NEWS OF THE WEEK.
THE new Parliament met on Thursday, and many of the Members saw each other for the first time. They have before them a clear stage, and no unfavourable construction. The public, we believe, concurs with us in discontinuing the fashion of classifying the Members, either new or even old, according to the party nicknames. The lists which we give in our Supplement seek to supply such information as is really available, without the delusion involved in placing Members in categories to which they may not really belong. They will be judged not by any such verbal distinction, but by their eats.
The first business before the House was the election of Speaker. All doubts which have been expressed upon the subject were settled by the unanimous election of Mr. John Evelyn Denison, the Member for North Nottinghamshire. Not a shadow of resistance was offered, not even a question raised. If any misgiving had existed as to the absence of certain qualifications in a practical know
ledge of Parliamentary business, it was in great part dispelled by the assurances of Mr. Thornely, that Mr. Denison had all the requisite experience, an unusual amount of practice, and steady observation, to fit him even for the most technical duties of the Speakership. He ascended the chair with the customary congratulation of the leader of the House of Commons, seconded by one of the gentlemen who has been named as his probable rival. Great was the contrast, in that perfect unanimity, that unbroken peace, with the first scene in the Reformed Parliament, when the triumphant Ministers were proposino.e' to continue the Tory Manners Sutton in the chair, and Joseph Hume was bringing forward Mr. Edward Littleton with the support of Cobbett and O'Connell, the Radical and the Repealer. In those days the very name of Tory was enough to rouse the spirit of destruction on the Liberal side : at the present day the difficulty is to draw a distinct line between the two sides, and the Speaker named by one is welcomed by the other.
Both the Members who moved and seconded the appointment of Mr. Denison alluded to the immense increase of private business, which would require further improvements in the methods of the House in order to keep pace with the public wants ; and as a practical improvement, Mr. Thornely suggested a curtailment of speeches in debate, with some expediting of official speeches at an early hour in the evening. Should the suggestion be carried out spontaneously, it would be a real improvement ; but the greatest relief to the burden of business which the House encounters on its first meeting would lie in the direction of the private business. The new House, comprising a large number of inexperienced Members, has to take up the two hundred Private Bills left by the last House,* in addition to any other bills that may be introduced. Of this number, 105 are for railways ; 29 for bridges, roads, docks, and harbours ; 28 for gas and water-. works,—all of them local matters. The true business of the House of Commons would be, to pass general laws for all such matters, leaving the application of the general laws to a local
* Bee a list of Private Bills in the last page of our present Supplement.
jurisdiction ; and if the new House really desires to conduct the national business unobstructed, it will call upon its leading men to assist in sending back local business to the local authorities. It is an important fact that this obstructive burden is recognized even before the House begin's the work of the session.
The Duchess of Gloucester has closed a long life, not =checkered, not without its sorrows or its solaces. Her death removes the last of George the Third's children—the last royal link with a past political regime. The Princess Mary was one of the best, certainly the most amiable of his immediate family. Fast in her affections, she was able to enjoy to the last the unremitting attention which she received from her relatives—a testimony alike to her own character and to theirs.
The Grand Duke Constantine has been making a reconnaissance at Toulon, after the fashion of Peter the Great, learning amid trophies of Russia's defeat bow she may win next time ; and he has arrived in Paris, no doubt to see what he can pick up in the market of empires. France will try to get something out of the Russian traveller ; the Russian traveller will seek to carry home more than an equivalent.
The Neuchitel Conference is reported to have been formally closed ; Switzerland hiving accepted the terms, which prove to be less unsatisfactory for the Republic than they looked in the earlier description.
New lights are thrown upon the union of the Danubian Principalities, in the interest of the Roumans, who desire it, on a speculation that their own local energy will beat the designs of Russia as well as Turkey ; and the balance of council seems to be now decidedly inclining to the union.
The full correspondence brought by the India mail from China, of which we had a very meagre foretaste in our last Postscript, recounts the stationary state of matters at Canton, and something like a general emeute of the Chinese against the British wherever the two races come in contact—in the Indian Archipelago as well as in China and at Hongkong. We have no evidence that the extended movement originated either with the Government at Pekin or with the local Government at Canton. It is more like an instinctive antipathy on the part of the Mongol race : but there are other motives mixed up with this semi-national feeling. The capture of the Queen steamer by the Chinese passengers and crew, with the slaughter of the Europeans on board, may have been undertaken in the indulgence of a vindictive feeling ; but with that motive was mixed the hope of prize-money from Yeh, and a desire to seize a considerable booty in the cargo. Various motives may have instigated the insurrection at Sarawak against the authority of Sir James Brooke. One amount imputes it to a severity exercised against opium-smugglers. Sir James ascribes it to machinations of an agitator from Singapore. The seizing of the Gulnare by coolie emigrants, and the spiking of the guns on board several steamers plying at Hongkong, are indications that some sort of conspiracy is very widespread. Sympathy for "the fierce people" of Canton may be the original incentive, but mingling with it are the schemes of individual adventurers. The more scattered the movement is, the more contemptible it is in one sense, the more difficult is it to combat in the ordinary way. If the Imperial Government at Pekin or even the Provincial Government at Canton were the instigator, the whole conspiracy migEt be terminated by a single victory ; but it is not so certain that such an effect would be produced where the parties engaged pay such a very divided and doubtful obedience to their own rulers. All circumstances, however, point to the policy of a speedy and decisive blow at Canton, as the centre of the inimical feeling. According to the account given by Sir John Davis in a paper which he read at the Geographical Society this week, it would not be difficult to seize Canton5 or to keep it The blow would be severe ; it would probably put down the strongest ringleaders ; it would soon become notorious throughout the whole Mongol region ; and the moral effect might be equivalent to an ordinary victory over a responsible Government. There are some signs of trouble, different in its kind, among the native imps in India, Mutiny had broken out in &enrol
places, of which three are already named,—a depot in the Madras Presidency, Berharapore in the Bengal Presidency, and the great depot at Barrackpore near Calcutta. The causes vary. The worst case had occurred in the Nineteenth Regiment; and it had perhaps been rather aggravated by a want of decision on the part of Colonel Mitchell, the officer in command at Berhampore. When the men mutinied, and he ordered them to ground arms, he consented to the stipulation which they made that the artillery should be previously withdrawn. Higher authorities have sentenced the regiment to be disbanded, and it was ordered to Barrackpore for that purpose. But at Barrackpore some thousands of the troops were already in a mutinous state ; it is probable that the Nineteenth might refuse to separate ; and in that case capital punishment would be inflicted on the whole body—other troops would be drawn round, it, and it would be shot down. A deplorable necessity ! The mutinous spirit in the Bengal Presidency is imputed to squabbles arising out of the institution of caste, and the incidents may probably lead to the reorganizing of the Indian forces generally, on the Bombay plan, which disregards caste. The most general cause is supposed to be want of employment ; and it has already been suggested, both in India and London, that China offers a ready field for that active service by which the discipline of the disaffected troops may be restored.
Although the Government of the United States has 'thought it expedient to decline " cooperation " with France and England in China, it has taken steps to join itt any action upon the spot which may be requisite for the protection of American interests, and which in fact may assist in protecting European interests generally. A person of trust, Mr. W. B. Reed, has been appointed Minister Extraordinary ; and on his way from Washington to Canton or to Pekin, he will " communicate " with the Governments at London and Paris—of course in order to explain the character of his own mission, and to obtain information as to the future proceedings of France and England. The naval force at his disposal will be strengthened : a hint that the representatives of the United States in the waters of China will act with more energy than they have done hitherto, and that they will not act in antagonism to France and England, although abstaining from a formal cooperation.
Some trouble appears to be preparing for the new American Government, as it were behind its back. Judge Drummond, Chief of the Federal Court in the distant territory of Utah, has reported that the Mormons in their fanaticism refuse to carry his decrees into execution : the authority of the Federal Government is mutinously defied by citizens who are principally emigrants from this country, and whose whole system of laws, religion, and morals, equally defy the constitution and opinion of the rest of the Union. It seems to be expected that the Federal Government will once more try to put down the Mormons : will they dissolve, or will they make a stand-up fight, or will they again emigrate further to the North-west ?
And there is a still more troublous sign nearer home. In the " empire state " of New York, a joint committee of the Senate and Representatives has reported resolutions which amount to a vehement censure on the " inhuman " decision of Chief Justice Taney in the Bred Scott case, and the initiation of a rebellion against the declared law that "State rights" do not extend to conferring rights of any kind on persons of African blood. New York is proposing to adopt a law very like that of England, by which the simple act of standing on its soil would give freedom.
The bleakness of the weather is ominous, and in Ireland it is causing serious alarm. The farmer cannot get at the land ; the sowing-time for corn and potatoes is passing away ; and the possibility that a narrower breadth may be planted with human food has already contributed to the doubling of the price of potatoes. A change of weather seems to be the universal prayer ; and riots of the people in various parts of the kingdom, to prevent the export of potatoes, show the fierceness of the anxiety.
Probably the causes for solicitude are not quite so urgent in England ; yet "the weather" is. becoming more than a commonplace question.
In France, if the season is not quite so backward, the need for abundance is far more crying, and more dangerous. Another bad season would indeed be a calamity there.
