NEWS OF THE WEEK.
THE year 1887 has expired since our last issue, and expired unlamented. The note of the year was its tiresomeness. In politics, as in business, every one was required to keep hammering away with very little return for all the hammering. The Government had no victories abroad, though good work was done in Burmah ; and only a beginning of success at home, though the Crimes Act was passed for Ireland ; while the.people enjoyed no larger measure of prosperity. The great dispute between English parties approached no nearer to a settlement, and no one can say with confidence to which of them the victory will ultimately belong. The most gratifying feature of the year, in fact, was the proof it afforded that the Irish weapon of obstruction has broken in their hands, and that a Bill intensely disliked by them and resisted by their Gladstonian allies, can
nevertheless be passed into a law. Irish politics have dominated the year, and Irish politics are best described by an alteration of Poe's lines :- A circle that always returneth in, To the self-same spot, With much of madness, and more of sin, And hatred the soul of the plot.
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