NEWS OF THE WEEK.

PARLIAMENT has been occupied with a great variety of subjects. It is easy to lay bills upon the table, and produce sketches of measures which the authors may be incompetent to fill up. Hence the business in the first weeks of every session of Parliament—the sowing season—suggests to the inexperienced politician the ex- pectation of a plentiful reaping-time : but he who has watched attentively the results of former sessions, is not deceived by the show of industry and preparation ; he knows that, with few ex- ceptions, the Bills will prove abortions—that Reports of Com- mittees will become waste paper, and notices of motions disappear unnoticed.

The principal topic of discussion in the House of Commons, this week, has been National Education. It was introduced by the Home Secretary with a flourish of trumpets. Lord JOHN RUSSELL swelled as with the performance of a mighty feat, in announcing the intentions of Government. From his pompous exordium and magniloquent peroration, a person who had not heard the middle of his speech, might have supposed that it divulged a scheme, vast in conception and elaborate in detail, for the instruction of the rising generation. But it was nothing better than a promise to propose, on some future day, that 20,0001., or, if so much can be spared, 30,000/. of public money, be confided to the Marquis of LANSDONVNE and other four Privy Councillors, to job in grants to schools. Such, in the middle of the nineteenth century, is the plan propounded by a British Minister to Parliament, instead of a large and all-comprehending scheme of education for the people. Yet some Members were overwhelmed with gratitude for this proof of Ministerial zeal in the cause ; while others professed excessive alarm, lest danger to the Church should lurk in the proposi- tion. Sir ROBERT PEEL intimated, that unless he were satisfied as to the " principle" on which the money was to be expended, he should oppose the grant. He dislikes the idea of Normal Schools : possibly some of the teachers may be imbued with unfriendliness to the Church ; and the State must not contribute to the cost of instructing a Dissenter. Yet this man is the chosen leader of the majority of the English aristocracy ! Verily, if it were idle to txpect noble aspirations, expanded philanthropy, or enlightened statesmanship from the small-minded Minister who proposes a grant of 20,000/. (or perhaps 30,0000 a year for the education of the people of England, we may look in vain to his rival for an exhibi- tion of more enlarged liberality. PEEL, and those with whom he acts, would make the Church an idol—a species of Juggernaut, and crush multitudes of victims under her chariot-wheels. Igno- rance, with crime its offspring, is suffered to stalk through the land, lest instruction should breed dissent ! The miserable grant of 20,000/. (or if' possible 30,0001.) was denounced as likely to produce the " most alarming mischiefs,"—as though every pupil were to be trained into a FIESCHI, and every box of spelling-books were an infernal machine. It matters little what becomes of the Minis- terial plan of education for England; and therefore the proclaimed hostility of the Tories to its embryo troubles us not. Those who have embraced the notion that progress will be made this session towards the establishment of a system of instruction with any pretensions to the character of' national, will be enlightened by perusing the discussion on which these remarks are founded. Be- fore their hopes can be realized, the pigmy race of statesmen must give place to men of heart and muscle, to grapple with and strangle the brood of reptile " difficulties."

,From a conversation in the House of Peers on the education of hard Officers, the public will derive the gratifying information, that although they pay four or five millions annually to suppOrt fleets and seamen, their officers are indifferently instructed, and their ships badly built. For some years, young gentlemen in- tended for the Navy, were sent to a College expressly instituted and maintained for the purpose of preparing them to serve their country at sea, with advantage to her and credit to themselves; but Lord MINTO states, that this seminary was broken up because the candidates it "turned out" were found to be inferior to others,

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who competed with them as Midshipmen. And new experiments are in progress with the view of adopting some better system.

Lord HARDWICKE and Lord MINTO agreed that the French vessels of war are constructed in a style of superiority to our own. How like you that admission, most thinking people ? From time immemorial you have been taught to despise French ships and seamen ; but now the First Lord of the Admiralty declares that French shipwrights excel English. There is one cause of this : your money has been squandered by ignorant, conceited, and cor- rupt officials ; whilst your French competitors have been well served, and receive their "money's worth.'

The Committee on Church Leases has been reappointed ; but with the special reservation, that consent to the Committee in- volved no sanction of the Ministerial project of paying Church- rates out of the surplus expected to result front the improved management of ecclesiastical property. The Committee answers the Whig purpose of cushioning the Church-rate question for another session. The Dissenters, of course, expect no relief from the present Parliament.

An attempt will be made to improve the tribunal for the trial of Controverted Elections. Lord ManoN endeavoured to persuade the House to abandon its jurisdiction, and confer it on Assessors to be appointed by a Committee of six 111-embers, taken by the Speaker equally from both sides of the House. For the details of Lord MAHON'S plan—which deserves some praise for ingenuity—we refer to our abridged Parliamentary proceedings. The House of Commons, by a large majority, refused to part with its privilege of deciding on the validity of elections ; and Sir ROBERT PEEL has introduced a bill intended to amend the present practice. That he will succeed in forming a competent and impartial tribunal out of the House of Commons, is not to be expected. As Lord ManoN truly observed, he has " unclean" materials to work upon ; and no new disposition of parts can remove the original and inherent vice with which the mass is infected.

Never yet have we seen a sufficient objection to the trial of disputed elections by the Judges of the land. True, they are not of angelic intelligence, or exempt from human prejudices ; but where can be found men more competent to decide accordinr,° to law, and less likely to permit party-spirit to bias their decisions? Lord DURHAM'S Report has alarmed and provoked the Tory Lords. It was laid on their table by Lord MELBOURNE 011 Mon- day • and immediately a battery was opened upon the Reporter by Lords WHARNCLIFFE, WicaLow, and WESTMEATH. With perfect composure Lord DURII AM received and repelled the attacks. He was baited, but his assailants were gored. He offered himself, he said, to their personalities ; but when these things should at last be exhausted and come to an end, he begged that attention might at length be turned to the " great and important question, and the mighty interests involved in it, without any admixture of low, petty, and personal feelings." We scarcely hope that the Lords will profit by the reproof'. The truthful exposures in Lord DURHAM'S Report are unpardonable. In every page they read the condemna- tion of their own system. They are startled by the conviction that the Canadas must ere lonr, be abandoned by, if they are not wrested from, this country ; the only chance of preserving them as part of the British empire being by a change in policy which implies the loss of all which makes colonies profitable to an oligarchy in the mother country. No wonder they are enraged by Lord DURII AM'S Report, and deem its publication an offence against " the order." Lord MELBOURNE and Lord PALMERSTON are at variance on one of the most important provisions of the Austrian Commercial Treaty—that which pretends to confer upon British vessels tine right to enter ports on the Danube. These ports are in the Turkish, not Austrian territory, which lies above then; and therefore it would seem that the consent of Turkey is needed for British mer- chants trading to those ports : and such is Lord. Al mum:axes opinion. But Lord PALMERSTON, in the House of Commons, denied that the consent of Turkey was required. The Foreign Secretary was not clear in his explanation : we suspect that the Turkish treaty was blundered, and a provision necessary to give effect to the most important stipulation of the Austrian treaty carelessly omitted,—though a clacqueur insinuates that Mr. HENRY BULWES all but killed himself by his exertions to make that treaty a model of diplomatic adroitness.

A brief enumeration of the other subjects on which Parliament has been engaged will suffice.

A new Irish Corporation Bill—by Lord MORPETH : it differs not materially from tine bill of last session, except in a provision for in- troducing the English Municipal franchise, after the Irish Poor-law has been three years in operation. Several measures for improving Prison Discipline, remodelling County Courts, and extending the Jurisdiction of Magistrates—by Lord JOHN RUSSELL.

A Bill to amend the Law of Copyright ; a similar measure to that of last year—by Mr. Sergeant TALFOURD.

A Metropolitan Police Bill for London and the vicinity—by Mr. Fox MAt.i.n.

Several bills to alter and amend laws relating to Scotland—by Lord nvocaTE MURRAY. A Prisons Bill for Scotland—by :NIL Fox MAULE.

A 13i11 to mutant the Irish Poor-law—by Lord Monmern. The House rejected a motion by 31r. Wma.acn for a Committee

to inquire ha() the Adtninistration of Justice in Scotland.

-Alf. Bittern eterox's annual attempt to prevent Midnight Legis- lation was also unsuccessful.

The week has passed away without any notice in Parliament, and with none of any moment in the press, of Lord GLENELG'S

expulsion from the Cabiuct "out of doors" it has been an uppermost topic of conversation. Why did the Oppo- sition threes) the opportunity of annoyance, anti iii stain from pes- tering Ministers in both 1 louses with questions ?—lestead of suf- fering them eiuichy to make new arrangemcnte; just as if it were a matter of not the slightest moment that the administration of the Colonial Departmeut should be changed at the commencement of the session. The circumstances under which Lord GLENELG'S removal took place were remarkable. A similar treachery to a colleague le the Cabinet has scarcely occurred in modern times: we must go back to that disgraverul period of English political history, the middle and close of the seventeenth century, fin' its parallel. From Wabeobt: down to GREY, not a Prime :Minister of England can be named, but would have scorned the deed which sur- prises nobody in Lord Viscount ...MmmouttsE. Yet the Opposition in both I louse: have Leen silent on the tempting theme. The 'Mut: Lim s end Lc 0;nosoistelit Es in the Lords, the Sturnoneas and BL-Nt•ANN,,:,s in 11w CoM111011S—the violent partisans as well as the cauth,its iii do tit2 t'on..,:_Tvative party—have abstained from al- lusion to the subject. They 'oust have been bound by strict orders, and reslridned by no mean tliscipline. But to what end ?—Perhaps it is deemed prudent not to assail the Ministers, till oiler the decision on 31r. V1 11.1 Eas' motion: in order to negative it by an overwhelming majority, the assistance of Ministers is required : on the Corn-law queetiee, the "landed ascendancy interest" owns no party ills- tincti,sH. Or perhaps the Tories, not yet prepared fbr (Ake, are nu•villitT; to take any steps which shall wealtsn the already tete, Cabinet : they fear, not that ..klinisters will maintain their but that they will ahantlon office. Hence the Tories: .r' refs tenderly. It is said that a motion on the state of the :Navy, which Lord II.utowicin.: announced his intention to eitees ees withdrawn on the express command of the Duke of • nix. \\-fly:'—'The same reply sttg;csts itself': the Tory taelie "in"--for the pre,A,,nt ; and therefor: mit a -iginttion is to be presented to them.