NEWS OF THE WEEK.
Tan fever of curiosity to know what Ministers are going to do as a provision against scarcity, has abated with the mere lapse of time. No Order in Council has issued, there is no explanation why it has not ; but the eyes are strained with looking for it, and the stare of expectation relaxes. Yet Ministers are not the more absolved by public feeling from active responsibility. It is re- membered that the real scarcity, if any occur, will be felt in the spring and summer, and that palliatives, to have any effect how- ever slight, should be provided now, before the corn-markets of the world are bared. Therefore is there still an expectation of some action on the part of Ministers ; and the demand for in- formation begets a kind of spurious supply, in the shape of "ru- mours." One rumour was, that Parliament was to be prorogued from Thursday next till an early day in January, "then to meet for the despatch of business " ; but the result of the Privy Council, on Thursday, falsified that rumour : Parliament was simply pro- rogued till the 16th of December. The Morning Chronicle presnmes that Ministers will" trust to the chapter of accidents in the mean time to relieve them from the pressure -under which their late frequent and anxious deliberations have been held." There is no need for these premature and strained constructions. It is said, with rauch probability-, that Ministers are collecting information as to the real yield of the harvest; which an agricultural corre- spondent of our own characterizes as being, though late, "exten- sive.". In the mean time, all judgment on the conduct of Minis- ters, while we are equally in the dprk as to their proceedings and their reasons, is rather idle. There is no fear but they will be called strictly to account on the meeting of Parliament; and they must know as much.
