A feeling gains ground that the next session will be
the last of the present Parliament ; and the feeling betrays itself not only in the solicitude which Members show for the good opinion of their constituents, but in the current rumours and specula- tions. One of the reports is, that Lord John Russell is busy upon a new Parliamentary Representation Bill ; and that Lord. Palmerston intends to cut him out in this coquetting with the constituencies, by proposing a smaller measure of his own. The conjecture as to Lord John's doings is not altogether absurd. When the Whig leader, out of place, took up his quarters at a hotel in Edinburgh, and was supposed to have exchanged poli- tics for literary society and family delights, out came that cele- brated London letter which precipitated the Corn-law crisis. But Sir Robert Peel, who was one of the strong men, accepted the Whig invitation, and brought in a rival and not a smaller measure. The formal preparation of reports from " the Parlia- mentary heads of departments " shows anxiety at head-quarters to keep Parliament together if possible, by doing some work next session, or at least by being expected to do it ; but if a dissolu- tion cannot be diverted, a " Reform Bill " would give the Minis- ter something to hold in his hand on going to the country.
