At home the interest of the week has mainly centred
on Mr. Lowe, just now the enfant terrible of the Cabinet. The Committee on the Zanzibar Mail Contract has disallowed the contract ap- proved by the Exchequer ; there has been a fierce debate on the Post-Office Scandal, in which the Treasury escaped a formal censure by a vote of 161 to 111, mainly because, as Mr. Bernal Osborne roundly said, " the Government was decaying and the Opposition worn out; "and there has been a debate on an Embank- ment Bill, in which it has been'shown that the Treasury and the Department of Public Works are so bitterly hostile to each other, that Mr. Lowe devises and states in Parliament plans of his own for large buildings without consulting Mr. Ayrton, while Mr. Ayrton bluntly refuses to be responsible for the votes of his department. On Wednesday, the quarrel ended in a regular scene, which made all sincere well-wishers of Parliamentary Government wish heartily that both officials could be comfortably relegated to private life,—Mr. Lowe for his spirit of despotism, and Mr. Ayrton for his contempt for necessary discipline.
