NEWS OF THE WEEK.
THE division on Lord Stanley's amendment, to' throw over the Indian Government question, must have startled 'the Mover and
his backers as much as the conduct of the debate and all its cir- cumstances have exposed to the public the political nullity of the composite Opposition. The debate grew in interest towards the close ; although the interest was necessarily extraneous rather than inherent, since the speakers rarely and slightly.debitted the real subject before the House—the plan proposed by Ministers for
continningtand modifying the government' of India. Mr. Cobden
brought some of the most obvious charges against the Goiernment
us -it has been the light of his popularillustrations—as when
he protested against still governing India- thrciugli John Doe: and
Richard Roe : but that objection to' the past, not, well apply, to the .proposition. for the future._ Mr. Jon Bright east heavy missiles, -hit .or miss, at. the EaSt India Company
and the system about to be superSeded ; and several of 'the Indian Reforniers or their allies bore their share in the retrospective
attack.' Sir James. Graham, grandly sweeping over the hill and dale of Indian politics, showed hoW much more. plausible is a hopefurrather than a mournful view of. What has been done and what may be-done, and-how the pale melancholy of dissatisfaction had-inade-thn •Fteforraers exaggerate the diffiettllies they son' ht to prOlOng while they alknititplawisirilitnelinx_fiier' =lama total removal. It is remarkable that Sir Charles Wood, within a few hours of the division, was the first to torn the debate fairly and fully upon its subject, by consecutively defending a measure that had not been attacked. Last but one came Mr. Disraeli, championing India and Reform as if in " progress " he were con- fessedly in advance of Bright ; industriously levelling at Minis- ters "an arrowy shower" of the pins and needles of his elabo- rated antitheses; and pressing even "Parliamentary Reform" into his quiver. But the one earnest object of a long and studiously light speech was to make it appear that the party which he impersonates is still " a great party," still united, still pursuing a policy. ; that the defection of Mr. Herries is an individual out•age on decorum; that Mr. Disraeli's " colleagues" still consult with Lord Derby, still recognize himself as leader in the Commons; and that Lord Stanley was the appointed amendment-mover of an ex-Ministry. A studied piece of acting to keep up the simulacrum of a " great party "—that was the cha- racter of the novelist-statesman's speech on Indian government. Lord John Russell bent back the latter end of the debate to the question with which it began ; and the House proceeded to pro- nounce its numerical judgment on the weight of the case advanced by the Indian Reformers, on the value of " a great party" : the division gave to Ministers and their proposition as a whole 322, to the united parties of Indian Reformers and Mr. Disraeli 140.
The state of Jamaica, its financial troubles, and the plan proposed by Ministers for assuaging those troubles, have been explained to the:House of Lords by the. Duke of Newcastle, in a statement lucid and close. The ease lies in a nutshell. The island is hope- lessly. in debt, because the resources of the colony have been di- minishing, while the Representative Assembly, appointed by a re- stricted constituency, entangled in personal interests adverse to re- trenchment, and irritated by squabbles with the Governor and the nominee Council, refuses a financial reform applicable to the case, and has recently thrown up the annual acts under which the revenue. was raised. Governor Grey clinched the dead-lock by ejaenlating threats of letting loose the convicts and throwing up the practical duties of government,—threats which could not be forgotten, or fulfilled. The Duke of Newcastle proposes to guarantee regular loans of about 550,0001., to be raised in this country, as a means of redeeming other wastefully-contracted loans and abolishing profitless offices; on condition that the As-
sembly shall concur in Measures to. -place the finances on- e. more 'footing: When that shall be chine, Government will bon- -questions of constitutional reform, and of further -aid to int- :migration; and the Duke of Newcastle avows that he is favourable -to introducing-into Jamaica the principle of "responsible govern= ment." . The difficulties to be confronted in introducing that -principle for the first time in a colony where the is possessed by a race recently freed from slavery and not yet enjoy- lint; matured civilization, are obviOns ; but we incline to agree in .thinking that they can be overcome. Although light'Of purpose, the Negro race is highly tractable ' • no race so distinctly warrants .Carlyle's appeal—" We want to be governed " : and if -they enjoy 'representative institutions at all, it appears useless to maintain' an -OfficialpOsition which must continue a source of discoid between the Representativetted the Executive branches of the Govern- inent. • At-the same time, we have strong faith in that relative distribution `oi~ -qualities-which, under circumstances of legal elluality tun' iociallieedom, -would preserve undiminished, perhaps strengthened, -English ascendancy.
. If we mention the passing of. the Income-tax Bill in the House of Lords, it is rather to record' a conclusive event than to dwell upon a debate; which is noticeable chiefly for the absence of the ex-Ministers, and for a speech by Lord Brougham, enriched with
reminiscences of his -Own--senatorial . Lord Brougham pb- jects, as -he has alivays objected, to a tax which often flan upon 'capital before' it has- yielded income, and which 'can eisilY,bh screwed up to a higher pitch, after the House of Comnions has re- linquished its old practice of - debating on the petitions of the people. But these objectiOns did not suffice even their author to attempt an obstruction. of the bill, which Parliament was then handing to receive the Royal assent. '
The want which we felt for more information on the untoward tosition of the National Education Board in Ireland has been ex- pressed in Parliament,- by Mr. Walpole ; who put questions iw• 'tended. to slimy 'Out an explanation. Sir John Young replied by describing the old rule, which has. been recently converted to a new-purpose, and by giving it to be understood that certain books which challenge the objections of a particular sect are to. be " relegated to the hours of separated • religious instruction ": but his explanatien throws only sufficient light upon the subject to distort it: He speaks as if the books were used
Jort-s...staalLproportion as compared with -other books,----a. comparison which suggests an impression very different from that which would have been produced if he had said that the books Were used in the model schools. Again, if he had explained that the books, the use of which has not in any degree fettered the system, or prevented its success among Roman Catholics, had ac- tually been revised by the Roman Catholic Archbishop Murray, and that they are now introduced into the list of books to which the Board objects,—and so introduced at the instance of Archbishop Cullen,—Mr. Walpole and the House of Commons would have understood that the recent concession is one not to unsectarian liberality, but to sectarian hostility. The real ques- tion was, not whether the Board should keep sectarian doctrine out of its curriculum, but whether a system of whose practical unsectarian Christianity Sir John Young lately made so earnest and so effective a boast, shall be placed under the control of the extreme party of the priests : and that influence has been admitted to the Board, with the connivance of Protestants! Of course Sir John knows these things as well as we do ; but he has paid the greatest tribute which can be paid to sect or party—he has given to intrigue his honest countenance, and has lent to mental reserva- tion the advantage of his own candid manner.
