6 NOVEMBER 1852, Page 1

NEWS OF THE WEEK.

To those who expected nothing, the opening-day of the new Parlia- ment will fulfil the expectation ; except perhaps that there may have been some agreeable disappointment at the friendly character of the whole proceeding in the House of Commons. In the House of Lords, what passed was simply form, and of the driest character ; all announcements respecting the business of the session being deferred to a later day. But in the Commons there was some sub- stantial business to be transacted, in the election of the Speaker.

It was expected that Mr. Shaw Lefevre would be elected with- out opposition ; but the courteous and cordial spirit in which the members of the Ministerial party and the leader of the House of Commons joined the Opposition in replacing their old Speaker, had in it something more than a party compromise. Policy may have dictated the avoidance of a contest ; but after the question of di- viding had been settled in the negative, there might have been a formal agreement without that perfect community of feeling which distinguished all who spoke. It does credit to all ; and in the general satisfaction at the shaking of hands before the conflicts of a stirring session, we are indulgently disposed to be pleased rather than surprised at the promptitude with which Sir Robert Inglis put himself forward to bestow his unlooked-for blessing on the regenerate Speaker. He stole a march upon some other independent parties in the House, who seemed to suppose they would have no opportunity of speaking. The Radical party only obtained a slight representa- tion in Mr. Hume's economical speech on costume at the Speaker's levees. But the Free-trade party compensated for its presumed exclusion on the first night, by making the platform an adjunct to Parliament, and putting forth a declaration of its policy in the House from the banquet-table at the Manchester Free-trade Hall. From Mr. Cobden's speech in his place out of Parliament we learn, that the Free-traders intend to stand aloof from all parties, to take steps for bringing the question of Free-trade or Protection to an immediate and decisive issue, and to impose a Free-trade test on all future Cabinets. The precise method of doing so appears to be subject to modification. It may either be by an amendment on the Address, or by a substantive resolution declaring "no confi- dence" in any Ministry that will not accept the Free-trade test. In short, the established faith in Free-trade is to have its thirty- nine articles, minus thirty-eight. The policy of laying down a senipiternal test of that kind may be questioned ; but the imme- diate application of a test on the Free-trade question is more than politic, it is rendered necessary by the equivocal position of Min- isters.