The great Speakership question, which kept the United States in
suspense, has at last been settled, by favour of a breach of the standing constitutional law. The law is, that the Speaker of the HouSe of Representatives shall be appointed by an absolute: majority. One large and important minority, with a Whig nu- cleus and a Northern body, stuck to Mi. Banks, a man of North 'ern connexions, and, it is understood, of firm AntiLSlaverr views. The Nebraska party,- the Democrats, the officialiste, the' Irish, and other sections of 'the majority, agreed in opposing Banks, but not in choosing any other man. They were firm in' their negative, divided in their positive choice. - limumciable times they voted without a decision : then they agreed to set aside their own rule for an absolute majority'; and Banks was elected by a simple plurality of votes as compared with the votes ' for the other candidates. He is reputed to be a member of the Know-nothing party, therefore probably an Anti-Irishman and Annexationist. In office, individual views may 'be softened, but the choice of the man indicates the predominant sentiment in Congress ; and if the conviction against the extension of sla- very and the Nebraska encroachment possess not a plurality of votes, it holds the effective strength of the Lower House. -
