NEWS OF THE WEEK.
THE suspension of Parliament for the Easter holidays with the silencing of debates has by no means suspended the active interest of the public in the position of the Government, or in that ori- ginal measure which they have laid before the House of Commons. The publication of the Government of India Bill has been in itself an event quite equal in general interest to the performance of a debate in the House of Commons, and in many respects the docu- ment is much more interesting than the description of it by Mr. Disraeli, or the very meagre comments of his cold and doubting hearers. On perusing the actual text, the public has discovered that what Mr. Roebuck called "a sham" and Mr. Bright "clap- trap," exists largely, both in the design, and in the details of the measure. The impractMability of the elective machinery proposed, the favouring of five Parliamentary constituencies, the merely fal- lacious appearance of control in the Council, the despotic authority of the Minister, with his power to mislead the Council by half- information, to appoint the Secret Committee, and to remove it, the unsatisfactory arrangement 'of patronage —all these are de- fects in the bill on which the press has fastened with promptitude and unanimity. It is clear from the manner in which the mea- sure is treated by the journalist representatives of the people and by society, that within a week after its appearance it is a dead failure, and felt to be so by its authors. The publication of the bill therefore has materially modified the position of the Govern- ment which stands sponsor for the measure.
The Revenue returns of the quarter possess an interest quite special. We have frequently had to record in this page the general aspect of the returns,—the proportion of increase or de- crease, with an explanation of any particular point, but this time the figures are eloquent with political meaning. There is an in- ;crease for the quarter under all the principal permanent heads, except one, the Post-office ; and there the decrease is so slight as not to be worth talking of. On the year, there is rather a de- crease under the two chief heads of the revenue, Customs and Excise, amounting in the whole to something more than half a million, with a slight increase under other heads. But on the year, anti on the quarter, there is a decrease of the Property-tax —on the quarter to the amount of 3,551,0001., on the year 4,500,000/. On the year just closed, there is a net decrease to the extent of 4,450,000/., on the quarter 2,500,000/. The nature of the decrease is easily understood : it arises mainly from the partial remission of the Income-tax—a remission which, together with that of some minor taxes imposed for the purposes of the war, Sir George Cornewall Lewis would have suspended last session, for three years, had not the Opposition. of that day, with the aid of Mr. Gladstone, compelled him to alter his budget, and only to take a temporary advantage of the taxes which he would have retained so much longer. Mr. Disraeli is now literally paid off in his -own coin—or want of coin ; and the public is awaiting with some curiosity to know how he will provide for these de- ficiencies. In some degree he is thought to be singularly pre- cluded from handling the subject by his own antecedents. He helped to create the very deficit which he now has to encounter, and how can he remedy it by those easy methods which he refused to Sir George Lewis ! He might say indeed, with great justice, that Sir George was as much to blame as he was ; for if the Oppo- sition was factions in compelling the reduction, the Ministers who assented to it were something worse than factious : to avoid in- convenience for themselves they faltered in a public duty. How-
[Wrrn MONTHLY SUPPLEEENT.] ever, it would be unfair to Mr. Disraeli to judge of his practical efficiency in office, by any reference to that imaginative and irre- sponsible fertility of invention which he displays in opposition. He dares not attempt any of his own peculiar crotchets. But of one thing we may be certain—that he is free enough from the trammels of conviction to provide any budget which the exigencies of his position and of his colleagues may require. Some political melodrama, with a tragic ending, is anticipated in the budget debates. We do not count upon the tragedy. But there will very probably be a farce. In the meanwhile, one part of the public will certainly look to the Chancellor of the Exchequer, however erroneously, for some relief. No doubt can be entertained that distress is felt through- out a large part of the country. It has been manifested in Spital- fields, in Birmingham, in the coal districts, and in other manufac- turing centres. The sufferers have already appealed for help. Mr. Bright has confirmed the_conviction of the Birmingham men, that they must seek it in emigration, with a hint, however, that they might have it at home in diminished taxation. Emigration is the idea amongst the London sufferers,—who have not yet ob- tained help or hope from Mr. Henley ! By this time an im- provement upon the winter condition ought to have appeared ; but the spring goods have been delivered, and have by this time been hall sold over the counter ; in some oases the stooks having literally run low ; and yet the distress continues. Yet the credit of the country stands as high as ever it did, and there is abundance of capital available for judicious use ; facts proved by the simple tender for the Indian Four per Cent loan at 97.
In this holiday interval, at a time when the business of Chris- tendom is to a certain extent suspended, rumours take the place of facts, but in truth the actual condition of Europe is such that rumours are themselves events, influences, and powers. We know enough to understand the manner in which these rumours work, even when they are not quite true. Napoleon the Third is under such pressing necessities, that he has already been com- pelled to amend his course towards Great Britain, and he is now obliged to pay some tribute to appearances at home. Before set- ting out on a tour of inspection in the departments to see that all is quiet, General Espinaase Minister of the Interior, superintend- ent of official " tranquillitY " in France, has seized a fine oppor- tunity offered by a deputation from Macon, where the friends of X de lamartine are endeavouring to arrange his affairs. "The Prince who has struggled for ten years against the excesses of demagogues," says General Espinasse, in a letter to the deputa- tion, places his name at the head of the subscription to redeem the estates of M. de Lamartine, in memory of the services reA- dered by the poet-statesman " to the cause of order in 1848." ft is a tribute from the Empire to such conservative sentimentalism as emanated from the Republican ferment ; anti to a certain ex- tent it is a bid for a new class of suffrages for Imperialism. The effort to purchase popularity shows that there is a want of that commodity : but we doubt whether the price is high enough. Let the saviour of society try the offer of a crumb of constitutional liberty. Again, the Emperor has been in council with the great finan- ciers—not for the first time—to consult on measures for gal- -vanizing French commerce ; and the Bourse is agitated by new expedients for "making things pleasant" in the market. Some parties in that important body wish all railway shares to be con- solidated in one stock, guaranteed by the state,—as if we were to convert our 300 and odd millions of railway stock into an aug- mentation of 50 per cent on the National Debt with dividends paid through the Bank of England Another scheme is, to have only one instead of two settlements a month in those securities which do not belong to the Government stock—the longer period being more favourable to speculation. These attempts to encourage the Bourse show that the Bourse is in want of courage ; and every- body "knows the reason why." The repressive measures of the Government have not only diminished the trade with some foreign countries, but have cramped home trade by restoring the appre- hensions, and with them, we suppose, the hoarding habits which Napoleon the Third had done so much to break down. Under these influences the capital which would have been actively en- gaged just now in French enterprises is actually leaving the country; some of it, we imagine, going to the North, and some we know to other quarters in considerable sums.
And while Napoleon is thus situated politically and financially at home, there are rumours which daily grow stronger that Austria has been resisting his menacing remonstrances against the conduct of the Vienna press—a remonstrance against the editing
of an Austrian press from the Imperial editor of that afesaiteur in which appeared the political manifestoes of the French *ray!
In marked contrast with the Government of Frani*, just at present, is that of Russia ; while France is retrograding, Rusais is advancing. The Emperor Alexander is diminishing the privi- lege of the upper, enlarging the liberties of the humbler classes, and thus identifying the progress, welfare, and heart-feeling of the multitude, with the stability, extension, and grandeur of the empire. We have to watch the facts and. to learn whether the prospectus of serf-emancipation is to be carried out indeed. One fact is pretty well established, that as far as Russia has hitherto advanced in that noble path, it has been under the guidance of one or two of her latest sovereigns ; but Alexander is leading the van in a peculiarly generous manner. The landowners are in- vited to assist in the change, and they appear to be doing so. On a recent occasion General Mouravief has once more proclaimed the object and spirit of the new mission of Russia, espe- cially addressing the nobles. The speech is imbued with the most generous sentiments. "Moral interests," said Mouravief, "take precedence of material ones," and, he might have added, that material interests pro..t by being put in their own sub- ordinate place.
The operations of the British armies in India look more pro- mising, at least on paper, than they have since the commence- ment of the troubles. Sir Colin Campbell has rapidly concen- trated his main body at Lucknow ; he had already secured his rear by keeping a column constantly in motion in the Doab, be- tween Cawnpore and Futteyghnr, and he had intelligence of the movements by Sir Hugh Rose and General Whitlock from Saugor and Jubbulpore upon the Jumna. This move of Sir Colin's relieves Sir James °dram of the pressure upon his position, the weight of which was shown in the abortive rebel enterprises against the Alumbagh, of the 21st and 25th February-. Pushing troops into the Dilkoosha park on his right front, Sir Colin has sent General Ontram across the Goomtee with 6000 men and thirty guns. At a later day, General Pranks, marching up from Juanpore, and defeating two bodies of insurgents on his road, joined the Com- mander-in-chief with 4000 men. This raised his total force in all arms it is said, to "50,000 men," and the guns to 160 pieces. Jung Bahadoor had. not even yet crossed the Gogra, and the de- lay in his column seems to be the only hitch in the arrangements. It is assumed that the Sepoys had. only one line of retreat—that which leads to the jmnetion of the roads towards Northern Oude and Rohileund. Much will have depended upon the advance of the Ghoorkas and the progress of Brigadier Chamberlain's force from the Punjaub. If these reinforcements come up rapidly, and the insurgents be compelled to abandon Lneknow, they will be driven into the homeless jungles of the Terrai. Such were the prospects of the British on the 6th of March.
From China we have little that really amounts to intelligence. The quadruple alliance appears to have been completed between England, France, Russia, and the United States ; Plenipotentiary Reed, who is said to have shown some disposition to go North- ward on a "smart" independent mission, having become the fourth leg of the official table. But all the reports from that part of the weed are evidently liable to great distortion in their very origin. It is doubtful whether the Plenipotentiaries are really going to Pekin, or whether the Western Powers have not con- tented themselves with sending a note expressing their own views. Still, there is no doubt that the Christian Powers are acting together against the "barbarous" Chinese. Strange that Europe must go fifteen thousand miles to find a point of agree- ment; Christendom which is all discord in its own portion of the globe, only able to be at peace in the Celestial Empire ! The real intelligence that the despatches bring us is the expla- nation of past events and the description of Canton and its hide- ons polity. Much of this is old, little of it is positively new ; but heretofore imagination itself has fallen short of the revolting dynastic despotism which overshadows ancient Chinese institu- tions.
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