NEWS OF THE WEEK.
THE Easter recess in Parliament has arrived ; and if the record 'of Royal assents is not yet either full or important, the work actually performed before this unusually early division of the ses- sion has been far from unsatisfactory. In the House of Commons, the Jew Bill has been debated with animation, but not with excess of prolixity, and has advanced to its third reading. The Clergy Reservesāa subject much less understood previously, and not more debated than the merits of the ease demandedāis not so well -advanced. However, practical improvements arc making way. It cannot be said that law reforms have been completed during these 'pm-Paschal weeks,āalthough Lord Cranworth boasts of having seeured four persons learned in the law to arrange the statutes, in ā¢ a manner that reminds us of the old manager's boast that he had " secured the Coveneys "; but the new intelligence and candid temper that new animate the Law Lords and the unprofessional -reformers of British jurisprudence are in themselves a striking ad- vance, and are a guarantee for more.
The general zeal in making such improvcegents as are under. .
taken really accord with their professions, :ftires confidence in the ulterior career of Government, and hence an unusual degree of expectation attends their promises. For instance, the assurance that the Board of Health ig to he-reconstructed; has to an unusual degree begotten an expectation that the department will be ren- dered more efficient, and that we shall at last have some practical results, besides scattered essays of performance here and there about the provinces. The business of the week has mostly partaken of the same hopeful character. An instance is supplied in Mr. Milner Gibson's bill for the establishment of County Finanbial Boards ; a commencement of the process of restoring local legislation and administration to local authorities, which may be ultimately carried out to the great relief of Parliament from much of the business that now impro- perly oppresses it. Mr. Milner Gibson, however, could not have pressed forward his bill as he has done, if he had not enjoyed the zealous as well as efficient support of Lord Palmerston, strikingly contrasted with the merely obstructive conduct of Sir John Pa- kington and the Conservatives, who met the bill less by argument than dilatory motions for adjournment. But the time ef the House of Commons has been more occupied with discussing the defects in its own constitution through the irre- gularities at the last election, which took every variety of form. The motions to issue new writs for Blackburn and for Bridgnorth were opposed by Sir John Shelley ; who appears to have been put forward by the leaders of the Liberal party, and then left rather unfairly in the lurch, so that he was obliged to withdraw the Blackburn motion, and the Bridgnorth motion fell as a conse- quence. The demand for a special inquiry by a Committee was met by the paltry objection that such a course would set one Com- mittee against another. But probably a general feeling against making a practice of withholding the issue of writs, as a very (summary act of disfranchisement, was that which led to the defeat of.Sir John Shelley. An inquiry has been granted into the general bribery at Canterbury,āinstigated by Mr. Ker Seymer, and rather poohpoohed by Mr. Thomas Duneombe on the score of insincerity : but if the Peers concur in the address to the Crown, of which there can be- little doubt, Canterbury will be overhauled by a Royal Commission with Parliamentary authority. Another species of irregularity is now formally laid before the House of Commons in the shape of a report by the Select Committee on the withdrawal of the Norwich petition; from which report it appears that compromises affecting the seats of ten Members have been arranged by the holders of petitions on behalf of the" two great parties in the state." Evi- #enoe of this kind is pouring in, and the bewildered House has
evidently come to the practical conclusion that altogether it does not know what to do. The cure for these corruptions, however, had better not be deferred too long; for at present there appears to be a progress of corruption advancing at such a rate, that in a comparative- ly short time it must bring the whole system into odium and ridicule. Members and their professional coadjutors are doing the best they can to justify the contempt which Louis Napoleon has cast upon the Parliamentary system of government ; and as they are helping it to commit suicide, a qu.estion of practical interest is, to know whether any of that illustrious Prince's friends, on either side of the Houseāhis " affectionate correspondent" or his astute " bottle- holder "āis prepared with a 2d of December and a Corps Legislatif appointed on more consistent principles.
The most important measures of the session are naturally to come after the holydays. We have as yet heard nothing about Lord John's thoughts on Education ; and if we foresee the Budget, it is rather by the natural course of events than by any disclosure which the Chancellor of the Exchequer has made to the deputa- tions that begin to pester him. He has let the Customs deputa- tion understand, indeed, that the Board, which had become too scandalous to be maintained, will not be maintained ; but then, the deputation could as certainly have conveyed that informa- tion to the Chancellor of the Exchequer. He has talked about reductions of duty here and there, but also he has spoken some- what gloomily about the surplus popularly supposed to exist. And a shade may come over the confidence of the public. It is hoped that the Chancellor of the Exchequer's colleagues are ena- bled to understand the approaching. Budget ; since we have had recent example of a Ministry leaving that by which it was to stand or fall in the hands of an inscrutable seer ; and there is just the shadow of a doubt whether there is the perfect understanding on some points that 'there ought to be between the present Ministry and the ingenious Member for Oxford University. Negatively, we know something more about the renewal of the Indian Government. When they were first questioned about it, Ministers spoke as if they had perfectly made up their minds on the nature of the plan, which they were to base on the report pre- sented by the Committee on Indian Territory relating to the first of eight headsāthe Central Government. But a new kind of public influence has awakened to existence both in India and in England; and it has found expression even in Parliament, every part of the" Houseābehind; below, before the Ministers. It became evident that public opinion would not acquiesce in an official edict, and various conferences have taken place between members of the Government and the advocates of reformāwith what result,- is not yet known. The only fact apparent is that Government is
