NEWS OF THE WEEK.
IF the present Government has constituted itself to some extent an agent for the late Government in carrying on the measures which Lord Palmerston's Cabinet left unsettled, it has also very decorously played the bystander while the House of Commons has continued the discussion of measures which stood for Parliament- ary judgment. Thus, the House proceeded on Monday with the Oaths Bill, and on the two questions that had, been raised it pro- nounced by majorities that ought to be final. Mr. Cogan asked whether the same improvement of the oaths which was originally designed for the purpose of effecting the admission of the Jews should not also include therevision of the oath which was imposed upon the Catholics in 1829? But the House determined, by a vote of 345 to 66, that it would not mingle the two questions of Roman Catholics and Jews. Mr. Newdegate, with a large array of ancient and familiar arguments, asked whether the House would not proceed to the revision of the oath for the convenience of Members in general but persevere with the exclusion of the Jews ? The House determined, by 297 to 144, that it would ad- mit the Jews forthwith. The decision of the Representative Chamber is not less determined and deliberate because a very can- did consideration is given to the arguments on the other side. For instance, while the majority scouted Mr. Newdegate's notion of evidence,—that because a Polish carter committed perjury with the sanction of a Jewish rabbi therefore the Jews are incompetent to fulfil their obligations in this country,—it listened attentively and respectfully to Mr. Walpole's recapitulation of the argument that the representative Parliament of this country is and must be an essentially Christian body. In the House of Commons it is always thought necessary to combat an argument, but this was too strong to be effectually put down. The answer that the Commons have to deal with other subjects besides those of religion is little to the pur- pose. The great body of this country is Christian, the representa- tives are Christian, and the body which they constitute is essen- tially of the same faith. Such is the necessary conclusion from the facts ; but there is another conclusion, also from the facts. It happens that in this Christian country we have some few citizens who adhere to the, faith which existed before Christianity : they are good. Englishmen in every sense, and there is no reason why they should he excluded from political recognition. It is to be remarked with great satisfaction, too, that of late years the Christ- ian feeling of the country has been greatly expanded, exactly in proportion as we have abolished sectarian disabilities ; and that expansion has accompanied the growth of the now rooted con- viction that we must abolish even the last of those sectarian disabilities. The Christian character of the House of Commons will not be diminished by admitting to sit with the Christian assembly the few representatives of our Jewish fellow country- men who could by possibility be elected ; and the vote of the House proves that the opinion of the country upon the subject is fixed. Whatever peculiar fancy may have been lurking in Mr. Walpole's mind, there is no doubt that an instinctive sense of that determination prompted the expression of his wish that this might be the kat debate upon the subject. The progress of the question has not been in the slightest degree affected by the change of Ministry, unless the Liberalizing of Lord Derby and his Cabinet connexions should assist in bringing the House of Lords to a sense of political decorum. The development of opinion on the question of" marriage with a deceased wife's sister" is precisely analogous. The House has de- termined that, sooner or later, the statute-law of the country shall placed in accordance-with the facts. At law, indeed, the ques- tion is now narrowed to the point of inquiry, whether such mar- riages, effected abroad between British subjects, are, like other [ &TEST EDITION.) foreign marriages valid ? That point has still to be determined by a judgment ; but however the judges may decide, the distinc- tion between law and fact has become too fine to be maintained. Persons who go with the minority of the Commons in objecting to such marriages on moral grounds,—for the Scriptural grounds are untenable in the face of universal interpretation abroad as well as here,—represent a portion of the community which would pro- bably continue to avoid such unions ; but it does not follow that the moral scruples of a Parliamentary minority should continue to dictate a form of statute-law inconsistent with what has become a usage in the country. Here again was a question decided without any interruption to the progress of public business by the change of Ministry. Mr. Ayrton's motion on Metropolitan rating was also adopted on the merits of the case, and as it were set down in the Parlia- mentary book for the Royal assent at some future day. The ob- jection that a general rating for the Metropolis would infringe our custom of local self-government does not apply to the Metro- polis, which is in itself an imperium in imperio too exceptional either to give or to take the example of country parishes. In the Metropolis, there is a tendency for the different classes of society to separate and crystallize themselves topographically; and in the view of a Poor-law legislator the whole Metropolis comprises only the elements of one gigantic parish. The proposal, there- fore, to treat it as a community for such purposes, is only consist- ent with fact and reason.
The proposal to abolish the pageant Lord-Lieutenancy of Ire- land is reasonable in itself; bueMr. Roebuck's motion to that effect, opposed by the whole afflatus of Irish eloquence, received no support from the very statesmen who, as he showed in his reply, had predetermined the same measure some few years back —the Palmerstons, the Russells, the Naases, and the Disraelis. What has happened in the interval ? A quiescent mode of mind, both in Ireland and England, and a change of Government, which has placed " power ' in the hands of men who shrink from troublesome or vexatious movements ; while the Liberal Opposi- tion, sees the inexpediency of pressing too hard upon the provi- sional Government. So Mr. Roebuck's motion was outvoted as untimely, and shelved by the help of "the previous question."
Again, passports, in the hands of Mr. Monckton Milnes and the House of Commons, became a subject of Parliamentary and national interest, not Ministerial. In explaining the course that the Government will take,—limiting itself to an attestation of the citizenship of an applicant for a passport,—the Administration was acting simply as the agent for the public of this country ; and the House, upon the whole, accepted the course proposed by Ministers as the one which it would wish to be taken. All sides concurred in discussing the question without party-spirit, -without antagonism to the Government : suggestions were made on all sides,—by Mr. Milnes, Mr. Roebuck, Lord Palmerston, and Mr. Bright,—as if the House were in Committee on business of its own. The debate will serve to show the French Government the general assent of this country in declining to meddle with such a question as passports. The whole tone of the debate was that of repudiation.
An incident comparatively unimportant in itself had the effect of exposing in the present Ministry that which the Conservatives have charged against past Administrations—a want of concert among their own members. Ministers were asked whether steps had not been taken to enlist a force of Kroomen for service as a separate corps in the Indian army: but neither the representative of the War Office in the Upper House nor the Premier himself knew anything about it. At the next sitting of the House, it turned out that Ministers had indeed contemplated such a step—that is, Lord Ellenborough had determined ; he had adopted the design, and then abandoned it, apparently without consulting his col- leagues, who only learned it through the Anti-Slavery vigilance of Lord Brougham. This want of concert is formidable. It is the very thing which Lord Derby has recognized as the source of the greatest danger to his party. At a recent confidential muster he reminded the Members whom he invited to meet him, that, being a minority in the House of Commons, they " can carry no measures,"—meaning, of course, their own ; and he made them understand distinctly that he would not tolerate a divided support, but would rather relinquish office and the leadership of the party at once. Yet he encounters division within the ranks of his own Cabinet. The discovery might offer some temptation for the Liberals to rush in and break up the position of the gentle- men on the Treasury-bench ; but we have already seen how the administration of a party possessing a Parliamentary minority is operating to afford the opportunity for settling questions upon which public opinion is made up; and in the combination to carry those measures, while the Government plays its allotted part of bystander, the Liberal pasty is recover U1 unity in its own ranks and restoring its own discipline.
General Pelissier comet to England as the Ambassador of the. Emperor Napoleon, vice the Count de Persigny, retired. The exchange has been preceded by all kinds of rumours ; it is followed by as many. Does Pelissier come as the Marshal-General, who, having secured the situation in France, advances to reconnoitre ; or is he the " brother-in-arms " of the Crimea, come to renew in time of peace that good fellowship which he assisted in establish- ing during war ? The simple fact is, that one frank, agreeable, intelligent French statesman, is succeeded by a bold, frank, and popular soldier ; an exchange neither to be desired nor regretted. We could understand its political bearings better, if we were in- formed whether M. de Persigny retired in disgust at the conduct of the English Government in the late negotiations ; whether he withdrew from public life in disgust at the conduct of the French Foreign Office ; or whether he is dismissed by the French Foreign Office, in displeasure at his own conduct. Perhaps all these reports are true ; for they could be reconciled by a little supposi- tion. Meanwhile, General Pelissier, Duke of Malakoff, will be welcome personally, and officially so long as his Government be- haves itself.
The announcement of the Indian Loan is an event in a money- market which had recently become decidedly flat from want of events. Ever since the crisis, the state of the money-market has been distinguished by two characteristics—a great accumulation of money desiring investment, and extreme caution on the part of that class which virtually constitutes the medium between the money-possessing public and persons seeking capital for specula- tion. The effect of the late lesson has not passed away, and al- though there is abundance of money in the country there is an unwonted fastidiousness in venturing it. A form of investment, therefore, which has all the guarantee of a Government security, which has its prototype in an Indian stock always much above par, and, which presents an opportunity for placing money at pro- fit without the shadow of a risk, is of course a pleasing variety in the late monotony : the City is quite cheered by the event, and it is naturally anticipated that the amount of money tendered will largely exceed the sum required by the Directors.
• The few facts brought by the Indian mail are, that Sir Colin Campbell had arrived at Cawnpore, while his lieutenants were continuing the series of minor victories ; and that in China, while the blockade of Canton had been raised, the alliance against the Celestial Empire had been joined by Russia and the United States ; the Plenipotentiaries probably proceeding to Pekin in order to confound the inaccessible Emperor by their overwhelming suggestions.
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