NEWS OF THE WEEK.
THE daily papers are again flooded with that heavy-looking mass of type that daunts the breakfast-reader and club-lounge_,r, and all the world knows that Parliament has been opened. To the blank expeetancy without interest, has succeeded something more like hope that business will really be done this session. The Speech which the Queen read, more than usually unam- bitious in its language, was fuller of what, with the admitted licences of such a document, may pass for promises. It has in- deed its stereotyped passages, such as the assurances of continued friendship from Foreign Powers • but even they derived life from our having actually seen, rather lately, two of the aforesaid Powers in perscon, SQ that they are no longer abstractions to the home- keeping public.; and the passed clouds that shaded our view of France lent brilliancy to the brightening prospect. Thus also the daily experience of brisker trade gave substance to the Official announcement of restored commercial prosperity; and though, is commonly happens with such announcements, everybody knew it before people do not mind how often they are told that they are flourishing. But some topics touched in the Speech were not so very well known—the intended measures. A glorious halo of vagueness still envelops these dawning splendours ; but neverthe- less one has a glimpse of them. We are told that the progress of steam-navigation demands increased estimates in connexion with the naval service,—our ships, or coast-defences, or perhaps both, are to be increased, not without an eye to further convenience for commerce. Banking in Ireland and Scotland is to receive "at- tention,"—meaning some extension of last year's policy to those countries. Measures are to be produced for 'improving and ex- tending the opportunities of academical education in Ireland,"— giving to Roman Catholics a share of the advantages heretofore monopolized by Protestants. The report of the Tenure of Lands Commission is soon to be presented. Measures are to be forth- coming to improve the health of large towns. And the Com- mons are recommended to consider whether the Income-tax shall be discontinued or other taxes be reduced,—a reference of prac- tical matters to the House more like a truly deliberative proposal than it is customary to make in speeches from the Throne.
There was less curiosity- to hear the Queen's Speech than to hear the explanation of Mr. Gladstone's retirement ; and that episode in the debate on the Address was entered upon by the listeners as if it were the most stirring chapter. Mr. Gladstone began in a way that did not diminish the curiosity, by laying down general principles as to the duties of statesmen to be consistent and to be frank ,• and all this while his words were watched as they fell from his lips. He said that tile cause of his retirement was no commercial question—nothing connected with the Church in England or in Ireland—not this and not that—and still the House wondered more and more what it was. But when it came out that it was on account of the intended educational measures in Ireland—that Mr. Gladstone did not know what they are, and of course could not condemn them, but that he might condemn them—or that even if he agreed with them, he must be in a position not even to be suspected of sacrificing his published opinions to official bias,—when it came out that he was only indulging a kind of ex- cessive political prudery in prospeetu, honourable Members ceased to listen agape, and began to chat and laugh among them- selves' until attention was restored by Sir Robert Peel's adroit use of his friend's retirement to set forth by that sacrifice his own projects, and to contrast with Mr. Gladstone's somewhat foppish reserves his own more substantial frankness.
But before that, party-spirit was awakened in the House by the leading Liberal, Lord John Russell. He chose the earliest oppor- tunity of rising to uncoil a string, not of objections to the acts of Ministers, but of small disparagements of some past traits in their
manners or in the manners of somebody, and of little esultations in their difficulties. One would think that Lord John was mad with chagrin at seeing principles and measures which he has ad- vocated gradually cousin.- into actual work ; perhaps because his own heart failed him when he really had the power of putting them in full force. He omitted no artifice to inflame party ran- cour: but without much success; for his bitterness dill not relieve tht debate from such a weight of dull concurrence in other views that it stifled his efforts. He strove to raise against Ministers the Free-trade cry ; making the unexpected avowal, that "protection is not the support but the bane of ao•riculture " : but people remembered the 8s. duty that haunted Lord John so pertinaciously, and the Budget introduced too late ; they regarded the promises foreshadowed by the author of the new Tariff, and to be fully developed on Friday next, as rather more substantial than Lord John's auction-buldings for place ; and the Premier had plain intimations that even his once odious Income-tax might not be forced from him if he would carry on his policy towards free trade. Lord John tried to raise a shout about the settlement of the Tahiti question with France,— in which he was seconded by Lord Palmerston ; but the effort fell to the ground, and Ministers have even been thanked on the Opposition side for that quiet settlement. Lord John tried to en- list the Anti-Slavery spirit against meddling with the "right of search,"—Lord Palmerston still seconding : but Lord Howick avowed, with manly ingenuousness, that the old policy of a marine police-force has failed, and that it ought to be revised ; shaming even the hypocrites on both sides into admiration of his honesty and sense. Lord John ransacked old stores for reproaches against the Irish Registration Act, the Bequests Act, and more ancient feuds,—Mr. Sheil nothing loth to help him : but many on his own side spoke with candour and encouragement of better days for Ireland ; and Mr. Wyse, the intelligent representative of mo- :aerate Irish Liberalism, met the Premier's flattering advances in perfect good part. It was while he retorted upon Lord John the full injury of his own "small insinuations" that Sir Robert Peel was cheered by the party behind him : for the rest of his speech and its liberalizing promises he was mostly cheered by "the gen- tlemen opposite."
The debate on the Address in the House of Lords needs not much notice. It presented less salient points: the Marquis of Normanbyr and the Marquis of Lansdowne, more dignified and candid, did not seek to enliven it with so much bitterness of in- sinuation as Lord John Russell ; though they too did not quite forget the claims of faction. Lord Brougham was brief, and not very keen ; and, upon the whole, dissension was lulled even more than in the other House.
From these debates two things are to be learned. The Oppo- sition, as we may see by Lord John's aimless sharpshooting, is without a policy or a plan : Mr. Villiers, the Free-trader, roundly asserted that "there is no Opposition": the Minister has the road clear before him, if he will not conjure up lions in his path. And the session, although anticipated with so little interest, seems likely, from the Ministerial prospectus and the decision with which the financial statement is expedited so as to be produced on the 14th of February—a very pretty valentine from Robert Peel to Britannia—to be a brisk one for real business ; possibly therefore a short one • and as the Commons have begun by not adjourning, perhaps one; less prolix in words. If it be all this, it will be memorable indeed.
