NEWS OF THE WEEK.

THE hostility of the Tories to the more important provisions of the Corporation Reform Bill, was fully developed during the early THE hostility of the Tories to the more important provisions of the Corporation Reform Bill, was fully developed during the early

part of the week. They would not even allow the bill to go into Committee without an attempt to damage it, by a resolution, moved by Mr. PRAED, which would have had the effect of pre- serving not only to the existing race of freemen, but to their de- scendants, the privileges which have been so grossly abused, and are found to be so utterly inconsistent with good municipal govern- ment. The majority, however, would not sanction this mode of proceeding; and Mr. PRAED was compelled to withdraw his reso- lution.

The first struggle in the Committee was on Monday, on the third clause ; which provides that the King in Chuneil—that is to say, the Minister for the time being—should settle the bounda- ries of those municipal boroughs whose limits are not fixed by the Parliamentary Boundary Act. The Tories pretended ex- cessive alarm for the rights of the subject and tile privileges of

the House of Commons. Mr. GOULBURN solemnly reminded the Committee, that the House of Commons alone had the power of taxing the subject; whereas this unconstitutional clause would enable the King to say who should and who should not be taxed. Mr. O'CONNELL endeavoured to allay Mr. GOCI-13URNS constitu- tional anxiety, by assuring him that the bill provided that all who were taxed would have the right of voting for representatives in the Municipal Parliament. But the Tories would not be com- forted; and although it was demonstrated that the bill would be rendered unworkable for twelve or eighteen months if the boun- daries were to be settled by Parliament, still, in spite of their vehement desire to put an end to municipal misgovernment, they divided the Committee against Ministers; and--were defeated, by a majority of 87; the numbers being 279 to 192. This was an inauspicious commencement of the work of muti- lation and obstruction ; but the Tories were not discouraged, and renewed the attack on the following night. The ninth clause of the bill enacts, that occupancy and payment of rates alone shall entitle a person to be placed on the burgess-roll. The effect of this would be to prevent any freemen after the existing generation from voting either for members of the Town-Council or for Members of Parliament. The children of freemen not enrolled at the passing of the bill, and apprentices, will have to obtain the franchise, if at all, by virtue of occupancy and rate- paying. It is plain that this would put an end to a vast deal of bribery and political corruption with the lives of the present free- men. The Tories dread the idea of extinguishing at any time, present or future, a race of voters whose votes are to be bought. Sir WILLIAM FOLLETT therefore moved to continue to the free- men and their descendants the rights secured to them by the Reform Act. But it was honestly admitted by Lord JOHN RUSSELL, that those rights were only granted in order to smooth the passage of the Reform Bill through the House of Peers, and that the clause which preserved them was a blot on the bill. It was in vain .urged by Lord STANLEY and Sir JAMES GRAHAM, that the Reform Act was " a final measure ; " it was vainly con- tended that to pass the clause under discussion would be a viola- tion of the compact with the House of Peers : the majority refused to be bound by the private understanding of any set of Cabinet Ministers, and denied the power of any Government to enter into a compact with the House of Peers for the preservation of an abuse. An the'Dries, a few Radicals, and the passengers in Lord STANLEY'S " voted against the clause; but it was carried nevertheless, by 278 to 232. Of course, nobody is surprised that Lord STANLEY and his sec- tion coalesced with the Tories on this question ; but we hold it to be the reverse of desirable, on any occasion, that a member of the Liberal party should join the faction; and we are surprised that the Hurst vote of the new Member for Hull should have been eii:lisgii,vaert! in aid of a Tory trick. It was an unthrtunate opening

hamentary career, and befitting the late wayward Member for Oldham, or IIExEv HUNT, rather than a sound Reformer and despiser of sophistry, such as we know Colonel Tnompsox to be.

The Municipal Bill sticks at the ninth clause; winch enacts the abolition or the exclusive vii hats Of freemen to the use of com-

mon lands, exemption from toll, and such like. The result of a

long debate on Wednesday night, was a concession on the part of

Lord J IZ r ssELI., that the children of' freemen now born, as well as apprentices, should n it he deprived of certain privileges ; but it has not yet been determined what they are to keep and what they are to lose. \\e cannot approve of giving way on this point. It is evidently a breach of the principle of the measure, though to what extent it does not yet appear. It is difficult to say where you ought to stop, when once you acknowledge inchoate rights in individuals inconsistent with the general good of the community. The bill proceeds on the basis of disregarding all such rights. If there be any departure from this principle, it should. perhaps, be in favour of apprentices who have paid pre- miums for the expected advantages of freedom; and of those who seem, as it were, to have inherited property in common lands. As regards the latter, more especially, would it not be advisable (on the supposition that their rights are acknowledged at all), to em- power the several Town-Councils to buy up their claims? The money might be borrowed on the land, if it is really valuable.

The other great subject of the week, the Ministerial measure of Irish Church Reform, was last night introduced by Lord MORPETH. It deals first with the Tithes, and secondly with the future regu- lation of the Revenues of the Church. It is proposed that the Clergy shall receive 73/. 3.s. out of every 100/. of tithe; that the lay tithe-owner shall have 6S1. out of every IOW.; that the owners of land subject to tithe shall pay 70/. out of every loot. in the shape of a rent-charge on the land. The remainder of the million grant—:360,0001.—is to be applied to the discharge of the arrears of 1834 ; and the landlords are to pay any balance that this sum does not cover. No provision is made for the arrears still due on the years 1831, 1832, and 1833.

As regards the future regulation of the Revenues of the Church in Ireland, these are the main provisions. The presenta- tion to benefices where the Protestants are fewer in number than fifty' is to be suspended,—though where there is only one Protes- tant resident in a parish, provision is made for his spiritual in- struction by the appointment of a curate, or by giving him a claim on the services of the minister of the adjoining parish, who is to be compensated for the additional duty ; the income of bene- fices exceeding 3001. a year is to be reduced to that sum ; unions of parishes arc to be dissolved; and the funds derived from these suppressions and reductions, calculated at something less than 6o,00o/., are to be devoted to the religious and moral instruction of all sects.

From this sketch of the bill, it will be seen that Ministers have not shrunk front the duty of carrying out the principle of Lord JOHN RUSSELL'S resolution. Their plan seems to be very nearly the same as that indicated in Mr. WARD'S resolution of last year; though if that gentleman had drawn up the bill, he would certainly have applied the principle of reduction to the bishoprics as well as the parishes. It was perhaps a matter of prudence not to moot this point at present ; but it will be impossible, after the rank and tile are reduced, to maintain permanently the whole ecclesiastical staff. In the mean time, we can congratulate the country on the comprehensive and just measure of reform which Ministers have had the wisdom and courage to propose. That foolish but self-suflicient person, Lord Viscount MATT" became involved on Wednesday in his second scrape this session. His indecent revelation of the secrets of the Foreign Office rela- tive to Mr. WARD'S Mexican mission, and the precipitate retreat he was glad to make on that occasion, did not escape the observa- tion of the public. On Wednesday, he made a covert attack on the existing Spanish Government, pretending all the while to approve of the Quadruple Treaty, and to be friendly to the Queen of Spain; but maintaining at the same time, that the inhabitants of the Basque provinces had been so ill-used that she ought to have no aid in putting down the insurrection in that quarter. In other words, he approved of the treaty, but did not wish to have it enforced. He preferred sending out a British army under an officer commissioned by the King, and paid by this country, to what he termed the Condottieri, Swiss mode of warfare, about to be pursued by Colonel EVANS and his associates: which is much the same as saying, that he would act in violation of the treaty he pretends to approve of; for the treaty forbids that kind of inter- ference on the part of France and England, and countenances it only on the part of Portugal. Again, because an array of 120,000 Frenchmen was required to oyertOrtl the fjcleroundt of Ow Cortes, agreeable as that Government was to so large a proportion of the Spanish nation, Lord AI AUON argues that a force of 10,000 men will

not materially aid in putting down an insurrection in a portion of the country, not exceeding, according to his own estimate, one twentieth part of the whole kingdom. As if lie had not plunged himself sufficiently deep in this quagmire of foolish hiconsisten-

cies, Lord MAHON must needs use language in reference to the officers and men about to serve under Colonel EVANS, which

showed how he was infected with Tory venom. Coudottieri, mer- cenaries, men ready to light one day on this side and the next (lay on the opposite, were the expressions he applied to the British

levy. Colonel EVANS would not allow the insult to pass un- noticed; and he called Lord MAIJON to amnia, in terms that would probably have compelled his Lordship to do more than talk

of fighting, if the House, as usual, had not interfered and made

up the quarrel. Lord PALMERSTON exposed the blunders and real views of Lord Manox, very completely ; and altogether, the

impression from reading the debate is, that a more contemptible figure was never made in Parliament than by this hopeful scion of the hereditary peerage.

The case of the Dorchester labourers, who were sentenced in the spring of 18.3.1 to seven years' transportation for joining an agricultural union and taking unlawful oaths, was discussed very fully on Thursday. Mr. W.Yar.sv moved an address to the King to pardon and renal the convicts; and supported his motion in a judicious, temperate, and impressive speech. Lord Jon sr informed the House, that a conditional pardon had already been granted to the convicts. Four out of the six arc to have a full pardon, if they conduct themselves well for two years, and will then be allowed to return to England; the other two, who are alleged to be the instigators of the Unionists, are not to be suffered

to return till the expiration of their term of transportation. This mitigation of the sentence did not satisfy Mr. W.11CLEY ; and he divided the House, but was defeated, by :i0s to

There seems to be sonic doubt still as to the legality of the sen- tence by which these men were transported; but it was avowedly

the expression of feeling in their favour by the country that pro- cured the relaxation of their punishment. The original mistake vas the extreme severity of the sentence. A month's imprison- ment would have notified to the Unionists generally, that they were taking an illegal method to compel an advance of wages; and the warning would probably have been sufficient to prevent the liolatien by others °fa law which very few knew to be in existence. The House of Commons treated Mr. Fox MA11LE rather seurvily on Thursday night. A majority of 7 ti to 50 refused him permis- sion even to bring in a bill fur the relief of occupiers of farms froin damage dune by game. We suspect that the Under Secretary is not vet versed in the business of bringing together a Parliamentary majority; and yet it is one that he ought to learn, if he intends to be a useful member of the Government. To be sure, he could scarcely have anticipated such unusual and un- courteous treatment. As the Courier says, the practice was rather