NEWS OF THE WEEK.
TEE holidays of Whitsuntide have brought the customary sus- pension of all reoognized business ; but the momentum of political excitement was too strong before the holidays to slacken much in the interval.especially in the case of Ministers. After the break- down in the House on Friday, her Majesty's Opposition retired from the scene, and little has been heard of it subsequently ; it is the Ministers who have shone forth in all their glory. The amusements of the season have comprised some remarkable poli- tical entertainments. First, in the order of time, though not importance; was that eclogue between Lord Shaftesbury and Lord Derby, in which each Earl has been accusing the other of an appeal to religious cant; Lord Derby, according to the construc- tion of his antagonist, having referred invidiously to the sup- posed attendance of Lord Shaftesbury at Cambridge House on Sunday; and Lord Shaftesbury, according to the construction of his antagonist, gladly making the worst of the case, and putting a forced interpretation upon the words in question.
But far more important than the duet between Shaftesbury and Derby, though that was quite in the broad and shouting style of Verdi, has been Mr. Disraeli's solo to a chorus of ad- miring adherents - in his own county. It was a rattling speech, excelling Mr. Disraeli's ordinary manner in copiousness and force, with something more than his ordinary hyperbole. The total discomfiture of the Opposition was a subject in which he fairly revelled. The settlement of the Cagliari question, and of the Indian question, which—at least in Buckinghamshire,— he has already accomplished, and the great measures of improve- ment which nothing but the shameful Opposition had prevented him from accomplishing,—these were the themes on which he pugnaciously enlarged, with enough of truth to give zest to the cleverness of the display, and to make all serious Liberals feel that it is high time to look about them. Mr. Disraeli's characteristic modesty crept forth, as usual, in some remarkable sallies. Proposing the health of the farmers, " on public grounds," he expressed a hope that he should not be accused of "impertinence " if he confessed that a sentiment of affection mingled with his esteem ! After his advertisement in letters a foot and a half long of what the Government has done, and will do,after trampling like a St. Michael on the dragon of the Cabal, he hoped that " what we have done I have placed before you with no undue urgency." We laugh ; but, after all, Dis- raeli is master of the situation, and undoubtedly he renders popular politics very entertaining. It is amusing to be coolly told in effect, that the discharge of the British engineers was entirely owing .to the terror produced by Lord Malmesbury's eolli4$ into the Foreign Office : and that the war with France 'Which MP.' Disraeli so discreetly told his audience was at his advent to power " an affair of hours," was likewise averted by the exertions of the new Government, rather than by the vote on the Conspiracy Bill. One cannot help thinking of the fly on the wheel in the fable. It is gratifying to learn that Mr. Dis- raeli and his colleagues are " building up an empire," though we should be made happier if we knew precisely what the process was. Mr. Disraeli has evidently not forgotten Vivian Grey. The speech was plainly not the speech of a statesman
to the manner born" of responsibility and office, but it is not without its serious aspects for the consideration of the Liberal party. And while Ministers and the public are thus enjoying their holiday, the Board of Control is left likewise to its Whitsuntide vagaries without even a President to be master over it. For amongst the " difficulties" which Mr. Disraeli described Lord Derby's overcoming, he could not reckon that of selecting the proper person to place over the Indian department.
The appeal to the public in the matter of Trinity College, Dublin, appears likely to result in a practical reform. Our readers know the circumstances. Dr. Shaw, one of the junior Fellows, pointed out certain corruptions which had crept into the financial administration of the college, making it a most com- fortable preserve for the Provost. and seven senior Fellows, in whom the management resided. He has received the " censure" of the Board of Management, three censures being equivalent to an expulsion from the College ; and he has appealed against that chastisement to the Visitors. The Visitors, among whom is the Archbishop of Dublin, have entertained the appeal, have heard counsel on both sides, and have determined to enter into the merits of Dr. Shaw's statement with other questions concerning the management. They have adjourned till the 1st of June. We have, therefore, already a provisional judgment on the steps taken by Dr. Shaw, namely, an admission by the Visitors that there was a _prima facie case for scrutiny: The allegations of the reformers, who disclaim any personal imputation against the officials of the college, are thus pronounced proper subjects for inquiry, and therefore presumptively not proper subjects for cen- sure. But it would seem that the investigation will not stop at that result; it will go into the whole matter of college manage- ment, and no doubt it will go also into that mysterious reposi- tory, " the common chest."
In the interval of Parliamentary business, the London Corpo- ration has been debating the official bill for its reform, with some passion, but not a little reason. Onr own opinion of the bill has already been stated. The tendency has been to reduce the London Corporation too much to a level with the various municipal corporations of the country, oblivious of the fact that -the metropolis is altogether exceptional. The motive is usually ascribed to an official and Parliamentary jealousy of any great municipality which might grow up for the whole of the metro- polis. At all events the official proposal, introduced by the late Government, contemplates an abrogation of ancient rights, in- cluding the right of metage and of levying the dues thereof, in a summary manner, without any allegation of abuse ; and the corporation petitions urgently against any suokinvasion. It is an incident of the case not tending to increase tublic confidence in the bill, that the Select Committee upon" it has sat with closed doors, as if the friends of the bill in the Committee dreaded any examination of it pending the inquiry, or any knowledge of the mode in which the discussion goes in the Committee.
The signs and portents in France do not become less dis- couraging. M. Migeon has not taken his seat, but, it is said, foreseeing some arbitrary step to prevent his taking it in peace, he contemplates retiring, and placing a friend of his own in his room, of course with the concurrence of the department of the Haut Rhin ; and it-is supposed that the department is quite ready for that compact alliance against the Emperor. Even in defeat, therefore, Migeon seems to have the better of the Eagle !
The scandal of the duel does not diminish, notwith- standing• a feeble, a very feeble act of authority on the part of the Government,—a circular to Colonels, hinting rather than commanding, that officers should refrain from interfering with civilians. A party of officers have presented themselves at the office of a journal, in uniform, and have compelled the insertion of a statement justifying the trans- action in terms which aggravate the military offence. There are some signs that this reiterated provocation, this unblushing display of conscious and irresponsible power, is provoking a se- rious reaction in society. It is not at all likely that such con- duct will admission of the sous-officiers into ball-rooms and hospitable saloons, in which 'they have hitherto disported themselves.. If-their manners in society—the perfumes of cheap
tobacco, the unrestrained readiness for the supper, and the want of skill in the management of their spurs amid the extensive petticoats of the ladies, provoked satire, their mode of encoun- tering that kind of warfare is not likely to conciliate guests or to multiply cards of invitation. A. third officer, it is said, has pre- sented himself near the cabaret in which De Pdne lies dying, in order to take the earliest opportunity of calling him out again ; but some working men in the neighbourhood showed signs of roughly handling the champion of military honour.
It is not understood that the Bonapartists as a faction are implicated in these proceedings ; on the contrary, the Army, we hear, is Bonapartist only in the higher ranks : in the inferior ranks it is neither Bonapartist, nor Orleanist, nor anything else, political or moral ; it is simply soldatesque—panting for a mili- tary regime, pure and simple. Of course this cannot be ; but the attempt to bring it about may cause a great deal of confusion, especially if it be made just now, when the Imperial Government is resorting to all kinds of shifts for the purpose of rubbing on. To raise the drooping funds, with Three per Cents below 69, it has proposed a forced sale of property belonging to charitable foundations, with a state " stock" in lieu thereof ; another re- markable idea is a forced abstinence from the issue of shares in order to promote a rise in value of such property. Such are the results of the Imperial consultations with great capitalists ; who will make their profits, whatever becomes of charities, Emperors, or Empire.
Reports from St. Petersburg announce new reforms. A coun- cil of Ministers is established, and a fresh impulse is given to the statistical department—the Government desiring informa- tion, and the Emperor being so busy that he cannot get through his work without the help of a council. These have the appear- ance of improvements quite in accordance with our ideas of such subjects ; yet we cannot accept them as unequivocally sound. It will be observed that they all tend to centralized administration.
The speech of Count Cavour in the Sardinian Chamber of Deputies is calculated to have a very powerful effect, not only within the confines of King Victor Emmanuel's dominions, and in countries abroad that sympathize with the Piedmontese Government, but throughout the Peninsula, and Austria. The subject under discussion was a loan which the Government re- quires to balance its income and expenditure ; the expenditure being greatly augmented by the magnificent works which the Government is undertaking, including the tunnel under Mont Canis. These wqrks are calling forth the constructive energy of the northern Italians, and will more than double the value of all property public or private. The school of pedantic economists, however, object on the score that the first duty of a state with an adverse balance must be to curtail its expenditure. The political rivals of the Count dislike the energy of his measures; the ultra- Radicals side with the economists, and rather desire to embarrass a Government which is constitutional and not republican. The Minister replied to the motives as well as the arguments of oppo- nents. In his allusion to the subject of church property, which he is desired to confiscate, rendering the clergy pensioners of the state, ho argued that a clergy thus reduced to dependence be- comes a tool at once for Absolutist and ultra-Papal influences, clinging to the centralization by which it is paid and to the in- fallible head from whom it obtains its warrant. He declared that Liberalism in politics alone can give to a national Govern- ment the power of carrying on material improvements. But while insisting upon the necessity of having a Liberal Adminis- tration in power, he declared his readiness to employ, as he has employed, in finance, and in the business of material improve- ment, his own political enemies, to whose talents, and patriotism, and national feeling, individually, he gave the strongest testi- mony, at the very hour when they were endeavouring to thwart his measures and pull him down. The courage of this position is only equalled by its sound policy. It proves Cavonr to be a thoroughgoing Liberal, but at the same time a practical consti- tutionalist ; and it is calculated to strengthen that feeling which, it is said, has made Tuscany, as well as Parma, decline to hang upon the skirts of Austria, or to admit the right of the two- beaked eagle to dictate in the name of " Italy."
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