NEWS OF THE WEEK.

THE pressure of Parliamentary matter is lighter this week than usual, in consequence of there having been, in technical phrase, no House" of Commons on Wednesday, and an adjournment at an early hour on Thursday. Tuesday's proceedings, however, make up for these deficiencies. One of the most important mea- sures of the session was on that day explained to the House by Mr. SPRING RICE. We allude to the Consolidation of the Stamp-duties, which the Government seems at length to have undertaken in earnest.

It is proposed to repeal one hundred and fifty Acts of Parlia- ment at one swoop ; and to include such of their enactments as are to be retained, with fresh ones framed on rational and just principles, in one gigantic statute of 330 sections. It may be doubted whether a series of separate bills, dealing with classified subjects, would not be a more convenient form of legislation ; in order that persons interested in one department of the law only, may not be forced to procure an immense mass of matter relating to other subjects, on which they may safely be ignorant, and will not care to inform themselves. This, though not an essential objection, deserves consideration.

The principle which the Chancellor of the Exchequer has adopted in consolidating and amending the Stamp Acts, is that which has often been advocated in this journal. The value of the property bought, sold, or leased, is to regulate the price of the stamp necessary to give validity to the deed, bind, promissory note, or contract, as the case may be. Stamps on letters of admi- nistration and probates of wills are to come under the same rule. The adoption of this ad valorem principle e ill get rid of an in- conceivable amount of every-day injustice. Throughout the whole System of taxation, the exemptiri of the wealthier classes from their fair share of the burdens which they impose upon the mass of the community, is manifest ; but in no part of the system has iniquity been more glaring than in the Stamp-duties. This state of things is to endure no longer. The duty upon apprentices' indentures, on bills of lading, and other instruments, is to be lessened; and Mr. RICE has thrown a sop to the Agriculturists by abolishing the tax on the insurance of farming produce,—though it would be difficult to assign any just ground for conferring upon them this exclusive privilege.

But the grand improvement, as regards the diminution of taxa- tion, is the reduction of the Newspaper-tax, from 4d. with the discount* to Id. without discount.

This proposition does not give universal satisfaction. The entire removal of the stamp, and the imposition of a penny postage for those only who employ the post as a medium of conveyance, is what many Members of Parliament and honest Reformers among their constituents consider a preferable mode of dealing with the tax. The most powerful argument which this party has to urge, is the effect in circumscribing the circulation of useful political knowledge, which even a penny stamp undoubtedly must have. It is also manifest that ihe contest now waging between the euthe- nics and the venders of the " unstamped" will only be partially stayed if any portion of the tax on newspapers is retained : and this must be a serious consideration for any Government.

On the other hand, it is said that newspapers of a high order, such as can only be produced in large communities, and gem.- rally in places where the Legislature assembles and the Govern- ment is carried on, require an extent of circulation to defray the necessary expenditure, which cannot be obtained and pre- served except by the greatest facility of transmission ; that the Post-office alone offers such facility ; and that, if it is desirable that a few newspapers of a superior class should be generally cir- culated, rather than a multitude of inferior journals should be distributed, each in comparatively small numbers, throughout the country, then it is impolitic to lay on a postage-duty, which would have the effect of impeding and localizing the circulation of newspapers. This argument proceeds on the supposition that

! Papers sold at 74.16sve a discolult of 20 per cent.; those exceeding 74. have 4 per cent.

[LATEST EDITION.) we have only a choice between a penny postage and a penny stamp; and we believe that such is the practical question which Parliament will have to determine. Both, undoubtedly, will tend to diminish the circulation of newspapers ; and the right course would be, first to abolish the tax entirely, and then to provide for the transmission of papers by the best means that can be devised. This may require great changes and some trouble at the Post-office; but it will be difficult to persuade those who know what the American Governtnent performs, that, with the superior facilities of communication which this country possesses, a greater amount of accommodation cannot be aftbrded to the English readers of newspapers than the people of the United States de- rive from their Post-office.* Looking, however, to the point actually at issue, and admitting that a vastly extended circulation of unstamped newspapers through the Post-ollice will not, under its present system, be prac- ticable, it becomes a question of considerable nicety to determine whether a penny stamp or a penny postage ought to be preferred. Mr. WAKLEY will put this question to the vote, when the Chan- cellor of the Exchequer opens his Budget. In the mean while, we may congratulate the country, that, on either supposition, a very important advantage has been secured. The amount of read- ing will be enormously increased, and the quantity of ignorance proportionally lessened. According to the Standard, the number of readers of newspapers will be multiplied six-fold ; and the Tory organ is forced to admit the vast augmentation of power which will thereby accrue to the popular party. Viewing the matter in this light, it is difficult to exaggerate the importance of this first step to reduce the Taxes on Knowledge. Much will remain to be dune in the same line. It is calculated by Mr. CRAWFURD, that at present the whole amount of the taxes on intellectual com- munication, by books, newspapers, and letters,— including the paper-duty, the amount paid to the Post-office, the Stamps, and other less direct imposts,—is annually upwards of a million and three quarters sterling. The repeal of the Stamp-duties, were they to be entirely instead of partially repealed, would only take off about a quaiter of this load ; but the commencement of alle- viation will be made in the right quarter, and it will not be long ere the whole burden is removed.

The Agricultural party made their first open attack on tha re- venue and trade of the country on Tuesday. Mr. HANDLEY, who was on this occasion selected as their organ, proposed to abolish the duty on Soap and raise the duty on Foreign Tallow from 31. 48. to 101. per ton. The objectwas to enhance the "price of British tallow, and thus indirectly increase rents. The effect would have been to ruin the trade with Russia, make candles dearer to the British consumer. and cause a deficit in the reve- nue, amounting on the most favourable calculation to at least 350,000/. A more absurd proposition was never laid before Par- liament. Even Sir ROBERT PEEL, though eager enough to aim a back-handed blow at his successor, declared that a prima fade case had not been made out for the motion ; which, however, his Tory friends, evidently chagrined at the desertion of their leader, (even the Roarers being cheerless,) supported both by speech and vote. Mr. SPRING RICE and Mr. Poinsrr THOMSON exposed the real nature and bearing of the motion in unanswerable speeches; and Mr. WARBURTON pointedly re- probated the injustice of this attempt of the agricultural plotters to tax the rest of the community for their exclusive benefit. The decisive majority of 195 to 1'25 must have satisfied the landed gen- try that they had been " found out." We are glad to see, on look- ing over the division-list, that among the 125 there are not more than 15 profess. Liberals. The Bishop of EXETER was eloquent for an hour and a half on Monday evening in denunciation of the Government system of National Education in lreland. His reverence was primed for the occasion %With a story about a boy who had a foolish writing- copy set by his master, and with another of a monk who had told somebody in Dublin that he scorned the selections from the Bible appointed to be read in the schools. These were the Bishop's new facts. He repeated, however, his old complaint that the Protes- tant clergy disapproved of the system, and that the great majority of the scholars were Catholics. Here Dr. Pm Leon's laid him- self open to a retort from Lord PLUNKET, similar to that which his allies in the Commons had to endure from Mr. Slime during the discussion on the Municipal Bill. The Protestant clergy have been unceasing in their efforts to vilify the system, and fourteen Bishops denounced it at the very outset. It was to be expected • These contending views are ably discussed in two pamplklets which have recto:41r

appeared.

1. " The Newspaper Stamp and the Duty on Paper viewed in relation to thà effects upon the Diffasiou or Knowlede;" understood to be written b Mr. CIWILIS

KNIGHT.

2. "A Financial View of the Taxes which Impede the Education of the People ;" by Mr. Jokile CRAWFURD. This pamphlet euutailis a great deal of curious informatics sr 'pectin the operation of various duties iu aquae/44 the cost of books and newspapers. that this fierce hostility on the part of their ministers would deter numbers of the Prokestants frohs sending their children to the National Schools : it has deterred them; and now, taking ad- vantage of their own wrong„—pointing to the mischief they have themselves perpetrated., and the prejudices they have sedulously festered,—these men turn round upon Lord MELBOURNE and say, "The Protestants, you see, do not attend your schools : the sys- tem is not national, but Popish and sectarian." This has been the fair and patriotic course of these men of God, and right reve- rend teachers of religion; just as the Orange agitators work in- cessantly to inflame the Catholic populace, and then adduce dis- orders provoked and instigated by themselves, as evidence of the 'unfitness of Irishmen to be governed like rational beings. The peg on which the Bishop of EXETER hung his tirade, was a mo- tion for a Committee to inquire into the operation of the system in Ireland : it was opposed by Lord MELBOURNE, and withdrawn, on the understanding that the recommendations contained in the Second Report of the Commissioners should not be acted on to their full extent until further inquiry had been made. One of Lord LONDONDERRY'S abortive displays on Spanish affairs, provoked the Duke of WELLINGTON, on Tuesday, to " snub " him unmercifully. The blundering Lord fell foul of the Duke as well as Lord MELBOURNE, while intending to call the latter only to account for not interfering with sufficient prompti- tude in behalf of some Carlist officers captured on board an English vessel, and now in imminent danger of being transported to Porto Rico by order of MENDIRABAL. The Duke of WELLING- TON declared that his character, personal and public, was impli- cated in this affair; and he insisted that a distinct motion should be made and a direct charge preferred. Poor Lord LONDONDERRY whimpered and protested that he did not mean to attack the Great Captain,—who did not treat him with his wonted "affection." The stern man of Waterloo was inexorable: he knew nothing about affection, and could not make out what Lord LONDON- DERRY was "driving at;" and again and again declared that he ?could have "a motion." Finally, however, the afflicted Lord LONDONDERRY had leave to withdraw his notice of motion; and we trust that he will not again, for this session at least, bore the Parliament and the country with his niaiseries on Spanish affairs.

The barbarities practised by both parties in the Spanish civil war afforded the humane Peers another discussion last night. Lord ABERDEEN moved for papers, which would show what the British Government had done to mitigate the ferocity of the com- batants towards each other. He did not by any means damage the Ministry by this motion ; for Lord MELBOURNE was able to inform the House that Mr. VILLIERs, without waiting for instruc- tions from home, bad made strong representations on the subject of some recent atrocities to the Spanish Minister, and had pro- cured the dismissal of the General who had been guilty of them. In the House of Commons, last night, the occupation of Cracow by the Three Plundering Powers, as they were properly termed by Mr. O'CONNELL, elicited strong reprobation from the non-official Members ; in which Lord PALMERsTom and Lord JOHN RUSSELL, in more guarded language, concurred. Mr. HUmE is in favour of an indignant resolution of the House on this subject : but Lord JOHN RUSSELL'S view of it,—namely, that as we are not prepared to act, or in other words, go to war, it is idle to threaten the Northern Despots,—seems the more statesmanlike.

The Irish Municipal Bill was forwarded in Committee, on Monday, as far as the 40th clause. Lord STANLEY Was more than usually petulant; but the miserably thin attendance of Tory Members gave him, as he said, little encouragement to divide the Committee on those clauses to which be was most hostile. Mr. OlonHLEN, by his readiness in reply, and perfect knowledge of details, proved himself far more than a match for Lord STANLEY; and no division took place on any of the clauses. A few days ago, the Tory evening print vaunted, that in Committee the Opposition would make minced-meat of the bill :

but their day of triumph is again postponed ; for last night the 81st clause was reached in Committee. And now the Con- servatives are informed, on the same apocryphal authority, that

there is to be a division on the third reading, and that it is highly necessary either to reject the bill—yes, reject the bill !-

or to vote in such numbers as will "enable the Lords to deal with it effectually :" and an amendment, similar to that of Lord FRANCIS EGERTON, "will be made and carried on the second reading in the Upper House."—Possibly. But in that case, why need the Tories in the Commons give themselves any further trouble?