There has been an extraordinary- mortality in Parliament within a.
week ; five persons of the Legislature having been carried off— three Peers and two Commoners—or, to name them, Earl Grey, Viscount Canterbury, Viscount Bateman, Mr. Bolton Clive, and Mr. Murray. The loss of most of these gentlemen will not be sensibly felt by the public. Four of them were votes and little else, so far as the general imblie knew anything about them ; though the two Members of the Commons were esteemed, Lord Bateman is reputed to have been a steady Whig, and Lord Canterbury would still have been listened to as an experienced Parliamentarian. Lord Grey's death makes some substantial differences. Though the Earl had withdrawn from public life, his authority was still occasionally invoked with effect ; and had - -..+Aliaa,to appear in the House of Peers on any great occasion,
he " - ---selri_itave told with sepulchral urn-
half a cen' turyJor evermore.previa on a listening Senate. That is But per he greatest alteration which is made is in the position of Lora ick. The Member for Sunderland can be easily re- placed ;..." whethet we hate Colonel Thorapson's piercing e igr ging ht the House, or the Railway majesty of Mr. udson arning its innovating course among the Conservatives, will be a matter rather to interest the newspaper readers of dtblito* than to make any decided change in the state. The transfer of Lord Howick from a turbulent House,. where his thoughtful but bold political philosophy was baffled in its defective utterancy, to the more placid atmosphere of the Lords, will probably develope a statesman of whom expectation has perpetually been disappointed and as _perpetually renewed. "Higher station," too may not only strengthen his weakness, but procure a more thorough re- cognition of his great abilities, and of truly liberal views so rare in his "order." We suspect that the mere passive succession to a Peerage has seldom had so marked and beneficial an effect as it may prove to have in his case.
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