NEWS OF THE WEEK.
INDIAN legislation scarcely " drags its slow length along," but rather proceeds by periodic jerks, and this week it has received a twin impulse from the hands of Stanley and of Bright. Lord Stanley has introduced his India Bill No. 3; a new form of the measure conspicuous for its negative qualities. More and more does the Derby Cabinet abandon its positive distinctions and suffer its measure to approximate to that bill which Lord Pal- merston first introduced, though still retaining some differences, as if for the sake of marking original authorship. Amongst the newest touches are some extension of the provisions for giving the Council the initiative, and a proviso announced though not introduced into the bill, that the Council shall meet as a matter of course once a week. By degrees therefore, some slight degree
of independent power has bedn. introduced into the Council, though it is still devoid of the financial veto which Lord Palmerston would have conceded to its majority. What we have called Mr. Bright's twin measure was a sort of sketch of a plan that he would have introduced if he had been the Minister legislating for India,—which he is not. His main suggestion was, to abolish the Governor-General, or any pretension to " Empire " in India, and to divide the whole of our continental possessions there into five co-equal Presidencies, in. the hopes of a beneficial rivalry which should make every separate Government try to win the prize for behaving well and being a good Presidency. Indian legislation has descended to the level of omnibus conversation in which gentlemen fling out their "ideas."
The Oaths Bill and the two attendant measures of Lord Lynd- hurst and Lord Lucan stand in a very curious position. The two newer Bills had been deferred because Lord Derby is ill ; and then, at the eleventh hour—not to be guilty of the inde- corum of proceeding with the amended Bill alone,—the Govern- ment has deferred that also to await the cOnvalescenee of the Premier. The Legislature hangs, therefore, upon the Premier's health, and it has ceased to be a metaphor if we:Speak about feeling his pulse.
The Bishop of Oxford has followed up his move of last week, with perfect consistency, in calling for papers to illustrate the ex- portation of Coolies from the British colony of Hongkong ; and Lord Clarendon, enlarging the scope of the requisition, has added some important evidence to the whole state of the case. Dr. Wilberforce, in fact, is moving Parliament and the Government to make a clean breast of it, and neither the country nor the interest of the Negro can suffer from this national candour. The canfession might undoubtedly be thought inconvenient, from a merely short-sighted point of view. It now stands avowed that the labour which was needed by our West Indian Colonies after emancipation has been supplied by means of a race or races, who, not understanding their own position, have suffered many evils of slavery, and have in some cases sunk almost to be slave& The free labour which we procured for British colonies could not be restricted to those possessions ; the supplies which we en- deavoured to bring from certain ports have been clandestinely taken from other ports ; and hence hordes of Chinese have been carried about in English ships with fearful suffering and a largo amount of mortality, to find a pauper-like freedom in the
West Indies, and a pauper-like condition which was not freedom in some foreign colonies of that region. The case illustrates the great fact, that when capital goes about seeking for multitudi- nous supplies of labour, it does not study the interests of labour so much as those of capital. The case also shows how difficult it is to endow any race with an independence or a power of self- defence that it does not enjoy, or take, for itself. Further it exhibits the exceeding complications of the position into which this country has drifted. We may discontinue the endeavour to palliate the inconveniences that have followed from emancipation in the West Indies, and after the lesson enforced by the papers it is not likely that we can continue the practice ; but we can- not cut short all the consequences, or oblige other countries to follow in the retract,ation the example that they have copied in the opposite direction.
The House of Commons is considered to have made a step towards economical improvement, by passion.° an abstract resolu- tion that the duty on paper ought not to be continued. Any more urgent form of the resolution was met by pleas on the part of the Chancellor of the Exchequer, that at present he could not spare a million of revenue ; but he agreed to Mr. Milner Gibson's motion as a matter of opinion ; and there it stands on the record, to be carried out or not some day hereafter. The general prospect is favourable, for leading men on both sides are more or less pledged, the merits of the measure have rendered it attrac- tive tor the next Teducing Chancellor of the Exchequer, and it seems to wait little more than opportunity.
Lord Goderieh's Bill for a compulsory registration of all partoterships has really been adjourned by the state of the river, for the debate was hurried through in consequence of the atmo- sphere; and the adjournment of the second reading defers the whole question for a year. Perhaps not unprofitably, for the publiclas not made up its mind on the measure. As at present advised, we are not positively certain that a registry of all part- nerships, active or dormant, would confer tangible.henefit on any set of people ; though it might occasion some small degree of annoyance to persons who would be so far exposed in their con- nexion with trade. In certain cases the Register might be valuable for a converse purpose : some firms have kept going: under the specious pretence of having great partners in the back- ground, when really there were none but the men of straw who stood in front. The existence of a Register accessible to customers and correspondents might assist in disclosing this species of hollow simulacrum ; though, after all, new dodges might be discovered for putting even upon the Register a show of partners not really engaged in the business. Upon the whole it' seemsbest to leave trade to take care of itself.
Lord Hotham's motion giving a fresh warning against the taking of money by Members for advocating or promoting any cause within the House is a confession as well as a precaution. The principal senior Members of the House appear to have thought that the present law is sufficient ; Lord Hotham thought otherwise, and several others brought forward reasons for be- lieving that abuses had existed, it seemed to be assumed in the debate that the lawyers are peculiarly obnoxious to be solicited for such purposes. Mr. Roebuck alluded to rumours as loud in Westminster Hall ; and gave an instance of an . application to himself, stated by the applicant to be justified by a prece- dent. So that the motion does not appear, to have been adopted without provocative, and it is a legitimate finis to the Butt case, which, without it, had rather a lame and impotent conclusion. It suggests, however, a larger question than any mooted in the House—that of the relation generally of Members to money, not only with regard to bribes taken by Members, or given by can- didates to electors, but to the whole of that public morale which rests upon the presenae, absence, or presumption of moneyed means ; and to that topic we shall probably revert at an early day.
The early sitting on Thursday was wasted by the Commons in a resultless debate on the London Corporation Amendment Bill, about which Ministers will neither do justice to the historical claims of London, nor candidly learn the dictate of public opin- ion on the subject. The question was, whether or not the bill should be referred back to the Select Committee, for the very reasonable purpose of hearing counsel against it.
The House of Peers, through its Chairman of Committees, has kept a kind of watch upon the proceedings of the new Court of Marriage and Divorce, and Lord Redesdale's conservatism is alarmed at the portentous fact that so many as eleven cases have been despatched in a day. Lord Redesdale raised the cry of "collusion," which he appears to think indubitable where there is expedition. He provoked a sharp reprimand from Lord Campbell, for distrusting the independence and prudence of the Judges, with the authoritative assurance that the new Court is working well.
Two cases, though of an inferior order in themselves, throw a light, not of the most agreeable kind, on the present relations between France and England. Lord Derby's Government has abandoned the prosecution of Truelove and Tchorzewski, the one who published a pamphlet by a Mr. Adams, apologizing for " tyrannicide," the other the pamphlet by Pyat, Besson, and Talandier, rather applauding than otherwise the attempt of Orsini on the Emperor. Mr. Truelove disclaimed any desire to promote assassination, Mr. Tchorzewski, a Pole, any conspiracy against the Emperor of the French; and the Attorney-General placidly assented to a verdict of "not guilty." The fact is, that doubts were entertained whether an English jury might not resent a prosecution of the press, and return the awkward ver- dict of acquittal on the merits. Lord Derby's Government, therefore, which was boasting its zeal in the matter of this press prosecution has retracted from that Napoleonic proceeding. Meanwhile the French press has retaliated in something worse than kind. The protection afforded to the Regina Cceli,—a ease which stands on ground by no means clear or settled,--has called forth from the Constitutionnel, the Patrie, and the Pays, round assertions that the Regis scheme is no slave-trade in dis- guise; virulent attacks upon England, for herself pursuing a disguised slave-trade in her "free emigrations," such as the Coolie traffic ; and something very like hints that we had better beware lest we offend our neighbour and ally. If the French press is not always instructed, it is always restrained from doing those things of which the supreme Government disapproves ; but these things it is permitted to do. Take the two eases together, and we find, first, that we can- not satisfy the requirements of Imperial France ; secondly, that Imperial France is not in a mood, to be satisfied however we may trY• The condition of the Thames is becoming a political event. The signs of the dangers which attend a continuance of this burn- ing season' with the river in its present state, have been multi- plied and daily become more forcible ; and alarm has spread to high quarters. At the Mansion-house-dinner, besides the absence of Lord Derby, who was confined with gout, we had the absence of the leader of the House of Commons who is sent to the sick- room by a sore throat ;—just the kind of attack produced by pestilent vapours. In the Court of Queen's Bench the Chief Jus- tice proposed to adjourn ; and although, Bench, Bar, and Jury, kept their seats, it was with the avowal of an ine,onvenienee enough to harass the progress of justice. It was the same in tile other courts. A Member of the House of Commons has given voice to the proposal lurking in the minds of many for an ad- journment to a less pestilent district. The new plan proposed by the Sewage Commissioners promising as it looks, does not apply to the difficulty ; something is needed for the moment, and the palliatives which are attempted, in the shape of domestic purifi- cations within the walls of Parliament and other neighbouring abodes, prove to be quite insufficient. Mr. Goldsworthy Gurney is reported to have said, in a letter to the Speaker, that he would no longer be answerable for the health of Members ; Peers are no more invulnerable than Members of the Lower House ; Judges are not young, and her Majesty's Ministers and officials may as soon as hum- bler persons be seized with premonitory symptoms. The sense of these possibilities has created an alarm which, though at present in advance of the facts, has spread to gigantic pro- portions ; and the proposal has been made that Parliament should leave its own palace, and go for a time into lodgings. There has indeed been a talk of a general consensus amongst the upper classes to leave all the doubtful districts of the West-end, and go to other parts of town, or out of town. What a panic would be left behind ! But this is not the way to meet pea- thence; and it is most probable that men having a sense of res- ponsibility will remain at their posts, while using the present swam to urge that reform of the Thames that has hitherto been treated too much as a mere subject for " articles " in newspapers or official reports.
