28 MARCH 1868, Page 3

The Bribery Bill was to have gone into Committee on

Thursday night, but the House, which certainly does not seem muck in earnest, consumed all its time in talk. The talkee-talkee now is all about the question of privilege. Mr. Mitchell says the House is giving up its most important power, that of deciding who its own members are, and placing the " power of the Crown" between its own electors and the House. That would have been an argument 200 years ago, but to-day if the new tribunal is a nuisance the House could abolish it in six hours, or for that matter, hang the Judges. Cannot the House understand that it is Sovereign, and, like other sovereigns, must be at least above suspicion of corruption.