NEWS OF THE WEEK.
'THE projet of the French Ministers for the abolition of the He- reditary Peerage, has passed the Upper Chamber, by a majority of 36. The division took place on Tuesday ; and, had it not been for the complaisance of Ministers, might have taken place with equal propriety on Monday. Last week, we gave, in a somewhat extended analysis of the speech of the Duke DE CAZES, nearly all the arguments that could be fairly urged either for or against the projet. The principal speakers n it were the Dukes DE FITZJAMES and MONTEBELLO ; the latterof whom, a very young man, entertained the Chamber with a high aristocratic harangue, in which he spared neither the Electoral Colleges, the Chamber .of Deputies, nor even the Press, which almost all French speakers are fond of conciliating. The arguments of MONTEBELLO were answered with much temper and tact by M. CASIMIR PERIER ; who contrived to show up, with great ability, the monstrous co- .alition which, in France as in England, has been formed, and with -equal success there as here, between the High Tory party (the Carlists) and the Radicals (the Bonapartists), for the purpose of overturning a Ministry whose place neither of them are at all qua- lified, to- suPply. Thus, this great measure, out of which were to emanate revolutions, civil wars, and all other ills, has been peacefully, and promptly settled by the simple means confided to the King for the preservation of the constitution—a creation of Peers. It: is . curious that the Ministerial majority is precisely ecinal to the number of the batch created. As a smaller majority would have equally effected what the Minister required, the fair inference is, that the determination of the Crown being once de- cidedly announced, not a few of those whom hesitation or im- becility would have confirmed in their opposition, thought fit to reconsider their opinions.
It has been said, that were a batch of Peers created by Lord GREY, the delicacy of the present Lordly advocates of the Reform Bill would fire at the infringement of their monopoly, and many who now support the Ministry would fall away from them. Credat Judeeus—the certainty of defeat is not one of the induce- ments to engage, among Lords any more than among Other men.
