NEWS OF THE WEEK.
OF all this session, Lord PALMERSTON'S motion about the Ash- burton treaty is undoubtedly the most melancholy exhibition of party-spirit. The very nature of the motion stamped it with a triviality disgraceful to its avowed purpose: The great Whig diplatiuttist professes to see in the- treaty a' sacrifice of national intereAraPatiandonment of high Principles of which this country has been all "b'ut,:'the sole asserter, and a cause of future strife between England and America—a war of the world : he declares those sentiments'in a speech of three hours; and he calls upon the House of Commoni-L.of course, to adopt the conviction with which he labours, and censure the negotiator of that bad treaty ?—not at all; he winds up his speech of censure with a paltry motion for some more papers. Lord PALMERSTON says to the. House of Commons, I have discovered Lord. AannuaTow to be incapable and self-seeking ; he has done this country. irre- Table ,injury, and incurred for it indelible disgrace : I in'ake this solemn charge before you, the -greet inquest of the nation - and now I call upon you to pronounce this judgment— Whether or not I shall have another Blue Book ! The pleas which Lord PALMERSTON put in to support his claim to the one more Blue Book were principally, that Lord ASHBURTON was not well chosen by the Government, because he has interests in America ; that his conduct of the negotiations was unworkman- like, and espeCially that he made concessions without bargaining for equivalents; that among those concessions were some—as the concession of Rouse's Point on Lake Champlain—which impair the military strength of the country ; and that in the articles relating to slavery he abandoned the guarantee of American cooperation with this country in promoting a general effort in the civilized world to suppress slave-trading. On the other side, Sir ROBERT PEEL, backed by Mr. DISRAELI, clearly made out, that Lord ASH- BURTON has succeeded in settling disputes which had defied settle- ment for sixty years, Lord PALMERSTON himself having for ten of those sixty made no approximation to settlement ; that he obtained better terms than Lord PALMERSTON himself was anxious to secure in the King of Holland's award; that the military position is better than that award would have given ; and that, so far from abandoning the call upon America to join in suppressing the slave-trade, Lord ASHBIJaTON had for the first time induced America to take active steps in the enterprise—to do something in it herself. It was one of Lord PALMERSTON'S most imposing arguments, that further in- formation had been obtained since he was willing to accept the Dutchman's line, in the reports of Colonel MUDGE and Mr. FEATHERSTONHAUGH, and in the " red-line map " newly disco- vered by Mr. JARED SPARKS at Paris. But, if we know more about the- district, the interests involved had more compli- cated the question, and the necessity of a settlement was more urgent. The irresistible tide of migration has borne numbers into the disputed territory, to be embarrassing possessors; and while we forcibly maintain our rights in distant lands by means of a mercenary army, the Republicans on the spot are to a great extent their own army. Border ruffianism, a prevalent form of crime in the Union, is an available arm in a border war ; whereas we cannot turn our prevailing crimes—burglary, larceny, child-murder, and the like—to any account as military resources. While America had us at an advantage, she had also greater avidity for the disputed land : the balance of influences was altogether on her side of the scale. The mighty " red-line map" was described by Mr. BENJAMIN DISRAELI, who has seen the nine.days' wonder : it is not a map of the particular territory, but of all North America, on a scale of eighteen inches square,and ut- terly useless as a chart for negotiation. Moreover, he quoted FRANKLIN'S own direct and unequivocal words that the nego- tiators used MITCHELL'S map—an incorrect document, but one tending in favour of the American claim. In short, Lord PAL- MBESTON'S three-hours' piling-up of arguments was swept away. was begun on Tuesday ; when Lord PAi.mnasrois and .Mr. AU.LA.T spoke on one side, Sir ROBERT PEEL and Sir llowaep;„ *ales on the other ; and it was adjourned: next night: tie tHentEs NAPIER opened for the Whigs, Mr. DISRAELI for -Minis- 'ters ; °Mr. HAwEs began by intimating that he meant to speak against' his own side, when " an Ifonotirable Member," name and party unstated, remarked that there were not forty Members present ; „and the House was counted out. . The motion sequently ,fell to the ground.. Not only' did Ministers treat t with 'such '.contetnpt that they kept no V,olingilloree in readi- i3ess but Lord PALMERSTON'S own party abandoned it, as not worth sustaining. It was notoriously to have beei withdrawn; and there was even to have been an amendmefit emanating from the OPPosition side: Al t ogc therL the most ludicrous : the Pahnerstotiiiz- mountain yias ,‘;.big with glorious, great intent," but even the'ridiculus' mus,the motion for papers, Miscarried. „That worse-tha'n defeat was not the worst disgrace achieved by the enterprising", statesman. In the course of his attack on Lord ASMBBRTON, he committed himself to a deicription of what the neiOtiatOl'ought to have done. His speech looks as if the diplo- matic' craft had put forward a master of their order to damage an interloper: in the trade who had not served his apprenticeship. The most obvious gist of the assault is, to show how ill the work is done because a regular diplomatist had not been employed.' The first uuworkmanlike mistake was, that Lord ASHBURTON at once let out his "Ultiznatum"—that is he let the other partlkilosi What he really wanted. Next, he did not reserve a number of things'Which he was prepared to grant, and dole them out in a haggling.bargain " for a consideration.' In such' process, it seems, does the art di- plomatic consist. No wonder that it shuns the light, and that LOIA PALMERSTON was always obliged to crave Parliamentary forbear- ance not to disclose what he was If that is diplomatic skill, the sooner it is 'abolished, like its most distinguished professor, the better.
Lord PALainasTos, however, was not so hicky as to accomplisla the hushing-up of the noise hizriself had made : next night Mr; HUME asked hid}, if he meant to renew his motion ?—and upon his replying that be was already quite satisfied, Mr. HUMS announced his intended amendment as a substantive motion, to thank Lord ASHBURTON and his Government for the treaty! The step is one to retrieve the character of the faithful Commons for retaining some spark of independent opinion ; and Ministers should not, for any point of mere etiquette or usage, throw cold water on the motion, but leave the Commons to take their own course. Perhaps it would even be best if the Cabinet Ministers behaved as cool spectators, and abstained from joining either in debate or di- vision.
The motion of Mr. SMITH O'BRIEN, for a Select Committee on the Irish Poor-law, obviously with a view to sweeping alterations, is chiefly notable for having drawn forth the announcement, that Ministers are about to introduce a bill to amend the details of the law, maintaining its principle.
Two Members of Parliament have been unseated on petition; Mr. FARRELL for Athlone, and Mr. WALTER for Nottingham. As a seat for Nottingham, the title to which is tainted by bribery, can- not be held, it is remarkable that the friends of candidates for that place at least will spoil their own man's election by bribing his voters ; especially as no one, we presume, would confess that bribery is necessary to place Mr. *ALTER in Parliament. They almost make people think so.
There have been a variety of personal explanations in and out of
Parliament, neither very agreeable in themselves nor very profitable to take account of here. Sir THOMAS WILDE has been rather hard upon Lord DENMAN, and the Morning Chronicle made him seem yet harder; Lord DENMAN is somewhat extrajudicially nettled; and Lord BROUGHAM throws himself into the hottest of the fight, be-
coming, from second, a principal. Then Lord Baouonam, Mr. Jour(
BRIGHT, and Mr. HAMER STANSFIELD have been boxing each other's ears, somewhat after the manner of the bout between Harlequin,
Clown, and Pantaloon in a pantomime, where the blow circulates
so freely that the combatants are bewildered in a whirlwind of buf- fets. Next, a Scotch paper tries to bring Lord BROUGHAM into odium by saying that the proximate centenarian of the Peerage, Lord LYNEDOCH, has challenged him for what he did not say ; and Lord BROUGHAM talks of bringing the printer or some other per- son to the bar of the House. In these affairs Lord BROUGHAM
was originally and substantially in the right ; but his manner Pave his opponents advantages to which they were not entitled. f he
root of all the mischief, on most sides, appears to be the common one, sweeping and extravagant imputation of motives. The matter imputed is set right by a word ; but diabolical intentions are as- sumed, and there is a reciprocation of phrensied indignation creditable to none. 4- The upshot of the proceeding was a 'tit clirn1,r , The debate
