NEWS OF THE WEEK.
THE Reform Bill is announced. by the Home Secretary as one of the earliest measures of the session. We have not yet any hints as to the provisions of the Bill. There is one allusion to it in Mr. Gladstone's speech, in which he tells us that ‘-c. the changes adopted will be conceived in the spirit of the constitution itself, and will have no other object than to maintain to us that sta- bility of public life, which, under Providence, we have so long enjoyed, and to make the House of Commons in a yet increased degree the organ of the reasonable wishes and the guardian of the great interests of the nation." But this is not very specific ; nor, indeed, could it be expected that a ministerial statement at the dinner-table of the Lord Mayor should in any way resemble the speech of the Rome Secretary or the Chancellor of the Ex- chequer on introducing a great measure to the House of Com- mons. There is, however, much discretion in this early an- nouncement of the measure. It will tend to shut out no end of prospective cavilling discussion as to the probability of having any Bill at all, and it will familiarize the public to the idea of the measure. It will, perhaps, encourage statesmen and Members of Parliament—terms not always identical—to concentrate their attention on what are now the practical questions with regard to the carrying of a Bill,—the peculiar prejudices still yet to be overcome, and the chances of combining a great variety of parties into something like a national majority. We believe that the difficulties, which are now avowedly of a secondary and minor kind, can be overcome. If Ministers have studied the pledges involved in the proposals of public men on all sides, the avowed wishes of the country, and the opportunity afforded by a period of prosperity and tranquillity, they cannot have much difficulty in laying before Parliament a Bill which will differ from so many introduced of late years, in being carried.
