NEWS OF THE WEEK.
• THE debate on the Sugar-duties, protracted beyond all precedent, has been brought to a close ; and Ministers have been enabled to add- to the adverse majorities of 11 and 21 in their own House of Commons, another adverse majority of 36. The dulness of the discussion after the first night, enlivened at wide intervals by some godsend of an able or a telling speech, continued till the close of the seventh night. On that night the Opposition rested on their arms, but few caring to come forth ; while they left the bloodless field open to some dozen gentlemen on the other side who had made up their minds to speak. The prospect of a finishing-struggle on Tuesday stimulated those who now appeared In the lists to new vigour, and the debate resumed more than its Artist interest. Mr. SHED. began, in a lively if not a very novel _effort ; and he gave some good extracts from Mr. Husxissoses latest opinions against the Corn-laws, to counteract the effect of his earlier opinions which had been cited in their favour. Mr. HERRIES made a slashing assault on the permanent-deficiency system of finance, which the present Cabinet were responsible for. Mr. Vu.rasas cleverly wound up the political economy of the main question. Even Sir EDWARD KNATCHBULL'S trite speech was delivered with earnestness ; and Mr. CHARLES BULLER S playful sarcasm gave variety to his arguments. Then came the Parliamen- tary arbiter reruns, the Proximate-Premier, laughing at Mr. BARING for begging a budget of him, Sir ROBERT PEEL! Sir ROBERT knew that every eye was turned on him, to learn the issue of all the eight nights' chaffering. More sus, he promised to be very explicit; and he was explicit after his fashion—that is, in rather a compli- cated manner. With regard, then, to the immediate subject under discussion, the Sugar-duties, he peremptorily refused to alter them, for the present: he will maintain the existing order of things so long as the West Indies are in a state "analogous to that in which they- are now placed,"—deprived of labour and the means of competing with foreign producers,—and so long as they can furnish a suffi- cient supply of sugar for the consumption of this country at " reasonable prices.' Sir ROBERT will continue the protection while the West Indians continue to need it through the uncoun- teracted effects of Emancipation, if they enable him to do so by fulfilling their professions of ability to keep up the supply, and so stave off the urgent demands of the British people for cheaper sugar : the condition failing, of course Sir ROBERT'S pledge is void. On the Corn question he was more decided : he declared himself irrevocably in favour of a sliding scale instead of a fixed duty ; but, as Lord PALMERSTON afterwards pointed out, he did not define the limits of his sliding scale : for any thing that he said, it might slide no further than front one degree above the Govern- ment-duty, 8s., down to a registering-duty of ls. Sir ROBERT, therefore, after having very sturdily pledged himself to a name, is at perfect liberty to make up his mind hereafter according to the event. On the Timber-duties he would say nothing : Government had furnished no information, and he was in the dark as to the facts. But turning from these specialties, Sir ROBERT made this, among others, a vote of confidence ; and on that text he a as again explicit as to what he would do if it drove Ministers from office and let him into their place : he would appeal to the country, and he would give the financial emergency " consideration "; but what might be the result of his deliberation he could not say. Thus frank Sir ROBERT has furnished the people with the most distinct information that he will take office with the discreetest views, and with the most laudable intention to shape his course by events. His speech was consummately skilful: its elaborate good temper— its cautious liberality—its promise of support to vested interests, yet reserve from any absolute committal against imperative popular* demands—its passing exposure of the miserable position of his rivals, at the mercy of his forbearance, while he was careful to seem neither to bid for office nor to refuse—were all calculated to win confidence and disarm hostility : for who could be afraid of so very harmless a gentleman ? who could mistrust such an in- genuous, discreet, and practical statesman, who curbs his ambition to "let I will not wait upon I may," and keeps himself open to the commands of his Sovereign and his Country, when they, and not his own wishes, call him to the helm ? Clever Sir ROBERT never issued a manifesto more suited to the juncture.
Thus was the new Budget brushed away, with the Ministry itself. Sir ROBERT PEEL was followed by Lord PALMERSTON, to the most dexterous speech of the debate; damaging, with laugh- ing but argumentative sarcasm, the Anti-Slavery plea against admitting slave-grown sugar to the British market, while all other slave-produced commodities are admitted, and while the sale of slave-sugar itself is promoted in every way by British merchants abroad ; showing a most imposing list of the deeds of Ministers in drawing foreign countries into a combination against the slave-trade ; and describing with all the force of official authority and experience, how England is pressed by foreign countries to practice the liberal commercial policy which she preaches ; a policy which Lord PALMERSTON urged with a happy mixture of energy, practical tact, and discretion. Yet even this, the best debating speech of all, could not save his party : the House went to a division, and rejected the motion to go into Committee of Ways and Means on the Sugar-duties, by a majority of 36 ; the number of votes for the motion being 283, against it 319. This majority is not so large as many persons expected. The defaulters were chiefly among the Liberals, of whom 18 were absent "without pair," while only one Conservative staid away. Supposing, that all those absentees had voted in the usual manner, the majority against Ministers, thoroughly sifted, would have been 19—what they would call a good " working majority" for the Opposition.
The House did not sit on Wednesday. Certain intimations at the clubs, and in the Ministerial evening paper of Thursday, drew a crowded House on that night, in the expectation of a revelation from the Treasury bench. If Lord JOHN RUSSELL ever had such an intention, the daily audiences which Lord MELBOURNE has had with " an Illustrious Personage" had not yet matured matters for his doing so. First, the Chancellor of the Exchequer gave notice, that on Monday next he should move the annual Sugar-duties. "Is this all?" the blank countenances of Members and' strangers seemed to say. Lord Jolla next rose—there was a universal hush : " I move that this House, at its rising, do adjourn till Monday."- Never was tiptoe expectation so baulked. It found a voice in Lord DARLINGTON ; who asked when the Corn question was to come on ? Lord JOHN replied quietly, as if nothing were the matter, " On the 4th ofJune." Members and strangers had duly celebrated the birth of a ridicules nuts : there was a general rush to the door.
The Whig Ministers are therefore, nominally, still in office ; but a dissolution of Parliament, as soon as a temporary supply of money and a few other routine matters can be arranged, is univer- sally looked for ; and the country is already in the midst of a can- vass for the general election.
