NEWS OF THE WEEK.
WE said that Lord Morpeth would be the death of his own Health of Towns Bill ; and so it proves—but there is more murder to be told first. Indeed, the most remarkable business of the week has been the abandonment of Ministerial measures ; and it has been conducted with a vigour and decision seldom displayed in the prosecution of measures. On Monday, Lord John Russell put three bills out of the way. He gave up the Encumbered Estates {Ireland) Bill ; that one in the list of Ministerial measures for Ireland which had won the special approbation of Sir Robert Peel. Lord John's reason for abandoning the bill is curious. Several insurance-companies, fearing the effect of the disencum- bering measure on their securities, hive notified that they will enforce the mortgages which they hold, in the aggregate amount- ing to 1,000,000/. In other words, Lord ;John bill would have had a prompt and extensive application. But he thought that others would be frightened at such quick work ; he was fright- ened-for them, beforehand ; and so he withdrew his so terribly effi- cacious bill. The next measure withdrawn was the Prisons Bill, on which turned the scheme for altering the system of transporta- tion. If we understand the actual state of that question, Minis- ters will carry on the alteration while the statutes to regulate it are in a state of abeyance, unpassed. Next came the Parliamen- tary Electors Bill, to remedy certain practical inconveniences ; also deferred.
The conduct of the Health of Towns Bill was still more remark- able. Lord Morpeth has engaged the House in Committee on the bill daily ; you would really have thought that Ministers had some wish to carry it ; on Tuesday- they went so far as to obtain the sanction of the Commons for the needful expenses : but on Thursday Lord John Russell put an abrupt end to his noble friend's show of activity, and announced that, to avoid the oppo- sing amendments and lengthened discussions threatened,—mainly by 'Mr. Hudson, Lord George Bentinck, Mr. Henley, and Mr. Newdegate,—the bill would be given up. Lord Morpeth would scarcely "consent" to the murder ; but somehow it is done, and the noble Medea of sanatory reform survives the deadly scandal. In the discussions on this Health of Towns Bill came to light a monstrous specimen of the random piecemeal legislation now in vogue. The bill ostensibly contained only fifty-eight clauses ; but it incorporated, by simple reference, two acts of Parliament ; one of those acts likewise incorporated a third ,- and in that way the fifty-eight clauses were swelled to the number of some eight hundred. The bill also affected local acts with all their clauses. The mass of confusion and scope for litigation thus created was ably exposed by Mr. James Stuart. It is impossible that such an atrociously bungling and mischievous process of lawmaking can be suffered to go on: It arises from many causes,—from Ministerial indecision, official persons not knowing what they would be at ; from the slavishly mechanical manner in which gentlemen draw- ing up bills deal, not with the things to be secured by legislation, but with so many separate clauses, as if they were substantive thins-s; from the mass of private business, which makes delibe- rate legislation impossible. The result is, not only endless litiga- tion, endless doubts in law courts as to the intention of the legis- lators in the acts passed, but also a total incapacity in the legis- lators to make the several parts of the statute-book fit. An affair of no great moment in itself, but looking like a part of the evasive conduct displayed in the Education and Trans- portation schemes, only worse in kind, has brought further dis- credit to the Government. It had been determined to open the Argyle Canal, as a means of employing the destitute Highland-' ers : probably not less commendable than the public works in Ire- ; _hut the necessary grant for the purpose ought to have been
asked in Committee of the whole House ; whereas it was smug- gled into Parliament as a "private bill." To use a mild term, the procedure was grossly irregular.
In asking from the Imperial Parliament 300,000/. more for the Irish, Sir Charles Wood took occasion to stop the mouths of the alarmists—to counteract the Repeal agitation by showing sub- stantial profit for Ireland in the Union—to gild the addresses of Ministerial candidates at the Irish elections with Treasury gold. He has given a synoptical review of the state of Ireland since the spring of 1846, its present condition, and future prospects ; paint- ing all en beau. Starvation has passed, fever is dying away, the people begin to look healthy, the markets are once more fre- quented ; the relief works are ceasing, the expenditure is con- tracting, and the crops are growing abundantly. Such is the gist of the Chancellor's account. The Irish Members are gloomier, and one, we see, keeps up the ravenous cry for more "food- depots." The faithful Commons gave the 300,000/. as usual. Same matters of foreign relations have been touched upon. There was another debate on Portugal, raised by- Mr. Osborne with a resolution advising further intervention on behalf of po- pular rights; which was of course negatived. The discussion was chiefly notable for eliciting strong hortatory advice spoken at the Portuguese Government by the British Ministers Palmerston, and rt Lord George Bentinck brought forward the case of the Bond- holders whom Spain can pay but will not, and elicited a very "spirited" speech from Lord Palmerston. The Foreign Secre- tary reminded the Bondholders that they lent the money at their own risk, on their own judgment : he doubted, in general, the expediency of official intervention to enforce their claims ; but advised the defaulting states of Spain and America not to rely too implicitly on British forbearance. If ever, indeed, political reasons should make England willing to use the advantages con- ferred by the position of creditor, such states might find their in- dependence merely nominal. Mr. Hume moved for inquiry into the old Indian grievance of the Rajah of Sattara. There has been inquiry, conducted by persons of character as high as any in Parliament, and far better informed on local subjects than Members of Parliament are likely to be : but the inquiry was secret, and the English sense of jus- tice remains unsatisfied. It is felt that the Rajah, however pro- perly removed from his dependent throne, has not enjoyed one of the guarantees for equity which the British laws extend to the vilest criminal in England—open trial.
