6 MARCH 1841, Page 1

NEWS OF THE WEEK.

THE last Irish measure introduced by the Government turns out like all the rest of the Irish counterfeits. The kind of ruse has so lost its effect by repetition, that an attempt was felt to be necessary to throw a fresh gloss upon it in order to give it a guise of newness and genuineness ; and accordingly Lord JOHN RUSSELL at first made honourable Members on both sides of the House raise their eyebrows, by saying that, instead of keeping the measure back for use throughout the session, he meant to carry it forward without delay. Ministers, however, are not quite so rich in expedients that they can thus easily dispose of their newest and best : so, on Monday night, Lord JOHN made the much more con- genial announcement, that the bill was to stand over for a while— to some time even beyond the 1st of April: the 23rd of April is the , day which he happened to mention. The Whigs have always some spe- cial and all-sufficient reason for such postponements, and this time the reason is unusually cogent and amusing : they cannot go on with the bill, because they have not sufficient information on the sub- ject of its main provision to enable them to come to a final deci- -sion upon it. They were in such a hurry to bring in some showy -bill to drive Lord STANLEY'S out of the market, that they positively botched up one in ignorance of its probable working; and before they can venture to offer it out and out for the deliberate refusal of a Committee, they must carry it back to the workshop, and take it to pieces again, and remake it, or rather, learn how to make it. They need more information, they say, about the Poor-law-rating, which is the basis of their franchise, before they can determine what the franchise shall be: the five-pound franchise was a toy for the hour, all pasteboard and tinsel. And so the House of Com- mons must wait awhile, that Ministers may begin to frame the bill which they have already induced the House to accept. Lord STAN- LEY was quite aghast at the subterfuge through which his despe- rate onset was made to be wasted in a vacated field; and hacknied Ministerial backers, who would have voted with Lord JOHN the next minute whatever he chose to affirm, almost blushed as they whispered, "Really, this is too barefaced." In the mean time, Ministers have the use of the "new Reform Bill" for two months of the session, at least.

Lord STANLEY might fume and Sir ROBERT PEEL look scan- dalized ; but the herd of honourable Members probably were not displeased at the delay of one whipping-in, if we may judge by their listlessness after the vast effort of last week. They met -on Monday to pass the Navy Estimates ; and the discussions to which they gave rise were but languidly sustained. Mr. HUME'S economical protestations wanted aim and vigour; and he found none but his strange Achates, Colonel SIBTHORP, Lord CLAUDE HAMILTON, and five mute voters, to support him in the battle. When Mr. MORE O'FERRALL claimed credit for rigid parsimony, and threw upon the Tories the odious charge of being eager to en- gage in lavish warlike expense, the manmuvre was but feebly re- sisted. These Estimates include a balance of payment amounting to no less than 160,0001. which ought to have been included in the Estimates last year. Sir ROBERT PEEL and others asked why this item in the account had been kept from the knowledge of Parlia- ment at the fitting time ? why Parliament was not asked for its sanction before the expense was incurred, instead of afterwards ? "Oh," say Ministers, "we wanted the money to prepare for meet- ing the warlike proceedings of France : but if we had openly asked for it, France would have been alarmed, and we could not have ef- fected the reconciliation, which we are now happy to announce to the House : and surely 160,0001. is not much to pay for maintaining the peace of Europe." Sir ROBERT PEEL admitted the plea, though he was afraid of the " precedent " : but Lord JOHN RUS- SELL assured him that there could be no precedent. What will Lord JOHN say next year? Possibly it may take rather more to maintain the peace of America and the Atlantic than it did to maintain " the peace of Europe" and the Mediterranean : will Ministers again come as suitors to Parliament with supplemental [LATEST EDITION.]

votes for unauthorized augmentations of the forces, which seem to be wrung from them by Tory importunity, while they derive credit from the lightened estimate ?—the estimate being the thing, too, which attracts attention, while a supplemental vote passes compa- ratively unheeded ?

Lord MELBOURNE'S friends on the benches opposite to him have learned a few things about the Church of Scotland, no less than he has : the Earl of ABERDEEN replied to the leading question of his neighbour the Earl of Daramusie, last Tuesday, that he did not mean to go on with his bill for settling the dispute in the Church. The extreme party, he has at last discovered, seek to destroy that species of heritable property called patronage ; and he has also found out that the law is sufficient to restrain the mad churchmen, whose appetite for ecclesiastical do- mination is rather whetted than appeased by his offer of concession. Lord ABERDEEN, like Lord MELBOURNE, wisely determines to cease coaxing the insatiable dragon of the Church. In doing so, however, he recommended his noble friend and fellow pupil in ex- perience, to look a little better after his stray dependents, who have been coquetting with the clerical revolters. His praise of Mr. ANDREW RUTHERFORD, the Lord-Advocate, for not openly joining in the heated festivities of the party who are in flagrant re- bellion against the law of which he is a chief officer, was a keen stroke of irony. At the very time, perhaps, that Lord ABERDEEN was speaking, one of the stout supporters of the Scotch Calvinistic Popery, Mr. COLQUUOUN, made a vehement attack upon an outpost of the aged and quiescent Popery of Rome. He has brought in a bill to repeal two Irish acts regulating Maynooth College, with a view to release Members who refrain from voting against the annual grant, because they scruple to touch that which the law recognizes as one of the national institutions. As the "Representative of all Ire- land" did not lay much stress upon the breach of the compact involved in the Union, it were needless to urge it here ; or else it might be asked, how Mr. COLQUHOUN'S nice conscience could be relieved by his persuading Parliament to a wholesale infraction of a national bargain, to which he feels bound individually ? Mr. COLQUHOUN'S bill, however, seemed to create no alarm : it was only an excuse for a little " No Popery" speechmaking, which may shortly be useful at Kilmarnock.

Government having cast off the long-used question of Church- rates, Mr. EASTHOPE has taken up the subject. The bill of which he has given notice, we understand, goes simply to abolish the levy of rates, leaving Government or the Church itself to find other means of providing for the needful expenses of the Establishment than by the present indecorous system of brawling meetings, ex- pensive litigations, and odious imprisonments.