NEWS OF THE WEEK.
Although on a diminished scale of interest, Maynooth has still been the largest topic , discussed by Parliament ; but even that was subsidiary to some curious historical discussion on the conduct of Sir Robert Peel. To damage the Premier and his present encouragement of " Popery," Mr. Fox Maule dragged forth a story told by the Reverend Dr. Buchanan of Glasgow. In 18381'a deputation on the subject of church-extension in Scot- land waited upon Sir Robert Peel, then leader of the Opposition ; and, according to a note taken by Dr. Buchanan, Sir Robert inveighed against the progress of " Popery," and urged the necessity of a Protestant combination against it. Mr. Pringle, the Lord of the Treasury latelypermitted to resign for opposing the Maynooth grant, was one of the deputation and he corrobo- rated the report. Sir Robert Peel fairly .enough objected to the production of a record of which he had no counterpart, and which he had no means of correcting at the time. But he disavowed the language rather than the substance. "Popery," indeed, is an offensive term, which in England has a more limited and sectarian currency than in Scotland : it is not comme it faut, and is un- likely to have been used by the courteous and cautious Baronet. Dr. Buchanan may have applied to the thing of which he and the Premier conversed the name which it bore in his own vocabulary. But whether calling it " Popery " or " the Roman Catholic reli- gion," Sir Robert evidently spoke in an Anti-Popish spirit. He' was in Opposition then, and p" No-Popery" was hampering the Whigs : now he is in office, " No Popery" is hampering himself, and the stones that he then cast are rebounding on his own head. The ugly mischance of this resuscitated minute by Dr. Buchanan, may teach public men how necessary it is to use a cautious fore- thought and moderation in Opposition ; how truly "honesty is the best policy," especially " in the long run"; and how useful are "principles" as checks against inconsistency and error when the straight path seems obscure and bewildered for a time. The lesson is not unneeded by the present Opposition ; for, though in the letter supporting his measure, they are at this very moment —not in earnest, as a ground to take office upon, but in malicious sport, to spite their rival—dallying with the No-Popery " which is so ready a tool to those who do not scruple to tamper with it. Mr. Rutherfurcl, the Lord-Advocate of the late Government, has been allowed to bring in a bill to abolish the test-declarations for Lay Professors in the Universities of Scotland. It would have been difficult to refuse so harmless a piece of "conciliation" to the Scotch—which so many call for, and which offends no living prejudice—while the Irish bone of contention is thrown before Parliament by the Queen's Ministers. air James Graham did not refuse, but he assented with a puzzled sort of he:-itation; Which it will be more graceful, and indeed safer, to dismiss in the
future stages of the bill. Mr. Home Drummond, the Tory Lord- Advocate of an elder day, set a worthy example, in boasting the advance of "a more liberal and enlightened policy"! Such are the times.
Lord Lincoln has introduced a new commons-enclosure bill. Not to be over-confiding, we may say that on a first view it seems a good deal superior to Lord Worsley's—more manageable in its machinery, yet less open to local abuses.
Apropos to the reduction of auction-duties by another bill now pending, Lord Brougham made tt 'charge against the administra. tion of the Income-tax. One leading condition of. the tea, When Sir Robert Peel introduced it, was to be strictly confidential returns : Lord Brougham has. found an original return round a piece of butter, or some snekthing, sent from a shop ; implying the utmost proverbial neglect of secrecy. And cheek by jowl with that charge he put an anecdote of scandal against a gentleman's worldly circumstances, founded on his returns to the Income-tax Commissioners ! There is quite sufficient odium, against the tax without such flagrant abuse of confidence. - It is bad enough to be drawn for the militia ; but who would like the surgeon to dis- tribute about town exact accounts of the bodily infirmities of those who claim exemption? Lord Stanley has promised in- quiry. No doubt the inquiry will be close; for the interest of those who established the Income-tax is at stake.
Lord John Russell was this week to have moved a series of resolutions concerning the state of -the labouring classes ; but hd has only promulgated the resolutions ; postponing his motionlill the 26th instant. The resolutions do not ex facie bear very closely on the condition of the labouring classes in partiCular. They are rather a Free-trade declaration, with glancee at improve= ment of the Poor-law, " systematic coloitizatieri," as the Times-more properlydescribeiit, " transportation of emigrants,") education of the people, 'and other unnamed " liberal and com- prehensive " measures.- They are1 frania tOThiiite-the-euffrages of the Liberal party ; that is, they may be interpreted any way by each Member, so that each may vote really for his own or. nions, ostensibly for Lord John's. They hold out opportunity for a kind of quibbling play upon the words by which, for instance, the advoCate of Lord. John's elusive and mutable "fixed duty" on corn, and the total Repealer, may join in saying "ay," with very discordant purpoies in their minds; Probably all the Liberal Members will join 'Lord John in voting for his "resolutions," -or rather his irresolutions : but what practical end they can answer, it is-not easy to guess. They may keep the public in mind that the Whigs exist : but what is the use of that remembrance, if it is only to recollect that the Whigs dare do nothing that can be beforehand plainly described? They are devised to keep the Whigs in play without pledging them to anything definite : but the Whigs are worth little with- out pledges—not much with. They neither proposed nor per - mitted addresses to the Crown on the state of the labouring classes during their ten years in office. A vicious scene in Newgate chapel has received well-merited rebuke from the Peers. Three years ago a theatrical exhibition was made of a condemned criminal, the working of whose feel- ings under sentence of death was exposed to the gaze of pious ladies and serious people in search of a sensation : Members of Parliament cried out against the practice, the influence of the Executive was evoked, and every one thought that the abuse had been settled for ever. No ; the same vulgar outrage -on decency is now repeated, and justified on precedent. , The authorities " made elaborate preparations in Newgate chapel last Sunday; to admit to the " condemned sermon" and a good view of the con- demned prisoner those who delight in such displays of human degradation and misery. The gross violation of decency would be wanting to complete the chain of revolting absurd,ty in all that concerns capital punishment : from the dramatic notoriety of the police-court and the magnifying arts of the penny-a-liner to the scenic effects of the trial and the eloquence of the regular reporter—and still further, to the sumptuous breakfasts, "kind attentions," official interviews, and published correspondence, private views of mortal terrors and public views of convulsive orgasm—all is absurd, disgusting, and mischievous. We all know with what irreverent familiarity the vulgar regard the awful phenomena of nature ; how it is a dainty indulgence in the house of death to " have a look at the corpse " : the same irreverent spirit pervades these exhibitions. In, the present case, it is im- possible to make out who could have been benefited in any way whatsoever by the "example." It might have been supposed most cogent with those.most resembling the criminal himself: of course, he was affected as those like him must be affected; yet it is apparent that the whole ceremonial, from the melodramatic scene in the fields at night-to the romantic effusions which be- came immortal in the keeping of official persons, was a temptation rather than a discouragement to the man whose disease was vanity. The sole discouragement wasthe act of extermination : but of that he was evidently incapable of thinking or framing any definite idea until it stood before his eyes—until he felt that it was present- " horribili super asiesetu tnertalilmis iustans as aft‘ture penalty it was a plaything for bravado—like the allusions to an eternal future which the miserable creature mixed up with confessions of falsehood and new fabrications. This should have been an especial example to such persons as the sufferer : but such as he are in- capable of entertaining such an example ; and the officers of jus- tice, high and low, have done their best to make it, not a warning, but a bait.