NEWS OF THE WEEK
-RUMOURS of the approaching downfall of the Government have been very persistent this week,—and very baseless. Of course the necessary withdrawal of their licensing proposals has not strengthened them, and it cannot be denied that when the Session closes there will be much more hope in the Glad- stonian camp, and much more anxiety in the Ministerial, than there was when it began ; but there is absolutely no justifica- tion at all for despondency. On Ireland the Parliamentary majority is as thoroughly united as ever, and it is not at all 'unlikely that, after the contest at Barrow-in-Furness has been fought out next Wednesday, the Unionists will be all the stronger for Mr. Caine's resignation. The talk of reconstruc- tion is certainly premature, and, we hope and believe, quite misleading. It is a great thing to have Lord Hartington in reserve if the Salisbury Ministry should do anything that discredits it with the mass of English electors ; but as yet certainly it has not done so. And it would obviously be a serious blunder to fight the great pitched battle of the General Election under any flag which did not fully enlist Conservative enthusiasm in the cause. The most real danger of the moment is the possible dropping of the Irish Land-Purchase Bill for this Session, instead of carrying it over, by an alteration of the Standing Orders, to next Session. That, as we have contended in another column, would be a fatal mistake,—more, indeed, as a sign of diffidence and an omen of weak purpose, than for any loss of time it would involve. Probably the debate on the new Standing Order would consume almost as many nights as the Irish Land-Purchase Bill has already received.
