NEWS OF THE WEEK.
THE fourth Session of the present Parliament was opened on Tuesday with a Royal Message which is unusually grammatical and unusually dull. The Queen regrets that the war between Japan and China still continues, but her Majesty "has maintained a close and cordial understanding with the [European] Powers interested in those regions," and "will lose no favourable opportunity of promoting a peaceful termination of the contest." There will be an inquiry by the Sultan into the " excesses " in Armenia, and the Com- mission will be accompanied by delegates from the Powers which have Consuls at Erzeroom. In Ireland offences have stank to the lowest level recorded in any recent year ; but proposals will be made for amending the Land Act, and "for dealing with certain evicted tenants whose situation constitutes a peril to social order." Bills will also be pro- posed dealing with the Church Establishment in Wales, creating a "popular control of the liquor traffic," abolishing plural voting, and making provision for the payment of the charges of the returning officers at Elections. There will also be a heap of other Bills, of which one will deal with the City ; another will facilitate light railways, her Majesty "regretting the depression of agriculture ;" and a third will complete the system of County Government in Scotland. Those trifles settled, there will be other Bills still, which it is waste of time to enumerate. The Government, in fact, intends, or affects to intend, to drive three omnibuses, three waggons, and some light carts through Temple Bar all at once. A block is, of course, inevitable ; but as they wish to wait for the artillery tumbrel, the Resolution on the Lords, the Government do not mind that.
