NEWS OF THE WEEK.
ON Tuesday Mr. Gladstone moved, " That the several stages of the Irish Land Bill have precedence of all orders of the day and notices of motion, on all days when it is set down among the orders, until the House shall otherwise determine." He did not move to proceed with the Irish Land Bill de die in diem, because there might intervene an absolute necessity either for some of the votes in Supply, or for the debate on the Transvaal ; and in' that case, of course, the Government would set down these, -urgent matters for a Government day, when no private Member could in any case intervene, even though the proposal of the Government be not connected with the Irish Land Bill. Mr. Gladstone reminded the House that though the day on which he spoke was June 28th, it would correspond in an ordinary Session to July 28th, and that yet only four clauses of the Bill had passed through Committee. Nevertheless, he still hoped to prorogue by the end of the first week in August. The motion was carried without a division, but Mr. Gladstone's hopefulness hardly spread to the House. Fear is contagious, but hope, even when it diffuses itself rapidly, is at best only epidemic. And at present, hope is not epidemic in political Westminster.
