NEWS OF THE WEEK.
Tsts House of Commons have been at work in their vocation for some hours every day except Wednesday, but the account is not very imposing. The pitched battle on the Irish Franchise, to take place next week, engrosses present anticipatory attention ; and until that anxiety to party-men shall be settled by the known event, all other business efforts, of whatsoever pith and moment, will be counted as lost time.
Tuesday was celebrated by the flrst majority against Ministers for the season—a majority of 31. It occurred on a motion by Mr. CRESSWELL' for a Committee of the whole House to address the
Crown with a prayer for the settlement of the Danish claims, so long outstanding to the discredit of our Government. The present
• Chancellor of the Exchequer, taking up the old brief of Mr. SPRING Rica, quoted authorities 'against the claim, and pleaded also the expense which the payment would involve,—rather an Odd-argu- ment in a question of justice. The only speaker Ministers found to support them was Mr. GOULBURN.
On the same evening, Mr. RICH moved for leave to bring in a bill for the better ordering of the execution of- criminals. -Mr. RICH made a very elaborate statement to show the injurious effects of the exhibitions in the midst of which criminals are executed, upon the spectators; and he produced a mass of very interesting evidence on the subject. He proposed that criminals should be executed within the prison-walls ; but in order to guard against the abuses of private execution, he provided for the presence of -certain relatives of the condemned, certain magistrates and public officers, and a limited number of the public. Thus, the agonies which Mr. Rim proved to have so brutalizing an effect upon the spectators, he proposes to display with all the advantages in- cidental to a smaller theatre, and to promote that degrading show which ,now occupies, as it were, the same rank with Punch in the streets, to a regular dramatic spectacle. And on what terms would he admit the public ? If free, of course the "stranger's gallery" would be taken possession of by genus of picked ruffians, whose plaudits and waggeries would add much to the impressive- ness of the scene : if by fee, then what a premium would be given to the most lamentable weakness of which the human mind is capable, that of taking pleasure in the suffering of others ! In- deed there seemed to be a general feeling in the House that the absurdity of the proposition was only exceeded by the force of the speech which introduced it. Mr. RICH struck a new blow at the system of capital punishments; but he was obliged to withdraw his bill for exhibiting criminal executions in a licensed theatre.
Mr. Mem( Peuxirs obtained a Committee on the laws affecting
the free exportation of machinery. The exportation of machinery under a certain weight of material is prohibited : the exportation of " tools" is allowed ; and so is the exportation of mechanics and capital; while that of inventions cannot be prevented. Now "tools," in the language of the Customs, is a word considered to signify that class of machine which makes other machines, and not those products usually called " manufactures." The consequence is, that men, money, and English patent inventions, all seek the Con- tinent, and with them they carry the means of making that descrip- tion of machinery the exportation of which is prohibited. And even that kind is smuggled out. Meanwhile, manufactures arc rising on the Continent in spite of every negative obstacle which we can op- pose ; and our manufacturers lose what advantages they might derive directly from the sale of such machinery, or indirectly from the im- pulse given to invention and the increased production of machinery. The Committee is to examine the laws which have produced the present anomalous state of matters.
The Niger Expedition was again adverted to by Lord INGESTRE
who moved for correspondence, and urged that the expedition should be delayed for a season, in order to procure some additional information respecting the river and the proposed site of the co- lony: and Mr. Hums required Some explanation of the objects of the expedition. Mr. MORE O'FERE ALL refused to produce the correspondence, or to delay the expedition ; and Mr. VERNON SMITH cited Lord Joins RUSSELL'S letter to the Treasury, and the speeches at the public meeting in Exeter Hall, for the explanation asked by Mr. HUME. In a passing way, as if merely playing with Mr. Humes feelings, Mr. Smixti put forth a hint that a new grant would soon be wanted : the parenthetical notice may serve as a salvo to the Ministerial conscience if the House affect to be "taken by surprise."
A curious circumstance came out on Monday about Lord KEANE'S pension. It seems that Government went begging to the India House for some solid reward to go with their "pauper Peerage." The Directors, we are told by Mr. HOGG, highly approved of the idea ; but "thought it honourable to Lord KEANE, that as his services had been recognized by the British Parliament, the pen- sion also should be conferred by the British House of Commons." The House "laughed consumedly" at the nazi.. excuse. The House always laughs when it is called upon in a very barefaced manner to filch the people whom it represents—it is such asspital joke. The Lord Advocate has introduced a bill to amend tgr .registra- tion of Parliamentary voters in Scotland. It is not the Irish measure, a new Reform Bill; but it provides the much-needed Appeal Court on points of law.
The Parliamentary novelty, however, has been the judicial but:- lesque in the House of Lords, Lord CARDIGAN'S trial. The dis- tinguished prisoner was treated by the parties to the prosecution in the most gentlemanly manner ; so much so, that the indictment pro forma, like the mock lance at the Eglintoun tournament, was sawn through that it might not hurt the noble breast against which it was levelled. No adequate provision had been made for identi- fying the person who was the subject of the prisoner's felonious act ; and so the Higifignurt.of. Parliament was enabled with the most agreeable facilitj'in 'discharge their fellow Peer. Lord CAR- DIGAN came down to the House to go through the ceremony after an early breakfast on Tuesday morning, and it was all got rid of in. time for him to take his ride and return to dinner.
