NEWS OF THE WEEK • EAsiut brings its amnia intermission

of Parliamentary labours. The first half of the session has been rather larger than usual. Ministers were m a hurry to marry their Royal :Mistress, and scarcely allowed the Christmas holydays to pass before they. called upon the Commons to vote the settlements. The commencement of the session was the commencement of Ministerial humiliations. Regardless of warnings, not in lids instance proceeding solely from Radicals powerless it, Parliament, the Government resolved to pro- pose till es,tablisluntoit for the Queen's husband, so unnecessary and unreasonable, that even some of their stanchest adherents were compelled, either by conscience or a regard to appearances and the fear of constituents, to unite with the Opposition in curtail-

:' it.

This was a disgraceful blow ; but the :Ministers took it quietly, and other mortilications followed. Mr. TIEnums triumphed on a question of finance: Mr. Lumina. persuaded a majority to brand the SPRING 1{41; 4; job ; and Lord STANLEY beat the Government on a point of more practical importance perhaps than any of' these, for it more nearly effects their majority—the registration a Irish

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klectorse, 'We believe that no previoes 'Ministry ever encountered siodt a series of defeats ; we are certain that none over survived them. Neverthelee,, the Melbourne- lugs pick up some crumbs of etoe- kt. They remember, that although the House of Commons has once and again discredited particular acts and practices of their administration, yet a majority demurred to a generel vote of " no confidence." True, the converse of the proposition eves not brought forward ; no member of the Cabinet, no Whig, old or modern, ventured to substitute a resolution of approval tin. that of rebuke. But tile practical effect was the same—fre places. The result of the " no confidence" struggle seemed to establish the fact, that let them do what they like, when the (pies- tion is whether the Tories shall return to office, the present house of Commons may be trusted to keep in the Whigs. Again, when the Oppos:iion narrowed the China question to a mere conflict of thetiolis, tiny may be said to have tbught for defeat : victory would have disconcerted their plan of shunning the responsibility of Go- vernment, till it shall fitll upon them by no direct act of their own, but like the natural autecession to an inheritance.

Pas,ing from sultiects on which Whigs and Con :ervatives were ranged, ostensibly at least, On opposite sides, our retrospective glance .ilsecrns two questions in the foreground. 'file Corn-law &hate, though its issue was ludicrous, had yet this uteri t, that it attracted the attention of the public—nay, of Parliament—to it large feature of the " Conditift-of-England question." And although the predoinitiance of the lauded interest seemed to be un- shaken as fur as it rests upon it numerical mojority in the Legis- lature, an him ssiell was created among the most confident up- 61d.erS it' 1h' 'xi ii tax, that the advot,ates of free trade are Irking Pr■)eress: mid the impressive 1 Lee.:Wat.00 of Sir Rom; HT I ma.. that the value of landed property depends mainly upon com- inereed and manufacturing prosperity, must have been received as it sort.ot wonting to prepare for the time when the Corn' law's must be re,1;11(Plished. On the whole, therptiwe, we are not disposed to consper the time devoted to the discussion on Mr. Vimatatsla mho!) as unprofitably employed ; and, to all practical ptirpo es. the .debate was perhaps as usefully concluded by W 1111:1-1t- foN s blundering motion of adjournment, as by a division exhibit- ing the decided superiority of tile landed intere.st. It the importance of a subject vere measured by- the time it (!ceupied, then the Privilege question woulti surpass all 01 hut's to public estimation. The House of ("ominous met on the I (It 11 The inljority 1,oh,st Ministers on Prince At.marr's pension was 105; on ti NI:weeirr-Mo.vr1:■t:Lt: jolt, ; on Mr. 11 rumrs's Finance motion, 10: na Lora sr•csi.lIcs Iteei-iration 1611 for Ireland, I They only useaped 3 VOto. of VOIlfl:eilt:e 1,y a untjorit.v of 21, and of censure on the Chino

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of January, and adjomned for the Easter holydays on the 1,5th of April : deducting the days on .which there was no sitting, it appears that the House met 65 times ; and on no fewer than :37 occasions were they employed on Privilege—sometimes a com- paratively small portion of' the night was wasted in the wrangle, but generally several hours: it may safely be said that more atten- tion was devoted to this one subject than to all the other business of the session. And what is the result ? That the claim to ex- clusive jurisdiction on the Privileges of the Commons hes been practically abandoned; that the assistance of the Lords, at first con- temptuously spurned, has been requested to pass a law, which the Courts of Justice, not the Ilouse of Commons, will eeecute ; that the Judge whose decision was unpugned--whom some Mem- bers idly menaced with the displeasure of the Commons— who by implication, though not by name, was declared guilty of' highs breaches of' privilet„.,e—this Lord took up their bill, enlarged it in one direction, contracted it in another, made it his own, and thci sent it down to be passed by the brawlers against him. And pa.z,-.et1 it was ; for the majority, mho professed to take the high ground of Privilege, for the nation's salt:, and could see no safety foe the constitution except in maintaining it by the most odious means, succumbed when Lord John and Sir Roemer PErr. surrendered : like the bully in the p'.•ly, they ate "the leek," making wry faccs the while. Charity itsedf would find, a difilcully in putting any other construction on the conduct of these leaders mai followers, than that they were insincere all ,ulong, and. assumed patriotic proft.s-tions as a cloak for party convenience. It is indeed avowed by some astute Ministerialists, t'a ,f the rim of this farce throughout the Sea6011 has been extremely usefial" iii

staving off more disagreeable perfbrmanees; i llonmer Pent, had not likewise derived advantage from tlo! oolonged mystification, he would have taken effectual moens to stop it.

On looking back upon the incidents of 2 COI:ft-at betwcen the Commons.and the Lox .and the co: :net of the prominent actors, it is impossible. not to he struck with tit, di,milied de- meanour of Lerd DEN parti•.;111:.r, to him beion.,..;; the high

praise of using the opp)rtimity of CI: ninchad.

0.1.•:;i: • Men Fesco,,,t, dir • irecInn t.ie press. Thu protection .shicit the " 4resen ;AR' People" (3,2nied

to the publis:a.vs newspaper:, and re.,:t.ved c::elu,Ively fir their

OffieerS, LoTtl DENM CNIQNItsti tO ell. lie has male a step towards tai amen.17lient of tile LW 1:M.

.Sotwithstandhlg E.,o much time was taken up by the Privilege and other idle discussions, a reference to the Vote-iv:per shows

flint some 'wog'', ss been made with several measures of prac- tical use. Very few have been completed, and experirce forbids

the expectation that titany will live through the S':...1011. Another remark, sugoeeted by the review of the Parliamentary session and inspection of the Notiees. is the absence of el

ap.rep motions. The

make-believe, Members no longer attempt the delusion of " :baiter

Reform." Icobotly pretends that even the I 1.111.A leo: I„nined. g,round ; and Mr. GrorrE under no ohligation to repeat his test- ing motion of thollgth the Cabinet is -recou:strueted," and the question is ‘• open" still.

In one respect the I iovernment has been diligent and success- ful—almost all the money for the service of the year is %axed. Whence the supplies are to come—whether from new taxes, or from antivirated toeonn . c ..... and postr oned burdens in the shape of augmented debt—is e question on which the Chancellor of the Exchequer proposes to enlighten the country on the sth of next 11111-11111:ch Lords have not departed t?om their 143W cenlit noel habit of doing little or nothing before Easter. Th, tEglit of Lord ll,:ovoliAn primmu ia.:111!, of his ‘‘r.ler—immediately .tfter the (..eninettoe- inent of' the session, and Lord LYNII1SURSr's illness. leo e almost pralyzod them. What they have done, however—always savin.!: the of the Chur.:11---Ims been of its kind ; and it will

he reniembered. though tha fact has to ereete surprise. that

the nuest enactrient—in principle% not Inca' pretence—has procce■led not from tlie Reformed 11,; of Commons hat from. the " other plave.- .1!tc , • Cc:I:tire to tde Printed Papers T t: imou t: Parliament It now well advane.,1 in its third year. No Parliament since tile Reform Act has exiTede,l :t three-