• NEWS OF THE WEEK.
Fon the week, Mr. Spooper appears to have made rather a serious breach in Sir Robert Peel's settlement of the Maynooth endow- ment question, and the opposition which he encountered only suf- ficed to render his success more decided. by testing it. As any alteration of the endowment would involve a money vote, it was necessary for Mr. Spooner to begin by obtaining a Committee of the whole House ; and this gave occasion for three several divi- sions, with a corresponding effort amongst those in the House or near it to reverse or sustain the decision at each stage. After all the exertion to defeat him, he carried the proposal to bring in his bill by 159 to 142. The grand argument which he advanced was, that the confiding spirit in which Sir Robert Peel proposed to settle the question had not been generously met by the Roman Catholics, but there had since been so dangerous an agitation, that, in the words of Lord Bernard, Maynooth, "the Sebastopol of the Church of Rome," has become "a standing menace to Protestantism, and must be -razed." The division was not the result of argument, but of prearrangement. Besides the pledges of Members to ex- treme ' Protestant " constituencies, in England even more than in Ireland, there was the opportunity of a side-blow at Ministers, who were officially compelled to defend the endowment ; and the receht return of three Irish Tory Members had operated as a sti- mulus to the activity of the Tory party. It is true, that in previous sessions the .opponents of Maynooth have been able to carry their point ; but, since the Members mostly belong to the educated classes, the majority of them is far from being inclined to a sec- tarian victory; hence although the Spooner of the time usually succeeds in the fennel division upon Maynooth, the measure -which he brings in is customarily defeated by dilatory obstruc- tions, and falls to the ground by the end of the session. We have no expectation that a single stone will be taken from the struc- ture of Maynooth College, nor does any Member who took part in the division of Tuesday night.
• The inference to be drawn from the vote relates to an entirely different subject. There can be no doubt that Ministers were in earnest in their resistance. If they could, they would have turned _the majority the other way.. It is apparent, then, that they have no command. of a mi in
nority the House of Commons. True, they might have failed on this particular goiestion in any other session ; but it happens that this is the third in a series of important de- feats in 'Which they have been involved. Lord John Russell's Education resolution was made an open question, and the heads of the Government permitted their subordinates to vote as they pleased ; .but the majority went with Lord John, and the majority were implicated in his defeat. Here again, therefore, they had no majority to place at the service of their quondam colleague. Their -example did not materially influence the decision of the House. The defeat which they incurred in the Scotch Billeting division was much More direct and positive. And those divisions of last -week lent body and consistency to that upon the Maynooth ques- tion' which might otherwise have been regarded as a special casualty. As the Ministers appear to be declining, the Opposition gains in . activity. Many of the Tories were as much pledged. as the Liber- .als to vote against Maynooth ; perhaps on close inquiry it may be found that the majority of such pledges lie on the Tory side. On the other hand, most of the leading Members -would feel them- selves morally compromised if they were recorded as voting with Mr. Spooner, whose view is certainly below the level of states- manship. Such Members, however, equally served his purpose by stopping away, while they saved their own consciences, and left as large a quantum of defeat to be thrown upon Ministers.
• The Opposition leaders are beginning to renew the arts of general- ship in the House of Commons ; they are making as well as using
their opportunities, and are trying to improve their chances of reducing Ministers to extremity.
The subsequent discussion upon Mr. Fagan's bill to discontinue the levy of Mi "sters'-money. in Ireland was only wanted to test
the hollowness of both sides in the Maynooth debate. Here is an impost upon householders in Dublin and other Irish towns for the maintenance of Protestant establishments ; the exact converse of the Maynooth grant. If the Maynooth subsidy should be abolished, so should. Ministers'-money ; yet the wholesale defend- ers of Ministers'-money were found among the very people who attack Maynooth—the ultra-Protestant Tories. Ministers, on the
opposite site side, were not less inconsistent. The impost is a. pecu- liarly bad one, since it is an oppressive tax upon a majority for
maintaining the sectarian establishments of a minority: the set- tleinent attempted by Sir John Young in 1854, by relieving the clergymen of the collection and exempting houses under ten pounds, has proved a complete failure : yet Mr. Horsman com- promised the matter —he condemned the tax, but opposed its re- peal now, and promised it two years hence ! This is held to ply an announcement by Mr. lIorsinan, on authority, that Ministers will not dissolve or resign—just yet. Sir Joshua Walmsley had a pair of bills to introduce on Thurs- day, for extending the elective franchise to all householders, and for extinguishing the smallest boroughs or taking away one
Member from boroughs not quite so small and transferring the Members to towns now unrepresented. Members were not ' -
ing of Parliamentary Reform ; and they got rid of a very embar- rassing discussion, which might have placed some of them in an awkward position, by making "no House," at the expense of cast- ing over a vast amount of bills and motions of considerable inter- est—except to Ministers. The proposal to reform the Corporation of London has roused the constituent bodies of the City. The Radical rationalism of Mr. Bennoch has no force in the Common Hall. The Liverymen see that they are to be stripped of their privileges ; they have not been put in possession of the specific and practical reasons for an- nihilating them ; and, like all living bodies, they resent the idea of annihilation. They prefer to annihilate Ministers. Under the Lord Mayor, therefore, they have agreed to support a Committee for a systematic agitation against Government in defence of their looal existence. If Ministers were involved in the defeat of Lord John Russell, Lord John is involved in this peril of Ministers ; for a dissolution will most likely terminate his representation of
London City. Already the Times has more than hinted that Lord John should avail himself of the asylum which is open to
statesmen of high rank who have passed their period of active service in the House of Commons, and that he should consent to be made a Peer. But Lord John is only a type of a certain circle of statesmen, many of whom are at least as far advanced in poli- tical life as he is ; and the warning to him is a signal to his set. Accordingly, we see the heir to the house of Derby identifying himself with the civic Opposition, while the heads of the Opposi- tion in Parliament are identifying themseaes,with any manteuvre that can expedite the uneeating of Ministers.' The motion made by the Earl of Albemarle to stiMulate Govern- ment in the suppression of torture in India, is too important to be overlooked, although it lies apart from the political in-
terests that are prominent this week. The subject, too, is gene- rally known, and has been recently well exposed. The surpnsing
fact is, that torture should have existed so universally in India, and remained unknown to so many men personally acquainted with the country and actively engaged in its government. It proves how ignorance of the language, the obstructions of Indian routine, and the knavery of the natives, have kept its rulers ignorant of its actual customs except where those rulers sank to the level of the native vices. The reform is only part of a larger reform ; but the attention bestowed upon India in Parliament acts upon the na- tives as well as the British officers, and expedites improvement.
