NEWS OF THE WEEK.
ON Thursday the new House of Commons met and re-elected unanimously the Speaker of the last House, 114. Brand. The General Election had been concluded on Wednesday, by the election of Mr. Samuel Laing for the Shetlands and Orkneys, by a majority of 378 over the Tory candidate, Mr. Ray-Badenoch. This leaves the party balance just where it 'was before, as Mr. Laing of course was the former Member. 'The numbers now stand thus :—Liberals, 352; Home-rulers, 63; 'Conservatives, 237, —where we give the Home-rulers the benefit of two names hitherto claimed by the Liberals, but reclaimed by Mr. Sullivan in yesterday's Times, on apparently solid grounds. If the Home-rule party be supposed to 'divide itself so as to give 32 to the Tories and 31 to the Liberals, this would give the relative strength of the parties,—Liberals 383, Tories 269,—Liberal majority, 114. If all the Home-rulers voted in a phalanx with the Tories, the Liberal majority would
still be 52 (namely, 352 against 300). Liberals. Boroughs 202 The parties are thus Tories. Home-rulers. 80 . ENGLAND ... Counties 54 118 Universities... 1 4 257 202 ( Boroughs 15 - WALES Z. Counties 13 2 — _ 28 2 Boroughs ... .. 6 12 19 IRELAND ... Counties 8 12 94 University 2 — — 14 26 63 Boroughs 26 SCOTLAND... Counties 26 6 Universities... 1 1 — _ 53 7 • • • Thus the English majority for the Government is 55, the Welsh majority 26, and the Scotch 46; making the total majority in Great Britain 127. Ireland, on the contrary, sends up 26 Tories against 14 Liberals, and no less than 63 of the nondescript species called Home-rulers. Wales carries off the palm in Liberalism, having returned only two Conservatives out of 30 Members ; while Scotland, having double the number of Members, has returned seven.
