwer (Liberal) in the other case, duly elected. Mr. Baron Martin has declared Mr. Smith (Conservative) at Westminster duly elected.

The French Court is as irritable just now as a green-room, and perhaps for the same reason, that all within it are actors. The Great Eastern of France has been trying to buy the Great Luxemburg Railway, that is, as we understand the Belgian Finance Minister, to be able to run carriages straight from Metz to Namur by one line, to Verviers by another, and by a branch not finished, to open a through communication with Germany and Holland, without teaching the State lines of Belgium at all. The Belgians, alarmed for their receipts and also for their independence, have passed through the Lower House, by a vote of 61 to 16, a Bill prohibiting the sale of Railways to Foreigners. Thereupon the demiofficial press has threatened Belgium with all manner of punishments, from a hostile tariff to an invasion, and declares that the vote is a humiliation to France instigated by Bismarck. It is gravely intimated that the Belgian Senate must reject the Bill, and there is too much reason to believe that strong remonstrances have been addressed from Paris to Brussels. The affair may not become dangerous, but these little explosions show how much gunpowder lies scattered about.

The Lords do not like being "shunted off" the constitutional rails. They say they never have any work before Easter, all important business beginning in the Commons, and a flood of bills in June and July, when it is too hot to work hard, even if discussion was possible in the time. They are quite savage about it, and Lord Salisbury threatens that if bills are sent up so late he will do his best to prevent their passing into law by using the forms of the House. He had rather the House were abolished than reduced to such a sham. It is all quite true, but where is the remedy ? As Lord Russell remarked, many bills which their Lordships, if they had them first, would reject, are now passed because the Commons accept them by large majorities. If the Lords are to be strong, they must come a little more into accord with the nation, so that they may at least be trusted not to kill bills which the Commons want.

It seems probable that Spain will lose Cuba. General Dalee has been obliged to recall his decree granting liberty of the Press, and has, it is stated, telegraphed to Madrid that he wants large reinforcements and a loan of 14,000,000, as the Revolution has spread up to the Havannah. The Spaniards are greatly excited by the news, declaring that Cuba must be reconquered for the national honour, and are sending some 10,000 fresh troops ; bat the expense is crushing the Treasury, and the reconquest of the island, if the insurrection is universal, will require a large army. As Cespedes has proclaimed emancipation, it is useless for General Dulce to appeal to the Blacks, and Spain will not grant the only possible compromise—the Canadian constitution.

The Spanish Cortes assembled on February 11, elected J. River°, Democratic-Monarchist, by a majority of nearly two-thirds over his Republican competitor, but has since then done nothing except verify its powers. The rumour of Don Ferdinand's election has been revived, but without any visible reason. Pending the final decision, Marshal Serrano is to be authorized to appoint a new Cabinet.

Better days seem to be dawning for the Great Eastern Railway. They have got their affairs out of the Receiver's hands, and have earned 150,927, or per cent. dividend on ordinary stock, after paying all charges. The Directors ,do not, however, recommend the division of the sum at yretent,ss they want .a reserve to make the payment of next half-year's interest on a portion of the preference shares quite certain. They have also a definite plan for raising the money necessary to advance into the metropolis, that is, 11,600,000, in addition to /1,400,000 already paid for land. They propose to raise the money by 6 per cent. preference stock, secured on the revenues of the extensions alone,—a good plan, if only the public will subscribe the money. The loop-line-from Bishop Stortford to Braintree, which has been so long constructed, is paid for at last, and is "ready for opening," and will, we suppose, one day be opened, 'though the residents of the district would be sorry, after their annoying experience, to predict when.

Sir Sydney Waterlow and his colleagues in the society for building improved dwellings for the working-classes seem to have solved a very important problem. They have earned, they say, 7 per cent, during the year, and declared a dividend of 5 per cent. —profits quite sufficient, if they are real,as the Company seem satisfied they are, to tempt capital into similar undertakings. This Company, it will be remembered, accepts Government loans, and starts from the sound principle of exacting lull rents with strictness, its object not being to throw away money in alms, but to show that good dwellings for the poor can be made to pay. Of course the very poor do not take the rooms in the Company's buildings, but they raise the standard of comfort and lighten the pressure on ordinary houses. It is to ordinary mercantile principles, aided by State loans, that we mast look for the rebuilding of East London.

The Times led us last week into a quagmire. Its reporter omitted all cheering in the latter half of Mr. Bright's speech in Fishmongers' Hall, in what seemed to us a marked manner, and, on Fridays, weekly papers are apt to trust the Times. Coupling the omission with the apologetic sentence at the end, and perhaps influenced by a general sense of the imprudence of the speech, we assumed that it had struck the guests at the dinner as it struck us. It was not so, the cheering as Mr. Bright sat down having been loud and general. The statement seems to have annoyed Mr. Bright's friends to a somewhat unusual degree, possibly from a secret feeling that it ought to have been true. Great orators may hit bishops as hard as they like, for us, except when bishops have just been entertained by the very hosts who are entertaining the orators, and political decorum to their colleagues otherwise forbids it.

American notions on finance are simply unintelligible. Here is a telegram flashed under the cable on the 16th inst. "The Senate to-day passed the Bill, already adopted by the House of Representatives, prohibiting the acceptance of the national currency by banks, corporations, or persons as collateral security for loans." The only object we can conceive for this bill is to prevent sudden "lock-ups" of the currency, much practised in New York for purposes of railway speculation, but it can never work. Men rich enough to lock up currency in such heaps as to affect the public supply must be rich enough to make it worth the while of the Banks to refuse loans for a stated period, and so produce the lockup. Meanwhile, currency is a little less useful than it was.

Greece has adhered in some way or other to the Resolutions of Conference, which accordingly on Friday declared itself dissolved, the practical result of its labours being that Greece is pardoned for assisting Crete, but told not to do it again.

The Judges are very hard on the newspapers when they comment on a trial in progress, but comments of a much more effective kind seem perfectly legal. For example, on Monday Mr. E. W. Edwards read in the Bankruptcy Court an immensely long statement in explanation of his connection with Messrs. Overend, Gurney, and Co. On the whole, the document, as an ex parte statement, makes Mr. Edwards' position thus much better,—that it raises a strong presumption against his having betrayed his employers by taking bribes from both sides. He says Overend, Gurney, and Co. consented to his receiving payments from their debtors, and in one case, that of Mr. Scott Russell, this consent is almost a certainty. But he incidentally makes the Overend-Gurney case look infinitely worse than any comment of ours could do, for he produces a memorandum of a conversation with the firm, showing that he told the partners that he relied "for justification for his policy on the memoranda in his possession, showing that he only carried out the scheme of concealment of affairs laid down when he first was introduced into the house." This memorandum is in the handwriting of Mr. J. H. Gurney, and dated January 21, 1864. For a comment not a tenth as damaging as that statement the editor of the Times might be arrested, but Mr. Edwards may make it without fear of cross-examination and with impunity.

The latest advices from Paraguay announce that Marshal Caries bas taken Angostura, and occupied Assuncion, the capital, while Lopez has fled somewhither. The Brazilians say he has sought refuge in Bolivia, in which case, of course, the war is over, and Paraguay subdued ; but according to another, he has retired into the interior, in which case the war is not over, for the Brazilian General only holds the river, and cannot garrison even the towns on its banks. Villa Rica apparently has not been occupied, and if Lopez is still obeyed by the people, the authority of the invader will be bounded by his camps.

The new Bishop of London (Dr. Jackson), in an address to his clergy, delivered at Sion College this day week, gave great offence by complaining of the uncharitableness and savagery of what he called "not the religious, but the Church press." He did not, however, ascribe the mischief of it to the writers, but rather to the readers. "If they were not sold, they would not be written, and the inference was that the great mass of the persons who bought them were not displeased with their uncharitable misrepresentations." The evil of this is, that scandal is provided "for the worldly and unbelieving, who, taking for granted what they read, despise what they call the love and charity of Christians." We don't see any fair ground of offence in the remark ; no doubt, a quiet literary malice is a great temptation to all ecclesiastical minds, whether in newspapers or out of them. Did not Sidney Smith himself answer, when he was asked, after a serious illness, how he felt, "just strength enough to stick a knife into a Dissenter ?" and no doubt poorly Ritualists, and poorly Evangelicals, and poorly Broad Churchmen feel similarly,—in a literary way,—towards one another; and sometimes, perhaps, malice in the literary way leads to malice in earnest, and then the Bishop is right. But the criticism to which he seems to us to be open, is that he is so muck more afraid of "the worldly and unbelieving" seeing our little sins than of the sins themselves. That, we confess, does not aeemto us of great moment. Suppose the Church papers never let out that we carp at one another, would "the worldly and unbelieving" be taken in by us ? We suspect, and hope, not.

The supporters of the scheme for a real collegiate education for women have decided to commence on a small scale at once, though they have not yet amassed enough money to start on any considerable scale or to begin building. They have heard of a house at Hitchin,—which will be sufficiently near Cambridge,— which they may not improbably take, and have already obtained the names of some students. They promise, from the first, thoroughly first-rate teaching, and for the rest will try to earn generous pecuniary support, if they have not yet got it. They should try and persuade Mr. Forster's Commission to give them a small endowment out of some of the money utterly wasted in endowments of the grammar schools ;—subject, of course, to strict inspection by the proposed inspecting Board. The College will be opened next October. Intending students should apply to Miss Davies, 17 Cunningham Place, N.W.

The practice of the Times, of giving a page of matter on the double sheet containing births, marriages, and deaths, is one of the greatest grievances of the day, and almost more oppressive than long sermons. In the first place, you always miss something important, and find eventually that it was hid away on a page which human nature habitually assumes to belong to the supplement. Then the Times with twelve pages becomes so bulky to keep, the weight of the files being greater by 50 per cent. Then, again, it is more laborious to read. It is no consolation to any one to say you get more for your money ; more reading and type you do, but less information; for it is not only less compressed, but some of it in hiding. All this week, without Intermission, the grievance has lasted. The whole public seem to us to regard the additional matter not as a boon, but as a cross.

Mr. filial] is to be again proposed for Bradford. The friends of Mr. Ripley are again bringing forward Mr. Thompson, and the Conservative side of the Liberal party declines to test the preference of the Liberal party at Bradford by a previous ballot. They will fight Mr. Miall at all hazards. We have as little sympathy as any journal can have with Mr. Miall's particular crotchet of liberating the Church of England from "State patronage and control." But he is certainly entitled to a seat in the House of Commons during a great ecclesiastical session. He represents a certain party in the nation, though not, perhaps, a very large one. He is upright and able, and yet Parliament will not, we fancy, be the more inclined to accept his creed after hearing him plead for it. Mr. Thompson represents nothing in particular but half and halfuess,—just the sort of thing which does not want representing.

The Archbishop of Armagh has told his clergy to be particularly careful just now to give the prayer for the High Court of Parliament with proper emphasis, and to call the attention of the people to the familiar words, in order that the Irish Church question may have all the advantage of the petition, "that Thou wouldst be pleased to direct and prosper all their consultations, to the advancement of thy glory, the good of thy Church, the safety, honour, and welfare of our Sovereign and her dominions." His Grace evidently holds this to be equivalent to a prayer that the Irish Church may neither be disestablished nor disendowed, and we suppose he would pray it himself with an arrire pensee in that direction. Does he gather this comfort from the phrase in a subsequent sentence imploring "that peace and happiness, truth and justice, religion and piety, may be established among us for all generations " ? We hope the Archbishop does not quibble in his prayers. He wouldn't surely wish to disestablish "peace and happiness, truth and justice," simply in order to establish—and that only in his own estimation— "religion and piety " ! Let us pray the prayer, by all means, with all our hearts,—but without arribv pensee as to what it asks for.

The Gulf Stream,—our oldest and most venerable geographical tradition,—is called in question. Mr. Findley thinks it a Mrs. Harris, "don't believe there's no such person ;" at least, while admitting the current, he doubts its effect on temperature, doubta if we are any warmer for it. Dr. Carpenter, however, who has just been dredging near the Shetland Isles, comes opportunely to our relief. He shows that the soundings of Sir James Ross in the Southern hemisphere gave a uniform temperature of 390 in all depths in the paralled of 56° 25' S. lat., and as between 590 and 62° N. lat. Dr. Carpenter and his associates found an average temperature of 52°, he argues that something must be due to the Gulf Stream, especially as the temperature varied a good deal at certain points, and sometimes seemed to show the sudden influence of cold Arctic currents. The warm area was covered with a bottom of globigerina mud, full of animal life belonging to the temperate region ; while in the cold area there was little but barren sand, with scarce any animal life. That seems satisfactorily to prove warm and cold currents. But are there not warm and cold currents in most seas,—in the Pacific as well as the Atlantic? There is no doubt, we believe, that Vancouver's Island is a more temperate climate, at the same latitude, than England ; and Vancouver's Island, whatever warm currents it has, never used to have a Gulf Stream. We fear the personality of our very venerable old friend the Gulf Stream is seriously called into question.

The hardening tendency in the value of money, and the probability of further withdrawals of bullion from the Bank, have caused weakness in the market for Home Stocks. Consols are now quoted at 92 to 93, both for money and the account. On the other hand, heavy purchases of Foreign bonds have been effected, and the general course of prices has been favourable. In the market for British Railway Shares a steady business has been transacted, the accounts that have so far been rendered having proved more satisfactory than was anticipated, but the quotations have given way on realizations. The most prominent feature, however, is the flatness in Metropolitan Stock, which gave way heavily on an injunction restraining the Directors from paying the full dividend proposed to be granted. There has been a steady demand for money, and the rate in the open market for good short paper is fully 3 per cent. The stock of bullion in the Bank of England is now 118,470,930.