NEWS OF THE WEEK.
TRERE can be no more arguing on the assumption that Ministers are "in a minority" in the House of Commons. Thrice this week have they, voted with the majority, if the majority has not voted for them. All is uncertainty as to the real inclinations of the Rouse. The question on which the principal muster of strength turned was the Militia Bill. In so far as the division can be taken to express the positive opinion of the House—or of the country, which it probably represents not inexactly—a conviction prevails that our defensive establishments are inadequate. And this con- viction appears to be based on truth. A dispassionate examination Of the Militia Bills both of the late and the present Ministry shows that they differ nothing in principle, and little in what is essential of their details. Both are eminently crude aiad. unworkable measures. There is nothing to be gained by hurrying the present bill through the Legislature, inasmuch as any advantages even its authors profess In expect from it -cannot be immediate but remote. It was there- fore open to any one to oppose the passing of the bill during the present session on the ground that, not being practically useful, it is not one of thine immediately urgent measures to which Ministers had promised to confine themselves. Had this course been taken, the discordant elements of which the Opposition is composed might have concurred without compromise of principle in any quarter. But this did not seem good to the self-appointed leader of the Chesham Place Conference. Lord John Russell opposed the second reading of the bill; he opposed it at a stage when the vote is taken on the principle, not the details of a measure; he maintained in Opposition a principle diametrically the reverse of that embo- died in the bill upon which he resigned a few weeks before. By this factions perversity, he has lost something in character, and has broken up his party, which almost to a man refused to "walk through Coventry" with him—many of his own official colleagues voting against him. It is not probable that a measure so open to criticism as the Ministerial Militia Bill can escape the ordeal of Committee; but Lord John has effectually paralyzed the Opposi- tion for combined action.
. Mr. Locke King's motion to extend the ten-pound franchise to counties has again been rejected. The party now in office had stood aloof when the proposal was formerly before the House, only for the wicked pleasure of seeing the Whig Ministers baffled by their own supporters. They knew that they could at any time turn the scale against the measure when they pleased; they did se as an Opposition after they had their joke at the then Ministers, and of course persist in doing so now when they are themselves in office. Lord John Russell, who from some inscrutable notions of Policy had "turned his back upon himself" and opposed the Militia identical in principle with his own, found an excuse for re- peating_his vote against the extension of the ten-pound franchise to:colintice; in thd limited nature of the measure.
3finisters`threw themselves into the scale against the bill for re- libving professors in the Scotch Universities from the religimis test of subscription to the,Confession of Faith of the Presbyterian, Church. The argument most cenfidently urged against the bill• was that the teat is in reality no grievance, inasmuch as it rarely enforced. That it is rarely enforced, seems to shoe); that it is not necessary ; and a test which :may thus be exacted or dispensed With at pleasure is liable to be used in the service of private malevolence. Had the queetion been left to be decided by the votes of Members for Scotland, the bill would have been carried. The English and Irish Members who joined to reject it appear to belong neither to the so-called Evangelical nor to the so-oalled Traelarin section of the Anglican Church. The former have con- siderable Presbyterian "sympathies; and the ground occupied by the latter on some cognate questions is pretty similar to that taken
up by the Scotch Free Church, whose members, though not the only and perhaps not the most numerous, are the most active supporters of. the measure. The rejection of this bill ought to be a lesson to the Liberals of Scotland, not to hazard the success of any thing of real importance in -the next Parliament, by divisions in their elections on such miserable gratifications of sectarian spleen as the rescinding of the Maynooth grant..
Mr. Gladstone has found opportunity to expound the rationale of his Colonial Bishops Bill, but the judgment of the House of Commons has been postponed. This measure appears to be both unexceptionable and called for. It is strictly permissive ' • and the actual state of the law requires it tenable the members of the Episcopal Church in the Colonies to perform acts essential to the efficiency of any church, and which are competent to all the Non- conformist sects.
As if to stamp the Parliamentary proceedings of the week with an essential ecclesiastical character, leave has been given to the Morph of Blandford to introduce a bill for the more complete or- ganization of the Church of England, by abolishing sinecure offices and increasing the number and efficiency of the Bishops. The speech with Zell the Marquis prefaced his motion evinced diligent research and a liberal and catholic spirit. The motion, however, derived its importance chiefly from the all but unanimity will:. which it seems to have been admitted that comprehensive legisla- tion on the ecclesiastical relations of the country in a liberal spirit is urgently needed. Mr. Heywood has failed to induce the Commons to preserve the Crystal Palace. Lord Shaftesbury has prevailed on the Lords to resolve that the saiaitary condition of London demands the inter- position of Government. Both motions gave rise to discussions on what can and ought to be done to improve the condition of the poorer classes, more remarkable for benevolent sentiment than clear practical views. And thus the stage was left clear for Mr. Disraeli and his Budget
