NEWS OF THE WEEK.

TINE has continued to bring its relief to the present Govern- ment, and this week has seen them fairly through the first night of the Budget without a disaster—even winning fresh re- assurances. When he was last in office, Mr. Disraeli attempted to figure as a financial statesman, and his performance was a fiasco ; this time he is content to figure as a financial journey- man, and he will leave his place with a fair character. Last time he had nothing but an opportunity and " original ideas " ; this time he has nothing but a difficulty, and he attempts no- thing original. The change of manner is happy, and his speech is one of the simplest ever recorded. He has to provide 63,000,0001., for what may be considered the common annual ex- penditur6 mounted up to that sum ; and besides that, • 1,500,0001. to be paid in the name of the War Sinking Fund, and 2,000,000/. to be paid off Mr. Gladstone's Exchequer Bonds, making in all 67,000,0001. But he can only calculate upon 63,000,0001. of revenue, leaving a deficit of 4,000,0001. Should the Chancellor of the Exchequer have kept up the Income-tax, or, rather, restored it to the 7d. rate ? Should he have attempted a loan ? Mr. Disraeli reviewed these ideas only to increase the credit which he gained by setting them aside. He resorts to a much humbler line of policy : he defers the Exchequer Bonds for four or five years, and he suspends the operation of the War Sinking Fund, saving 3,500,0001. of his deficiency, but leaving him still short by 500,000/., where he ought to have a surplus. An increase of the duties on Irish spirits, bringing them to the level of. the Scotch and English, yielding 500,000/., makes him even ; and a penny stamp on bankers' cheques, calculated to produce 300,0001., gives him a surplus. The character of the Budget is to maintain the status quo as far as possible ; even Mr. Gladstone's repayments are put off till to-morrow. Al- though the penny stamp on cheques is open to objections, upon which bankers have not been silent, it is but a penny more in a series of such stamps, and is no novelty in idea. And the fetching up of lee-way in the Irish duties can scarcely be called a new tax ; while the impost, eloquent as Ireland can be about it, again avoids every air of novelty. There is in the whole Budget a minimum of new taxation ; and, as an expedient for stopping a gap, it has passed current with a very mild allowance of criticism.

The Indian resolutions have been tabled by Mr. Disraeli, and prove to be his bill in a reduced form. If adversaries and com- petitors expected to pull his measure to pieces, he has frankly set them the example by beginning himself, practically showing that Ministers will not take offence if other persons go a little further in the same laudable direction. If the bill provoked criticism by its frivolous elaboration, the resolutions have done so by their omissions ; but criticism imports little. The rival legislators on India do not soften in their rancour against this appeal to the House of Coitmons, which so far disarms attacks upon Ministers. There are new reports of some active movement on behalf of Bill No. 1 ; but it becomes, however, daily more obvious that legisla- tion on the subject of the Indian Government has now been so completely entangled that no course can extricate Ministers, ex- Ministers, or Commons, from the embarrassment, and actual legislation must be deferred at least to another year.

A busy week is seldom without its trivialities, and trifles al- ways look smaller when they profess to tarn upon great subjects.

The House of Commons has been invited to repeal the Septennial Act ; but in a session where the House has neither the oppor- tunity nor the will to grapple with the subject of finance, it is not likely that it will interfere with the immortal question of the Septennial Act, least of all when it is instigated thereto by no greater man than Mr. Cox.

It has proceeded with Mr. Clive's Bill for disfranchising the freemen of Galway, because half of their body were guilty of corruption ; but the House could only get into Committee, and there were divers counsels each neutralizing the other. Mr. Clive was for total disfranchisement, Mr. Maguire for no disfranchisement; Mr. Walpole was for half disfranchisement, with various other shades. There was a feeling in the House that while general Reform Bills are suspended, it is not justifiable to pass wholesale disfranchising measures,—that there is impolicy as well as injustice in letting off the bribers while punishing the bribed ; and although a large majority resolved to go into Committee, it did so only to report progress Somewhat the same treatment awaited Sir John Trelawny's bill for the abolition of Church-rates ; a measure which steadily ad- vances nearer to impracticability. It is a question on which there are not, as Peel used to say, three courses to be pursued, but only three or more courses not to be pursued. Sir John can- not get a majority of the classes who rule the land to concur in the abolition of Church-rates ; Mr. Henley avows, by the un- wonted indecision of his language, that it is hopeless to rally a majority of the country in favour of the national church ; the compromise suggested by Sir George Grey,—allowing any per- son to dissent from the payment individually and permitting pa- rishes to record a local abolition of the rate once for all,---has not been accepted ; and the suggestion made by Lord Derby this week to a deputation, that parishes should be allowed to buy up the rate and transfer it, we suppose, to some sort of consolidated fund or land charge, has scarcely yet been thought about.

Mr. Wise has not been able this year to carry his motion for bringing the diplomatic salaries under the annual vote of the Commons, with a view to bringing the diplomatic service under the control of the House ; but his defeat was attended by such circumstances that the minority loudly cheered the prospective victory. He was opposed by Mr. Seymour Fitzgerald,—of course ; he was opposed by Lord Palmerston, of course ; for the noble Lord is the very type and favourite of the diplomatic service. He was opposed by Lord John Russell, for Lord John cannot so far separate himself from existing official usages. But, even Lord John thought there might be modifications ; and Mr. Horsman boldly declared against a degree of reserve in diplomacy which is inconsistent with constitutional self-govern- ment. The minority of 114 is not very far short of 142, and it involves the elements of a growing party.

Mr. Liddell has obtained a Select Committee to investigate the progress, or otherwise, of railways in India. The Committee will be appointed by a House torn between the conflicting opinions, in favour of private enterprise or Government patron- age ; and the Committee will some day present a blue-book, or more probably will " report the evidence."

The Lords have not spent much of the midnight lamp over the work of legislation. Even the Oaths Bill was suffered to pass without debate on the second reading ; Lord Derby admitting that he could crush the substantial part of the bill, the clause relating to Jews, as easily in Committee as on the second read- ing.

Early in the week Lord Westmeath invited the Peers to leave child's play and take up the important question of the barrel organs. With great earnestness and eloquence, the Earl urged the argumentum ad hominem, and described in plaintive accents the mode in which the domestic music lesson may be invaded and drowned by the invading organ from the streets. Alas ! the Peers laughed ; and turning suddenly round to rebuke his friends for their oblivion of country and himself, Lord Westmeath caught his noble friend Lord Dungannon in the act !

The final decision pronounced by the House of Lords on ap- peal, in the ease of " Cooper versus Slade," is an important step in settling the law for the restraint of electoral oorraption, and

it is in the sound direction. The defendant had acted upon past decisions of the Besich,fand had-sugpased *at lise-17thaand

Victoria, chapter 102, pabhibiting ii1 -suiting Dims ihe promising, or procur*lif mbiley larsvotas, did Ind krbidttlse payment of actual travelling expenses. The question, however, has now been carried through various courts, and at last the Lords have affirmed the decision of Mr. Baron Parke, that the payment of travelling expenses is bribery within the meaning of the Act. Clearly this is consistent with the rationale of elec- tions. The Member is elected for the sake of his constituents, they do not exercise their functions for his sake. Prima facie it is no business of his to set them going. He may beseech their .suffrages, but all active proceedings lie with them. Any form of contributing money out of his own pocket may so easily be made to cover the purchase of the vote, that, until free trade in Toting be actually sanctioned by the Legislature, it is quite as well to stop any form of payment by the candidate to the elec- tor or on behalf of the elector. The Act will now operate more powerfully against the right party, the candidate ; for it is he who provokes offences against the electoral law ; and punish- ment falling upon him can be rendered most efficacious with the least injury to the constituency at large.

Rajah Brooke, on leave of absence from his own Raj of Sara- wak, is beating up support for that nondescript settlement. It has heretofore been patronized by the Colonial Office ; but now that department seems disposed to abandon the settlement, just as it is becoming important and valuable. So the Rajah turns from Downing Street to Manchester, with loud acclaim and a public dinner. It takes something more than a public dinner, however, to rivet a new colony to our empire.

The Government of Count Cavour has been threatened with a Ministerial crisis, and something more. It is environed by dan- gers which can only be surmounted through a combination of extreme firmness and discretion. The greatest question was the Conspiracy Bill, a project introduced to modify the law of Sar- dinia, so as to impose additional restraints upon the concoction of conspiracies against a friendly Government ; in short a measure to prevent if possible the formation of plots similar to that which exploded in Paris on the 14th of January. Although parallel to our own case, that of Sardinia is not identical with ours. In this country, we assume that our laws are sufficient to prevent overt crimes, and we considered the particular project intro- duced by Lord Palmerston's Government with reference to the context of our statute-book and common law. No doubt Count Cavour's Government has done the same, and has come to the conclusion embodied in the Deforesta Bill. Obviously such a course was likely to suggest the easy reproach advanced by Signor Brofferio and the extreme Liberals, that the Government was truckling to Imperial France ; but instead of throw- ing the bill to the inconsiderate mercies of the Legislature, Count Cavour made it a Cabinet question ; at the same time, he took the opportunity of showing, by the frankness and independence of his language, that though he consults neigh- bourly duties to France, he does not truckle to her. He also showed that Piedmont might have owed something to Louis Na- poleon, while she owed nothing to the Republican party of Europe ; for he gave a more distinct explanation than we have yet heard, Bow the Republican statesmen refused compliance with President Napoleon's desire to support Piedmont against Austria. Curiously enough, while this bill is under discussion, a juncture has befallen not very dissimilar to that which we saw in 1848. In the pro- gress of her dispute with Naples, Sardinia has advanced to the last step before a declaration of hostilities ; and just at that point, Austria, who is understood to have advised moderation at Naples, accumulates troops at Piacenza on the Sardinian frontier, as if for the purpose of crushing the independent monarchy should it actively vindicate its own rights and the public law of En- xope. Amid the allies who have amused Sardinia with pro- mises, France is the one which just at the present moment appears disposed to give her promises practical effect. The posi- tion in Italy is very curious, and the English public will watch it with anxiety.

Almost a week has passed since our readers learned that the trial of Bernard had ended in his acquittal. The evidence failed to satisfy the jury ; failed at least, to, give that absolute, proof which is demanded in criminal oases. The minor charge of conspiracy still remained ; but it rested upon the same evidence, and it has been abandoned. The announcement of the verdict was received in court as a triumph ; why, nobody explained, but most •of us conjecture that "the public" there present, like the jury, were impressed with an idea that powerful governments were arrayed to bring about a verdict of guilty. In Paris the event las been received with well-arranged amazement and anger; although, again, it is said that the classemnot clothed in official costume aregladratither than otioswise. IIWe world-er whether our French "Ifeiende will be al& Illo eiderstand that the decision is one purely and simply of Cott alinix: and tia$, in reality, it has nailing whatever to do ...via the' uesentairfurther legislation.

The Court of Queen's Bench has been sitting this week to teach aggrieved persons the philosophy of not looking to a cri- minal information as a means of bettering their cause in any public controversy. The third of these cases is the most remark.. able. Mr. Edmund Denison, severely censured by the Times for the part which he has taken in the contest between the Great Northern and North Western Railways, sought to retaliate upon his censor by a " criminal information" ; but he was told by the Court that the question was a subject for the expression of opinion, " and in very strong language." The course of opinion is indeed gradually drawing those questions which are in their nature controversial from the jurisdiction of the libel law. Per- sonal malignity, or injury by specific trespass in language, must be proved if our law courts will interfere.