NEWS OF THE WEEK.
THE prorogation is expected to take place on Tuesday next, the dissolution on Thursday; the writs will be proclaimed on Sat- urday, the borough elections will take place on Easter Wednes- day, the county elections on the following Monday—the county • Members appearing before the public simultaneously with the _pictures of the Royal Academy. By the explicitness of the announcement which appears in the Times, almost on authority, Ministers have disarmed the suspicions that they were con- triving delays, and the Parliament will be enabled to meet early enough in the summer to do practical work.
So far as we have gone at present, we have but one striking fact to report in the progress of the election preparations. Ministers have made no farther sign with reference to the course which they intend to pursue in the next Parliament. On the other hand the Opposition have already gained something not unimportant. We noticed last, week the manner in which Lord John Russell had thrown his position more open to receive ac- cessions from other sections of the Liberal party, and this week we find Mr. Bright making, on his part, a very independent but by no means uneordial response. The sturdy Member for ;Birmingham does not abate one jot of his principles' and retains all the preference for his own bill; but put in brief, his observa- tions on Lord John Russell's bill amount to a declaration that it 'would present an important extension of our representative sys- tem, and thif if put to the vote it will have the support of Mr. -Bright.
