NEWS OF THE WEEK.
THE Conservative Peers of England are a pitiless race of men. They take an inhuman pleasure in tantalizing and and tormenting the" Phocion of his country" (as the Globe calls Earl GREY), and his companions in office and adversity. Thus, on Tuesday night, they permitted him to carry the clause for the demolition of the Bishoprics by a majority of ninety to seventy-six,—an abundance of threats and prognostications to the contrary, notwithstanding. All went on smoothly enough to the 117th clause of the bill, which enacts the suppression of benefices where two or three cannot be gathered together to hear divine service. Here, however, the Lords Spiritual and Temporal resolved to make a stand. Their forces were mustered with seareey and dispatch. Chief Baron. LYNDHURST, the Ulysses of the party, suddealy4aft tbe e'rcuit and mala _ his appearance in towrieLL1: bra omen' 1)6 : :cited Cabinet! In the begirt- fling of the evening-the Opposition benches presented a desolate appearance : as the time apprilachtd, however, for setting -fire to the train, which had previously been laid, the Tory.Lords appeared in considerable force. The Archbishop of CANTERBURY moved an amendment of secondary import to the clause, which the timid' and anxious Earl GREY acceded to, in the hope of disarming op- position. This concession only opened the way for a further attack, and the Archbishop then proposed, that the proceeds of sinecure livings, in which service had been suspended by the Commissioners, should in the first instance be applied to build a church and a glebe-house. This was too bad. The first part of the clause enabled the Commissioners to suspend or abolish sine- cure rectories; and the latter part, as their Lordships proposed to amend it, would compel the application of the money, raised ex- clusively from Catholics, to the erection of a parsonage-house, and a church for any stray Protestant who might happen to pass that way. It was intended, in fact, to perpetuate one of the most irri- tating and crying abuses of the Irish Church Establishment. The Minister strongly opposed it, and the Minister was beaten by a majority of two; the numbers being—for the amendment, 84; against it, 82.
The patient and long-suffering Earl GREY took time to consider ?the course he should pursue in consequence of this defeat. The re- sult of his meditations, and conference with his colleagues, may easily be guessed. He made up his mind to think the amendment an alteration of slight moment, and last night informed their Lordships that, although he was deeply hurt and mortified by their decision, he would not abandon the bill, nor his place, on account thereof. After making this, as it appears to us, humiliating and discreditable announcement, the Premier again became magnilo- quent, and declared that if further alterations, in the same sense, were made in the bill, he should then again think it his duty to consider whether he should not abandon it. And yet he pretends to think the amendment unimportant! The remaining clauses were then agreed to,- and the report is to be brought up on Monday.
The Slavery Bill has made some progress in the House of*Com- mons ; but here, have encountered a virtual defeat.
On Wednesday, Mr. BUXTON moved an instruction to the Commit- tee, the'objeet of which Was to shorten the period of the apprentice- ship of the negroes. This motion was strenuously opposed by Mr.
STANLEY, and as strenuously supported by Mr. MACAULAY. It was finally rejected—but by a majority of seven only ; 158 mem- hers voting with, and 151 against Government. This division spoke a language too plain to be misunderstood, and accordingly, the next day,:Alinisters. announced a compromise, and proposed to reduce the apprenticeship of plantation slaves to seven, and of town slaves to five years' duration. Thus the latter will be free on the 1st June -1838, the former on the 1st June 1840. The West In- dians complain, of course, that Mr. STANLEY has broken ,faith with • them. Mr. STANLEY admits the fact; that is, he acknowledges 7 a he has not kept his word with them n as a Minister, because it House of Commons would not suffer him to keep it; but then, he is ready to vote as an individual member, if they insist upon his
so doing, against his proposition as Secretary of the Colonies. We presume that the West Indians will care very little which way he votes, as plain Mr. STANLEY. In the House of Commons, last night, the East India Charter Bill was read a third time, and passed, with some additional clauses proposed by MT. CHARLES GRANT. -
The Conservatives, labouring as usual in their vocation, united with Ministers, on Tuesday, to defeat Mr. TENNYSON'S motion, for leave to bring in a bill to shorten the duration of Parliaments. Assuredly the House of Commons has gained no step in popular favour by that vote. How anxiously must the close of the • ses- sion be desiderated by the great body of Ministerial supporters! Every succeeding week brings an additional discomfiture to their leaders, and damage to their own characters as honest politicians and independent representatives of those who elected them. We know that they make fine promises of amendment for the next' session, and hope they may keep them : the room for amendment in their conduct is vast. Mr. TENNYSON'S motion was lost by a ma- jority of 213 to 164. The third reading of the Jewish Disabilities Bill was carried in the House of Commons, on Monday, by a majority Of more than three to one-1S9 to 52. . In that House—we are glad to have something creditable to say of it—its success was never doubtful; but the Peers, who are blessed with hereditary bigotry, will almost certainly strangle it. We see that Lord WYNFORD was with diffi- culty persuaded to allow of its being read a first time. The week has been unpropitious tothe West India Monopolists. They have not only lost a considerable portion of the compulsory ' ou theirfree.negro apprentices; but the sugarJefiners have tohe _ Government, by dint of much asking, tn.admit foreiga sulars to be refined-for the consumption of the_Continent. This _subj.ect was brought before the House, on Wedociday,..in a very able - .,Speeeli, by Mr. aka*, member for the Tower. ITtiselets,one of the . most clearheaded and independent men whom tlie Reform Bin has '- sent into Parliament.
An amusing, but unimportant discussion, was provoked in the House of Commons; on Thursday, by a motion of Mr. O'CONNELL, , to bring the proprietor of the Morning Chronicle to the bar, for - committing a breach of privilege in publishing Parliamentary proceedings. It appears, that the Reporters who have been charged by Mr. O'CONNELL, with giving, designedly, false reports, and, above all, with not reporting him as fully as he thinks they ought to do, have come to the resolution of " burking " the learned member.. Mr. O'CONNELL, however, asseverates that he alone will not be their victim, but that if they refuse to report his speeches they shall not report those of any other person. Several members asserted the general accuracy and fairness of the reports, and the motion was withdrawn till Thursday next. Last night, however, Mr. O'CONNELL, who had taken fresh offence from a let- ter publishectin the Times by the reporters of that journal, de- claring that they would suppress his speeches, until he had apolo- gized for the abuse of their body, moved that the proprietors of the Times be summoned on Monday to the bar of the House, to answer for a breach of privilege. This motion he persisted in, and it was accordingly carried. It is plain, that in the whole bu- siness, Mr. O'CONNELL has acted with marvellous indiscretion ; and the honourable House itself is placed in a rather awkward predicament by assenting to his motion.
