NEWS OF THE WEEK.
THE performances of Parliament have consisted of odds and ends,— motions which nobody would attend to earlier in the session, yet have escaped the doom of being deferred till " next session " ; the later stages of bills which have to be huddled through by the grouse-season ; some " massacring of the innocents" continued— throwing over bales of the cargo to lighten the way to port ; and a few philanthropic promises for next session, which may help Mem- bers and Ministers to get over the recess and its country meetings.
Among the most naked of party-demonstrations, has been Mr. Busies fussy motion about France and its Moorish enterprises. Mr. Sum. is an accomplished rhetorician ; he achieved for himself a good name for eloquence, enthusiasm, patriotism—Irishisni of the most refined sort ; he acquired personal importance through his talents, and used to carry away his hearers, not quite rapt, but still as willing to be hurried on by discreetly-assumed passion as the audience of a favourite actor. The exigencies of the Whig party, however, urged them to elevate Mr. SHELL above himself; and since that untoward promotion, he has been, still orator and Irish patriot, but less those things than Whig. He is not so happy in his quasi-official as he was in his professional capacity; SHELL "doing what he liked with his own" talents, was much more effec- tive than SHELL counterfeiting PALMERSTON in little, to gratify his patrons and show a decorous zeal after benefits conferred. His zeal, too, is not always serviceable to his party : at times he goes too far for his strength, and has to be rescued ; as he had to be on Monday. Indeed, his own heart misgave him after he bad flung out his challenge, and with more discretion than dignity he revoked his gage and risked a smaller one. He—once an official man !— was to have moved for a Select Committee to inquire " in what manner the French possessions in Africa have been acquired, and how far their extension is consistent with our political and com- mercial interests": but, foreseeing the ridicule and defeat to be incurred by that odd as well as mischief-making breach of offi- cial etiquette, he reduced his assault to the humbler form of a motion for " papers." The substance of his speech—for the motion was nought in itself—was, that the Tory Govern- ment were to blame, when the French seized Algiers, for not exacting any stipulation against the permanent retention of that country ; and that most likely they would hereafter be as cul- pably negligent in respect to Morocco. He chose to skip over altogether the Whig epoch of ten clear years, during which the Whigs were passive in the matter ; and the omission is the best illustration of his speech. As to Morocco, it seems that Ministers have not neglected that subject ; though what they have really done is nearly as obscure as their assailant's notion of what they ought to do : diplomatic etiquette, as usual, ties their tongues till all the mischief, if any, shall have been accomplished ; just as Lord PALMERSTON used to claim exemption from interference so long as it could be of any use. Luckily for Mr. SHELL, ultra crepidam, he happened to say something about the ships in the Mediterranean ; which called out some sea-captains and naval secretaries, with the everlasting and ever-elastic naval statistics which are made to fit all sides, and which made such a hubbub that he and his motion were forgotten, until Lord PALMERSTON made the speech as Evadne's author ought to have made it, and then it amounted to—nothing. We were nearly forgetting to note that Sir ROBERT PEEL was polite enough to take the trouble of tilting Mr. SHELL from his saddle : as he could not sit his great horse, it matters little who knocked him off, or how. The party-contest, however, was not an un- amusing exhibition,—each side so very anxious to wipe off any im- putation of bad workmanship ; and the subject has about as much living interest as any belonging to the week. The treatment of bills and the like forms of practical legislation has been as various as their several natures. The auxiliary por- tions of Sir ROBERT Past's Banking scheme, the bills to regulate Vanier gossosaj Joint-stock Companies, banking and trading, make way : the one to regulate companies has been extended to Ireland. The Cha- ritable Trusts Bill—to provide the administration which is utterly wanting for thirteen thousand trusts, involving 13,000,0001. of pro- perty, has been read a second time by the Lords, and stands over till—next session. It is the custom not to push bills into the Upper House until July, and also for the Bishops and many others to go away about that time ; and as nobody would think of pro- ceeding with some classes of bills in the absence of the right reve- rend Fathers, there really seems ground to despair of passing useful enactments within certain categories. Another instance was af- forded by Lord BEAUMONT'S bill to abolish the Roman Catholic Penal Acts,—laws always tyrannical, which no one would now dare to enforce, yet offensive to our fellow-subjects ; so that their reten- tion on the statute-book is at once silly and insolent. That also is reserved till next session, lest more equal freedom should be allowed to the Roman Catholics than the Bishops might like. One measure has been not destroyed but only exenterated—the Rail- way Bill. Ceding to the opposition which the bill provoked, Mi- nisters have cut out and thrown away twenty clauses, including all that provided machinery for the contemplated action of the Board of Trade. Practically to carry out the scheme in the compulsory purchase of railways or otherwise, Ministers must come to Parlia- ment for machinery. The residue merely constitutes a kind of protest that future railway-companies are not to establish a " vested interest" against the public ; and that if the present companies desire to alter their position or extend themselves, they too must conform to the new order. Although they do not say much about it—which is wise—the Ministers have sustained a real and import- ant defeat ; a lesson not again to go beyond their province. Another defeat, though only upon one clause, or rather a single point in that clause, is important. The clause compelled railway-companies to run third-class trains on every week-day,—negatively enacting the strict observance of the Sabbath against the poorest order of pas- sengers. Mr. THORNELY detected the lurking pharisaical purpose, and exposed it. Mr. GLADSTONE protested against the example of inculcating the doctrine that third-class trains should run on the Lord's Day ; but he did not explain why third-class passengers, pe- culiarly, should be forced by Parliament to become exemplars of piety and privation to the nation at large. Mr. THORNELY stuck to his purpose, and proposed to oblige such trains to be run every day on which any passengers are conveyed ; thus not forcing more strictness upon them than upon the " upper classes." Mr. GLAD- STONE was scandalized ; but the House affirmed the amendment. The report on the Poor-law Amendment Bill has been thrice " further considered " ; and many assaults upon the whole system, in the shape of additional clauses, have been battled. Mr. BORTHWICIL moved clauses compelling the authorities to provide workhouse-accommodation for placing married couples together in cases of age and sickness, parents and young children in all cases, and to allow Magistrates to make orders for out-door relief in cases of temporary sickness or distress—in short, to subvert the prin- ciples and practice of the existing law. Colonel SIBTHOEP moved to abolish the commission ; and other amendments, less frivolous and vexatious, occupied some time in being swept aside ; while others again were adopted. In resisting these blind blows at the Poor- law, however, Sir JAMES GRAHAM announced various relaxations in detail, which materially mitigate its rigour, and proportionately dis- armed the hostility of rationally-inclined opponents. The amended law is virtually settled.
One bill, in the House of Lords, has been the result and subject of a strange contest—the Insolvent Debtors Act Amendment Bill.
Lord COTTENHAM, with the warm approval of Lord LYNDHURST freely expressed, took up the subject long ago ; others meddled ; Lord LYNDHURST coquetted with the rival legists; and finally, two bills, one which Lord LYNDHURST had mixed from his own receipt and Lord COTTENHAM S, and one by various hands edited by Lord BROUGHAM, were referred to a Select Committee. The Com-
mittee, without ceremony, took a bit of the Cottenham-Lyndhurst bill to graft on the Brougham, throwing the rest away ; and on the bill thus compounded they effected some real improve-
ment and some serious damage, — BROUGHAM'S receipt still
imparting the predominant flavour. Both BROUGHAM and CoT- TESILLAM profess to abolish imprisonment for debt, but prorecd on op-
posite principles : COTTENUAM assumes the debtor i.o be prinulfacie unfortunate, and throws the burden of proving misdeed on the cre- ditor; BROUGHAM assumes the debtor primd facie in the wrong,
and throws the onus of proving innocence on him, meanwhile pu-
nishing with imprisonment, not debt as such, but fraud or extrava- gance. There are, says Lord BROUGHAM, cruel debtors as well as
harsh creditors. This is the view natural to a mind saturated with the classics of law and history, for the debtor has usually been a criminal with law-makers. In our day the question has arisen, is a
law cruel to the debtor beneficial to the creditor? and thus far experi- ment has proved the negative, and justified Lord COTTENHAM 'S view. A minor point Lord BROUGHAM used for some purposes of making fun,—that under his rival's bill insolvent Princes and Peers would become bankrupts, as if they were " traders. Peers very often are traders—coal-dealers, corn-dealers, bankers, merchants, and the like. Moreover, if Peers and Princes will be insolvent like other people, why not treat them like other people in respect to their in- solvency ? Or if they must be treated differently, let it be as a privilege, not by a general law ; and let a separate act secure their immunity in that fraud and extravagance which Lord BROUGHAM'S bill regards as criminal in commoners. His jokes about bankrupt Princes of Wales do not get rid of the impression, that it would be much better to have one court for the two kinds of insolvency which are distinguished by the names " insolvency " and " bank- ruptcy," with so little substantial difference that the choice of the process is often with the insolvent a mere question of expense. The composite and trimming bill, however, would effect an im- provement ; and more may be done by and by Lord ASHLEY, rather late in the day, has produced another of his long statements with a philanthropic motion, this time in behalf of lunatics. Everybody complimented him; Sir JAMES GRAHAM pro- mised to do something ; and the matter was deferred till—next session; with better prospects of some practical result, however, than many measures so deferred. Lord ASHLEY'S disclosures will do good : they will—perhaps next year—carry hope and comfort to many a miserable being whose ill-disciplined conduct has en- abled others wrongfully to confine him—to many a despairing wretch shuddering under cruelties cowardly inflicted on his help- lessness. Things actually occur now, and often occur, as bad as the atrocities disclosed in 1816: it is disgraceful that almost thirty years should elapse and still there should be such tales to tell; so long does it take to move Cabinets and Parliament to do right! There seems now, however, a happier disposition to do a benefit to mankind—next year, always next year. The new Government-instructions to officers of the Navy engaged in the suppression of the slave-trade, and the new plan of cruising, have been promulgated by Lord ABERDEEN. Hitherto, with a slo- venly neglect of practical details characteristic of the whole system, instructions to officers have been a farce—diplomatic treaties have been tossed to the sailors, at sea, without a word of advice or ex- planation : henceforth all is to be cut and dry, and "every diffi- culty" is to be provided for. That is well—if possible. The cruising also is to be more judiciously contrived : instead of trying to catch the slavers after they have got away, cruisers are to look for them at their starting-places, on the coast of Africa : the wasps are to be watched for, not all about the field, but at the mouth of the nest. A few ships are still to cruise about the South American coast, lurking behind the wicket to stop balls missed by the bat ; though Lord ABERDEEN says the bats- men are so very sure that no balls will be missed. These are a sort of improvements : they patch up the existing sys- tem—give it a gloss that looks like new. But they do not in the slightest degree touch the root of the evil : they do not make one step towards showing that free labour may be more pro- fitable, more worldly-wise, than slave labour ; and till that is done all other labour is vain. The Coast-Guard, that costs millions sterling, to blockade the shores of our own little island, backed by all our police, " honest traders' " vigilance, and civilization, can- not contend against ten per cent profit ; and yet we send a few sailors to fight against hundreds per cent, African savagery, Ameri- can and Spanish bad faith, and the spanless Atlantic ! Lord CLA- RENDON pointed out the fallacy ; and, with a completeness of view that makes us hail him as an invaluable coadjutor, said how the battle of slave-trade-suppression must be fought and won in the commercial field of our own West Indies.
