NEWS OF THE WEEK.
T"political kaleidoscope has shifted again. Last week it seemed certain that the Government would go out, this week everybody is talking of the ease with which, after their conces- sions, the Bill may be amended into a fair compromise. There is, of course, the usual multiplicity of contradictory reports, but we incline to believe the following worth a moment's attention. Mr. Gladstone, though disgusted alike with the Bill and the Govern- ment, is aware that a great body of members of both parties would sacrifice anything, their consciences included, if they could only get Reform passed out of the way, and is, moreover, reluctant to tell the liberals distinctly they must either obey orders or find another chief. Consequently, he will strive rather to amend than to throw out the Bill, and if Mr. Disraeli can keep honest for a month, can, that is, abstain from trying to hoodwink the House of Commons, which has too many eyes for his handkerchief, the Bill as amended may pass, to the boundless relief of all politicians, who feel as if they were getting congestion of the brain from a surfeit of Reform details. If this kind of thing goes on much longer we shall have the Bishop of Oxford anathematizing Reform in monosyllables, and the editor of the Record praying for the compound house- holder, and shall not be able for once to condemn either of them.
