NEWS OF THE WEEK.
Tr HE Royal Titles Bill has passed through the House of Com- 1 mons, every measure of importance, even the Merchant Shipping Bill, being thrust aside for it. The debate in Committee on Monday was marked principally by a statement from Mr. Disraeli that the Queen would never be advised to use the title in Eng- land, or to bestow that of "Imperial Highness" upon her children and agnates,—a pledge which he subsequently modified by ad- mitting that the Queen must sign appointments like Lord Lytton's as "Empress," that Indian appeals must be addressed to the "Em- press in Council," and that the foreign Ambassadors in England would employ her Majesty's whole title. He refused absolutely to localise the title by statute, observing that the promise, of a Ministry was as binding as a clause which could be repealed next Session. He also rejected, through Sir Stafford Northcote, a proviso that the Act should not authorise the use of any titles in the United Kingdom not now used. The Bill passed through Committee quite unchanged, the only division taken being on a proposal by Serjeant Simon to introduce the word "Royal" before "style and title," thus precluding, as he believed, a change of " Queen-Empress" into "Empress-Queen." He was defeated by 171 to 92, and a bitter discussion among the lawyers in the House as to the " Sign-Manual" led to nothing.
