NEWS OF THE WEEK.
Tire shadow- cast in the sunshine from a tree or any other object ap- pears stationary to the eye ; it is only by noting the change in its length or direction at considerable intervals that one is made to feel the world is moving and time slipping away. Even so with the business of Parliament. It is difficult to persuade ourselves that measures make any progress except by comparing their actual po- sition with that which they occupied some time back. The Jewish Disabilities Bill having been read a third time, and Lord John
Russell having attained the close of the debates in the Commons on the Ecclesiastical Titles Bill, the conclusion is forced upon us that the session will have an end.
It is not easy to conjecture whether Ministers are satisfied or
otherwise with the shape in which the Anti-Papal measure is passing the Commons. The desertion of the Irish Romanist Mem- bers and their few English allies, after the personal altercation between the-Premier, Mr. Keogh, and Mr. Hayter, at the.flesa of last week, compelled Lord John to acquiesce in Sir-Frederick Thesiger's amendments. The pill of a defeat is at any time a bitter one to swallow ; yet the alterations have made the measure considerably more conformable to the Durham letter ; and perhaps Lord John may lay the flattering unction to his soul that they are likely to render his bill more acceptable to the Opposition in the House of Lords.
The Jewish Disabilities Bill has encountered no real opposition
in the House of Commons. It has passed with a few indolent growls from a conscious minority. Its enemies in the Lower House have left to the Peers the invidious task of rejecting the bill. The result of the Greenwich election, however, will show their Lord- ships that opinion out of doors continues favourable to the Jew- ish claims, and that their concession, though it may be staved off, cannot ultimately be avoided. At the same time, notwithstanding his bold words on the hustings, the second Jewish Member of the Commons appears disposed to be as tardy in pushing himself into the House as the first. Mr. Salomons told the electors at the nomina- tion' that he would act with more decision than Baron Rothschild; but Mr. Salomons after his return holds very different language. He has all of a sudden discovered that the Lords have a nicer sense of honour than the Commons, and are less likely to oppose his taking his seat on technical difficulties. In plain English, Mr. Salomons seems contented to write " M.P." after his name, and to consider the power to exercise the functions of legislator as of secondary im- portance.
Mr. Herries has finally declined to take any part in a renewed financial contest for the present session. Mr. Disraeli has gone through the forms ; but all that he has taken by his motion is a de- feat by an increased majority,—although Manchester, unaccount- ably enough, preserved a neutral attitude. The only remarkable speech in the brief debate was Mr. Gladstone's. The acute Mem- ber for the University of Oxford alone appears to be looking ahead : he is noting accurately the indications of feeling with regard to the Income-tax, and casting about for the means of main- taining intact the Peel commercial and financial policy, in the event of an incompetent Chancellor of the Exchequer being assailed next session with a vigorous demonstration against direct taxation in its present form. Ministers are no doubt congratulating themselves on the respite afforded them by the temporary absence of Lord Stanley, occa- sioned by the death of his father the Earl of Derby. The extent and urgency of the "whip" to meet his motion on the affairs of the Cape betrayed the magnitude of their fears. Their hesitation to terminate the :thereby in that disturbed colony by an act of Parliament looks like infatuation. They have professed a deter- mination to give an elective Legislature to . the Cape ; they are en- treated by the Governor and by the colonists to mediate between them, and enact the representative constitution at once ; they know that there are at least doubts of the legality of the actual local government, sufficient to prevent any man from acting under it : yet, by refusing to legislate, they leave just discontent to fester into rebellion.
The County Courts Extension Bill and the Court of Chancery and Judicial Committee Bill have been passed through Committee of the Commons. Assuredly, not too early. There was truth as well as point in Lord Brougham's remark on Thursday, that whereas in the time of Lord Eldon the Peers obstructed the law reforms of the Commons, the Lower-House is more adroitly used by the present incumbent of the Woolsack to arrest the reforms which pass the Lords. The game, however, is beginning to be seen through : though the Commons cried " Order !" when Mr. Fitzroy adverted indignantly to the supercilious language in which Lord Truro spoke of the County Court Judges, this only proved that Mr. Fitzroy had touched a sore place.
The Marquis of Blandford's motion for an address to the Crown urging a more equitable division of the revenues of the Established Church was met by Ministers in a most characteristic manner. After waiting to see whether Mr. Hume and the Marquis might not raise a dust by their discrepant motions, under which Minis- ters might escape from the address, and at last seeing that Mr. Hume prudently withdrew his amendment, Sir George Grey de-, dared that Government would not oppose Lord Blandford's motion, as it "did not pledge them to introduce any measure."
The only other noticeable Parliamentary incident of the week is the great Chicory debate. More emphatic nonsense has seldom been crowded into so brief a space. The chicory-growers affected to believe that their ruin is certain unless grocers are left free to adulterate coffee with horse-beans and more de- literious ingredients ; and the coffee-growers are clamorous for the imposition of a heavy duty on chicory, or the reduction of the duty on coffee, though it is admitted on all hands that chicory is the least objectionable substitute sold under the name of that commodity. The worst feature of the affair is the low state of public morality and public intelligence, indicated by the opinion that tradesmen cannot help cheating, and that con= sumers are contented to he deceived with their -eyes open, and pur- chase in the name of coffee some mysterious substitute sold at a price for which nobody could afford to supply coffee.,
