NEWS OF THE WEEK.
THE week in Parliament began with what both friends and enemies seem to have considered a triumph for Ministers, though it is hard to say what about : the first step in bringing forward the Canada Corn Bill, the motion for going into Committee of the whole House of Commons, was carried by a majority of 188. Somehow, an extraordinary spurious excitement was got up about this mea- sure. Its whole history has been singular. It was hinted at (as we now understand, though the hints were far too obscure to be intelligible at the time) by Lord STANLEY in the House of Com- mons more than a year ago. He then hinted at it a little less vaguely in a despatch to the Governor-General of Canada, but still in such a manner, that when the despatch came home again very few could make out what he meant, and those who did suspected him of having provided rather for retracting than going forward in his promise. Acting on his despatch, however, the Canadian Legislature passed the duty of 3s. a quarter on the im- port of foreign wheat into Canada, which was to be the preliminary , to the admission into this country of wheat and flour from Canada at a nominal duty. Was it to be so or not, was the question asked on all sides here, with very little care for an answer; but two parties assumed that it was disagreeable : the Ultra-Agriculturists assumed that there was a covert attack on them; and some of the mere Anti-Ministerialists among Whigs and Free-traders assumed that there was at all events something bad about it. In propor- tion as the measure was explained—in proportion as it was made known that there was no immediate prospect of much importation from the Canadian ports—the panic of the agriculturists grew more intense ; so that by the time the measure was really under- stood, they had worked themselves into a very imposing display of disaffection—exhibited just in time to show its futility. It is as if the agriculturists, by favour of Lord STANHOPE and other eccentric persons, had selected the very best possible opportunity of showing in what contempt they might be held by the Ministers, whom they affected to threaten. The other party were very much puzzled for an objection : first they said that the measure was not to be at all ; then they told the farmers that it was a sly attempt to open a " back-door" by which to swamp the market with American corn ; then they began to hope that they had discovered the measure to be of no sort of importance. Now there were difficulties in all these objections: the measure is to be; if it were to be the " back-door " aforesaid, so much the more like Corn-law Repeal; if of no impor- tance, why make a fuss about it ? Luckily, however, Lord STANLEY helped a dawning suspicion that it was " not a Free-trade measure " ; and there were no bounds to the indignation of the Liberal Free- traders. Not a Free-trade measure !—atrocious ! PEEL must certainly be turned out ; and what with boasts at agricultural meetings, club gossip, and Stock Exchange rumours, simple persons actually were entrapped into speculations about a change of Ministry if Mr. LABOUCHERE carried his amendment to break ap the scheme by disallowing the Act of the Canadian Legislature. Monday came ; the majority of 188; and Mr. LABOUCHERE still sees PEEL and PEEL'S on the Treasury benches. The measure is safe. Its importance is future rather than present. The great corn-lands of Canada and the Western States could supply all our wants and those of an empire beside; but the capital, and above all the labour, are wanting to cultivate the lands : Canada must he settled ; and nothing will impart such an impulse to its settlement as giving to the produce of its lands a steady value in our market. A supply regularly entering our ports at a shilling duty, without depopulating our own agricultural districts, will convince people that a shilling fixed duty is rather a harmless if not a very beneficial measure : the Whig fixed duty of eight, or even of five shillings, is beaten out of the field for ever. The next thing will be a fixed ditty on corn direct from the United States, of four shillings, if not one shilling; next, a fixed duty for all the world, or no duty at all.
Whether these Ministers, or their successors, will be content to wade through all the bickering and uncertainty of the interval, or sweep away the nuisance pretty soon by jumping to the con- clusion, to that assuredly we must come at last.
An attempt has been made in the House of Lords to prevent the union of the sees of St. Asaph and Bangor, already decreed by
the Legislature on a vacancy in either. The two sees are to be made one, that revenue and place may be found for the Bishop of an intended see of Manchester. Now we learn, from authority which we have much reason to trust, that if, instead of joining the two Welsh sees, each were split into two, and four Bishops were appointed instead of the couple now existing, work could be found for them all in that rugged and uncultivated region of aborigines. But the work, which may be worse done in the scattered popula- tion of North Wales, is scarcely done at all in the congested po- pulation of Lancashire, which is a condensed bishopric without a Bishop. They say that funds might be found, in Queen Anne's inexhaustible Bounty, or even in Manchester itself, without rob- bing poor Wales to pay for wealthy Lancashire. But the " real difficulty " is the Bishop's seat in the House of Lords. The Duke of WELLINGTON holds it incompatible with the temper of the times to add even one to the number of Bishops in the House—the dis- position is all the other way ; and upon the whole it was admitted that the thing could not be. This is a remarkable " sign of the times." Then why not let the junior Bishop wait outside the House until there be a vacancy ? No, says the clear-sighted Bishop of LONDON ; if one Bishop attend not, people will begin to think that none need attend. So the lesser of two evils is chosen, and Bishop's work is to be less well done in North Wales, by one Bishop for two sees, in order that a Bishop of Manchester may be appointed in a manner consistent with the dignity and safety of the Establishment.
Mr. CHRISTIE has made an effort to procure the admission of Dissenters to the two great Universities ; proceeding by bill : but he met with little success. Lord STANLEY represents that class of public feeling that holds the grievances, which be helped to declare in 1834, mainly removed by the institution of London University. So they would be, if London University were endowed with wealth, antiquity, and popular consideration, as the exclusive Univer- sities of Oxford and Cambridge are. But it is not : it is little patronized by " the public," except in its medical department ; and Government look askance at it. The general support offered to Mr. CHRISTIE on the Opposition side promises rather more success, should the Whigs ever again be in power, and at the same time disposed to redeem troublesome pledges : but a readier and directer plan for Dissenters, instead of striving to force their way into the strongest holds of the Church, would be to do their best to render Loudon University rather more efficient. Mr. THOMAS DUNCOMBE has again brought before the public the perverse Justices of Cheshire; worthy folks, who, the more the Secretary of State tells them that they ought to dismiss their head Gaoler, because he is cruel and incompetent, the more they won't dismiss him ; but they dismiss, instead, the Chaplain that tells tales about the Gaoler to the Prison-Inspector. Mr. DUNCOMBE asked for a Committee to inquire into the case. Sir JAMES GRA- HAM replied, that no new facts could be brought to light, and that he was going to do something in the legislative way. It is an as- sumption that the facts are exhausted. And even if all were known, that is not equivalent to passing them under the glare of a Parliamentary inquiry. But Secretaries of State do not like to render Justices—voting and electioneering country gentlemen— desperate ; so Sir JAMES thinks it better and safer to provide some kind of remedy by empowering the Secretary of State to dismiss bad prison-officers: and perhaps he is right.
