NEWS OF THE WEEK.

Loan PALMERSTON'S long-announced and much-expected India Government Bill has been laid before Parliament : its discustuon has hid an unusual amount of anticipatory preface, in the shape of debates, newspaper articles, a special literature, wrangling, at constituted meetings, and an extraordinary amount of earnest after-dinner disputation. The simple announcement that such a measure was intended sufficed to call out the East India Company, its Chairmen, Directors, Proprietors, and friends, discreet or in- discreet ;.-weeks ago we had public meetings called by volunteer advoeates of. the Company ; and the two Houses of Parliament could iieniOely be restrained from debating the bill before they knew a wordabout it,..-f-on moving a vote of "thanks to the Army and Navy in India, or on receiving the Company's petition. None oftlie provocatives or invitations of thispreliminary debating could d

forth Lord Palmerston. He kept 'secret until he explai the bill in confidence to the East India Company, and first dig

closed it to the public through the House of Commons, s: "party bik the consultation.

While we write we are still without the document itself, but we have its author's description of it, and in its main purposes; is so broad and so simple that we may perhaps trust to th general description. The bill may be said, in one sense, to aboli or override all the existing administration for the home govern- ment of India, even the Board of Control as well as the establish- ment in Leadenhall Street. It appoints a President and Council for the affairs of India, .the, President to be of the same Tank and standing with one. of the four Secretaries of State ;—and, by the by, it is not improbable that he is still called President in order to avoid 'disrating the title of Secretary by multiplying its helders. The Council will consist of eight members, " com- petent persons" versed in Indian affairs. They will assist the President by undertaking a distribution of duties, and by giving advice. They will only have a controlling power in financial affairs, in which four of the eight must give their concurrence to the acts of the President. But on any subject they will be able to record their independent opinions in minutes. The Court of Directors and the Court of Proprietors are both abolished, with the administrative powers of the' one and the debating powers -of the other: The bill also occasions:son:le organic change in India ; for the Directors have hitherto appointed. the Councils in the Presidencies, a duty now left to the Governor of each Presidency. The patronage hitherto shared by the Board of Control and the Board of Directors will vest in the President and Council ; Lord Palmerston making very general reassurances as to the aids to be derived from open competition and other cheeks upon official- abuses. The actual appointments, after the first writership, we infer, are to be made by the authorities in India. Such is an exceedingly general sketch of the measure. The debate began with Lord Palmerston's own speech, which was skilful for its pnrpose. It moved pleasantly and easily, bring- ing out clearly the most imposing portions of the new organiza- tion, making light of difficulties, and if it was remarked at the time that it bore some traces of effort, the speech, on perusal, is certainly to be accounted one of Palmerston's most artistic suc- cesses. The amendment—a resolution declaring it inexpedient at present to legislate on the subject of India—was formally. moved by Mr. Thomas Baring, with a well-conned speech, repeating the main arguments of the petition, and eloquently urging the pleas on behalf of the Company, especially in what Mr. Monektook

[WITH SUPPLEMENT.] Milnes called his " magnificent peroration." The most telling speech, however, was that of the Chancellor of the Exchequer ; who gave an historical resume of the East India Company, its commercial beginnings, its graspings and its shortcomings, and of British India really acquired by the Clives and Hastings, really developed by statesmen under the Crown ; he effectually swept away the notion that the body of traders had acquired the empire and made a present of it to Great Britain ; and, by repeating the successive changes that had been made in the charter, each change abridging the authority of the Company, he showed that this last act, the resumption of the government for the Crown, was only the natural completion of a series. The plain fact is, that the East India Company had, by these marked though gradual changes, been converted from a trading enterprise to an administrative commission under the Crown ; and the pre- sent bill discontinues the commission in order to place the busi- ness under a higher department : a ease which Sir George Lewis made out with great clearness and power. The discussion having assumed the dimensions of a grand de= bate, continued of course through three nights. The middle night —Monday—was less striking, and carried on by Members of less eminence. The quiet ef that second night, indeed, was inter- rupted by Mr. Whiteside, who was put up as one of the counsel for the Company, and who with much fluency and rhythm in- toned again the well-known arguments, like so many tunes of the day on a great Italian horse-organ.

Not out of harmony with the peculiar order in which the whole subject has been discuised, on Tuesday Mr. Henry Baillie stopped the progress Of the grand debate by exercising his right to make a motion for papers of which he had given notice, and he raised a discussion upon the separate subject of Oude and its annexation. It is not oftenthat an interjected discussion of this kind is so per- tinent to the general questien. or so useful_ _Oude is a name whose shadow has overlaid the whole subject of the flintily and of India, and it has been excessively misunderstood. The Company and the Government have beet accused of things of which they were not guilty, while their real errors have escaped notice. Onde lapsed to the Supreme Government through repeated and exces- -aive bad 'faith of phe Native dynasty, which at last fell into courses attlestructive of order, so unspeakably profligate, and so ridien- loul as to imperil ftt‘t•riMquillity of the snrrounding proVinees and bring disgrace upon the Government above it. Mr. Bernie opened his case with the old assumption that the mutiny had been provoked 12.y the injustice and dishonesty of Lord Dalhatniie's " annexation policy' • but the discussion, particularly with the assistance

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assistance Alin Russell, exploded the whole of this illu- sion; and thus sr important section of the Indian question was disposed of by a special debate.

Thursday came, and with it the acquiescence of the Commons on Lord Palmerston's urgent request for a division. This

was more animated than the second, more varied than the first. Colonel Sykes and Mr. Willoughby did duty for the Company, with some new illustrations ; Sir Edward Lytton's lucubration, delivered with more than the " action" of an impromptu, did duty for the Tory party in its auxiliary. capacity ; and Mr. Dis- raeli did duty for himself, with two " ideas,"—the necessity of } looking• sharp after Indian finance, and the want of thorough ad- ministrative reorganization in India, to displace " the system that produces deficits." But Ministers had it all their own way. Sir Charles Wood's first-class Cabinet speech was scarcely needed ; Lord Palmerston finished the entertainment with a petite comedic, and gayly made his exit into the lobby with 317 companions; against the 173 that would have refused leave to bring in the bill. ,

Lord Brougham has reappeared on the scene of his labours with new exertions to promote the amendment of the law. He had be- fore Parliament a bill to amend the law of Bankruptcy andln- solvency, by abolishing the severance of the two jurisdictions, and increasing the efficiency of examination, in order to the better apportionment of relief and of punishment, in cases of misfor- tune, extravagance, or fraud. Another bill of a more general character was introduced on Thursday ; and meanwhile Lord Brougham, who comes back in excellent health and vigour not- withstanding a temporary hoarseness, has been' moving for re- turns to elucidate the subject.

The Church-rate question has again been brought before Par- liament in the shape of a bill by Sir John Tralawny ; and not- withstanding some demur on the part of Sir George Grey to the proposed abolition, the second reading of the bill was carried by 213 to 160. Sir George Grey promises a different measure, by which parishes that object will be permitted to discontinue the rate, but others will be empowered to continue it) and the fabric [Lsresx EDITION.]

will be provided for by pew-rents and a rent-charge endowment. The House preferred- Sir John's bird in the hand to Sir fireorges two in the bush. But we must remember that the vote was cmly on a Wednesday.

Some time since, the Lord Chancellor of Ireland issued a notifi- cation to the magistrates in the North of Ireland, informing them that henceforward on admission to the commission of the peace, gentlemen would be required to make a declaration that they did not belong to the Orange Association. Notwithstanding a Parlia- mentary censure, and the total absence of a "raison d'etre," the Association has been revived ; and it has correspondingly re- vived a certain party feeling in Ireland, which had an outburst the other day in Belfast. Against Lord Chancellor Brady's new sentence of death, the Association has appealed by a special de- putation to Lord Palmerston : but it has taken nothing by its motion. The deputation comprised, indeed, names that we are astonished to see upon it,—the names of men conspicuous for their intelligence, liberality, and superiority to party feeling : but no doubt there is a sort of friendliness towards a particular class of gentlemen in Ireland who have Conservative opinions, and who cling to old local habits and clubbishness ; and many a gentleman in England would be inclined to indulge the instinc- tive love of political longevity which keeps the defunct Association out of its tomb. Lord Palmerston listened to the pleading of Mr. Cairns, and extracted from the Earl of Enniskillen the one reason for the maintenance of the Association—" self-defence, my Lord." Lord Palmerston showed that in our day Irishmen may sufficiently rely upon the Executive for the maintenance and defence of order; and he suggested, in a manner both frank and kindly, that the most patriotic course for the Association to take would be to dissolve itself. He urged this, not as an ad- mission of any illegality, but as " a gracious act of national con- ciliation." It is to be hoped that the deputation returned to Ire- land wiser than it came.

Two great trials occupy public attention, in London and Dub- lin; each illustrating a national vice. In our Court of Queen's Bench, the Directors of the Royal British Bank are taking their trial on a charge of conspiracy to defraud the public by false re- presentations ; and the public continues to take a lively interest in the matter notwithstanding the enormous tedium of the pro- ceedings. In Dublin, Father Conway is tried, by order of the House of Commons, for a sort of spiritual malversation, in using the priestly offices of the Roman Catholic Church to coerce voters at the Mayo election. Both trials, especially the English, pro- ceed slowly ; but both are likely to have a salutary effect, what- ever the issue to the individuals accused.

The Army and Navy Estimates come before the public with a very modest appearance. Notwithstanding the civil war in In- dia, the invasion of China, the sending of Marines to Canton, and the necessity of fortifying our naval defences at home, the Navy demands an increase senseely. exemling 932,000!., the Army but 95,000/. The Estimates, however, do not show the real increase, since they make no account of India, or of the Mi- litia,—India which requires an increase of 61,500 men to Make

up a total of 92,700; and the Militia at home, which numbers30,000. The entire force of Queen's troops, at home, in the Colo-

nies, and India, including the Militia, exceeds 250,000. The, total expenditure for Army and Navy appears likely to exceed 21,500,000/. ; and there is no prospect of a decrease. On the con- tra; , the prospect is all on the side of a permanent augmentation of our forces. No reasonable person would propose any mere re- duction at present. We must make up our minds to an im- mense military expenditure for a long tame ; and the question becomes one, not of reducing outlay, but of seeing that we get our money's worth. This is the more necessary as a public duty, since large expenditures, especially increasing expenditures, are always a field in which corruption prospers and grows.

The repressive measures continue in France, both in the largest actions and in the minutest details. In his position of President of the Legislative Body, Count de Moray has made a report upon " the measure of public safety " ; his so-called report being a pleading for the measure, conceived in a spirit of the most abject submission to the Emperor, and comprising even replies to state- ments that have been made " elsewhere," in the press, or per- haps in this country. A recent article in the Ifoniteur is ascribed to a hand still higher than the Count's, but by whomsoever written it is unquestionably an authoritative representation on behalf of the Emperor, designed to calm apprehension by showing his moderation and " longanimite." A remarkable discrepancy has been pointed out between the report and the article : the re- port says that the measure was adopted in consequence of the at- tempt of the 14th January—the article, that the new measures of public safety were " neither inspired nor aggravated" by the event of the 14th, but were long since conceived in the mind of the Emperor. The object is to show that he is calmly pursuing a system of self-defence, not inconsistent with the ultimate grant of " liberties," as soon as the young and green French people shall have been schooled enough. Amongst the trifles is the fact that the Moniteur notices loud marks of approbation which ac- companied the reading of the report, though there is a rule to forbid such manifestations in the Chamber ; and M. de Moray would no doubt enforce the rale Alieuld the Chamber venture to disapprove. Another trifle is the withdrawal of that practice, which has, by sufferance, permitted foreigners to reside on the seaboard of France without holding a passport. It is a sufferance which has been largely used by English families, who have fre- quented the' watering-places of the French coast almost as much as our own : and the new notice, " All persons found trespassing on these premises will be prosecuted with the full rigour of the law," as the Times translates it, will inflict inconvenience on Englishmen and serious loss and injury on French subjects.

Lord Palmerston has continued, mutatis mutandis, a course pa- rallel to that of the Emperor. Several questions have been put to him in order to extract further explanations as to the data upon which he has proceeded in his Conspiracy Bill ; but he repeatedly put off saying whether he had or had not answered Count Walew- ski's despatch. With great adroitness he has roused the dislike of the House of Commons to any kind of controversy with France, and has thus made an easy-going House assist him in silencing ques- tioners. We have already remarked that the same feeling exists out of doors. It is still more intense in Paris, where an alarmed sense of escape at the failure of an attempt which would have let loose disorder is succeeded by commercial and social panic at the idea of any conflict with England. Apprehension is not the prevalent feeling in this country ; on the contrary, a jealousy at the en- croachment upon our common law is making itself seen; and if sometimes the demonstration is vitiated by signs of being got up, that is not the case where the feeling shows itself at the ordinary meetings of our municipal bodies. Perhaps the particular en- croachment upon our common law is not so alarming in itself as the systematic duplicity to which the French Government now stands committed in its relations with this country ; and our own Minister has not managed to stand quite free from that vicious working of the Bonaparte system.

President Buchanan has become further involved in the disa- greeable embroglio represented by the name of Kansas. _ He has taken the course of endeavouring to close the dispute by adopting the Lecompton Constitution, as the best that under the circum- stances can be obtained from the Territory ; and in a message to Congress he has recommended the acceptance of the draft consti- tution, with the consequent erection of Kansas as a State. In this course Mr. Buchanan has undoubtedly lent his counter-sig- nature to proceedings that are marked by very .great irregularity. He has placed himself in the position of declaring one of the par- ties in the State to be in flagrant rebellion, while the other has virtually his testimonial for regularity ; the truth being, that the factions in Kansas have been running a race for the possession of power, with equal disregard of law or precedent. No doubt, the Nebraska-Kansas Bill, which overruled the Missouri Compromise, was in itself vitiated by very grave omissions ; amongst them, it neglected to reenact in sufficiently specific terms the requirement of the Federal Constitution that the _draft constitution of any State shall be submitted entire to the whole body of the people. Tresiclent Buchanan appears to hold that the case is too bad to be set right ; and, considering the whole subject in a practical light, it is perhaps,: to be hoped that the irregularities of Kansas may be- mired by the natural operation of regular government, as we have so strikingly seen in Texas. The degree of advantage which the Slave party have gained by adding one more State to their side in the Federation will be more than compensated by the admission of 'Minnesota and Oregon.