25 APRIL 1868, Page 1

NEWS OF THE WEEK.

THE House has met again after the recess, and Mr. Disraeli, though expected to " make a statement" as to the defeat of the Government before the vacation, has not thought it needful to vouchsafe even that deference to the Parliamentary etiquette,— quietly assuming that a great defeat of the Ministry on the most important public question of the day could not possibly affect the position of his Cabinet. The Opposition have been quite right in not criticizing this callousness of the Government. Indeed, it is probably for their advantage that the Ministry should stay in as long aspossible,—for every week adds to its humiliation. Moreover, it is really of the greatest consequence, —of a consequence far above all party issues,—that the great act of justice to Ireland now about to be done should not for a moment seem even to be dictated by party spirit. Mr. Disraeli's airy obtuseness to a supreme humilia- tion is not on that account the less remarkable.