NEWS OF THE WEEK.
OUR record of Parliamentary proceedings this week will not be very long. Monday and Tuesday were riolydays for legislators as well as fair-frequenters. Both Houses met again on Wednesday; but although there has been a sufficiency of talking, little busi- ness of general interest has been got through. Perhaps it is only prudent in our Representatives to take advantage of a breath- ing-time before entering upon the two grand subjects of the session, Corporation Reform, and the state of the Irish Church. In the meanwhile, we can congratulate the friends of free elections on the result of the inquiry before the Ipswich Com- mittee. The sitting Members—KELLY, a lawyer, and DuNnAs, once of Edinburgh—were on Wednesday reported to the House of Commons as guilty of bribery and corruption ; their opposition to the petition of the spirited and indefatigable Mr. Thom- Wasosr was declared to be frivolous and vexatious; and their subordi- nate agents in the work of corruption were stigmatized by name, and have been ordered into the custody of thjSergeant-at-Arms. Sir Rol/Eel' PEEL made an unsuccessful attempt to screen the bribers. Ile pretended that because they had eluded the service of the warrant to appear before the Committee and disclose their un- lawful practices, they had. committed no offence. Had they been served with the warrant and then absconded, Sir ROBERT would not have taken their part for the world ; but the innocent crea- tures had only absconded in order to get out of the way of the Speaker's emissary. Mr. GISBORNE, who conducted the ease against the accused parties, was not prepared with a precedent on Wednesday ; but the next day be produced one' which cut away Sir ROBERT PEEL'S ground from under him. A witness who had absconded to avoid giving evidence before the Camelford Election Committee, some years ago, had been taken into custody, and the Tory Speaker, Mr. MANNERS SUTTON, in administering a repri- mand, had said that his absconding in order to avoid the service of the warrant, was an "aggravation of his misconduct." There was nothing more to be said in favour of the delinquents ; and they will b. taken by the Sergeant-at-Arms whenever he can lay hold of them. Sir ROBERT PEEL has therefore acted the part of a pettifogger without success, as without shame.
It will be observed, that Mr. GI SBORNE stood forward as the public avenger in the Ipswich case: why did Mr. P. M. :STEWART shirk his proper duties ? It was more especially his province, as Chairman of the Committee, to call the guilty parties to answer for their conduct. But Mr. STEWART, We fear, was not hearty in the cause : he is not a Sir RONALD FERGUSON or a BERNAL.
We suspect that the Orangemen of Down will not be much delighted with the management of Lord LONDONDERRY and his hopeful son in regard to their great Protestant petition. Last week, Lord LONDONDERRY, after pocketing the document for six months, presented it to the House of Lords; and had a fine " showing-up" by Lord MELBOURNE for his pains. On Wednes- day, Lord CASTLEREAGH produced the counterpart of the petition to the Lords, in the House of Commons ; and gave O'CONNELL an opportunity of effectually exposing the practices of the Orange-Tory .agitators, and contrasting their turbulence with the recent quietude of the Catholics. So far from producing any impression against Ministers, which was the aim of the party represented by Lords LONDONDERRY and CASTLEREAGH, the pre- sentation of these petitions has been of service to them. Most persons are disgusted at the evidently factious purpose for which the meeting was got up, and the use to which the petitions of the Orange bigots and their serfs was applied. An attempt was made in the House of Peers, On Thursday, to forward the schemes of the Pharisees, by preventing Sunday tra- velling on a railroad about to be formed in the vicinity of Ncw- eastle-upon-Tyne. The Bishop of HEREFORD suffered -himself to be made the tool of certain persons, who pretended that they IL 4
abandoned opposition to the railway on the condition that Sunday travelling was to be prohibited on it; whereas it appeared, by the statement of Lord WALLACE (whose name we are glad to see once more in the debates), that one of these over-scrupulous gentle- men had bartered his objections, whatever they might really be, for 3,000/, in cash. This is characteristic of the set to which the Bishop of HEREFono's clients belong. The Duke of Rictimosin and Lord WHARNCLIFFE spoke strongly in reprehension of' the attempts to curtail the enjoyments of the bumbler classes of so- ciety; and even the Bishop of LONDON, though palpably annoyed by the recollection of his own abortive doings in this line, admitted, that unless the rich were to be coerced, as well as the poor, into what he deems the proper observance of the Sabbath, the Legis- lature had better not meddle with the subject. The Bishop's mo- tion was rejected, by the decisive majority of 40 to 19. A petition from Oswestry, presented on Thursday by Mr. ORMSBY GORE, elicited an admirable speech from Mr. O'Cosr- NELL. The petitioners had the impudence to call upon the House
to take measures for preventing the Irish Members from legislat- ing on the most important of Irish subjects : they wished seven millions of Irish Catholics to be unrepresented in Parliament
when the monster-grievance of their country was the subject of consideration! Mr. °Vole's/ELL placed in a strong light the es- sential distinction between religion and revenue; and those who maintained that interference with Church property was interfe- rence with the Protestant religion, he taunted with mixing up and confounding their love of Protestantism with their lust for lucre. We do not see how the parsons who raise such a pother about the violation of their oaths by the Catholic Members, can escape from Mr. OVoNNELL's argument: they can scarcely admit that reli- gion and tithes are convertible terms, or that to meddle with the one is to subvert the other.
Sir WILLIAM RAE brought forward, on Thursday, the subject of granting additional funds, out of the public purse, to the Church of Scotland. He moved for a Select Committee for examining the petitions presented on the subject ; with the view, of course, of obtaining its sanction for a grant of money. The Lord Advocate proposed as an amendment, that a Coinntissi;.n should be issued, to ascertain whether there was really any deficiency of Church. room in Scotland, or of the means of afftirdiog it. The tone of Mr. Mu/toss's speech was very adverse to the grant; and Sir GEORGE CLEM{ saw, and said, that the subject would be " hung up" for years ir the Commission was issued. The House came to no de- cision on Thursday ; but the debate was adjourned to Monday. Will it be resumed on that day ? or is the question to be cushioned ?
Mr. HARVEY succeeded, on Thursi'a.J, in obtaining a C mmittee to inspect the labours of the Charitab!e Cnumissioners, as they are familiarly called,—not by any meals, linvever, because their services are gratuitous ; for they have cost the country about a quat ter of a million, and the exarnina i ,11 07 only twenty-four out of fifty-two counties has been completel. Mr. HARVEY proposed that a Committee of Public Instruction !-h mid be appointed; and hinted, jokingly we suppose, that Lo/d BROUGHAM should be its President, assisted by Lord LYNDHURST and Sir EDWARD SUG- DEN, who have all lost their "occupation" by the disastrous course of political events. As far as the two Peers are concerned, of course their retiring salaries would suffice for pay; we do not know whether Sir Euw.‘an has an allowance or not.
The commutation of Taxes pressing upon the productive in- dustry of the country, for a Property-tax, was discussed in the House of Commons last night; Mr. ROBINSON haviug moved for a Committee to inquire into the subject. The Ministers opposed the motion, on reasonable enough grounds. In the first place, it is too late in the session to legislate with advantage on the subject, and the House is averse to.. its consideration ; secondly, the ap- pointment of a Committee would tend to disarrange many of the operations of commerce. If the change advocated by Mr. Ro- m NSON is to be made,—and nothing has been said which can affect its justice and policy as a general measure,—Ministers should come down to the House prepared to advocate and carry it. Of this, however, there seems not tube the least chance at present. In the meanwhile, the discussion in the House has done no harm, though it would be unwise to hand it over to a Cimmittee. Mr. ROBINSON'S motion was rejected, by 105 to 42.
