22 MAY 1852, Page 1

NEWS OF THE WEEK.

THE Militia Bill has at last got through the Committee. The protracted and sometimes irrelevant discussions raised on almost all the dailies- terminated in their being carried by majorities averaging nearly two to One. Yet the promoters of the bill were quite at sea as to the statistics upon which it was based ; the mea- sure is palpably Oracle and unpopular; and it cannot be practi- cally enforced till next. year. • Its 'success thus far, under such drawbacks,, can only be taken as a protest by the majority of the House of Commons against the doctrine that no improvement or extefisied of the national defences was -required. - -

Ministers have been manfully supported in doing battle for their Militia Bill by,Lord.Palmers,ton; who watched its progress with almost :parental_ fondness, and cathe to the rescue whenever they appeared flagging or apathetic. Their conduct in other respects ddring the week has been of a nature to confirm , the growing Opinion that they are the shabbiest' Ministry on re: cord. The zeal they affected at the outset for Law Reform has evaporated. In the 1Touse of Lords,' they Connive at, if they have not on d, obstructions to the Cop hold Enfranchisement Bill, whhih ey appeared to countenance its passage through the

Commons ; and the Attoiney-General has been elaborately sophis- tical in palliating the injustice of denying costs against the Crown when *mated in civil actions. The Colonial Secretary has blighted the laurels he won at the introduction of his New Zea-- laqd Bill, by the transparent disingenuity of his opposition to Mr. Gladstone's Colonial Bishops Bill. Me. Disraeli's attempt to ex- plain away the admissions of Mr. Walpole, while uttering for himself a strong objection to the attack on Maynooth, was a fresh exhibition of divided councils and of popularity-hunting regardless es decorum or principle.

The Derby Ministry are rapidly doing for themselves what .kpposition• lacks the ability to accomplish. Opposition, indeed, seems disposed to act upon the proverb of giving an adversary rope enough. Is it that a leader is wanted ? Some curious feelers have been thrown out in the shape of on dies that Lord John Rus- sell is willing, in the event of a new Ministry being formed, to transfer his services to the House of Lords, leaving the leadership of the Commons open to a successor.