NEWS OF THE WEEK
THE political situation is threatening. Despite a concession made on Tueslay to the Conservatives, in the adoption of the Duke of Abercorn's amendment requiring the Land Commis- sion always to take into account the value of the tenant-right, in considering the question of the claim of the Irish tenant to the gift offered under the Arrears Bill, Lord Salisbury and his party arc believed to be intent on adhering to the amendments by which they have wrecked the Arrears Bill, and with which we hold it to be impossible for the House of Commons to agree. On Tuesday—to which day the consideration of the amend- ments is postponed, that there may be no precipitancy at a most momentous crisis,—the House of Commons will certainly dis- agree with the first amendment, and almost certainly with both ; and then, if the Lords insist upon these amendments, the Irish policy of the Government will be defeated on a most vital point, —and at a moment when even those who dislike the Liberal policy ought to see that, without this measure, the Liberal policy for Ireland cannot be fairly tried. A new Session, convened immediately and expressly to reintroduce the Bill, will /probably follow. And then, if the Government be not of opinion that the crisis is one justifying them in advising the Crown to overcome the difficulty by the creation of new Peers, the next thing seems to be to warn the country that if the Lords per- eevere, the Bill must drop, and that the followers of Lord Salis- bury must take the responsibility of defeating a measure passed in the House of Commons, first, by a majority of 108, and next, in all Probability, by an even larger majority, for which the country, well roused, might easily provide.
