NEWS OF THE WEEK.
Peers have met for scarcely any thing but to adjourn. The Com-
mons have not been allowed to escape quite so easily ; for they have -been made the recipients of some of those sterile speeches that
certain Members assume the privilege of making. One night
there was a Committee of Supply, and Mr. SHARMAN CRAWFORD seized the occasion to make a hindering but hesitating move in his plan for extorting redress of grievances by stopping the votes of money till after Easter. He specified no definite grievances to be inquired into ; he pointed out no means of getting rid of any ; he did not allege that the House would be in a fitter condition to dis- cuss the Navy Estimates on a day in April than on the 26th of February. This project of stopping the Supplies had already re- ceived a distinct condemnation in the faint support accorded to it when first attempted ; and now it was supported by a minority so small as to show that the House of 'Commons has a growing dislike to condemn itself as spurious and incompetent, on the simple ex- hortation of Mr. SHARMAN CRAWFORD. What is the use, then, of making the same proposition and saying nearly the same things over and over again ? The assertion of a principle, though coun- tenanced only by a small minority, may succeed after a time in winning converts ; but not the attempt to obtrude a special plan of immediate action which has been rejected as idle, particularly in so feeble a manner as Mr. CRAWFORD'S importunity assumed. It can result in nothing but ridicule. Ridicule is a perilous thing for a reflective enthusiast like Mr. CRAWFORD to encounter. It has less dangers for that jolly sailor Sir CHARLES NAPIER ; for although his hobby, of reforming the Naval administration, so naively and pertinaciously urged, is laughable, yet there is a characteristic heedlessness mingled with the Commodore's sense and humour, that prevents people from expecting him always to be judicious as well as amusing. It may be a bore to delay the Committee while listening to the annual scheme of the sailor ashore ; so is the rough shaving of Neptune on crossing the Line a bore : but all of us allow gre indulgence to the frolics of honest Jack Tar—partly because ot help it.
ALLACE has had his annual tilt at the Scotch Judges; w 5, according to him, are the most incompetent, the laziest, and the most superabundant set of rascals in Christendom. Consi- dering how they obstruct and pollute the stream of justice it is a mercy that there is any law left in Scotland, and that all is not anarchy and confusion. It seems to be doubted, however, whether they are quite so black as they are painted; for not a soul would testify to the truth of Mr. WALLACE'S representation by seconding his motion for shortening the Judges' holydays. The over-active Member is in the mortifying position of a man who has volun- teered a piece of buffoonery in company, at which nobody laughs ; so that the wit, instead of becoming the lord of fun, sneaks back into conspicuous obscurity. Moreover, Mr. WALLACE had stolen a march upon the House, and had put on the Notice-paper the draft of a speech, as preamble to his resolution ; an irregularity which he shrank from carrying out in actually making his motion, and which drew upon him a rebuke from Mr. SPEAKER. Altoge- ther, it was an humiliating exhibition. Mr. WALLACE is, or he once seemed, capable of better things ; and if his restless egotism forbids repose, at least he might select subjects which do not need a kind of oratory beyond his reach, to command attention. Lord Joust MANNERS has been interposing on behalf of Don CARLOS ; whom he would have released from confinement at Bourges. If the Prince would pledge his word not to return to Spain, he might walk out at once ; but he will not take that pledge. Not a reason could Lord JOHN and "Young England" assign for sympathizing with the exile, except that he is an exile and the re- presentative of legitimacy, and that he has an inconvenient lodging
and a small income. As to his lodging, he has refused better ; his income, for a pauper, is at least far removed from destitution. As a war-leader, Don CeaLos only signalized himself by descending to the cruelest barbarisms of Spain ; as a statesman, his twaddling pretensions and blundering incapacity rendered him contemptible ; and the whine now raised on petty points of personal privation is not likely to redeem his character in banishment. A more use- less man, one less calculated to possess the respect of the English people, it is impossible to imagine. This was Young England's folly of the week ; and truly, such sallies are the readiest way in the world to counteract the good opinion which people were dis- posed to extend to the juvenile clique for some show of ingenuous feeling and parts. What on earth can be thought of lads who set up Don CAELos as their demigod ? Luckily, Young England was not unanimous in the freak.
There has been some talk about other matters—Harbours of Refuge, Railways in Ireland, the Clontarf Proclamation, and other things ; still with no result but words.
Deeds, however, have not been utterly neglected. The Lord- Advocate has brought in a bill to amend the Prison system of Scotland ; the Earl of LINCOLN, one to regulate Building in the Metropolis; Lord WORSLEY has reintroduced his General Enclo- sure Bill, somewhat modified. But the greatest diligence in work done has been exhibited in the passing of the Horse-racing Penal- ties Bill, to protect certain persons who find that a law is unjust, because, having infringed it, it is turned against themselves. They plead that they are taken by surprise. Admit the plea and bills of indemnity should be brought in for every unusual or unexpected application of the laws. Mr. Cualsrts has a case in point : an un- expected application of the law subjects certain opponents of church-rates at Norwich to criminal proceedings : indemnify them, says Mr. CHRISTIE, on your new principle. Not a bit of it. There is no danger that Parliament will pass the yearly multitude of in- demnity-bills of which the principle involves the necessity, for noble Lords and honourable Members are not personally interested in the consequences of other visitations of the law. A return to the House of Commons throws light on the affair, and on the con- currence of the most opposite parties to further this bill for evading the law—it shows several Members of Parliament, Peers, and their connexions, among the delinquents. Sir Roamer PEEL'S brother, for example, is one : the Premier looks grave, solemnly reprobates the bill, but pushes it forward and votes for it : like a father detect- ing his son in a peccadillo, he frowns, sacrifices an "Oh fie!" to the honour of paternal dignity, but writes a check for "the da- mages." Liberal Members who detest "class legislation" are sin- gularly alive to "peculiar circumstances" in this case. Why, there are "peculiar circumstances" in every case, to which inte- rested parties are always alive, and which always satisfy the con- science ; only legislators cannot feel them except in the case of wealthy sportsmen, their friends. The country has not heard the last of this gross misdeed. It will be flung in the teeth of Parlia- ment again and again, possibly in more angry times; for at such times is it that the insolent preference of class interest to justice in trivial matters like this is always remembered. Nothing so truly " revolutionary " has been done for many a day, by any party.
The most advantageous kind of idleness was that on Wednesday, when neither House sat. There was a time, after the passing of the Reform Bill, when holydays stolen by Parliament were jealously watched as neglect of duty ; for then people indulged the fond il- lusion that Parliament had been rendered able and willing to accom- plish all manner of good for them. But that is gone by. Members still keep up the sound of bustling business ; but they do little, and that little all the worse for the fuss they make about it. The Times hails the frank adjournment over the Wednesday as conducive to real business; since the unceasing talk prevents Members from mastering their subjects, makes them the slaves of their own tongues, and puts real statesmen on a level with the mere speaking- machines that abound in "the House." It is a real gain of time ; and not the least so to the public, who are probably saved some hours in reading a jumble of words, which the newspapers compete with each other to report as fully as possible. That is accounted the best report that conveys to you unabated the full bushel of Gra- tiano's chaff. The Morning. Chronicle asks, "why on earth do we repeat all the rubbish which no one listens to in the House itself?" Being itself the greatest sinner in that respect, the Chronicle best can answer. But it displays a willingness to amend, and invites the press to consider the appropriate remedy—the apportioning of space more to the value of the speeshes. The Leading Journal could best begin, because it could best brave at first the spurious competition to get out the longest reports. Let the practice, then, be adopted, of giving only room for the two grains of wheat, omit- ting the chaff. Both journals and readers would benefit by the change.
