NEWS OF THE WEEK.
DARLIAMENT was prorogued by Commission on Friday, the 1 Royal Message being read by the Lord Chancellor. It does not contain much, but, as usual when Mr. Disraeli leads the House of Commons, it is lengthy, well written, and as grammatical as a Royal Message can be. The Ministry are in the odd position of having to praise the Cabinet they superseded, but they do it pretty well, admitting, for example, that " the Irish Executive acted firmly, but temperately," that the suspension of the Bank Charter Act was " justifiable under the circumstances," and that " under God " the Cattle Plague Acts have been successful. For the rest Her Majesty has not been an indifferent spectator of the German war, but has taken no part in it, and now hopes for peace ; considers that the conduct of the United States in the Fenian invasion showed " good faith and scrupulous attention to international rights ;" regrets the cholera, and has ordered a form of prayer against it ; has also increased the authority of muni- cipalities, and hopes they will use it well ; and, finally, congratu- lates the world on the Atlantic Cable. " Her Majesty trusts that no impediment may occur to interrupt the success of this under- taking, calculated, as it undoubtedly is, to cement yet closer the ties which bind Her Majesty's North American Colonies to their mother country, and to promote the unrestricted intercourse and friendly feeling which it is most desirable should subsist between Her Majesty's dominions and the great Republic of the United States." We entirely agree, and if the gentlemen who assented to that paragraph had expressed the same feelings three years ago, instead of talking nonsense about "bursting bubbles," we might have laughed at any European complication.
