NEWS OF THE WEEK.
PARLIAMENT has not been exclusively engrossed, this week, in fruitless talk about the Corn-laws : other subjects have come in PARLIAMENT has not been exclusively engrossed, this week, in fruitless talk about the Corn-laws : other subjects have come in
question ; and the Corn-law measure itself has made some pro- gress towards a practical issue. Not, indeed, that honourable gentlemen have been able to work at it altogether in silent patience : Mr. WODEHOUSE raised a minor debate, on Monday, in rather a circuitous attempt to exclude the scale of barley-duties ; Mr. REDINGTON made a desperate effort to "protect" oats a little more than Sir ROBERT PEEL intends ; Mr. SMITH O'BRIEN tried to sub- stitute a fixed duty of ls. on Colonial wheat for the new sliding scale : on Wednesday, Mr. EDWARD Bura.Ra outchristophered
CHRISTOPHER in the futile endeavour to displace Sir ROBERT PEEL'S wheat-scale in favour of one of his own—a scale sliding from 20s. at 508. price to 6s. at 648., which he very naively called "free trade" in corn at 64s.! and finally, Mr: HASTIE propounded an ingenious scheme for obviating the fluctuations in supply, price, corn-trade, and currency, without a free trade. Had the last succeeded, it would have equalled the finding of the philosopher's stone. In years of' plenty, when there is a glut in the home - market, there is also great store of foreign corn ready for import, but there is no importation; in years of scarcity, this accumulated store is suddenly poured in, to the derangement of every sort of interest Mr. HASTIE proposed that a yearly importation to the amount of the average deficiency should be encouraged, by ad- mitting a fixed amount (1,000,000 quarters) at the nominal duty of is.; a steady trade, to the extent required by the deficiency, would thus be substituted for the present trade by fits and starts. Flushed with success over all parties, Sir ROBERT PEEL trampled on Mr. HASTIR'S modestly-put suggestion, with more of decision than considerateness either for the propounder's feelings or the merit of the suggestion. The practical difficulties in the way of its application are sufficiently obvious : the purpose and the ingenuity of the general idea deserved some examination. Sir ROBERT, however, hurriedly trod down that last obstacle to the progress of his measure in its first stage ; and the resolutions were finally disposed of on Wednesday, by the order to bring in the bill. Nobody is sorry for the relief from the bootless waste of words which impeded the consummation of the measure, which, it has been for some time perceived, is to be the law. That it will be an improvement, to whatever extent, is undeniable : it is still more certain that it is the only improvement which is to be obtained just now ; and, sooth to say, few are other than desirous of trying it by the only test that can be the real measure of its comparative merits or demerits—practical experience. Any great interest in the Corn question is riow buried with the many nights' debate.
The state of the Law, in several departments, has occupied the attention of both Houses. In the Upper, Lord BRotronAm reintro- duced, with some modification, a measure which he nearly carried nine years ago, for the establishment of Local Courts. His general description of the measure is inviting. It brings justice home to men's doors, by giving to the Local Courts power to adjudicate in cases involving sums to the amount of 501, or to any amount on the mutual agreement of the litigants to bring the case into the court ; and it introduces a new feature into English law, by forming "Courts of Reconcilement." The popular notion of law and jus- tice with us is, that in all cases one party must " win " and another "lose." How opposed that rude disposal of conflicting claims is to substantial justice, is beginning to be felt, and to be acted on in some degree by the increasing resort to arbitration. A plan of "reconciling" the conflict of interests without absolute defeat to either party, is a want in our code : we do not yet know how far Lord BROUGHAM has supplied it. Lord CAMPBELL brought forward three bills, on Tuesday, to systematize and concentrate the Appellate Jurisdiction now co- ordinately exercised by the Privy Council and the House of Lords.
They would enlarge the powers of the House; transfer to it the ju- risdiction of the Judicial Committee of Council; enable the House to sit during the recess for judicial purposes ; and appoint a perma-
nent Judge in the Court of Chancery, in the room of the Lord Chancellor, whose presence would be required in the House of Lords in term-time. Lord LYNDHURST opposed the scheme, as needless ; the more so, as so great an improvement has been effected in Equity business by the appointment of the two new Vice-Chancellors ; and a general indisposition was manifested by the Law Lords to disturb that experiment. So Lord CAMPBELL'S project has little chance of becoming law this session.
A temporary corrective of the Marriage-law of Ireland, to accord with existing customs, by a bill which has just passed the House of Commons, removes a hideous source of disquiet in that country. A late decision of the Irish Judges pronounced marriages between, Presbyterians and members of the Church of England, solemnized
by Presbyterian ministers, invalid : such marriages have been of- continual occurrence in Ulster : the present bill gives validity to those which have already been solemnized. The subject of Prison Discipline was mooted on Tuesday, by Mr. THOMAS DUNCOMBE. He who had so lately tickled the House with the most amusing speech of the session in the debate on Mr. CHRISTOPHER'S motion, now, turning "from lively to severe," made dvery earnest and able exposition of the evils prevailing in the . want of uniformity of our prison system, the arbitrary conduct of. officers, and bad diet. His instances, indeed, are two years old; and Sir JAMES GRAHAM met him with assurances that the two years had seen vast reforms in every particular, and that those re- forms were "to be continued. Mr. WAKLEY, however, properly ob- served that the evil is one of principle. Our prison systeM has been, like our madhouse system, and many other of our systems, a means of botching and concealing evils so great and so disgusting that they seemed to justify indolence by despair of doing good. The dirty work of handling criminals was left to dirty fellows ; and any place was thought good enough for the purpose of housing both kinds of ruffians, gaolers and felons, in squalid security. A beiter understanding is slowly making its way. The well-tried ex- periment at Glasgow Bridewell has proved that the observance of material decencies is as necessary to the conduct of criminals as of any other class to be educated ; that those decencies can only be secured in well-constructed buildings ; and that an efficient system of discipline may be more merciful—indeed it must be so ex neces- sitate rei—and also easier to manage, and even cheaper, than the very worst that has disgraced the foulest of our gaols. Mr. Dux- COMBE seemed to confound the Separate and the Solitary systems : solitude is demoralizing and maddening ; in Glasgow Bridewell, where the prisoners are separated from each other, but where they are frequently visited by the officials and other per- sons, there is a marked propriety in the demeanour of the prisoners, and we understand it is a fact that their health generally improves in the well-conducted, well-dieted, and well-aired prison. To that point, obviously, the regulation of prisons may be brought in England, under a careful and zealous administration. That reached, the desideratum will be the formation of a real discipline for the criminal—a code of compulsory education, to supply as far as possible the arrears which a defective state of society and social education have left in his moral and intellectual training. This is a thing yet to be begun ; but it will be all the easier when the subject is cleared of the extraneous obscurity and filth with which our gaol systems have encumbered it. In that respect Mr. DUNCOMBE'S speech will be of use ; for although no measure may follow, it cannot but act as a very salutary stimulant to the progress of ad- ministrative improvement. The motion which Mr. GouLnussi made on Thursday, on the Exchequer Bill fraud, has been looked for with much interest. His speech involves two propositions. He has obtained leave to bring in a bill for appointing a Parliamentary Commission " to inquire as to the issue, receipt, circulation, and possession of certain forged Exchequer Bills." A thorough investigation will therefore be con- ducted on the highest possible authority ; and Mr. GOULBURN wisely recommended that the result of that inquiry should not be anticipated by any foregone conclusion. With some inconsistency, however, he expressed a very strong opinion against giving com-
pensation to the holders of forged Exchequer Bills ; because to do so would diminish a great check upon fraud, by encouraging care- lessness if not collusion in the receivers of such instruments.
Why, he asked, should the holders of Exchequer Bills be placed on a footing which is not permitted to the holders of other forged
bills and bank-notes ? Because, it might be replied, the show and circumstances of authority upon which the Excherer Bills are issued disarms and supersedes ordinary caution. IN hether such a reply is available or not to the individuals concerned, the Parlia- mentary Commission will pronounce : Mr. Grourmusx was not called upon to prejudge that decision.
