NEWS OF THE WEEK
PARLIAMENT is to be dissolved. The official proclamation will appear on the 24th inst., the writs will be issued at once, and by the middle of next month we shall all know whether the country does, or does not, approve this Ministry. In the presence of so pleasing a fact, we are not curious to search into the evidence, of which much exists, that the Ministry always intended to dissolve at Easter, and only introduced -their great Bills in order to be able to plead that they had not neglected legislation. Sir M. Hicks-Beach said, indeed, that serious work was intended ; but all Ministers do not know all Ministerial plans. They, at all events, kept their secret well ; and on Monday, when the Chancellor of the Exchequer rose to make the announcement, scarcely any one of importance, except Mr. Forster, was present. Sir Stafford Northcote affirmed that a seventh Session had been made necessary by Irish distress, that legislative provision for that distress had been made, and that it would now be convenient to dissolve at Easter, so that the new Parliament might have three months to discuss measures. The Budget must be antedated, -and there were some indispensable measures, including a three months' vote on account, to be got through ; but all that could be arranged, "if he obtained the support" which the delighted Liberals, through Mr. Forster, most readily promised. Lord Beaconsfield made the same announcement in the Lords, iu half-a-dozen indifferent words, and since then every Bill of im- portance has been openly or tacitly withdrawn ; the Army Discipline Act has been continued ; and it is clear that no oppo- sition will be offered to the rising of the House on the 23rd.
