NEWS OF THE WEEK.
AT last our "practical legislation" men in Parliament have the felicity of devoting their collective wisdom to measures eminently practical. The country gentlemen are not puzzled with new theories of government ; the philosophical Members are mute, and the political economists palsied. Meanwhile, Ministers propose an addition to the standing army, and the establishment of a rural police. Unless the means of keeping down Chartists by main force are supplied, Lord JOHN Ressnm, will not be respon- sible for the preservation of public peace during the recess. Thus, after nine years of Whig rule, the old system is recalled to life. Whigs and Whig-Radicals were wont to stimulate Liberal zeal, and terrify reluctant supporters, by reference to the "dark days" of CAsmnannon and Su:mom( ; but the darkness of RUSSELL now overshadows the land. Give me, says the Home Secretary, five thousand more bayonets, and an armed police for the pro- vinces, and then sport and carouse as ye list. Such is the state of parties, that scarcely a mouth is opened to speak condemnation of the misrule which has rendered strong measures necessary, armed elle half 0 -4k.swle. against the other ldf, and provoked a servile war. mot .-The', ' lace011ings. have the complexion of valour, though ori-
. .: . Neattuptvalarm ; but a relaxation of the main principle of the Toor-law, forced upon Ministers, is a plain symptom of apprehen- ision. Mr. litany succeeded on Saturday last in a motion to in- struct the Committee on the Poor-law Continuance Bill to provide for the relief, out of the workhouse, of able-bodied persons, mar- ried before the Poor-law was passed ; and Lord Joins Russma, has so far adopted the alteration, as to propose himself that such re- lief shall be given by admitting children without their parents into workhouses. The first step having been taken, partly through terror, there is danger of a gradual resumption of the vicious sys- tem which the new law of 1833 was intended to abolish. The Legislature neglected to provide for the permanence and security of their work, by removing restrictions on trade and industry. When commerce prospered and food was comparatively plentiful and cheap, often was the warning rung that the Corn-law and the Poor-law could not long live together. The landlords clutch their Corn-law, but they dare not enforce their other measure, by which rents were raised and the poor in bad seasons pitifully pinched. The Postage Bill proceeds prosperously. Sir ROBERT PEEL ad- mits that further opposition in the Commons is unavailing ; and there is a general impression that the Lords will suffer the bill to pass. Then, all will depend upon the Government. It will be seen how they use the sufficient power confided to them. An unsuccessful attempt was made by Mr. GILIoN to obtain a reduction of the duties on post-horses and stage-coaches. The innkeepers and postmasters pretend, that were they relieved of taxation to the amount of about 450,000/. per annum, they could compete with the rail .ay s. Vain hope! the revenue would suffer, but their occupation would not return. Mr. SPRING RICE declared against the relinquishment of both the post revenue and the post-horse duties. The public call resolutely for cheap post- age, and little regard the losses of their old friends the postmasters,
while. travelling per railway at the rate of flirty miles an hour. But
Mr. VILLIERS suggested a mode of relieving Mr. GilnoN's clients without damaging the finances : admit foreign oats duty free, said the Member for Wolverhampton, and thus reduce the cost of horse- keeping. The country gentlemen abhorred the proposition, and one of them reproached Mr. Vthranas with his pertinacity in fling- ing the iniquity of Corn-laws in their fitecs.
A discussion on the Bank of Ireland, which a determined mino- rity refused to finish, occupied the Commons for several hours on
Thursday. During the debate, the number of Members present
was frequently under forty, and of those who remained ninny slept. This, as Mr. O'CONNELL remarked, was precisely what \1r. SPRING
Rici desired. By various shifts he had put off the question, with intent ntent toJniddle up a bargain with the Bank of' Ireland. He proposed to prolong that Bank's exclusive privileges till 1844, when the charter of the Bank of England will expire—and when, it may be safely predicted, SPRING RICE will not be Finance Minister.
This conduct is characteristic of the puny persons who succeed in nothing save postponing difficult questions. Motions for adjourn- ment were made by Mr. O'Cosfsnu., Mr. 14731E, and Mr. alias of Newry, and rejected by large majorities ; for although not forty Members attended the discussion, more than a hundred were ready, when the division came, to fitsten the Bank of Ireland's monopoly upon the country. However, the minority, of about 30, convinced Alinisters that no progress could then be made, and the debate was adjourned to last night.
The Lords read the Irish Municipal Bill a second time on Mon- day ; but their determination to alter its chief provisions, so as to suit their own party's purpose and defeat the Liberals, was then avowed; and there is small hope for it. Indeed, it very narrowly escaped rejection without. discussion ; for Lord BROUGHAM pro- tested against dealing with a bill of 250 clauses at the fag-end of a session ; and the Duke of Wra.i.rNnTOsi declared that Corporation Reform had worked so unhappily in England, that, were he not apprehensive of misconstruction, he should refuse to permit the further progress of the measure. On Thursday, the bill was dis- cussed in Committee, after a narrative of its progress through the Commons, by Lord Lyxnnuasx ; who, with stinging particularity, traced its snail-like movements from the 19th of February, when it first appeared, to the 4th of July, when the 250 clauses were despatched at a sitting by the Representatives of the People. Yet this was a measure to which the Queen, on opening the ses- sion, directed the early attention of Parliament! Under Lord LYNDHURST'S guidance, the principal clauses were altered so as to make the bill nearly the same as that which the Peers returned to the Commons last year. The Earl of CLARENDON produced a favourable impression by a speech delivered in reply to some observations by. the Marquis of LONDONDERRY on Spanish affairs. Lord CLARENDON is frank and. intelligible, and proclaims his popular sympathies like or- NA) not ashamed of them. lie takes a hopeful view of Spanish iiros- pects, and has formed a far more favourable estimate of the Spa •iish 'character than, we fear, history justifies. It is, however, an error on the generous side in a statesman to think too well of a people. The free institutions which Lord CLARENDON would confer upon Spain, might give that country a chance of recovery, which brute despotism never could hold out.
The Ministerial Whigs, glad of any diversion of attention from their own hopeless plight, arc fhin to make the most of Lord. CLARENDON'S (laid as a debater ; their hopes of Non AI ANIIT having fhiled. That some important office will soon be at his disposal, is likely. Will he join the sinking ship ? Will he risk a hitherto unsullied character in such company? Lord CLARENDON may irretrievably damage himself, but to help these Ministers effectually, is beyond mortal means. ,..• Lord BaouunAm, who exclaimed against the necessity which Mi- nisters would impose upon tlib Peers, of legislating in a hurry on so - important a question as that of Corporation Reform, announced his intention to oppose every other bill requiring much examination ; and read a formidable list of the business accumulating on their Lordships' table, precisely at the time when they had the least in- clination to deal with it, and when a quorum of the Commons could hardly be got together. The plan is to keep the Peers in idleness for five months, and then overwhelm them with work for the last fortnight of the session. In the present year, the Ministers have overdone the thing to such an excess, that in the general account- ing for misspent time and abortive legislation, the Lords, by com- parison, will stand acquitted, let them reject what bills they may.
