NEWS OF THE WEEK.
WEST. Surrey has elected Mr. Walter John Evelyn ; and the fact is boasted as a " Protectionist victory," the more signal because Mr. Edgell, the Liberal candidate, was obliged to retire. Osten- sibly the gain is not very considerable—one county vote ; and if there were any inscrutable local mama for Mr. Evelyn's success, it is by no means to be presumed that they enhance the victori- ous character of the transaction. Without wasting time in look- ing through that mill-stone, we think the choice intelligible enough: the farmers are angry with the Free-traders, and will snub them where they can ; and Mr. Evelyn is a young gentle- man of ability. Indeed, his ability seems to be more clearly es- tablished than the stanchness of his Protectionist principles. If we are to take the tone of the election from the speech of Mr. Henry Drummond, anileus curia, it meant nothing beyond a sort of good-humoured•misanthropy and pleasant despondency. Mr. Drummond avowed himself a "landed bigot," and averred that in all thillP•legislatiok the landlords had always intended to bene- fit commerce: Rut ne one ought to know better than Mr. Drum- mond that a road paved with good intentions leads—nowhere. He taunted the Liberal Membets, ,who had hailed Mr. Cobden's "financial reform," with votin"-agehnit Mr. Henley's motion to reduce official salaries ; and he inferred-that the real object of the Liberals was to keep tneNfltigs in office. Perhaps, then, the election is more Anti-Mintsiefial than anything else; is prompted less by the positive hope of enforcing any particular policy, than by a-grudging dislike towards the men who officially represent the policy in the ascendant.
More correspondence. The Italian Refugee Committee has put forth a rejoinder to Lord John Russell's smart rebuff of Mr. Hume, and has left the Premier in no very advantageous posi- tion. By merely rubbing off the gloss which he had put upon the Maltese affair, and restoring the simple facts to view, the re- joinder reestablishes the harshness of the Maltese Government to the refugees ; while its grave and decorous tone has the effect of placing Lord John's captious levity in a very ill light.
A sort of manifesto by Mr. Cobden, indirectly made public, promises a meeting in London to denounce the proposed loan for the Austrian Government, and to compass a refusal of monies from this country. Mr. Cobden's mode of passive resist- ance to war will now be put somewhat to the test ; but we cannot well anticipate success. It is very possible that Jew and Gentile may attend the meeting, to protest against the loan ; but on 'Change the Austrian funds stand too high for money to be refused. The idea of getting up a chivalrous feeling to be embodied in a com- mercial negative is so novel a project, that even the inventor Is probably not very confident of his new knighterrantry.
