NEWS OF THE WEEK.
THE Lords and the Comm ons have had a rather sharp brush this week on the subject of the Commons' amendment on the Judicature Bill, which transfers the Scotch and Irish as well as the English appeals from the House of Lords to the new Appel- Xe Court. On Tuesday, Lord Cairns, after sharply snubbing rd Granville, who raised a point of order about his notice, maintained that this was a breach of the Lords' privileges, that -no amendment touching their privileges could originate else- -where than in the Lords, and that if the Bill came back to them -with this amendment, there would be no choice but to throw the Bill out altogether, as the only adequate defence of their endangered rights. The Lord Chancellor maintained that there was no breach of privilege, and that even if there was, the modern practice was in favour of rejecting only the .clauses which are considered to involve a breach of privilege,— provided, that is, that there was no encroaching intent on the part of the other House, —and was generally mild and conciliatory. Lord Salisbury ridiculed the evidence adduced of the Scotch and Irish wish for the change, and said that if we had but been going to alter an Edinburgh sewer, there would have been a better and
- more formal inquiry as to the wish of the Scotch public. And so the conversation wore itself out.
