NEWS OF THE WEEK.
Pxn.mixEmr is summoned by a proclamation in the Gazette to meet on the 12th of this month, for the despatch of business. It is understood that there is more than one reason for its being sum- moned before Christmas ; but only one has been signified with anything like an appearance of authority, and that is, the neces- sity of procuring an act of Parliament to give the requisite author- ity for sending Militia regiments abroad. They are intended, it is understood, to supply the garrisons in the Mediterranean ; whose troops will be landed in the Crimea as reinforcements for the army there. It has also been conjectured, with some probability, that the sanction of Parliament may be asked to further measures respecting the organization of a defence force at home. Another reason for the early assembling of Parliament was supposed to be financial—the intention of Ministers to propose a loan : but this has received a qualified contradiction. Being summoned for the 12th, Parliament would necessarily adjourn for the Christmas holidays before Sunday the 24th; and its first sitting, therefore, can only be prolonged for a few days. There have been specula- tions as to the adjournment being very brief, and the session being virtually continued from the period of the first meeting. Such an arrangement would be consistent with the idea thrown rut by Government, as well as by independent Members in pre- vious sessions, that in future years Parliament may be convened at a period more accordant. with the ordinary London season, and the Members be released at a much earlier day in the summer. Such reforms, however, are most likely, together with some others, to stand over at present; and the sole consideration, of course, will be the best use that can be made of the presence of Parliament, or of its absence, in the practical conduct of the war.
Probably, the idea of continuing the session is entertained with more affection by the Opposition than by other parties ; for we have no reason to calculate that the ante-Christmas session will pass off with perfect quietude. The organized Opposition, officially so called, is understood to have been inspecting its forces and ar- ranging a campaign to commence with the meeting of Parliament. The Earl of Derby has been conspicuously mentioned as enter- taining a circle of his political friends—the Anti-Cabinet on the left of the Speaker. The programme of the attack which they contemplate on the Ministerial bench indicates as the main grounds of their hostilities, the smallness of the army in the Crimea and the greatness of the loss, the consequent inference that "cre- dulity" or " connivance " still presides in the person of the Pre- mier over the Cabinet, and the necessity for escaping from Mr. Gladstone's plan of short accounts by a loan of sufficient magnitude. Mr. Disraeli, therefore, is to be regarded at present busy in de- signing the form of a concentrated and organized attack upon Mi- nisters, for the purpose of converting the opportunity of the war Into a Ministerial crisis, favourable to the restoration of the Quar- ter-Sessions Ministry.
It is also to be anticipated that other parties will not forbear to throw some pressure upon Government. Mr. John Bright can speak as well as write, and his voice is not one to be silenced. Many independent Members of Parliament are dissatisfied with the scale and speed at which the preparations for attack and pro- secution of the war have been carried on; and it is no secret that politicians of this class are debating the question, whether it is their duty to sustain the Government for the time being, faults notwithstanding, or to regard the remedy of these deficiencies as of more urgent importance than the maintenance of the Cabinet. Conviction on this point is likely to receive an unconseious bias from the circumstance that the losses in the East have plunged
many families in mourning who are represented in both Houses of Parliament ; and here we have an array of auxiliaries, whom of course it will be a grand object of Disraelite tactics to employ for the aid of the organized Opposition in its attack upon the Minis- terial bench. We are now stating motives and elements of action which have already manifested their existence; but with regard to the duration of the session, or the conduct of business in either House, and particularly in the Lower House, much will depend upon the self-possession, the candour, and the force with which Ministers may state their purpose and convey their appeal to the feeling of a nationality that will, party divisions notwith- standing, be strong in every part of both Houses.
