NEWS OF THE WEEK.

' Y in the week the leading journal announced to those -whom it might concern that there was no Government, and that which was supposed to be such has since been so conducting its -affairs in Parliament as to show that the Times made its an- nouncement "on authority." The debate on Monday night was .enough to prove this. Mr. Disraeli brought forward his motion for referring his Indian Government resolutions to a Committee of the whole House on Friday. His speech was clever, if we consider it as designed to support the second reading of the bill which he had abandoned ; but then the bill was abandoned. Other speeches in the debate were also clever, especially Lord Palmerston's upon Mr. Disraeli's funeral oration over his own bill ; a cutting satire universally pronounced to be "brilliant." But the result had been predetermined, and the most powerful speakers acquiesced, as if in a doom, in the proposal which Lord John Russell again enforced, for reconsidering the entire subject in Committee of the whole. The Government consists of those gentlemen, wherever they may happen to be situated, who will .come forward with suggestions ; and with respect to Indian le- gislation it is composed at present chiefly of Lord John Russell, who, after advising Mr. Disraeli to lay his resolutions before a Committee of the whole House, has brought forward an outline of counter resolutions, which may be expected to foreshadow the bill resulting from the said Committee. Lord John's scheme goes back from the elaborate design of Mr. Disraeli and his colleagues, to the simpler bill of Lord Palmerston, with striking differences from both. He proposes a Minister for India, with a Council of eleven nominated by the Crown ; the Councillors representing the several sections of Anglo-Indian society, and appointed "during good behaviour," like the Judges. They are not to hold the office for a term like Lord Palmerston's councillors or aldermen of boroughs. There is not to be Lord Derby's secret committee, nor Lord Palmerston's financial veto ; the professed object being to leave the responsibility with the Minister, though under a complete moral control exercised by a dignified and in- dependent Council. Lord John's plan sketches out an autocratic Indian Minister overawed by a bench of eleven Judges, with an appeal, not very distinctly explained, to the Houses of Parlia- ment. This is a simpler design, and one calculated to be more popular than either of the other two ; we have considered its merits in the point of view of constructive legislation in a sepa- rate paper.

The Duke of Argyll moved for copies of the report of the East India Directors on the two India Government Bills, chiefly to make an opportunity of showing how inconsistent were the former opinions of Lord Ellenborough with his present proposals of elective Members of the Council ; and keeping open a course for the late Government in handling the measure although the ex- isting bills should be postponed ; Lord Palmerston having con- tributed to the same effect in the Commons by lodging notice of an amendment of his own on the resolutions.

Mr. Locke King has become the representative of the Reform interest for this session, and again Lord John appears as the Mi- mster in that behalf. Mr. King reintroduced his bill for ex-

MTH Morenivir SUPPLEMENT.]

tending the franchise to five-pound householders in counties, with some subsidiary improvements. The particular merits of the scheme possess inferior interest to the Parliamentary treat- ment of the measure. Professedly Mr. Disraeli did not object to the extension or improvement of the county franchise, but he has views of his own on that point, and he did object to in- troducing a measure which "might embarrass" those who " se- riously " contemplate, as he and his colleagues do, "a large and comprehensive measure" of Parliamentary Reform! Debate arising, Lord John advised his friends and the House to seize upon Mr. Locke King's present bill rather than the promise of the Government bill. Mr. Disraeli had moved "the previous question" but he dared not divide upon it ; and Mr. Locke King introduced his bill.

Another political event turned upon a different sort of question. In 1855 the Horse Guards, under the pressure of public opinion, adopted a plan for admitting gentlemen to commissions in the Artillery and Royal Engineers by open com- petition; but that new law has been neutralized by fresh " regulations " from the Horse Guards, according to which, candidates for admission at Woolwich must pass through a long probation at the aristocratic school of Sandhurst; and General Peel has been taken to task for the retrograde movement of his predecessor. Mr. Monsell moved a resolution of the House begging the Crown not to alter the spirit of the regulation of 1855; and notwithstanding General Peel's resistance, and his earnest representations that he had broken the blow of the newer regulations, by postponing for awhile their operation, Mr. Monsen motion was carried by 217 to 177. This defeat was aided by the absence of those members of the late Government who supported Lord Panmure in the reactionary regulations. It proves, however, that the Government does not lie with the gentlemen on the Treasury Bench. And it proves, moreover, that the absence of the members of the late Ministry is somehow more favourable to liberal progress than their presence : very suggestive circumstance indeed.

Certainly if the Government be anywhere it is not with Lord Derby. Perhaps there never was a Premier whose simple suggestions were so little attended to. Last week 1i9 threw out a proposition that parishes might buy up church-rates by leaving landlords to convert them into a charge upon the land ; and this week Mr. Puller tried to give effect to the suggestion in a substantive proposition ; but it received no favour at all. The working objections were too strong even for those who were in- clined to smile upon the idea. In the course of the debate, Lord John Russell remarked, Minister fashion, that he was ready "to consider any fair proposal on the subject." Indeed it has been wittily said that Mr. Disraeli is Chancellor of the Ex- chequer pro tempore, Lord Palmerston leader of the Opposition, and Lord John Russell leader of the House of Commons. And it may be added that no member of the trio appears particularly ambitious of being leader of the country.

Mr. Spooner's annual Maynooth motion found two Members to speak for it, Mr. Spooner and Mr. Newdegate. Other Members sat by in damnatory silence ; leaving one, Mr. Secretary Walpole, to make a declaration on behalf of the second of the two great parties in the state, that Sir Robert Peel's settlement must not be disturbed.

Mr. Caird's Agricultural Statistics Bill raised no political ques- tion, except the question whether the Parliamentary and agri- cultural mind has yet been trained enough to perceive the use of giving to the farmer, in his own business, the same information which the merchant obtains in his ;—of giving to the country

the same information with regard to agricultural produce which it has in the matter of manufactures and commerce. In the course of the debate, however, although the motion was decidedly negatived by a large majority, it waz made evident that opinion in favour of the plan is constantly gaining ground. The Peers have done their worst this week. They have re- jected the Oaths Bill by a net majority of 39; whicii is, if not

actually, yet virtually, the largest ever secured on that quezflon. There had indeed been a Ministerial " whip " against, the bill notwithstanding the strong pressure of public opinion, and the strong countenance given to the measure even by conservatives

in that very same House of Lords. Lord Lyndhurstmade one of his finest speeches against the Iffinistry and for the bill. Lord Stratford de Redeliffe told what effect it would have if, in pleading for the Christians in Turkey, he could have said that in his own country not a single sect was under civil disabilities. The bill was really crushed by the combined force of Lord Derby, Lord Chelmsford, and the proud obstinacy of the "Barons." It is a broad confession that real Liberalism is impossible with the present Government. Between them, Lord Derby and Mr. Disraeli make a Premier, and it is they who have elevated Thesiger to the woolsack in order to render his opposition to the hill more powerful. So little has Mr. Disraeli done for the mea- sure which he has professed to support alike on the score of his race and of his judgment.

Although Mr. Kinglake's motion is, for some unexplained rea- sons, postponed, the debate in the House of Lords will to a cer- tain extent serve the same end. The Earl of Airlie has forced Lord Malmesbui7 to speak, and as the present Foreign Secretary did so, the late Foreign Secretary could not keep silent. The result of the announcement is, that her Majesty's Ministers do not remain passive, but while Sardinia demands compensation for the injury done to the captain and crew of the Cagliari, they demand compensation for Park and Watt ; and on the deferred "international question," they have now, spurred by Public Opinion and the Press, announced their resolve to join with Sar- dinia in demanding the restitution of the vessel. Still mindful of dangers which exist in Europe, they deprecate any resort to the ttltima ratio, and advise Sardinia to meet refusal, not by war, but by a demand for arbitration.

The French Corps Legislatif has been performing that shadow of a duty which is intrusted to it, as the representative of the French Commons, by the Imperial 'wisdom: it has been ex- amining the Budget. The document and the Council are, what Mr. Disraeli would call, "anomalies," and most curious of their kind. The French Budget is always a curiosity ; it involves, along with its explanations, the accounts of four or five years; estimates for next year, a prospective glance at the year after, corrections of those errors in the year before last which prophetic finance necessarily involves, readjustments of the adjustments effected last year, and some plans for getting on during the cur- rent year, which is always sagely regarded as the mere interval between the past and the future. The present position in France Las been noticed as strikingly like our own. There is a grand total of expenditure amounting to 70,668,0001., an income of 67,556,0001., a deficiency therefore of about three millions and a half. But a part of the expenditure would consist of payments to the Sinking Fund, 4,920,0007, and by postponing a large por- tion of that sum the Finance Minister reserves nearly four mil- lions, and thus obtains a surplus of 260,0007. On the face of

the amulet therefore the French position is not materially worse than our own ; but can the accounts be trusted ? We have al-

ready explained the dense obscurity which always envelopes the French Budget ; it is well known that the Imperial servants "cook " the current accounts ; and if the Budget is a shadow, *hat is the value of the examination by the Corps Legislatif ? Nothing. That fact is plainly disclosed in the debate which has taken place and in the report ; the members having hinted, for example, that they are not permitted. to reject the details, but only the gross branches of the Budget ; that they are not per- mitted to institute a genuine inquiry. In short the examination is a farce, intended to obtain without any real investigation the apparent counter-signatures of some respectable persons.

Another financial curiosity has issued from the Russian Go- vernment; it is an ukase imposing new import taxes in order to meet the expenses of the railways in Russia. This is a very significant step, and it establishes some important facts. In the first place, it shows that Russian finance has not yet grown wise, or restrictions would not be imposed upon commerce , for the simple purpose of raising the wind to help railway enter- 1 prise. Secondly, it shows that the Russian Government is in want of funds ; and that again discloses the remarkable ft that the financiers of Europe do not believe in the peak com- mercial spirit which is said to have come over Russia. We may doubt whether the Imperial Government hat, obtained even the twelve million instalment of the forty-fear million loan, although we know well enough that if an enTire so extensive as Russia, and so capable, were really actue.ted by a spirit of peace and com- merce, it could give t'ne finest security in the world, not for forty-four but 4. in* a hundred millions. And the hundred millions cnid be raised in a week in those money-markets of Paris, -London, or New York, which are at present glutted with lapital anxious to find employment even at moderate interest, so that the security be but good. Witness the terms obtained by the East India Company, even under notice to quit. Fresh news from India shows a great advance in the opera.. tions following the capture of Lucknow. Sir Colin Campbell seems to have remained at that city, sending a large part of his force to Rohilcund; whither, like a herd of deer surrounded by the hunters, the fugitive rebels were hastening. In some parts towards Benams, bared of British soldiery, the rebels were show- ing their teeth; and part of a British regiment seems to have been defeated. But Sir Hugh Rose had made great progress in Central India, and General Roberts had severely beaten the rebels and seized Kotah in Rajpootana.

The Chinese news is amusing as well as instructive. Ira_ penal edicts had issued degrading Yeh and appointing in his place as Governor-General of Kwang-Tung and Kwang-Si Hwang, a statesman favourably known to Europeans. Yeh is degraded for having neglected seasonable measures " to control and soothe the Europeans,"—" so very self-sufficient and obstinate was he" ! The degradation of Lord Palmerston's favourite enemy, who indirectly assisted him so much in the general election of 1857, has come too late to be of use to him in 1858. It crowns, however, that quaint burlesque with which the Chinese hold up the mirror to our civilization and its corruptions : Yeh having failed and become unfortunate, the Emperor, like "So- ciety," knocks him down and stamps upon him.