NEWS OF THE WEEK.
IN the two -measures of Reform still before Parliament, this week has witnessed two important amendnients,—one, of great practical value ; the other, establishing a principle susceptible of and very likely to receive a i-nore extended application. The.first is the con- cession of the franchise in Ireland to. all leaseholders of twenty years-leases of the clear yearly value of 10/. The exact addition -which this amendment of the Qualification clause will give to the constituency, we cannot pretend to estimate. It is due entirely to one with whom, for good or for evil, the history of Ireland is indis- solubly linked,—DANIEL O'CONNELL. Had not his potent voice been raised against the restriction of the constituency meditated by the Ministry; in ignorance we now believe, the restriction would have remained. - It is not absolutely-proved that the cutting down of the Irish county electors to 2,0-00 would have served the Conservative cause, but the Irish Tories are so disinterestedly op- posed to the comfort of the People in every shape, that they would have cheerfully submitted to sacrifice their own influence' so that the influence of the People were sacrifieed with it. The Registry clause still disgraces the Irish Bill. Why Ministers should prefer a system whose defectsnre gross, open, and palpable, to one which aims at amending it, and of which they are them- selves the fathers; would puzzle wiser heads than we pretend to carry. As they have now granted Ireland a really respectable constituency, nothing can surely be more absurd than to mar tha'r own gift by interposing between the objects of their grace- and its enjoyment, a law on which -the_mere existence of the English Re- gistry sets a seal of condemnation. The alteration of the Se.htch- Bill s one of principle. The grievance which it removes could hardly be called, in practice, a grievance at all; yet is its removal wise and just. In England, the qualification for a county member is 600/. per annum real property, for a-borough member 300/. This rule—the only result of Which has hitherto been an act of moral perjury by perhaps" two hundred members, every successive Parliament—some Eng- lish precedent-adorers and some Scotch aristocrats were anxious to extend to Scotland. The Lord Advocate has been blamed by some of his countrymen. on account of it—most unjustly. Ile strenuously objected to it tem the commencement. Our neigh- bours may turn up their eves -in wonder when they learn, that, down to a. very-late period, its most zealous supporter was— Lord ALTHORP! The Scotch People- indignant at the attempt to limit their choice te country gntlemen; and well they might. Their representations have been more successful than they had any rek,on.to hope. Not only has the borough, but the -county qualification, been struck Out. The Scotch may new choose, and welcome, an 'honest man wherever they can find him. Ti a- eyes 'of Pediment have not been wholly fixed on home objie:s; .A fortnight ago, Mr. E. BULWER took up the woes of' the Press; this week, Mr. H. BULWER,: his brother, has been engaged with the oppressions of' Botany Bay. We hope there is nothing .ominous in this conjunction. Had the Duke been in power, we should not have been altogether easy at the thoughts of it. Neither of the brothers was successful, but they both deserve great credit for pointing attention to subjects from which it has long been too much diverted.
The Continent has come in for its share of notice as well as the Colonies. Nothing could. be finer than the spirit displayed by- the House on Thursday, whenldr. FERGUSSON invoked its sympa- thies in behalf of Poland.: . Yet, it is impossible not to regret that Mr. O'CONNELL and . Mr. HUME'S denunciation of her unprin- cipled and infamous oppressor had not been heard twelve months - ago. The solicitude of Sir ROBERT HARRY INGLIS and of Mr. BARING—the man who calls the populace of England " black- geards"—lest the dignity of . the clement NICHOLAS should be wounded by the homely and hearty epithets of O'CONNELL, will be duly appreciated. Sir ROBERT PEEL'S candid resolution, not to believe a word of the Polish distresses until he had an account of them under General PASKEW ITCH'S own band, is equally de- . serving of notice. Sir ROBERT INGLIS has a seat for life—and /mach joy may Oxford have of him. Mr. BARING and Sir ROBERT. PEEL will, we suppose, ask the assistance of somebody to get them into the House again. The Irish Tithe Bill is still to come. The session will be a long one, if it finish all its business. The Processions Bill, which ought to pass before the 12th instant, has been given up as-hope- less. O'CONNELL opposed it! This was to out-Peel PEEL in his own peculiar line. Does he—any more than Mr. STANLEY, whom he lectured last night—really dream of conciliating the 01a ngemen? _ The House last night voted a million towards alleviating the West India distresses; one half of it to the islands that have suf- fered from hurricanes. Are not hurricanes in a warm climate of as regular occurrence as blights in a cold one.; and to be pro- vided for by the same natural process, the abundance of the inter-. mediate harvests?
In the Lords, on Monday, the Punishment of Death Bill elicited some curious specimens of baronial logic. Lord ELnorg has, itseems, been for the last twenty-five years seeking for what?—a proper - substitute for capital punishments! How much ha-s this excellent: old man been misunderstood ! The scandalmongers would have us believe that he had been seeking, during that long period, something much less abstract. bird TENTERDEN thinks. that- capital punishrhent ought not to be commuted until an adequate' secondary punishment is discovered; for if it.be, men will.net then think of looking for. it. We suppose, because then it "Will :be_ absolutely necessary to do so. Lord WYNFORD'S defence of the existing law, ike all his Lordship's acts, springs. from the purest disinterestedness : he would not change it, because it is so seldom executed. It would, of course, be still more worthy of preserva-• tion, if it were never executed at all. Ministers were in a minority,- on Wednesday night, on the committal of Mr. BARING'S bill. How' it happened, we do notpretend to know. As the bill is confessedly useless—as it limits the choice of electors most unnecessarily= and as, looking to the time of its introdoc!ion, it is a decidedly im- pudent bill—we trust the House will rally on the bringing up of the .report, and throw it out.
Lord NORTHAMPTON has given up his Ministerial Seats Bill, because of the lateness of the season. We have adverted to it elsewhere. Perhaps it was as well withdrawn fur the present ;- but there is no doubt, that, if not immediately, it (or rather a more extended measure) Will soon be found necessary.
