NEWS OF THE WEEK.
THE proceedings in the House of Peers have hitherto been unimportant; but the time is come when the conduct of that branch of the Legislature will be watched with extreme interest. In the course of a few days it will be seen what kind of reception the Irish Municipal Bill will have at their bands; and from their treatment of that measure, conclusions will be drawn as to the fate of another bill of most gigantic importance, which will probably be sent up from the House of Commons before the session is brought to a close. We learn from the country newspapers, that a report has been extensively circulated by Members among their constituents, that the Peers will reject the Irish Corporation Bill pp the second reading. This would be more honest, and not more unpopular, than the course they adopted towards the English Act; but we suspect that they want courage for so decisive a step, and that, with the fatality which seems to hang over them, they will prefer to irritate the country by a series of mutilations and injurious changes of the bill. In either case, they will discover a grievous lack of judgment : for the country, being now in a state of prosperity, and well satisfied with its rulers, is disposed to be good-humoured and to think well even of the House of Lords ; and if their Lordships had ordinary discretion they would take advantage of this favourable disposition of the public mind, and avoid the renewed odium which a perseverance in the policy of resistance must gather around them. We confess that we have little hope of their Lordships' reformation or enlightenment ; and are prepared to expect more of those collisions with the Commons, in which, though apparently victorious, the Peers lose strength and credit, and the nominally vanquished add to their determination and force. Before the session is over, the country may be in a state of formidable excitement on the question of Peerage Reform.
