NEWS OF THE WEEK.
It; all besides are pleasure-seeking at Easter and other holyday- times, O'CONNELL is SUIT to be found working in his old voca- tion: and never has the veteran been more active than during the present Parliamentary recess. Indeed, he is put upon his mettle. There is the immediate danger that Lord STANLEY'S Re- gistration Bill may pass, as well as the not distant possibility of a general election with diminished Liberal strength and augmented Tory resources for the struggle. To produce a formidable de- monstration against a measure, of which the effect, as all admit, would be to disfranchise large numbers of the poorer class of voters—and to rouse the Liberals to exertion in the Registration Courts—arc Mr. O'CONNELL'S main objects. The plan, the mani- festoes and speeches, are iterations of exhausted modes,—another association, collection of a rent, and the menace of Repeal unless the alternative, " justice," be granted. " The National Association fhr Justice or Repeal" is probably not destined to a year's exist- ence; and when its temporary purpose has been fulfilled, it will be quietly entombed with its numerous predecessors, and a new name coma fur the old thing. Nobody, we imagine, can believe
O'CoNNELL in earnest in his Repeal professions; any more than that he has the slightest expectation of obtaining from the Imperial Legislature the concessima included in his definition of is justice for Ireland." Some of his followers, indeed, ventured to propose that the alternative should be discarded, and that they should go at once fir Repeal : but such a reurse would place O'CoaNsr.m. in opposition to the present and every other possible Ninistry ; and he cannot afibrd to part with the Whigs. With the displacement of the Whig Administration, the greater part of his importance in Parhement would veieh; for there is little doubt. that the Tories, by means of Lord SraNLEY's bill or an equivalent measure. would so alter the electoral franchise and its working as to annihilate O'CoNNELL's power of dictating the return of Members to the House of Commons. To the Agitator, therefore, the issue of the present struggle is of incalculable importance; and his efforts are not unequal to the occasion. True, his speeches and course of action are mere repetitions of what he has said and done often before ; and considered per sr, are mere delusions; but not in reference to the designs of their author. Neither have they yet lost their aicacv. Not only in Dublin, but in several of the pro- vincial towns of Ireland, public meetings have been held, and are announced, to second his eflbrts. llis summons to action meets with a hearty response : and he hes never given a more decisive proof of influence over the Irish Liberal constituencies, than in his impeachment of Colonel BUTLER and Sir WILLIAM Ilamatzose for neglecting to vote with Ministers. One of these gentlemen crouched under his lash ; :nal the other, with a badly-affected tone of independence towards O'CoNNELt. personally, acknowledged the necessity of vindicating himself before the electors of Mayo. For a third, Colonel Perzonmosi, glanced at though not directly at- tacked, a friend thought it necessary to plead illness as an apo- logy for absence. All three will probably find it necessary to be in their places to resist the thture progress of Lord STANLEY'S bill. There is no English O'CoNNEtt. ; and it' there were, the mate- rials which the 'alilesian agitator so skilfully; uses to forward his designs, would be wanting on this side the water. A merely am!-Tory demonstration—a popular movement to "keep in" the hip—is not to be expected in England or Scotland. Our co- lumns record the proceedings at a numerous meeting of Leicester Liberals, NV110, convinced that the Reform Act has failed. came flirward to pnblish that conviction, and to commence a movement towards iiirthe.r Reform." Time chief speakers at the meeting were Dissenters—men much gratified by the overthrow of the Tory corporation in their town, who retain a strong Anti-Tory feeling. gaol are disposed to make the best of " Iletbrm " such as it is: yet even they could no longer refrain from declaring the melancholy tyntli, that the "great charter of 1832" is inoperative. We be- lieve this is the first solemn public. acimi!ision of the fact by that description of Liherals who attended tha Leicester meeting. The remedy proposed is a new bill, to include Household Suf- frage, Vote by Ballot, and Triennial Parliaments. This would be a hnig step in advance; and time extension of the suffrage to all householders, and in certain cin,es to lodgers, would include a nu- merous body of the unenfrancldsed classes : but at present the Chartists are not disposed to agitate for less than their full de- mands, which there is not a remote probability of carrying. Their refusal—for at Leicester they did refuse decidedly, though not offensively—to join with the middle classes, may paralyze the pro- jected movement. Aware how ungenerously the Whigs, and the class who gained the franchise with the aid of the masses in 1832, treated their indispensable though humble allies when they pos- sessed the power to reward their services, we are not surprised at the reluctance of the unenfranchised to follow the same leaders again, especially when it is not pretended that their own views will, now or hereafter, be adopted. Until, however, some middle term of agreement can be found—until the Reformers can go into the field an united body—the policy of such demonstrations as the Leicester meeting is questionable : they are indications of strong dissatisfaction with the existing state of the representation, but also of weakness and division in the Liberal ranks.
It is beside the real question to talk of the fine things done by the Reformed House of Commons some years ago. Of what use is that assembly now ? Will it force a repeal of the Corn-laws, for instance? Nothing of the sort. Then with regard to the two great parties in the Legislature: grant that the Whigs have done much good and the Tories much mischief, what will, what can, the Government do ? It needs reform fully as much as the House of Commons. Not to the past, therefore, but to the future, prac- tical men turn their attention : but even the most astute politicians confess themselves at a furs. All is puzzle, perplexity, and alarm, in time Conservative ranks as in the Liberal. Is this doubted? Why, then, with the means of turning l ut the MELeornsE Whigs at his command. is Sir Roninur PEEL still in opposition'
