23 MARCH 1850, Page 1

NEWS OF THE WEEK.

MR. HUTT'S motion in the House of Commons, to abandon the Slave-trade treaties which stand in the way of recalling the African blockade squadron, was decided, not on its Own merits, but on a wholly irrelevant issue advanced by Lord 'John Russell; who forced Members to convert it into a vote of Confideigie. It did not matter, therefore, that the debate was condueted with uncommon ability on the side of abandonment. Mr. Hutt presented a case full in its facts, clear in its order, and forcible in its plainness. Mr. Gladstone, by natural disposition and habit of mind inclined to Anti-Slavery sympathies, is yet too strictly logioal to resist the force of the facts and the results of the repeated experiments ; and his speech was a masterly reflex of the arguments that had con- vinced himself : he showed how the treaties which we force on other countries are imperfectly or but colourably falfilled by them, while we compel ourselves to set a useless example; how our motives are distrusted ; how the trade and its miseries increase under our intervention ; how impracticable is the attempt to keep up a criminal police for the felons of all the world. Ministers had the usual string of pretexts ready : they completely set aside the actual results, and relied on the presumptions of what would be or would not be in the case of 'a%ndonment ; they picked out little tidbits of evi- dence to theiYtaiste ; they complained that Mr. Hutt had no "sub- stitute " for the "bldokade. But they needed argument only for the sake of appearances ; since Lord John had planned to beat Mr. Hutt, not by discussion, but by the main force of party in- fluence. Lord John had Called a previous meeting of Ministerial Members, and told them that unless they enabled him to beat Mr. Hutt he should resign. Two of those Members have reported what passed at the meeting ; which was by no means blindly submissive, some of the party contumaciously pleading reason and conscience, and a few going so far as to say that they must follow conviction ! But Mr. Charles Lushington avows that he was overcome by the fear of a Protectionist Government, and therefore had determined to absent himself from the division . at the same time feeling that Lord John has seriously shakes his own influence by this arbitrary party dictation on a subject that is not a party question. Nor did Ministers trust solely to that compulsion : after personally helping to spread a rumour that the debate would be adjourned, they brought it to an unexpected division. And the majority obtained by these arts, 232 to 154—not -very considerable for the majority of a Cabinet over a private Member with no party at his back—is treated as a great Ministerial triumph. It is not easy to conjecture the motive to all this perverse and exceptional exercise of energy. The abandonment of thesquadron would have swelled Sir Charles Wood's surplus, and would have enabled him to repeal some odious tax. The perseverance can scarcely be as- cribed to the fear of the Anti-Slavery party, for that party has much diminished in power, and moreover is on the whole against the armed suppression of the slave-trade. The motive can scarcely be that species of mauvaise honte which makes men ashamed to do right after a long pursuit of error ; since the error—the wrongdoing—is not only culpable but ridiculous. It can hardly be conviction ; for it is a libel on human nature to suppose that any intellect can be really convinced by such arguments as those used on the Mi- nisterial side. It is possible to imagine that personal eccentricities

may come into play, and that Lord John Russell may persevere because, as usual, his insight leads him to see no further into the game than the next move, so that one reason is as good as another; that Lord Palmerston may be actuated by his constitutional love of being in hot water, and Lord Grey by the delight to do just what everybody thinks wrong or impossible. The other business in the llouse of Commons has not been of first-rate importance. Sir Charles Wood has taken off his duty on bricks; and, importuned by brickmakers to remit it retrospectively in the shape of a drawback for duty on exisstocks, he has pro- mised to consider." The plan for raising a larger revenue from the stamp-duties by a better distribution of the charge on convey- ances, so as to relieve smaller properties and draw higher sums from the larger, has been promulgated rather to the dismay of the unfortunate rich, who are always so sensible to their own hardships in the way of taxation : but some apparent errors in the figures suggest wild hopes of a 'successful rally against the plan. Mr. Locke King has moved a resolution directed against primogeniture, —ostensibly in the case of persons dying intestate, but virtually against the custom in general. The motion Tailed, of course ; but it occasioned the utterance of doctrines that as yet sound strangely in the House Of 'Commons, though they may perchance become more familiar.

In the House of Peers, besides some talk on the sufferings of journeymen tailors under the system of middlemen, and a grave speech from Lord Brougham on the imperfect justice of the Indian law courts—illustrated in the, appeals and reversals of judgment-- the lively ci-devant Chincellor has made a sally against the In- dustry Exposition of 18M. Lord Brougham insinuates every horrible consequence,—an immense importation of foreign goods to swamp the English market with a surfeit of free trade ; a dis- gusting invasion of live foreigners, who will render London un- bearable ; and the settling of a huge tubercle on one of the lungs of London—the great building in Hyde Park. Lord Brougham's satirical sally was amusing,. but not difficult to answer ; indeed, Lord Carlisle answered it.